Tatiana Schafer, Strategic Partnerships Manager for Google, and Vanessa Villa, LSA Manager for Scorpion, discuss advances in the Google Local Services Ads and how they can drive growth for home services businesses. 

The Onboarding Process

Embracing a new approach to driving leads in your business can be intimidating. But if you’re willing to invest the time and attention to detail it requires, the results are well worth it.

Tatiana explains that in order to take advantage of Local Services Ads (LSAs), businesses must pass Google screening and qualification processes for their business. The screening process is free for businesses that want to participate and it varies by category. This process may include reviews of licenses, insurance, employee background checks, and advanced verification.

The onboarding process is 2-4 weeks minimum, but this is mostly due to rigorous background checks.

“Businesses that advertise directly with Google will undergo background checks with a third party that Google has vetted themselves, to make sure they’re legitimate… The background check involves identity and criminal history checks… and then the company goes through a background check and that process includes civil litigation history.” - Tatiana

If you’re feeling unsure, Vanessa encourages business owners to contact their local background check companies with any questions.

How LSA Bidding Works

In November 2020, Google began offering bidding on LSAs for home services companies and law firms nationwide. Tatiana says this gives businesses more leverage in their marketing efforts. The higher you bid, the higher your chances are of having your ads viewed by more customers.

Google offers two types of bidding. 

1. Maximize leads: this gives Google the ability to choose your bid based on the competition in the market.
2. Set max per lead: this allows business owners to set the amount of money that they’re willing to spend on a lead.

“Scorpion also has some more customizable sort of approaches to LSAs for our clients to take it to the next level. If a business wants to maximize the performance and the ROI of their LSAs, Scorpion’s bidding strategy and marketing technology can make that happen for them. Our system automatically bills and employs a strategy that maximizes your budget on the platform bringing those business owners into a new kind of intelligent growth for their business.” - Vanessa

Vanessa and Tatiana highlight how Google LSAs utilize technology that allows you to create a picture of what your ideal customer looks like. You will be able to see how they move on and offline and where they hang out. This will help you understand where to invest your marketing budget so that you can get your product in front of your customers and build connections. 

Improve Lead Generation

LSAs also simplify the booking process. This minimizes lead drop off and increases engagement with your customers. However, in order for this to be effective, you must have the Google Guarantee badge, says Tatiana.

 “Radius. Reviews. Responsiveness. Add in all of the relevant zip codes you serve, ask for reviews on every job that you do and answer as many calls or requests as you can. Add all of the relevant job types and verticals so that you’re showing up in the ways that matter to you. Highlight your differentiators… Upload photos of your team… Base your budget on the amount of new calls that you want to receive and always stay in the know and try new features.”

Implement Tatiana's advice, and see how LSAs can help your home services business grow.