A Contractor’s Guide to Google Local Service Ads

What is Google Local Service Ads, Or LSA for Short?

Local Service Ads, or LSA for short, is one of the best ways a local service business can advertise. In this article I’m going to explain everything I can think of about LSA so you can be informed and knows the ins and out of using it to get more customers to your business.

I have created an accompanying Youtube video where I will summarize and discuss my thoughts so if you prefer to watch and listen rather than read, that’s for you. For everyone else, I hope you enjoy this article.

How I Learned About This Stuff

Before you can trust a source of information, I think it’s important to know their background, so here’s mine.

I began my career as a carpenter and eventually found myself being a remodeling contractor. When I became responsible for growing a business, lead generation became a point of focus. I spent a lot of time learning how to market my own company and eventually found that I was pretty good at it. That’s when I started my 2nd company, Adapt Digital Solutions.

My goal with ADS has always been to give my fellow contractors and business owners the means to be in control over their own destiny. I did not like how other companies seemed to trap contractors into long contracts and deals that weren’t in their best interest. I set out to do things different.

That was 7 years ago and at this point I have worked with over 1000 companies and have over 100 who keep the ADS marketing team on a monthly basis to handle their marketing and lead generation. I have a Youtube channel called Chuck the Contractor where I’ve shared my journey and learnings and this article is an extension of my efforts to spread the word and give people like you more autonomy over their lives and career.

LSA has been a large part of marketing for myself and clients and so I’ve had the opportunity to see it in action for many different companies. This has made me an expert on how it works so now I get to share with you what I’ve learned.

Why is LSA a Thing?

Statistically, over 90% of searches worldwide are happening on Google. This isn’t hard to believe, is it? Most of us use Google on a daily basis, including looking for local businesses. Restaurants, stores, and contractors all share a search engine Google has named Google Maps.

Google Maps became the #1 search engine for local businesses in 2005 when it merged with Google Local, Google’s original version of the Yellowpages. If you’re 30 or older, you will know what I’m talking about. For anyone else, Yellowpages was a book that could be found in almost every home that had a directly of phone numbers for businesses and people. This is what people did before the internet…. Google Maps has been a lucrative part of local business marketing for going-on 20 years.

5 years before the release of Google Maps, they came out with Google Adwords, now called Google Ads. Google Ads is Google’s pay-per-click advertising model that has turned them into one of the richest companies in the world. Since 2000, people have been paying Google for clicks. Some smart people took advantage of this and wedged themselves between contractors and their customers. I’m talking about Lead Resellers.

The Stage Set By the HomeAdvisors and Angie’s Lists of the World

A lot of people find my work because of the things I’ve said about lead reselling companies. I was once a long time customer of these companies and I made a lot of money buying leads from them. When my ROI went down, I was forced to take a closer look and that is when I realized that I could get leads the same way these companies do.

The majority of the leads these companies buy and resell for a profit come from Google. These days there are 4 main sections of the Google Search Page where a company can show up.

1. Local Service Ads (Paid)
2. Google Ads (Paid)
3. Google Maps (Organic)
4. Organic Search Results (Organic)

Organic means that Google shows you “for free”. Paid means you pay Google to show you there.

Lead Reselling Companies like Angi, Formerly HomeAdvisor & Angie’s List, spend a lot of money to gather leads by buying clicks from Google Ads and performing Search Engine Optimization to get Google to put them on top of the list of the Organic Search Results. They gather leads and resell them to people like you for a profit.

What I discovered is that a local business can get leads the same way, in fact a local business has an advantage because they can be in all 4 places… A national company like Angi cannot be in Google Maps and Local Service Ads because they are not a local business! I’ve spent many years teaching people to do this and even started a 2nd company, Adapt Digital Solutions, that provides this as a service. My team makes our clients’ companies show up in these 4 sections of the Google Search Page so you can get your own leads.

As a side note, I wrote a huge article comparing various lead reselling platforms. Click here to check it out.

Google Decided to Take More of the Pie

I believe Google saw how much money these lead reselling companies were making and decided to cut them out by creating Google Local Service Ads. Afterall, Google controls the Search Results Page so they can do whatever they want. What they did is created a way for companies to pay them per lead that is much more efficient and therefore better than the previous options.

Google already had a wildly successful local search engine – Google Maps. All they needed to do was create another section on the search page and take the business listings from Google Maps and pop them up at the top of the page. Now, they could give their customers, online searchers, a similar experience as Google Maps but get paid directly for it.

In my opinion, it’s a great way to advertise because you only pay when a lead comes in. This is very different from the pay-per-click advertising model found on Google Ads where you could spend tons of money on clicks and still get zero leads. I believe over half of the money spent on Google Ads is wasted… I’ve seen countless accounts set up improperly. If you have a Google Ads account and wonder if it’s wasting money, we can take a quick look for you. Just reach out and let us know you want a second opinion. Click here to contact us.

For consumers, it’s never been easier to find a local company, read their reviews, and contact them. For companies, it’s never been easier to advertise. The only losers are the lead reselling companies which may be why they’ve seemed to resort to questionable tactics but we won’t go there in this article. For now, you should know that LSA is a very viable strategy for getting more leads for most local service businesses in the USA.

Who is Google Local Service Ads For?

Local Service Ads, or LSA, is designed to help bridge the gap between local service providers and their customers. These days, consumers rely on reviews to help them quickly judge the quality of a product or service and LSA gives them a way to do just that.

When you find a company on LSA, you have 2 options.

1. Read their reviews
2. Contact them

For services such as plumbing and landscaping, this is perfect. You probably don’t need to read the complete history of a company if all you want is your drain unclogged or your lawn mowed… You just want to see some good reviews so you can trust you aren’t getting a bad deal and are quickly ready to get the problem solved.

This is the paradigm of LSA and really what it’s meant to do – help people find a local service provider faster and more easily than ever before. Here is a list of some of the common types of companies that LSA is great for:

• Plumbers
• Electricians
• Landscapers
• Lawyers
• Handyman
• Pest Control & Wildlife Removal
• Concrete foundations & excavation

Google Local Service Ads Might Not Work As Well for Services That Require More Trust

I got my start in business as a remodeling contractor. My family business, Kile Construction, has been doing anything and everything building related for over 25 years. A lot of our customers spend 10’s and even 100’s of thousands of dollars with us. For our clientele, Local Service Ads isn’t the perfect fit and here’s why.

When someone finds us online, they are often looking to make a very large investment in their home. They might want to build an addition onto their home or even renovate the entire thing. The investment of time and money that will go into this might be the largest investment they ever make. This situation requires a very high amount of trust.

It’s less common for someone to find us on Local Service Ads, read some reviews, and call us when they want a large project done. They typically do more due diligence than that. They want to see our website. This isn’t an option given to them on LSA. For this reason, our clients often skip over LSA and go on to Google Maps where they can not only read reviews, but they can find the link to our website and do more research about us. The steps people usually follow are:

1. Find a company on Google Maps
2. Read reviews
3. Check the website home page to gauge how professional a company is.
4. Find the About Us section to find out who the people are at the company.
5. Look at project photos on the website.
6. Contact

It’s not uncommon for a client to tell me they were thinking about this project for many months if not years and they spent much of that time comparing various contractors via their websites before they eventually called us because they liked us the most. This has been told to me enough times that I know it’s a common thing.

I’m not saying that LSA doesn’t work for general contractors who do larger projects. It certainly can get you some leads. What I am saying is that you need to understand your customer and make sure that your company can be found where they are looking. For us, it’s Google Maps, not LSA. (Link to organic marketing article)

Another factor is the number of people in your area looking for your service. There are surely more people looking for drain unclogging than there are for a home addition… Less leads going around = less leads you can buy from Google.

LSA Is Not Yet Available for All Locations and All Industries

LSA first began in 2015, almost 10 years ago, but it is still not completely rolled out. There are many areas throughout the USA where it is not yet available. There are also many services and industries that are not yet covered. Google made an online tool you can use to go see what services and industries are available in your area so you can quickly determine whether or not LSA is even available to you as an option.

Click here to find the tool. They also let you estimate your budget. I rarely find the numbers they provide to be accurate so I don’t give them too much weight but this is a great way to see if LSA is available to you.

Requirements For Using Google Local Service Ads to Buy Leads

There are some hard requirements and soft requirements for using Local Service Ads to get customers for your business.

If a hard requirement is not met, you cannot use LSA for your business.

If a soft requirement is not met, you probably will not get the best results from LSA but you can still incorporate it into your strategy.

Hard Requirements

1. You must have a Google My Business listing for your business.
2. LSA must be available for your service type.
3. LSA must be available in your local area.
4. If license and insurance is required for your business, you must be able to demonstrate you have these things.
5. You must be able to pass a background check.

Soft Requirements

1. You should have as many or more reviews than your average competitor.
2. You should have a website and online presence for those people who see your LSA ad and decide to search for you on Google.
3. You should be or have someone available to answer calls when they come in. Letting them go to voicemail could waste your money.

You Must Have a Google My Business Listing

Go to www.google.com/business and log into your Google account to find out if you have a listing. It’s common for business people I talk to to not be sure if they have one or think they had one at one time but have no idea who started it or who controls it.

If you cannot find a Google account that seems to control your business listing, go to Google and type in the name of your company and the city you are located in. See if you can find it. If one does not exist, you can create one. (Link to GMB creation guide). If you do have one, you DO NOT want to create a new one. You want to get access to the old one.

If you create a duplicate, you’re just going to create a mess that will need to be cleaned up. This will cost you time and money so do not do it. You must get control over the existing listing. See the GMB Listing guide I wrote for more information about how to create a new listing or gain ownership over an existing one. (Link to other article)

LSA Must Be Available to You for Your Industry and Location

In order to find out if LSA is available for you, you can use this tool to check. This is the same one I linked earlier in this article.

Scroll down to this section and fill out the budget calculator. If you can find your industry category, that’s a good sign. Put in your zip code and how many leads you want and it will give you an example budget. I don’t usually find these budgets to be very accurate but it’s better than nothing and it is an easy way to check and see if LSA is available for you

You Must Be Licensed and Insured

This is common sense but Google actually checks to make sure you have necessary license and insurance. This is because they “Guarantee” your work to a certain degree. In the United States, Google will reimburse a homeowner up to $2000 if you mess up their house. For this, Google wants to vet you and make sure you aren’t a liability.

You Must Pass a Background Check

In addition to checking your license and insurance, Google performs a background check on the people at your company. I have some more secrets I could share but I can’t share them publicly. If you are interested, I have a private community where I share things that could get me in hot water. Check out Chuck’s Inner Circle, my private community for contractors and service business providers.

Start Buying Leads – How to Sign Up for a Google Local Service Ads Account

The following checklist is similar to the internal checklist we use at my marketing company. We have set up LSA for dozens of companies and have streamlined the process for ourselves. Now, I can share some of it with you so that you can do it yourself.

1. Use a Google Workspace with your domain name to manage your GMB and sign up for your LSA account.
2. Find the LSA website and sign into your Google account to begin the sign up process.
   1. Sign in with the Google account you wish to use.
   2. Select “New Local Service Ads Account” and click “Continue”.
3. Check Eligibility
   1. Enter your zip code, state, and job category.
   2. Continue by clicking “Next.”
4. Create a New Account
   1. Do not select “Existing Account.”
5. Enter Business Information
   1. Business Name: Copy it from the Google My Business (GMB) profile.
   2. Business Phone: Copy from GMB.
   3. Website URL: Copy from GMB (optional, but recommended).
   4. Owner’s Name: Enter the first and last name of the owner.
   5. Number of Field Workers: See bonus tip at the bottom of this guide.
   6. Business Start Year: Copy from GMB or ask the client.
   7. Business Address: Copy and paste from the information sent by the client.
6. Verify Business Address
   1. Ensure Google recognizes the address and confirms it.
   2. Select “No” for customer visitation when prompted.
7. Set Service Areas
   1. Add service areas. We usually start with the largest area possible.
8. Select Job Types
   1. Choose the job categories that your business provides.
   2. Deselect the types of jobs you do not want people to call for.
9. Accept Licensing Terms
   1. Click “I Agree”.
10. Set Business Hours
    1. Copy business hours from your GMB or enter them manually if you want them to be different.
11. Agree to Onboarding Terms
    1. Click “Continue”.
12. Set Communication Preferences
    1. Go to “Profile & Budget”.
    2. Select whether or not you want email, text, and calls notifications.
13. Set Budget
    1. Set your budget
    2. Click “Save”.
14. Submit Your Proof of Insurance
    1. Upload documentation proving you carry insurance.
    2. It usually takes a few hours for them to verify.
15. Submit Your Background Check
    1. Use the Evident (or current) app to upload:
       1. Social Security Number
       2. ID or Passport
    2. Can take up to 6 weeks to get approved.
16. Enter Your Billing Information
    1. Enter your credit card information for billing.
    2. I like to use a Chase Ink business card because you get 3x rewards for ad-spend.
17. Add Other Admins
    1. If you want to add others to be able to access your account, click “Account Access”.
    2. Add their email address.
    3. You may need to add the email domain to a list in Security Settings.
    4. Choose the level of access you want them to have.
18. Add Photos to Your Profile

Want to download the checklist with Bonus Tips? Text Two-Zero-Eight 856-6007 and say “I want the LSA checklist” and we’ll send it to you.

Configuring Your LSA Account to Get The Results You Want

Coming Soon.

Expectations and Frequently Asked Questions

I talk to new contractors and business owners almost daily and when I ask them how many leads they want, it’s not uncommon for them to say “As many as I can get.”

If that were true, then would they be happy with 100 per day? How about 1000 per day? Of course not. Few companies can handle 1000 leads per day. So “As many as I can get” is not a reasonable answer.

On the same vein, folks often have unreasonable expectations for how well a given marketing strategy is going to work. The fact of the matter is that, in local marketing, there is no silver bullet. There is no one strategy that will take care of your lead generation needs forever. That is almost always true…

Instead, you must often do multiple things to get the leads you need. LSA can be one of them.

For LSA, I’ve seen companies get anywhere from 0 leads per month to 60. I’m sure there are some companies out there getting more than that but I would say the vast majority are in this range.