Adding Local Service Ads to Your Search Marketing

Are Local Service Ads Right for You?

Google offers Local Service Ads for businesses in certain industries, particularly those with licensing, as a way to distinguish yourself from competitors and potentially generate more leads.  Here are just a few of the categories where we routinely recommend LSAs:

• Real Estate
• Home Services
  • HVAC
  • Roofing
  • Plumbing
  • Electrical
• Law Offices
• Medical Offices
  • Dental
  • Podiatry
  • Orthodontics
  • Optical
  • Just About Any Specialty

The general rule of thumb is if you have any type of government-issued license (contractor license, real estate license, medical license, etc.), you probably qualify for Local Service Ads.

How Are Local Service Ads Different from Regular Search Ads?

LSAs are different from regular search ads in a few critical ways:

Call-Out.  Your Local Service Ads are tagged with a “Google Verified” call-out badge.

Location.  LSAs appear with priority in the SERP (search engine results page), and your business is tagged differently in the map listing.

Cost.  Local Service Ads tend to be more expensive than regular search ads.  This is often due to the number of competitors, but (and we can’t verify) it seems like Google just charges a higher baseline for this campaign type.

Read More:  How to Make Google Know You & Show You

How To Add LSAs to Your Search Marketing

Good or bad (mostly bad), Local Service Ads are created using an entirely separate platform from Google AdWords.  And, to be honest, the interface isn’t awesome.  But you CAN do it yourself.

Register Your Business.  You can create an account here.  There is paperwork involved!  You have to submit, in most cases, an identity verification (which Google uses a third-party to complete), and then you submit your licensing information, and often insurance/bonding information for verification.

Create Your Ads.  Once your Local Service Ads account is verified and approved, you create campaigns and LSAs using methods fairly similar to typical text-based search ads.  You’ll also set your bidding, similar to how you bid for regular search ads.

Optimize.  Just like regular search advertising, the performance of LSAs needs to be tracked and optimized on a regular basis.

If You Need Help

This is our business.  We manage Google advertising for many different kinds of businesses, as part of our full-service agency menu.  And we’ll invest in you before you ever consider investing in us.

Just schedule a free consultation with our team and mention that you’d like to discuss Local Service Ads.  We’ll make sure our LSA specialist is on the call.  We’ll talk LSAs, and whatever else is on your mind.  It’s a great way for us to get to know you and your business, and for you to get to know us a little better.

If you decide you’re ready to proceed on your own, you get the information free and without any further obligation.  If you decide you need help, all we ask is the chance to offer you a customized proposal.

Thanks for visiting today!

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