How Google Local Services Ads Work

Signing Up

When you sign up for Local Services Ads, you will be asked to provide some general business information such as your business name, telephone number, business hours, services offered, and service area. This information will populate your business profile which will be previewed with your ad. When a potential customer clicks your ad, they will see your business profile. You can always edit the information if anything changes.

About Ad Rankings

There are likely many businesses that offer your same services in your same area. So, how does Google Local Services Ads rank the ads? Provider listings are displayed and ranked based on a range of factors. In essence, Google estimates the likelihood of customers contacting your business. Those with a higher expected rate of contact will appear higher ranked. Factors that affect this calculation include your business’ verification status, the context of the potential customer’s search, your business reviews, your proximity to the person, your business hours, and your responsiveness to customer inquiries and requests.

Costs and Payment

While Google displays practically every website on its search engine, Google Local Services Ads is NOT a free service. The good news is that Google Local Services Ads only charges for leads related to your business or the services you offer. Here’s how it works.
First, you set an average weekly budget. Google will spread out your ads over time so that your budget is not passed. You may sometimes spend more on leads than your average weekly budget, but never more than your monthly maximum. In fact, any lead received after you have reached your monthly maximum will be credited back. So, what is a lead?

Types of Leads

Potential customers can contact you in several ways. They can message, email, or call your business. For example, you will be charged when:

• You receive a text message or email from a customer.
• You answer a phone call and speak with a customer.
• You receive a voicemail from a customer.
• You miss a customer’s call and return their call with a call, text message, or email.
• You receive a booking request from a customer.

There are circumstances in which you can successfully receive a refund for invalid leads. These include leads that are actually spam, solicitation, outside of your service area, or for a service you do not offer. You can dispute charges within 30 days of receiving them.