Local service ads are a fantastic way to connect with customers looking specifically for your services. People searching for realtors in their area don’t want to see results from realtors across the country. They want to choose from local services.
That’s where local service ads come into play. They allow businesses to directly reach people in their local service area when they need your services.
This article will give you more information on setting up a Local Service Ads account and the benefits of using local service ads.
The Benefits of Using Local Service Ads
Pay Only For Leads, Not Clicks
You read that correctly! One of the best benefits of local service ads is the ability to pay only for leads. People that contact you directly vs people that click on your listing. Some industries like Law, HVAC, Plumbing, and more can get significant cost savings as a result. Here are the benchmark costs by industry according to WordStream.
On top of saving by paying for leads vs clicks, you can potentially get a refund for fraudulent/spammy leads. By reporting leads that didn’t qualify for your services, you can reduce your costs even more.
Build Your Brand’s Trust & Authority
Showing up at the top of the search results already provides some credibility that you’re one of the top service providers. Google’s Guarantee badge on Local Service Ads gives your customers reassurance that Google endorses your brand. You will see a green checkmark next to your listing which separates your brand from less qualified brands.
Expand Your Reach With Highly Relevant Users
Search is intent. Someone that is searching for a service in their area is probably one of the best opportunities to get new business. Imagine having your pipes burst and needing to find the first plumber in your area to fix your pipes. If you show up as the top listing for this user, you’re probably going to get their business.
Less to Manage vs Other Ad Channels
Once you’re done setting up your account, there’s a lot less you need to do. There are quite a few options to personalize your presence of course. Though you don’t need to optimize keyword bids or regularly rotate in new ad creative.
Can Your Business Use Local Service Ads?
An easy, yet important first step. You should see if your business falls under one of the following local service ad categories:
- Acupuncturist
- Animal rescue
- Appliance repair services
- Bankruptcy lawyer services
- Beauty school
- Business lawyer services
- Carpet cleaning services
- Carpenters
- Child care
- Contract lawyer services
- Criminal lawyer services
- Dance instructor
- Countertop services
- Disability lawyer services
- Driving instructor
- DUI lawyer services
- Electricians
- Estate lawyer services
- Family lawyer services
- Fencing services
- Financial planning services
- First aid training
- Flooring services
- Foundations services
- Funeral home
- Garage door services
- General contractor
- Handyman
- Home inspector
- Home security
- Home theater
- House cleaning services
- HVAC (heating or air conditioning)
- Immigration lawyer services
- IP lawyer services
- Junk removal services
- Labor lawyer services
- Landscaping services
- Language instructor
- Lawn care services
- Lawyers
- Litigation lawyer services
- Locksmiths
- Malpractice lawyer services
- Massage school
- Moving services
- Personal injury lawyer services
- Personal trainer
- Pest control services
- Pet adoption
- Pet boarding
- Pet grooming
- Pet training
- Plumbers
- Pool cleaner
- Pool contractor
- Preschool
- Real estate lawyer
- Real estate services
- Roofers
- Sewage system
- Siding services
- Snow removal
- Tax services
- Traffic lawyer services
- Tree services
- Tutor
- Veterinarian
- Water damage services
- Weight loss service
- Window cleaning services
- Window repair services
- Yoga studio
No need to worry if you’re not seeing your business in this list of qualified local service ads categories. You can check to see if your business is in a similar enough category to qualify with Google.
Steps to Setup Your Local Service Ads Account
Before you begin, you can save a lot of time by setting up your Google My Business account. Local Service Ads work off of the information you provide on your Google My Business account which is why this is important.
Here are the steps you should take to setup your Local Service Ads account:
- Check Your Eligibility: Go to Google’s Local Service Ads homepage to get started. From there, you will be asked to see if you are eligible.
- Create Your Local Service Ads Profile: this is probably one of the most important steps. You get to tell Google what types of jobs your business can take on so Google can best match your Local Service Ads to the right consumers. It’s important to pick the right jobs so you get the right types of customers. If you can’t provide a certain service or you get a better return from specific jobs it can be beneficial to only select those job types. You can also edit:
- Your Weekly Budget
- Your Business Hours
- Your Service Areas
- Your Job Types
- Submit Paperwork to Show You Are Qualified: Google wants to make sure that each business is accurately represented. They want to make sure that users are shown local service ads for businesses that are qualified and licensed where applicable. The benefit of doing this is that Google will give you their guarantee which helps establish your credibility for your customers…..think of it as a vote of confidence. You don’t have to pay for anything in this process and Google provides additional details on what you need to provide here.
- Complete The Background Check: Google likes to be thorough about checking business qualifications which means that you will need to complete a background check. Here are steps on how to do this with Google. This can be a somewhat time consuming process, though it is a basic background check and also doesn’t cost you anything.
- Managing Your Local Service Ads Account: hurray! You’ve created your new Local Service Ads account. There are a couple of basic things you should know to manage your account:
- Managing Your Budget – you decide how many leads you want. This determines how much you’re prepared to spend. What’s great about this is that you’re only charged per lead and you can always go back and adjust your budget depending upon how much you want to spend.
- Managing Your Leads – it’s important to remember that leads aren’t complete unless a customer books a job. You should stay on top of these leads to let Google know whether they are qualified. If they aren’t qualified, you could get a refund because Google charged per lead.
Growth Hacks for Local Service Ads
Want to get even more qualified leads from Local Service Ads? I’ve got 4 useful tips for you to use based upon our prior successes managing Local Service Ad accounts:
- Personalize Your Local Service Ad Account: this is your opportunity to let your customers know why they should go with you instead of your competitors. After all, you’re listed right alongside your competition in the results. Try to keep it short while being useful. If you’re finding that people use you primarily for emergency services, then talk about how fast and effective you are. If they need an expert for a major decision like buying a home or renovations, then talk about the quality of service and professionalism.
- Optimize Your Targeting: Google cares a lot about proximity and responsiveness when they show different Local Service Ads. On top of that, you will probably save time & money by targeting your top zip codes to start with. You have the option to pick your top locations and services early on to improve your results.
- Tips to Get More Reviews: easier said than done of course. Over time it is a great idea to collect reviews from your past customers after the job is done. The more positive reviews you can get, the more likely you are to show in search results. We recommend sending recent customers an email and politely asking them for their review.
- Respond to Leads Promptly: you spent all that time setting up your account and putting money towards generating leads. It would be a huge waste of your time and your customers’ time if you didn’t respond to them in a timely manner. Customers that don’t receive a prompt response tend to look for alternative options. That’s why a quick response is important.
Bonus Tip – You should also consider how Google ranks Local Service Ads. There’s a limited amount of space as you can imagine. After all, someone with a leaking pipe only needs one plumber.
Up to 3 ads will appear on desktop, 2 on mobile, and only one on Google Assistant (vocal search).
Google determines when your Local Service Ads show in the search results by considering the following factors:
- Your proximity to potential customers’ locations
- Your review score and the number of reviews you receive
- Your responsiveness to customer inquiries and requests
- Your business hours
- Whether or not we’ve received serious or repeated complaints about your business
Final Thoughts
Local service ads are highly beneficial for a plethora of businesses and they can be very effective for getting qualified jobs. If you need help setting up your local service ads account or improving your performance, then you should book a free consultation with us today. We would be happy to help!
