Google Local Services Ads for Painters: Get Google Guaranteed!

You are probably familiar with the concept of paying for leads.

On paper, it’s a great business model since you ONLY pay for results, but in practice, these are primarily sold as shared painting leads.

Whomp whomp ????????

But what if Google had a pay-per-lead advertising channel that allows you to acquire exclusive, high-quality repaint leads, and you only pay for leads you can quote?

Sounds too good to be true, right? Guess again!

In this article we’re going to discuss Google Local Services Ads, what they are, how to set them up, and the optimizations needed to generate qualified leads.

Yes, this is the exact same SOP we use to run Local Services Ads for our clients!

Let’s get to it…

What are Google Local Services Ads?

Local Services Ads Search Results Position

Local Services Ads = Google Guaranteed

Originally beta tested in 2015, Local Services Ads (otherwise known as LSAs) have been around awhile.

You may have seen the Google Guaranteed badge on Google Business Profiles before — These are businesses running LSAs. You cannot have one without the other.

So why haven’t you heard of LSAs? Most likely because there still isn’t a primary category available for Painters yet, but… you can still list your painting business on LSAs.

Keep reading to find out how!

How do Local Services Ads differ from Search Ads?

As a pay-per-lead service, this advertising channel differs drastically from Google’s standard pay-per-click (PPC) search ads you are probably most familiar with.

What makes LSAs so different is instead of paying for clicks, which don’t directly generate results, you only pay for leads you can quote.

Even better, LSAs show up ABOVE the standard Google Search Ads, giving your painting business more visibility at a lower price point.

Here are a few facts about Google Local Services Ads and why they are quickly becoming the best advertising channel for painting companies:

You only pay for quotable leads, which is defined as a lead calling for a service you offer, inside your service area.
Google is currently very forgiving with lead disputes. At the time of writing this article, we have a 100% success rate for disputing unqualified leads.
The average CPL (cost-per-lead) is between $20-$50.
The average close ratio for these leads (lead-to-closed-job) is between 50-60%.
If your customer is unhappy with the quality of your work, Google may offer a refund. This can be a selling point while presenting your estimate.

Why are LSA leads better than shared leads?

So you might be asking yourself how is this different from Angi, HomeAdvisor, and those other shared lead sites we all love to hate?

Simply, unlike shared leads that are typically considered to be a low-quality source of new business, painting leads generated by LSAs are EXCLUSIVE to your painting business.

Caveats to Local Services Ads

While this ad type is about as good as it gets in terms of the quality and cost for repaint leads, there are a few caveats you should be aware of: