What Are Google Local Services Ads (LSAs) for Remodelers?
Looking for another way to acquire high-quality leads and accelerate the growth of your home remodeling business without spending a fortune? Google Local Services Ads may be precisely the solution you’ve been looking for.
Local Services Ads, abbreviated as LSAs, are a relatively new way to advertise on Google. In this article, we’ll define what LSAs are and how they may be the best form of intent-based advertising in 2021 and beyond.
Local Services Ads Defined
Google launched LSAs in 2015 to give home services businesses another way to stand out in the search engines. If this is the first time that you’re hearing about LSAs, don’t feel bad. The initial rollout was limited and only included a select number of cities. Even now, we can bet that a lot of your competitors don’t know about or aren’t utilizing LSAs. This oversight can be a massive advantage for you.
Local Services Ads are similar to Google PPC (pay-per-click) in that you pay for top placement in Google’s search results. In the case of LSAs, these results appear at the very top of Google, even above the regular PPC ads.
The most significant differences between the two have to do with the way you’re billed for these placements and what they look like.
With PPC, you pay based on the number of clicks your ad gets. When you run LSAs, however, you only pay when you receive a “valid” lead. These leads can come in through a phone call or when the lead books an appointment through the Local Services Ads platform.
Further, you don’t have to manage complex campaigns with complex rules for keyword match types, bid adjustments, and targeting. Setup and management of Local Services Ads are more straightforward than PPC and can result in more leads at a lower cost per lead.
Benefits of LSAs
Remodeling companies, builders, and other home service professionals can experience a long list of benefits when they implement LSAs. We’ve identified seven big ones.
- Placement: There’s no question that showing up at the top of Google search can be good for business. LSAs show up even higher than PPC ads, giving you the potential to capture more clicks and leads.
- Google Guarantee: Home services businesses can get a green checkmark in their ad that says “Google Guaranteed.” This badge lends instant credibility, and it also gives potential customers peace of mind.
In addition to signaling that your business has been fully vetted, this badge also comes with an official guarantee. A lead that books through your ad and becomes a customer will be reimbursed for their payment if they’re unhappy with your service. The cap on reimbursement is $2,000 per customer in the United States and Canada.
- Reviews on autopilot: Collecting five-star reviews is the digital equivalent of word of mouth. After a lead books with your company, you can send them a link to review your business.
- Click-to-call functionality: We all love convenience, and LSAs have built-in click-to-call functionality that works on desktop and mobile. You also have the option to include a link to your calendar to accommodate direct bookings.
- Flat fee lead acquisition: If you’ve ever been shocked by the high cost of PPC ads, you’ll appreciate the transparency of LSAs. Instead of paying Google every time someone clicks on your ad, you only have to pay if a valid lead comes in.
Google filters out solicitor calls, wrong numbers, and calls from outside your service area, so you don’t have to worry about paying for “spammy” leads. The idea is that you pay per lead, and you can specify how much you’d like to pay for each lead.
- More qualified leads: Not only do you only pay for real leads, but you also have the opportunity to get better leads than you might have gotten through Google PPC campaigns.
The reason is that when someone clicks directly on the call button or a calendar booking instead of going to your website to poke around, they’re more likely close to making a purchase decision.
- Easy to manage: Even the best digital marketing experts can struggle with Google PPC. LSAs, on the other hand, are much easier to manage. You can set them up yourself or work with an agency to make sure that everything is working correctly.
Toward the end of 2020, Google did ad some bidding options to LSAs, but the overall structure of this platform is still much simpler and intuitive than Google Ads.
Are LSAs Worth the Investment?
In a word, yes. The prominent placement and honest fee structure make LSAs a no-brainer to at least try. You also have a lot of flexibility when it comes to adjusting your budget or pausing your ads. If you get bombarded with leads, you can scale back or take a break. Google will still be here when you’re ready to continue advertising.
How to Apply
Unlike Google Ads, where you can set up an account in minutes and start running ads the same day, LSAs require an application and approval process. Each industry has different requirements. Most home services businesses will need to supply Google with:
- Owner and employee background checks
- Business background checks
- Insurance verification
- License verification
In addition to giving Google documentation proving that your business is legitimate and your employees are above board, Google may also evaluate your existing online presence, including the quality and quantity of your reviews.
Next Steps
Are you ready to get started with LSAs? At Home Remodeler SEO, we can help you optimize an LSA campaign and create a plan to incorporate Local Services Ads with the other elements of your marketing mix. Contact us to book a free strategy call.
Author: Bob Vance
