How Local Services Ads Work For Your Business

New to Local Services Ads (LSAs)? Here’s a few things you should know:

What do these ads look like?

LSAs are the top 3 ads you see in a search. They show up above traditional paid Google Search ads.

How do they work?

An LSA ad is comprised of the following:

• Google Guarantee Badge
• Your total reviews on both your Google My Business listing and also on the Local Services ad itself as well
• Service Location
• Business Hours
• After clicking on the ad customers can see your Business Bio, Covid-19 related Services, Service offerings, view photos you have posted, business license and actual reviews
• Customers can book appointments with you through the ad or even message you through it
  • There is an accompanying app to assist with the bookings and messages

What do they Cost

• LSAs are a pay-per-lead advertising model. This means you only pay for the calls, messages or bookings you receive from the advertising platform.
  • The cost will depend on the bid that others set. It does tend to be variable, but we have seen this tends to be a much lower lead cost that traditional Google advertising, and this will depend on the market and service as well.

Other things to know to help you rank well and things to know in general:

• The top 3 ads rotate, however you may notice that the top 3 ads tend to stay the same for a while. The rotation here doesn’t happen too often, but it does happen.
• A higher budget does not mean that you will rank better.
• Your reviews are a heavily weighted piece in ranking. Keep up on your volume, rating, and recurrence.
• Be sure to answer any calls you get, especially LSAs. Not responding to an LSA call can hurt your responsiveness rate, which is another ranking factor.
• Proximity is a ranking factor to keep in mind. The closer your physical location is to the customer’s location, can improve the likelihood of being shown.
• You can dispute leads to potentially get credits back for bad leads as long as they fall under specific parameters.

How do I get started?

• It all starts right here. 
  • Here you will Create your Local Services Ad Profile by entering the following info:
    • Enter all of your business information
    • Set up your service area, service types
    • Business hours
  • Next you’ll need to gather some information:
    • Trade License (i.e., contractors, master plumbers, electricians, etc.)
    • Certificate of Liability Insurance
    • If you have a team, they’ll need to gather information for their background checks
• Google Guarantee
  • This green badge showcases that you have been background checked, your budget hasn’t run out for the week, and is Google’s insurance that should there ever be an issue with the service quality, Google may reimburse the customer up to $2000.
  • Customers view this badge as a badge of trust.
  • To get this badge, you’ll need to be approved through Googles onboarding process, which includes background checks.
• Background Checks
  • Google uses a company called Evident for their background checks. This part of the process can take about 2-4 weeks and is free. This can take longer if there are inconsistencies in data entry or we have seen longer due to COVID-19, so make sure all spelling and punctuation is consistent and 100% correct.
  • These background checks are strictly confidential and no information will be used for anything other than screening, qualification, and data quality control (i.e. if something was entered inaccurately, Evident will let you know).
  • The following will need to go through the background checks:
    • Business Owner
    • Business Entity
    • Field Workers (Techs)
  • If a tech fails a background check, you will know they failed, but Evident does not disclose the “why”. The results of the background check are only shared with the applicant.
  • If you or one of your techs fail, you are able to resubmit after a 30-day waiting period. If you fail a second time, you will need to wait another year before you can resubmit.
• While Background Checks Are Processing
  • This is the time to progress your profile set up.
  • Get copies of your Certificate of Liability insurance and Trade License(s) uploaded at this point.
  • This way, once you pass, these steps are already completed.
• Upload Images
  • Upload images of your business logo and other images of your truck, techs, and/or work you have done.
  • Here is more information on the do’s/don’ts when uploading photos. 
• Going Live
  • Once the account has passed everything, Google will inform you the account is ready to go live.
  • You will need to acquire at least 1 Google Review for the LSA profile to go live
  • Toggle the on switch and the account will go live and your ads will start working their way into rotation.

The process tends to be more of a waiting game on Google’s end so it’s important to be patient.

If you do have any questions throughout the process, feel free to ask and I will provide you with any information I can to assist or provide clarity. The last piece here is tracking. To help measure performance, we will give you a tracking number for the ads to track in your Platform so you can see what opportunities are coming in from the effort. If you do get started, please let me know. I’ll create a tracking number for you and send it over to use for the account.

If you need further help on the process, Google has support documents for the LSA setup. 

Want more help?

Scorpion is an expert in LSAs. We have the team ready to help you get setup and producing leads from LSAs. We will work with you on a strategy and budget and then our team will manage it for you. Get started with Scorpion today.