What are Google’s Local Service Ads and how do they work?
If you’ve heard of Google Ads, then you might be familiar with their PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, where you pay for every click on your featured website. PPC charges you whether a conversion is completed, or a lead is formalized, or not. While this type of advertising generates traffic to your website, which is great in many industries such as E-commerce, it may not be as valuable to a business that relies on less actual traffic and more of an individual, one-on-one type appointment. This is where LSA’s, or Local Services Ads come in. LSA’s only charge per actually established lead! That’s right! If you are a small service business or law firm, medical office, etc., you can be turning your hard-earned advertising dollars into real leads, and not just accidental clicks and tire-kickers.
So how does Google determine what constitutes a lead? By a series of specific occurrences, such as:
- You receive a text message or email from the customer.
- You receive a voicemail from the customer.
- You answer a phone call and speak with the customer.
Google does try to filter any contacts that aren’t real leads, and you are able to dispute and request a credit in situations like:
- The caller hangs up
- The location isn’t in your profile
- Wrong numbers
- Automated recordings and spam calls
- The service isn’t on your profile
So, how much do you pay per lead? That is determined by both your industry and your business location. A heavily populated area, with a heavy presence of your industry, would cost more than a small town with little competition.
Besides only paying for actual leads, being in the LSA program gives your business the ‘Google Screened’ checkmark. This gives potential customers the peace of mind that your business has been screened, background checked, and verified for legitimacy by Google themselves!
So if LSAs are starting to sound like a great program for you to join, but you don’t have the time or patience to manage your LSA’s, let the expert team at Southern Cross Media turn your advertising dollars into real leads. Give one of our experts a call at (321)351-3700 and visit us at https://lsa.southerncrossmedia.com
