Which industries can benefit?
Set to be an excellent supplement to other parts of your local SEO strategy, including Google Ads, this advertising platform has just finished being tested in the US, so expect more industries to be added to this list in the coming months:
- Appliance repair services
- Carpet cleaning services
- Electricians
- Garage door services
- HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning)
- Lawn care services
- Locksmiths
- Movers
- Pest control services
- Plumbers
- Roofers
- Water damage services
- Window cleaning services
- Carpenter
- Foundations
- Landscapers
- Counter top
- Fencing
- Siding
- Flooring
- Lawyers (US only)
- Financial planners (US only)
- Tax specialist (US only)
- Real estate agents (US only)
Six benefits of Google Local Service Ads
1: Easy to use
These new Local Service Ads provide a refreshingly straightforward and direct approach to attracting qualified leads to businesses while allowing you to fully control budgets and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA).
2: You only need to pay per lead
Anyone who’s ran a Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising campaign knows that if you don’t have much experience you can easily end up paying for clicks that either aren’t relevant or don’t convert, which can quickly drive up costs without giving your business anything to show for it.
With Local Service Ads you will only be charged for valid leads and you can set a cap on how much you want to spend for them. You can also dispute leads that are fraudulent in some way, including spam, duplicates and poor matches, and get credit back for an unqualified lead.
3: Gain the trust of prospective customers with Google Guaranteed
As mentioned near the beginning of this blog, once you’ve submitted all the relevant documents (such as insurance details, etc.) and been approved by Google, you can earn Google Guaranteed status, which means Google backs you as a trustworthy business.
This gives the customer an added incentive to buy whatever you’re selling, not least because the badge means Google could reimburse them up to the amount paid for the initial service if they’re unsatisfied, subject to a lifetime limit of £1,500 in the UK.
4: There’s an emphasis on reviews and ratings
Because your business will appear at the top of the page with a star rating underneath, this gives users a further incentive to choose you (and a further incentive to get positive reviews from customers!).
5: No need to manage ads or keywords
Keyword research and constant ad testing isn’t easy (which is why we do it for many businesses), and with Local Service Ads, Google has found a way to skip all those steps.
The format of your adverts will be automatically created using information from your business profile and your ads will be automatically triggered by thousands of relevant search terms, from the broad (’plumber’) to the specific (’boiler leaking water from bottom’).
6: You can be found on voice search
Did you know that over 20% of searches are voice searches these days? Over 400 million devices are powered by Google Assistant, and Local Services Ads can help you get a slice of that delicious pie.
Ad rankings and reviews
It’s important to remember that there’s still a limited amount of space at the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Only up to three ads will appear on desktop searches, two on mobile devices and one on Google Assistant (voice search).
Like PPC campaigns, you will need a high ad rank to beat the competition and make it onto the SERP. With Local Service Ads, this rank is determined by:
- Your business hours.
- Your business’s proximity to the location of your lead.
- Your review score and number of reviews you have.
- Your responsiveness to customer inquiries.
- Whether or not your business has received complaints.
As you can see, although this system is designed to be more straightforward than PPC campaigns or local SEO, there’s still a lot to manage when it comes to signing up and maintaining your Local Service Ads account.
If you’d like some expert help so your business can really get the most out of Local Service Ads, get in touch with Alloy Marketing today.
