Boosting Leads for an Air Conditioning Company Using Local Services Ads

Setting Up Local Services Ads (LSAs): We began by setting up the LSA profile. This requires specific information from the business – including licensing – to be submitted to Google for review and approval. The process also requires an insurance and background check.

Optimizing Profile for LSA’s: After confirming the geographic target range was correctly assigned in the LSA profile, we began to complete a robust LSA profile, including detailed service descriptions, contact methods, photos of the employees/vans/office location (provided permission was given) and approved contact methods (calls and text messages in this instance). The LSA platform also provides opportunity to highlight the unique value proposition of a business – in this instance, we indexed on a 24/7 emergency service, free estimates, and a satisfaction guarantee.

Encouraging Customer Reviews: User reviews are critical in the decision making process for most people that are looking for a service provider. LSA’s pull reviews from a businesses Google Business profile. Therefore, we helped the AC company set in place a system that enabled follow up emails and text messages to be automatically sent after each completed job. We also set up a QR code that contained a link to the “Post Your Review” section in the company’s Google Business profile.

A special discount was offered to clients that provided a Google review, which significantly helped to boost the online reputation of the business.

Bid Management for LSA’s: The LSA platform uses a pay-per-lead model – this is different compared to Pay Per Click, where businesses have to pay every time someone clicks on the ad (regardless if they do anything after that). With LSA’s, the business only pays when the call lasts longer than approximately 30 seconds. There is also the opportunity within the platform to listen to each call.

With the ROI in mind – and observing the market rate for LSA leads – we adjusted the company’s budget allocation to ensure a balance between lead volume and cost-efficiency.

We also worked with the client to set up a system where they could respond quickly to leads from LSAs, ensuring potential customers received immediate responses. This is important as response time (how long it takes to pick up the phone after it is called from an LSA ad) is also a metric that Google pays close attention to. Long pick up times mean less visibility in the LSA ad platform.

Tracking and Improving Lead Quality: We put in place a lead attribution system where we matched leads to jobs that were booked – any irrelevant leads or prospects that did not result in a booked job were also categorized. While the process of disputing LSA leads is being depreciated in the latest version of the LSA platform, at the time of this study we were able to dispute any leads that – based on the data from the business – we determined were irrelevant. If Google agreed, the ad cost was credited.

We also used this data to find the service areas that were resulting in the jobs that produced the greatest amount of profile and, update the LSA profile to further target those areas.

By using the geo-targeting tools provided by the platform, we were able to ensure that the ads were shown only to users within the Phoenix metro area – thus avoiding unnecessary budget spend on distant or out-of-service-area clicks.

An Increase in Qualified Leads: The company saw a 65% increase in qualified leads from LSAs compared to their previous PPC campaign. Furthermore, the leads were highly relevant, with 75% of inquiries resulting in booked appointments for HVAC services.

Boosted Online Visibility: The businesses’ LSA ads were now appearing at the top of highly relevant Google searches, ABOVE those in the traditional Pay Per Click ad spaces. This gave the business another advantage over competitors that had not yet begun advertising on the platform.

Improved Conversion Rates: After setting up the system to quick pick up inbound calls, the conversion rate from leads to booked jobs was 25% higher when compared to those from Pay Per Click.

Importantly, the average cost per lead from LSA ads was 30% lower than from their previous PPC campaigns. This new, cost-effective marketing channel then gave the business more confidence to increase their ad spend. A win for the 10X team!

Increased Customer Reviews: Within two months, the company’s total review count in Google Business increased by 40%, with an average rating of 4.8 stars. This helped to demonstrate to future clients that the business was reputable and provided a high quality service.

A Higher Return on Investment (ROI): With an initial goal of 3:1, at the completion of the campaign we saw a 5:1 return on ad spend (ROAS) from their LSA campaign. This means that for every $1 spent on LSAs, the HVAC business generated $5 in revenue. Booked jobs from LSAs resulted in a 50% revenue increase during the peak summer months.