Google has officially opened up Local Services Ads (LSAs) to auction-based pricing starting October 8th. Select customers were chosen to be a part of this beta test allowing us to test the auction-based bid strategy methodology to pay per-a-lead. This feature is currently only being tested with HVAC and Plumbing companies and will plan on releasing new verticals in the future.
The Meat & Potatoes
Currently, the bidding option available to everyone is made to be simple by setting up a weekly budget and letting their bidding system do the hard work for you (a flat rate of $25/lead). You simply put in a budget you’re willing to pay per week and turn the ad on. Here’s an example:
As of recent, for select beta users, you have the option to select a max dollar amount you want to pay-per-lead and override the “Google Bots” doing it for you. It might look like this in your account:
The selected advertisers don’t have to participate; they can continue using fixed pricing if desired and leave their weekly budget as is if they are unsure how to utilize the new feature.
What’s Next?
According to a Google spokesperson, “After seeing success with auction-based pricing within our professional services vertical for Local Services Ads, we are excited to bring auction-based pricing as a beta to select markets for local services advertisers. We believe this model will help bring more customers to this trusted group of advertisers.”
If you have any questions, reach out to our digital marketing team here at Optic Marketing Group. Our team has a list of all the cities that manual bid features will release in the upcoming weeks, just give us a call at 1-844-700-4781