Google Search Ads vs Local Services Ads - Surfside PPC Podcast Episode 22 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00What's up everyone? Welcome to the
2. 0:01Surfside PPC YouTube channel. Today I'm
3. 0:03going to be going over local services
4. 0:05ads versus Google search ads. Basically,
5. 0:07what's the difference? Which ones should
6. 0:08you run? Should you run both? And
7. 0:10basically answering all of your
8. 0:11questions that you may have about search
9. 0:13ads and local services ads. So, this is
10. 0:16a very quick, easy example of the way
11. 0:18that they look and how they're a little
12. 0:20bit different. Very first and foremost,
13. 0:21when you search basically any home
14. 0:23service near me, there's a variety of
15. 0:25different categories that you can run
16. 0:27local services for, but generally most
17. 0:29home services near me, you're going to
18. 0:31be seeing local services ads. So, this
19. 0:34example I'm going to be using tree
20. 0:35services. So, just saying tree services
21. 0:37near me, I'm in Murrells Inlet, South
22. 0:38Carolina. These are two local services
23. 0:40ads that came up. And then if we click
24. 0:41here on more tree service providers,
25. 0:43you'll actually see what's called a pro
26. 0:44list. So, you have a couple of sponsored
27. 0:46lists up here at the top. You'll see it
28. 0:47in the URL. So, local services pro list.
29. 0:49These are all people that have basically
30. 0:50submitted paperwork to say, yes, we
31. 0:52have, you know, we have all of our
32. 0:54verifications in terms of our business,
33. 0:55our insurance, everything that we needed
34. 0:57to submit to Google. These are all
35. 0:58essentially pros area that provide tree
36. 1:01services in my area. So, you'll see a
37. 1:02decent amount here. Now, if we come back
38. 1:04over here looking at local service ads
39. 1:06versus search ads. Now, I don't look at
40. 1:08it that way. I look at it as you should
41. 1:10run both and you should just understand
42. 1:11that search ads may be a little bit more
43. 1:13expensive than local service ads. But,
44. 1:15if you want your ads to appear at the
45. 1:16top of Google, you're going to need to
46. 1:18run both forms of advertisements because
47. 1:20there's different formats that are
48. 1:21showing at the very top of Google and
49. 1:23you may have searches where you have no
50. 1:24local services ad showing. Also, you may
51. 1:26have a month where you get 20 or 30
52. 1:28leads from local services ads and then
53. 1:30the next month you get five. So, you do
54. 1:32see kind of these jumps around points
55. 1:33with local services ads at times and
56. 1:35search is no different. It's not overly
57. 1:37predictable and and easy by any stretch
58. 1:39of the imagination. Local services ads
59. 1:41is more I want to say it's it's a little
60. 1:43bit more predictable in terms of
61. 1:46once you run them for a few months, you
62. 1:47have an idea of like, okay, this is kind
63. 1:49of what we're going to spend, this is
64. 1:51the amount of leads that we're going to
65. 1:52get in. So, I run them for clients
66. 1:54currently and there's some clients that
67. 1:55we may spend $2,000 a month and we get,
68. 1:58you know, 40 or 50 leads for that that
69. 2:00price and we just know that we're going
70. 2:02to have that pretty consistently month
71. 2:04after month. We do have months that are
72. 2:05a little bit better and worse, but
73. 2:07that's kind of like the baseline number
74. 2:08that we expect to see. So, when you're
75. 2:10under when you're running local services
76. 2:12ads for a while, you tend to kind of
77. 2:13have more of a, okay, this is what we're
78. 2:15expecting from this. The problem with
79. 2:18that is when you look at local services
80. 2:20ads, it's essentially you're paying just
81. 2:22for leads. So, if there is a month that
82. 2:24is slower in terms of the overall lead
83. 2:26volume that's coming in or if there is a
84. 2:28month where you just happen to be losing
85. 2:30out in the auction to some of your
86. 2:32competitors who are running higher
87. 2:34budgets, have better review scores,
88. 2:35getting more reviews right now, then
89. 2:37sometimes you might find like, "Hey,
90. 2:38when in March we got 30 leads from local
91. 2:40services ads, in April or May we got
92. 2:4210." So, that's the main thing that I
93. 2:44would say is the downside of local
94. 2:46service ads. The leads tend to be less
95. 2:48expensive. I do find the leads are lower
96. 2:50quality than Google search ads leads.
97. 2:52Even though it's the same people coming
98. 2:53in to search and and going to both. I
99. 2:56think the reason why I think they're
100. 2:57lower quality is because I think with
101. 2:59local services ads you have more of a,
102. 3:01"Let me get quotes from everybody." So,
103. 3:03you're almost at a race to the bottom at
104. 3:05times and to me the leads become a
105. 3:07little bit lower quality when you have,
106. 3:09"Hey, I need five different quotes for
107. 3:10this one thing." and everyone's giving
108. 3:12you a price and you're basically saying,
109. 3:13"Okay, I'm going to go with the lowest
110. 3:14price." So, that's kind of the the one
111. 3:16downside with local services ads. I have
112. 3:19To me, I I wonder the long-term of how
113. 3:21Google handles local service ads in this
114. 3:24way because there's a part of it where
115. 3:26they can't make it too easy for
116. 3:29advertisers, otherwise you just, you
117. 3:30know, you're you're you're going to
118. 3:31lower the amount that people are
119. 3:32actually spending on ads and there's a
120. 3:35part where these can be a little bit
121. 3:37more difficult to run. They've gotten
122. 3:38very competitive in a lot of different
123. 3:39markets that you you just wonder how
124. 3:41they're going to present advertisements
125. 3:43in the future or if it's just always
126. 3:44going to look similar to this. But, when
127. 3:46you're running both of these,
128. 3:47essentially what you have is your ads
129. 3:50are running everywhere. So, for a
130. 3:52sponsored plumber here, we have
131. 3:53sponsored pump plumbers in rural zone
132. 3:54and we have two up here at the top. To
133. 3:56me, Action Service Plumbing should be
134. 3:58right here as well. If we scroll all the
135. 4:00And you'll see right here, we have
136. 4:01Hunter Plumbing LLC. They should also be
137. 4:04at the very top there. The very bottom,
138. 4:05we have more, so we have Hunter Plumbing
139. 4:07Services. So, they're running your
140. 4:08standard search ads. They may be running
141. 4:11a performance max campaign. It's
142. 4:13possible just based on the images and
143. 4:15and all the things they have here. But,
144. 4:16these are good-looking advertisements,
145. 4:18sponsored results on the first page even
146. 4:20if they're at the very bottom. And it
147. 4:21gives you a better chance of getting
148. 4:23more leads coming in. So, with local
149. 4:25services ads, they connect directly to
150. 4:27your Google Business Profile. With
151. 4:29search ads, you essentially connect your
152. 4:30Google Business Profile to it, but it's
153. 4:32not in the same way that your profile is
154. 4:35appearing as the ad basically every
155. 4:37single time. So, I would say the main
156. 4:39The main difference is is Google search
157. 4:42ads leads can be a little bit more
158. 4:43expensive and a little bit harder to
159. 4:45track because essentially somebody could
160. 4:47come to your website. I could tell my
161. 4:48wife, "Hey, I need to call the local
162. 4:51sprinkler, you know, company. I just I
163. 4:53was just researching and I want you to
164. 4:54call this company and make an
165. 4:55appointment." So, it could be one of
166. 4:56those things and
167. 4:57during that, you lose tracking. Or, I go
168. 4:59through their website first and then I
169. 5:01end up through the Google Business
170. 5:02Profile. Or, I'm doing research at work
171. 5:04and I end up finishing the the process
172. 5:05at home. There are a lot of reasons why
173. 5:08you lose your tracking with Google
174. 5:09search ads. It's also there's just
175. 5:11people that are very strict in terms of
176. 5:13they use VPNs. They are using things
177. 5:15that it makes it harder to track people
178. 5:17longer than just right after the click.
179. 5:19So, to me, Google search ads and local
180. 5:21service ads should be viewed as, "Hey,
181. 5:24our monthly advertising budget is
182. 5:25$5,000. We want to split it between both
183. 5:28of these and we want to put it where
184. 5:29we're getting the best leads and the
185. 5:30most leads." How do you figure that out?
186. 5:33Really, that's that's the hard part is
187. 5:34taking the time to say, "Okay, we're
188. 5:36getting better leads from Google search
189. 5:37ads." Or, you know, Google search ads
190. 5:39might be driving us leads that are 10 or
191. 5:42$20 more per expensive per lead, but
192. 5:44it's driving us triple the amount of
193. 5:46leads as local service ads. On the flip
194. 5:48side, if you could spend $5,000 in local
195. 5:50service ads and get X amount of leads at
196. 5:52a cost that works for your business,
197. 5:54then local service ads are really the
198. 5:56way to go. To me, you should run both.
199. 5:58You want simpler lead management.
200. 5:59Essentially, local service ads, you're
201. 6:01paying per lead instead of just per
202. 6:02click. So, that's the one positive is
203. 6:04that when somebody comes in here,
204. 6:05they're getting a quote, they're getting
205. 6:07your phone number. You're paying when
206. 6:09people actually take the step to say,
207. 6:10"Okay, we're going to actually request a
208. 6:12quote from this business." The downside
209. 6:14again is competitive quotes could be
210. 6:16something where
211. 6:17to me I I don't love these features
212. 6:18because to me it's like becomes a race
213. 6:20to the bottom for some of these
214. 6:21companies. Search ads, a little bit more
215. 6:23kind of open-ended where you're getting
216. 6:24people to your website and then your
217. 6:26website is actually still selling them.
218. 6:28The one thing I don't like about local
219. 6:29service ads is these all really kind of
220. 6:31look the same. If you go into plumber
221. 6:33near me and I go, "Okay, sponsored
222. 6:34plumbers near me." Okay, this one has
223. 6:361,000 reviews, 4.8. This one has 552
224. 6:39reviews, 4.9. 2.6 thousand reviews, 4.9.
225. 6:411.3 thousand reviews, 4.9. It's like
226. 6:44what's really the difference between any
227. 6:45of these? You know, truthfully, what is
228. 6:47the difference? And I recently contacted
229. 6:49a plumber and it was Beach Plumbing and
230. 6:51it's not even here. So, there's a lot of
231. 6:53things about plumbing, plumbing,
232. 6:54plumbing and it's one of those where
233. 6:55it's to me the way it doesn't really
234. 6:57stand out in the way that I think they
235. 6:59should in terms of advertisements and
236. 7:01being able to So, here's Beach Plumbing
237. 7:02all the way here at the bottom. So, 587
238. 7:04reviews, 5 plus years in business,
239. 7:06serves Manasquan Inlet. So, it's it's
240. 7:09one of those where running local service
241. 7:10ads feels like you're just a number
242. 7:12among all the other ads that are listed
243. 7:15there. These all kind of not too much
244. 7:17different and then ultimately what
245. 7:18you're doing is you're saying, "Well, we
246. 7:19want to pay for leads and we want us to
247. 7:21appear at the top." And for the most
248. 7:23part, people don't have as much brand
249. 7:25loyalty to some of these local service
250. 7:26companies. Although, there there
251. 7:28definitely is in certain markets. So,
252. 7:30local service ads, search ads, when
253. 7:32should you run both? To me, I would
254. 7:34always start with local service ads, see
255. 7:37what kind of leads you can get coming
256. 7:38in. If you're not getting anything, run
257. 7:40search ads. I would also just say start
258. 7:42by running both, put budget behind both
259. 7:44of them, and basically figure out, "Hey,
260. 7:46this is where the budget is being spent
261. 7:48better." LSAs could be one of those
262. 7:50where you spend a whole month and you're
263. 7:51just not getting any activity, and
264. 7:53that's really the biggest downside. To
265. 7:54budget across both, I would say smaller
266. 7:57budget, yeah, lean towards Local Service
267. 7:58Ads. Medium, run both. Larger budget,
268. 8:01keep both active and basically max out.
269. 8:04This is the ideal scenario, and I know
270. 8:05people don't want to pay for a ton of
271. 8:07leads or have a huge marketing budget or
272. 8:09say, "Well, why would I spend 5, 10
273. 8:10thousand dollars a month for leads?" And
274. 8:13ultimately, it's if you're producing a
275. 8:15lot of quality leads, you just have a
276. 8:16much better chance at getting more jobs,
277. 8:19bigger jobs, keeping your crews busy,
278. 8:21keeping your lead pipeline intact, and
279. 8:23then you don't have these moments of
280. 8:24like, "Hey, we're
281. 8:26we have nothing coming in for the next
282. 8:27few days." So, that that could
283. 8:28definitely be a challenge. LSAs
284. 8:30definitely easier and more predictable
285. 8:32on a per lead. Search Ads are harder to
286. 8:34manage. If you're hiring somebody to
287. 8:35manage both, like Surfside PPC, then
288. 8:37essentially what you would say is, "Hey,
289. 8:39we want to run both of these, manage
290. 8:41them. Let's talk in a month and see see
291. 8:42what's performing better and where we
292. 8:44should put our budget." So, this is
293. 8:45Local Services Ads versus Search Ads. If
294. 8:47you have any questions about any of
295. 8:48this, please leave it in the comment
296. 8:49section. Thank you for listening to my
297. 8:51podcast, and I'll see you in the next
298. 8:52episode.