Phone calls and messages.
All from people looking for the exact service you offer.
At a reasonable, profitable cost.
Sounds good, right?!
Too good to be true?
No its true but it depends on a few important pre-qualifications in my experience.
I’m talking about Google Local Service Ads, or “LSAs” for short.
This ad type has technically been around for about ten years now but they were originally only available in a few select markets and for a small set of business types.
They’ve gradually expanded over the years and in 2023 announced that more than 70 different types of local service businesses could now use the platform.
In that announcement, businesses like pet groomers, acupuncturists and dentists joined the approved list of businesses like carpenters, plumbers, roofers and lawyers who were already using this ad type.
Not not an exhaustive list but here are a bunch of examples:
One of the many benefits of this ad type is the sought-after badge.
A very common question that I’ve received from potential clients is:
“How do I get the Google Guaranteed badge on my ads?”
This is how you get that.
Now don’t think for a second that Google just throws that around willy-nilly.
Local Services Ads require extensive verification and background checks before you can run your ads.
I’ll get to more of that later.
Let’s get back to those pre-qualifications that I mentioned earlier.
First, let me preface this by saying that LSA’s can work for most businesses.
But when I say “Untapped” in the title of this post, I’m referring to small business owners who:
- Already have a Google Business Profile with a decent number of stellar reviews
- Watch over your profile like a hawk and quickly respond to inquiries
- You’re in a small-ish city or town
So let me clarify some more.
Business owners in major metro areas and/or who have bad, little or no ratings on their Google Business Profile can still get this ad type to work but I haven’t seen them work as consistently.
If you’re a local service business who fits the criteria above then I highly recommend you consider LSAs.
I have a client right now who is booked up daily where LSAs are his only paid marketing source.
This is what his inbox looks like:
For a year prior to starting LSAs we went out of our way to build up his Google Business Profile and encouraged all customers to leave a review.
The reason is that your Business Profile is your ad with LSAs.
Your reviews are front and center – that’s why I’m making this part clear.
Not only is he getting consistent business but he continues to accrue even more reviews on his profile with each job.
Another important point about LSAs is that you only pay for qualified leads, you’re not paying for the click itself like you’d normally do with traditional google search ads.
As mentioned above, you do need to jump through some hoops before you’re able to run these ads.
You’ll need to meet eligibility requirements, including screening and verification processes, which will vary by business type and location. Screening may involve checks on background, registration, insurance, and professional licenses.
Its very hard to provide all the exact steps you’ll have to go through.
Slightly different each time I’ve helped clients navigate it.
As far as next steps go for me and my clients, we’re working on automations to help stay on top of the inquiries, recording jobs and adding the customers to their CRM.
In some cases we’re creating a fully custom CRM process to work smoothly with the jobs and new customers they’re getting from LSAs.
If you’re interested in LSAs, lets chat, or jump into them yourself right over here.