GOOGLE MY BUSINESS What is Google Home Service Ads
What Is Google Home Services? There s a new game in town for contractors and for almost any business that visits the homes of their customers such as painters, contractors and pool builders. This relatively new service - Google Home Services is being tested out by Google in the San Francisco Bay area right now, and a few other places. Although still not available nationwide, Google continues to slowly expand the scope of this paid ad product for local service providers. Home service ads are now available to more businesses in more cities. Painters, electricians and towing companies, for example, can now run ads through AdWords Express, joining the original list of locksmiths, plumbers, house cleaners and handymen. The local home services ad product is now available in 5 metro areas in the US Google launched home service ads in 2015 with a pilot beta test program in San Francisco. The ad product is now also available in Stockton, San Diego, Los Angeles and, recently, Philadelphia. Google has regularly tested new formats for these types of ads over a number of years. You need to pay close attention to this new program Should Google decide to institute this Google Home Services product out nationwide, it could be the largest EVER disruption for online marketing for businesses in this space. Both PPC and SEO will be affected. You need to pay close attention in order to stay ahead of the competition. This new ad service could be released nationwide at any time. To learn more about the latest Google Home Services program information, go to: https://www.google.com/adwords/express/home-service-ads/
Exploring the Live Beta Test This new Google Home Services feature is currently available in San Francisco, Stockton, San Diego, Los Angeles and recently, Philadelphia, for certain business niches. Notice the word Sponsored above the listing. These are paid ads, not an organic 3-pack listing.
But not just any business can buy these ads. Google first makes sure they are trustworthy. To be qualified to run one of these home service ads, a business needs to be: Licensed Bonded Verified by Google Google currently lists the following types of on-location service providers as being eligible to apply: Locksmiths Plumbers Cleaners Handymen Painters Garage door pros Electricians Contractors HVAC pros (for heating or air conditioning) Auto glass services Roadside assistance services After the business applies and goes through a background check process, they can set up their Google Home Service ad listings in AdWords Express. The paid (sponsored) ad blocks typically appear at the top of the search results page, so it s like paying to be included in the 3-pack. The organic pack of listings is displayed farther down the page.
Here is what the geographical target area of the Beta program looks like in the San Diego area: These are the cities that are included: San Jose San Francisco Oakland Mountain View Palo Alto Daly City Fremont Hayward San Leandro Alameda Milpitas
So, if you do a Google search for Plumbers San Jose in a Chrome browser, you will see this: Notice how there are no Google Adwords PPC listings. They have been replaced by Google Home Services ads. Yes, these are sponsored ads, meaning the businesses that show up at the top will be paying for each click. Also notice that there are no organic local business websites above the fold. (Above the fold means what is shown on your browser screen before scrolling down on the page.)
Let s go further to find out how Google Home Services works: Once you click on one of the 3 listings in the Google Home Services section, you are taken to a new page where you are allowed to select 3 different contractors to send the request quote to. To reiterate, the consumer gets to send a request to up to 3 different contractors And the one who responds with a reasonable quote first will get the job. (So it s time to step up your receptionist game!)
Notice that Google Reviews (having a 5-star rating) plays a HUGE part of this new system. If you are not continuing to ask your happy customers to leave a positive review on your Google profile, you will lose out on future business. I can t stress enough how important this is. If you have a 3.5 rating and everyone else on the page has above a 4.0, you will not even have a chance. To learn more about how to upgrade your online review presence, check out this Online Review Guide resource. Notes: Google Home Services is part of Google s Adwords Express program. Adwords Express is Google Adwords little nephew, which limits the control the operator has. It has been described as a very much a dumbed-down version of Google s main Adwords program. Some believe this is the biggest factor that will limit the Google Home Services platform. Business owners who are used to having all of the extremely detailed options of Google Adwords will have an adverse reaction to the dumbed-down experience of Adwords Express. But do business owners really have a choice? Not really! With this new program, it is essential that you are one of the top 3 businesses that show up in the Google Home Services ad space, so it s kind of a moot point. Google is moving toward a pay to play model, and only the businesses who adapt to this new program will reap the benefits. Ignoring this update could be detrimental.
Sign Up For Early Registration NOW! Although this program is currently only live in the San Francisco Bay Area and the other places we mentioned, they are already accepting applications from contractor businesses all over the United States. You need to sign up now, so your business will be ready to be first in line to market in your own city. Submit your application here (it s free): https://www.google.com/adwords/express/home-serviceads/contact/ Once you sign up, you will see a message that looks something like this (this image was captured during the original phase of the beta test):
Disclaimer Google's algorithm (the rules and guidelines that determine which business listings they display at any given time to any given individual) may have changed since this document was published. While the steps outlined above were working for us at the time we published this document, Google may have changed its procedures since then.