Many business owners are wondering why their Local Service Ads (LSAs) aren’t performing well; others are wondering if they are missing out by not running them. This 3-minute read will help you answer these questions.
Some quick background
In 2018 Google rolled out Local Service Ads and the Google Guarantee program for local service companies. If you’re unfamiliar with Local Service Ads, or LSAs, they’re the first result in local searches. Search for a roofer in your town, for example, and the LSA listings appear above everything else on the page.
These ads have an advantageous “Google Guaranteed” badge on them because businesses have to go through a vetting process with Google to determine that they’re legitimate.
Current status of LSAs
Back in 2018, the first adopters of LSAs saw immediate results. Competition for the ad space was low and consumers were generally unused to the “Google Guarantee” badge. One roofer recently told me they were wildly successful with this strategy early on.
However, if you’re currently running LSAs, you may have noticed that performance has started to drop. There are a few potential reasons driving this change:
- Competition: Since the advent of LSAs, the number of advertisers using them has increased exponentially. Search interest in “local service ads” on Google has climbed steadily since launch, and more competition translates directly into higher costs for advertisers. Frankly, this is exactly what Google wants to have happen: competition for ad space that increases their revenue.
- Economic factors: Since the end of 2023, home improvement spending has been on a steady decline. This is partially due to the Covid pandemic ending, but there seem to be additional financial trends as American consumers are stretching their pocketbooks more. Your local service area may just not have the demand that was previously driving LSA traffic.
- Lack of optimization: With the increase in competition, optimization has become even more important. Here are 2 actions you can take that most LSA advertisers aren’t doing to optimize their ads:
- Mark appointments as booked. Marking appointments is a way of telling Google to send you more clients like the ones that have succeeded. This is in Google’s best interest so that they don’t waste the time of the consumer, and it will help your LSAs become more efficient by showing up for those successes more often than the unsuccessful ones.
- Answer the phone or respond to requests fast. Being quick to respond not only helps the customer, it also helps Google give the customer what they want quicker. One of the biggest impacts on a small business owner’s success is whether or not they answer the phone. If they don’t, not only will they miss out on business, but Google will know you’re not answering the phone or messages and will be less likely to show your ad to customers. Lastly, your response times are often shown to customers on Google, and a long response time could discourage good customers from reaching out to you.
LSAs are easy to set up, not so easy to optimize. If you need help optimizing, managing, or just evaluating your Local Service Ads, reach out and we can help.
