Google does its best to connect its users with professionals capable of meeting their needs, but the objective is not always achieved. When it comes to finding a service provider, for example, we have all experienced professionals who are referenced in the paid or organic results of our search, but who do not really correspond to our location criteria or s actually prove difficult to reach. And, when it’s to repair a water leak at two o’clock in the morning, it can cause some problems!
But that was before…
Before Local Services ads, which Google started testing in the US in 2017, then finally made available in France in 2021. Their goal? Offer better ergonomics to the end customer in the context of this online search for an available, qualified and efficient service provider.
So, here’s how it looks.
Summary
- Local Services Ads: what are we talking about and what are the advantages?
- A separate interface from Google Ads, but which does not replace Google Ads
- An unmissable opportunity in terms of visibility
- An advantageous invoicing method
- Tokens of seriousness for prospects
- Are you relevant to this lead generation channel?
- How to Optimize Your Presence in Google’s Local Services Ads
- To remember
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How do “Local Services” ads work on Google?
- What are the benefits of “Local Services” ads on Google for local businesses?
- How to optimize “Local Services” ads on Google to improve their performance?
Local Services Ads: what are we talking about and what are the advantages?
This new “local services” ads feature allows home service businesses to better promote the services they offer to Google users who are likely to become their SEO for Educational Institutions. Easier to understand than Google Ads, it is positioned at the same time on slightly different objectives.
A separate interface from Google Ads, but which does not replace Google Ads
Local Services Ads has its own portal, which is quite separate from that of Google Ads. A priori, the idea seems to be to offer a simpler alternative to set up for professionals, especially those who do not have the means or the time to deploy a real advertising strategy on the traditional Google management.
But the function of this new ad channel isn’t quite the same either. Here, it is not a question of positioning yourself on specific keywords, but of letting Google connect a professional and a prospect on the basis of the concrete and localized need of this prospect. Clearly, if a Google user is looking for a professional to repair a leak in his shower, he will automatically be offered the plumbers of his city validated beforehand by Google.
To appear in the list of Local Services ads, companies must therefore register on this portal, even if they already use Google Ads.
An unmissable opportunity in terms of visibility
The fact that the triggering of Local Services Ads is not based on keywords, but on a set of signals related to the advertiser’s activity and location, can allow the latter to capture more qualified traffic than on Google Ads, especially if its campaigns are not sufficiently optimized there. Especially since the spot reserved for Local Services ads is ideal, located just below the search bar and, therefore, above the search results (sponsored and organic):
What’s more, the increased visibility of this channel being coupled with the availability provided by the professional (schedules, holidays, etc.), ergonomics for the user is further improved. No more opening hours checks to be carried out on the service provider’s site after having identified it in the search results!
Providers and prospects therefore have everything to gain with this transparent and efficient interface to put them in touch.
An advantageous invoicing method
Service providers can also benefit from an advantageous billing method on this channel, especially for those who run few ads campaigns: lead billing. Thus, only actual contacts made by qualified prospects are invoiced at the end of the operation. If no one calls the advertiser, the advertiser pays nothing.
All that remains is to choose between two auction systems:
- The choice of a maximum cost per lead beyond which the advertiser does not wish to bid
- Automatic optimization of bids based on the total budget determined by the advertiser
Google recommends the second option and it seems to us to be a wise decision, at least for advertisers who are starting out and have little data to adjust their maximum cost per lead themselves.
Tokens of seriousness for prospects
Finally, the last interesting advantage of this channel, it helps advertisers to reassure prospects about their seriousness and their skills. It helps them by directly displaying the rating from customer reviews and the number of these reviews. But it also helps them by displaying a “Google Protection” badge, which guarantees the possibility for the end customer to be reimbursed in the event of a problem related to the performance of the service by one of the professionals offered by Google.
For advertisers who have not really worked on their online reputation, these tokens of trust are a significant conversion lever.
Are you relevant to this lead generation channel?
These professionals, who have few customer reviews and little data to optimize their Google Ads ads, find in this new channel a way to quickly access a source of lead generation.
That said, as a complement to Google Ads, these new ads can be useful to all home service businesses, including large ones, that have already developed an online advertising strategy. Given the visibility enjoyed by the placement of these ads, no one will be able to afford the luxury of leaving it to the competition.
However, not all services are yet concerned, since this channel is currently reserved for a limited list of home services. To check your eligibility, do not hesitate to contact our Google Ads certified Google Partner Premier specialists, who can assist you in your registration and certification procedures on the Local Services portal:
LEARN MORE
The announced deadline to take advantage of this new feature can currently reach 4 weeks, but we can support your request with our account manager at Google.
How to Optimize Your Presence in Google’s Local Services Ads
A ranking system is applied by Google to display Local COST PER ACQUISITION results and the criteria for this ranking are not public… But we can say without too much risk of being wrong that it takes into account, for example, customer reviews or the responsiveness of advertisers.
Concretely, as is the case for traditional Google Ads ads, all the guarantees of quality that an advertiser can give over time in the responses he provides to users grant him a visibility bonus. It is therefore important to:
- List your services in the right activity categories
- Accurately fill in your hourly availability
- Solicit reviews from your customers
- Make efforts on your responsiveness to requests from Google users
- Feed the Local Services platform with feedback on the leads collected to feed the Google algorithm (which will modify the positioning of your ads accordingly)
But, as is the case with all digital marketing channels, your performance on Local Services Ads will also depend on your sense of… marketing! In other words, they will depend on your ability to put forward the arguments that differentiate you from your competitors.
It is therefore necessary to fill in the information related to your company in a perspective of persuasion and demarcation. And, why not take the opportunity to add photos of your team or your achievements? The Local Services portal allows this and this can only bring more to the level of the personalization of your communication.
To remember
The Local Services ads freshly landed on the Google ads environment in France concern you if:
- You carry out an activity relating to home services (in the broad sense)
- You want to develop a new source of lead generation
- You want to test a local and simplified acquisition channel