The goal for every digital marketing campaign centers around generating quality leads for your business that translates into sales and ideally, recurring customers. However, getting your business in front of the right audience has proven difficult in the past due to the vastness of the internet itself. While PPC campaigns and targeted SEO strategies prove to be excellent tools in that fight, finding reliable ways to generate quality leads remains one of the main challenges facing businesses today. One tool that home and professional services can utilize to get their businesses in front of the people most likely to use and benefit the most from their services are Google’s Local Service Ads. But what are LSAs and how can they generate more leads?
What once started as only a limited roll out to select markets showed enough promise and return on investment to inspire Google to open the LSA usage on a larger scale. This year, Google has made LSAs available to more markets and included professional services in the markets that can utilize LSA’s. To qualify for the LSAs, you will need to pass a background check, have an above 3-star rating on Google, and provide a physical location for your business.
Google began running local service ads a few years ago to highlight quality local businesses to users that searched for a specific service. Through an LSA, companies could have ads for their business appear at the top of search results for local users searching for an HVAC company or a local personal injury lawyer and appear above even PPC campaigns. Once your business qualified for an LSA, you became able to engage and capitalize on the users that were directly searching for your service or industry. These users are generally more likely to convert and become that qualified lead that becomes revenue for your business.
Quality of reviews, hours of operations, and other vital pieces of information, your LSA will be placed in front of customers that are presently searching for services from your industry in the defined service area. You’ll see an increase in qualified leads from your area instead of someone from outside of your service accidentally stumbling across your online listing. As you interact with your dashboard more, the better your LSAs will learn and perform. Your professional service will continue to solidify its reputation as a trusted source and helpful service to use in their time of need.
For home services and professional services, coming across as a valued and trustworthy business helps increase your ads’ efficiency. To better convey that confidence through LSAs, Google offers Google Screened and Google Guaranteed official titles to establish that your business meets its criteria and provides value to its customers. Now users who come across industries that have earned these titles in search results may be confused about the differences between the two designations.
Google Screened is reserved for businesses in the professional services verticals, your lawyers, financial advisors, and real estate. For a professional service to earn the Google Screened designation, they have to pass a background check, a license check, and maintain a 3.0 rating or better on Google. Once they earn the Google Screened badge, it will appear as part of their LSA. The Google Screened badge will appear along with a headshot and a link to your website, providing potential customers with a friendly face and a symbol representing the trust your customers have in your business.
Google Guaranteed, on the other hand, applies to the home services industry. This badge covers a broader range of businesses within the home services vertical and provides a similar sense of trust and credibility for your business. An additional benefit for users that book an appointment through Google can receive a money-back guarantee if they are unsatisfied with the service. The Google Screened badge appears underneath your business’ name, ranking, and reviews in the LSA.
No matter the vertical, finding ways to demonstrate the experience and trust you have built for your current customers can help solidify your LSAs and improve their potential effectiveness. For the home services industry, that trust forms the foundation of their business. The customer relationship you form reflects on how you operate and helps draw future customers to you. For LSAs, they put you in front of users that are in that exact moment looking for a home service that can help them immediately. One valuable part of the LSA model comes down to how you pay. Unlike PPC, where you pay every time someone clicks on your ad, you only pay per lead generated through the LSA. This helps you receive a better return on your investment since you are only paying for qualified leads instead of an errant click through a Google search.
For home services, getting your name out there into the community can help drive up brand awareness, interest, and, ideally, conversions for your business. However, ensuring that you maximize your digital presence and get in front of people within your service area that needs your help. Through the LSA dashboard, you can determine your service area, hours of operation, establish good response times to user inquiries, and give your business an edge on the market. The more information you provide and the more often you interact with the dashboard, the more LSA will learn and perform better.
The placement of the LSA provides home services with their best chances of being seen by potential customers. With LSA placement being above even PPC ads, your business will be the first thing users see in the search results. Knowing that people rarely venture past the first page when they look for any kind of service, the prime placement at the top of the page can mean the difference between a qualified lead and get skipped over by someone.
Historically, lawyers, real estate agents, and financial advisors have relied on word of mouth to establish their service areas’ reputation. They perform well for their current clients; those successes filter out through the community and build up that essential level of trust. Their digital marketing efforts operate in much the same way. Building and maintaining that trust and reputation goes a long way towards increasing your revenue and ROI. With the LSA program’s help, you can further build that trust and get your practice or business in front of the people who need it the most.
Similar to home services, LSAs for professional services operate by putting your business in front of the eyes of people that need them the most. Once you determine your service for any business, the most critical part of growing their business is establishing trust with your current and potential customers. That trust brings people back as repeat customers and makes it easier for new customers to come through the door. In the digital age that we live in, this trust goes beyond word of mouth. You have to leverage your digital presence and digital marketing efforts to establish that trust you have built and draw potential customers you otherwise would not have reached.
The goal for every digital marketing campaign centers around generating quality leads for your business that translates into sales and, ideally, recurring customers. However, getting your business in front of the right audience has proven difficult in the past. This difficulty is due to the vastness of the internet itself. While PPC campaigns and targeted SEO strategies prove to be excellent tools in that fight, finding reliable ways to generate quality leads remains one of the main challenges facing businesses today. One tool that home and professional services can utilize to get their businesses in front of the people most likely to use and benefit the most from their services is Google’s Local Service Ads. But what are LSAs, and how can they generate more leads?
With more businesses utilizing LSAs, the natural question becomes; how do I rank ahead of my competition? 1SEO has the answer to the question!
The process revolving around how your particular LSA ranks ahead of other competitors in your area comes down to some crucial factors. It becomes a combination of how well your business reviews on Google and its proximity to your business. Asking your current customers to leave positive Google reviews will help boost your LSA visibility and lead to more qualified leads.
The focus placed on the customer experience and how previous customers felt about the service you provided gave the LSAs a more personalized touch than other digital marketing efforts. Part of the story that gets told through these ads is how integral your business became to your service area and community. These personal connections provide prospective customers with something tangible to latch onto and to identify with as they make their buying decision.
Applying for LSAs on your own can prove challenging and confusing. For business owners that have never applied before, knowing which documents you need to supply can quickly become a headache. Having a digital marketing agency on your side with experience applying for and managing LSAs can help ease the tension you currently feel and get you on the path to getting more qualified leads ASAP!
The 1SEO team knows the ins and outs of Google Local Service Ads and how they can benefit your home or professional service business! Whether you are an HVAC company looking to branch out, or a law firm looking to boost your impact in the community, 1SEO can help! Contact our team to learn how to help leverage this freshly rolled out service and get your business the kind of qualified leads you deserve!
About the Author:
Dan Matthews is your friendly neighborhood content writer at 1SEO. His secret dream is to go onto Guy’s Grocery Games, win, and parlay that into a recurring role as a judge. You can find him around town sampling the finest taco spots Philadelphia has to offer.
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