Joe Troyer 0:33
I wanted to talk to you guys about local service ads and Google's local service ads, like what are they and where are they available? What are the niches? Are they important? Should I be telling my prospects and clients to do them should I be not? And so I wanted to walk you guys through kind of some of the high level details. But essentially, Google Local Service ads were called Google Home Service ads, I believe they were also they've been referred to as like Google guaranteed.
The thing is, is like this is super interesting. I feel like because they're front and center, right, like these local service ads are above the Pay Per Click ads. So you've got to know and we got to take away that they're getting lots of attention, right? Like they are, they're in the most prime real estate. For Google, that's what sparked my attention is the opportunity there. And it's a big opportunity being at the top of the page there. So when you click on one of these listings, right, ultimately, or click for more, ultimately, this is what you see is kind of a list of more Google guaranteed vendors. A
nd you can drop down into different categories and zip codes, right so that the user can get down category wise, and then zip code wise, but then that's really all the filtering that's available, right. And so I did vehicle lockout. And I believe this is in South Beach, this zip code. And at the time of me doing this, there were only two locksmiths available through Google guaranteed available to do a vehicle lockout in South Beach Miami, like the ultimate tourist destination in Miami. So I thought that that was interesting, right? So then you can see their business information, you can look at their reviews.
And ultimately, this looks like essentially, like a mini GMB or Google My Business listing at the end of the day, right. So you can put in your service area, your background, your licensing info goes in there. Obviously, your reviews go in there, they got this new kind of lights section, so to speak in there as well. But what I want you guys to take away is like, this used to be something that was just in a couple of cities like this is rapidly expanding. Right? In California, California is definitely one of the earlier adopters.
Florida was one of the late adopters, right, but I mean, even look at just in Florida, what's live and what's available, I mean, the the the list is getting really big. So definitely something to be on the lookout for like this is taking over what captured me and made me really look into it was first the opportunity, right, it's showing up at the top of Google.
And then second, like they just keep expanding more and more and more and more locations. It's getting ridiculous. But I mean, this is something that that you guys should know, as consultants as as marketers. Um, but from what I see so far, I mean, most I would say 99%, or more of the people here are really like Home Service listings. So what's the impact ultimately, of Google Local Search Ads?
I think that ultimately they're taking away impression share from everybody else, right? I mean, look how far down maps is now. Right? Look how far down organic is now. And obviously, they're shoving down their pay per click ads as well getting the attention and local search, if it's available as local search ads. So ultimately, you know, impression share, and ultimately, you could say as well results in clicks and calls for Google ads and for Google Maps is ultimately going down because it's being taken away by by Google Local Service ads. And when you look at it on mobile, it's even worse, like all that I have when I did a search for Miami locksmith on on my iPhone, right? Brand new big screen iPhone is two responses and a call button or two listings and a call button. So when you think about the impact that this has happened having on local search, like guys, it's it's frickin big.
Joe Troyer 4:41
So if you've seen clients where impressions are down, or calls are down in their in local service ads, that could be a correlation, right? Or there's an there in a niche and city that has, it could definitely be a correlation. So how do you get into Google Local Service ads and how does it work is really What I want to transition to and really walk through with you guys, at the end of the day, you're either going to get invited to play with local service ads, right? Or you're going to be sitting on the bench and waiting to join the notification list depending on the niche that you're in. And the city, right, aka is in your market or the listings available.
And Google right now is definitely rewarding. first movers, right, the people that are jumping on this early are, are doing really, really well. But just know that like, if your prospects or your customers have an opportunity to get in on this, that you should be cheering them on, right? Because your goal, again, is to take them from where they are, to where they want to go. And there's a gap, right. And folks, at the end of the day, Google is rewarding people jumping on local service ads, in a big way.
So essentially, what happens if it's in your market, you're able to apply, and they work with a third party company that they contract to run a background check. And they run that in background and check on the business owner, and all the business employees. And really anyone who's going to visit a customer's home or office, they're going to be vetting, and then they're going to be checking licenses and insurances getting vetted. So it's not like a rinky dink process. Are there people that are gaming the system? Yes, I do believe so. There are people that are really pay per call or lead gen people that are getting into local service ads, and shouldn't be.
And what I mean by that is, you know, they're they are definitely not licensed, or there maybe photoshopping some of their documents, because you can tell I've, I've seen lead prices from anywhere from 18 to $45. A lead so far. Now, obviously, over time, this number is going to continue to grow. Right. Early adopters, I believe, have this program are going to be rewarded handsomely for jumping on board like it's a bidding system, at the end of the day, just like Google ads are in Google AdWords or pay per click right. So the way that Google Local Service ads billing works is essentially the exact same as pay per lead is or if you're running pay per lead, probably the exact same as your pay per lead business.
So essentially, you set a weekly budget, your ad spend that is going to fluctuate like crazy. And then you're going to get leads inside of the platform and you pay per lead. Like that's it. In terms of the ad ranking process, there's three kind of big ranking factors, if you will, to showing up the the largest amount of time and that really is budget,
Joe Troyer 7:59
proximity, and reviews. Okay, budget, proximity and reviews like, ultimately, guys, at the end of the day, does that sound like? Does that sound familiar? Right? Like that sounds exactly like Google. Right? Those ranking factors. It's like, Yeah, this is what Google wants everywhere, like customers to have a big budget with their platform, to to be a good solution and be in proximity, and to have good reviews. So this matches up with everything else that we know about Google that kind of gets you guys up to speed on kind of local service ads in general.
But folks, here's the Mojo. And here's the data that nobody else has. Here's how it's working. Now, here's why it's important. And here's why you guys should know all about it. I'm really fortunate to have some awesome freakin customers, and customers who were willing to share with me and the rest of you, right, the rest of our customer base, what's going on with their local service ads, one of the biggest questions we receive, right about local service ads is like what's the cost per lead compared to AdWords, right? Or how much volume is actually available? Right?
Like, those are the two big things. And so I promised the customer not to share the exact location they're in and the exact vertical or category of their business, just to give them some anonymity. Anyway, I want to share with you guys some data. So cost per acquisition numbers. So Google AdWords or Google paid ads, right? $50.90 for a raw phone call, right? Google Local Service ads, folks, 18 bucks. So if you're talking with a prospect, guys, I don't really think it's fair to hold this thing back like we got to share. Right? Our job is to help people go from their current situation to their desired situation and to fill that gap. For me. I think that local service ads is one hell of a way to fill that gap. Look at the difference in cost there.
Again, I think that it's not always going to be like this. I think long term it will cost more than Pay Per Click ads, right? Because like they're taking all the complexity out of pay per click. So one of the follow up questions I get then is like, Joe, somebody is doing local service ads, should they be doing pay per click? Or should they be doing Google ads? And yes, they should, right? If they're still looking for more leads than yes, it's a, it's a solve to their problem. And it's helping them again, fill the gap between where they're at right now and where they want to be. So then let's talk about volume, right?
Like how does Google AdWords compare to Google Local Service ads? So when I when I did this, we did it again for the previous month. So Google ads 37, leads in a month, Google Local Service ads, 102. And those were billable. That was after Google had already scrubbed and gotten rid of 20, what they would call like bad leads from the account. And so are Google, Google Local Service ads worth it? 100%. Right.
When you consider the results, right, at the end of the day, Google AdWords, or Google Ads was 282% More expensive than local service ads, and local service ads drove 275% more leads than Google ads. So guys, if if you have the opportunity to help a customer with this definitely should be helping a customer with Google Local Service ads.
