Google Ads vs Local Service Ads

A lot of businesses get these two ad products from Google confused with each other. Which is easy to do admittedly.

I'm not quite sure why Google didn't make Local Service Ads part of Google Ads but they didn't, it's a completely separate dashboard and ad product.

You can can only run Local Service Ads if you're in one of the approved industries. If you're in an industry that Local Service Ads works with, then it's definitely worth testing out after getting Google Screened.

One the biggest differences between Google Ads and Local Service Ads is how you pay. With Local Service Ads you actually pay per lead vs paying per click like with Google Ads.

Local Service Ads also allows you to become "Google Screened", which adds an extra level of legitimacy since Google is essentially backing your business and letting everyone know you've gone through an extra layer of verification and are a more legitimate business than those who aren't Google Screened.

Certain homes service businesses can take it one step further by adding a "Google Guarantee". This means that if customers aren't happy with your services, they can file a claim with Google to potentially receive up to a $2,000.

I wouldn't say Local Service Ads is a replacement for Google Ads. I think they can work together since Google Ads provides more control over your campaign so you can really optimize it to maximize your return on ad spend. With Local Service Ads, you're basically stuck with the results you get.

There's very little to optimize other than budget and location targeting. You don't get control over the keywords like you do with Google Ads.

By running both Google Ads and Local Service Ads together, you'll take up more screen real estate in the Google Search Results Page and ultimately you should get more conversion volume.

Overtime, depending on results, it may make sense to reallocate your Google Ad spend to Local Service Ads or vise versa.

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