April 16, 2024 • 23 mins
In this engaging episode of Google Business Buzz, Henry and Ajay explore the synergistic power of Google Ads and Local Services Ads (LSA) for small and medium-sized businesses. Delve into the evolving digital landscape of 2024 and beyond, where the duo unveils how combining the strengths of both advertising platforms can lead to unparalleled marketing success. From understanding consumer behavior shifts to leveraging AI for smarter campaigns, this episode is packed with actionable insights for businesses aiming to thrive in the competitive online arena.
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction to changes in consumer behavior and advertising.
0:17 - Welcome and episode overview.
0:31 - Google Ads vs. Local Services Ads: An overview.
1:15 - The evolution of advertising with Google.
2:00 - Comparing past and present advertising strategies.
3:50 - The rise of keyword pricing and its impact.
6:00 - The emergence of Local Services Ads.
8:00 - Disrupting the advertising landscape with LSA.
9:50 - The cost-effectiveness and benefits of LSA.
11:50 - How Google pivoted with Google Ads and LSA.
13:00 - The role of AI in evolving Google Ads.
15:00 - Blending Local Services Ads with Google Ads for optimal results.
17:06 - The importance of trust and transactions in consumer decisions.
19:27 - The importance of a holistic marketing strategy.
21:54 - Closing thoughts and takeaways.
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Brought to you by:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
With the change in consumer behavior, consumers
becoming more savvy with Angie'slist, with how is in giving
consumers different options,Google had to change.
Hello, and welcome to anotherGoogle Business buzz.
(00:21):
Thank you for joining us.
This is Henry, and I amaccompanied by my colleague and
brother Ajay Ajay.
We got a big one for him.
Tell us all about it.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
What's up Henry?
Hey, everybody.
It's good to be in front of youagain.
We are super excited at OMGbecause it is about to be Google
Ads and local services Adsmonth.
This is a month in which wedelve into these products and
platforms which have changedadvertising as we know it.
So local services ads, Googleads, all paid advertising, all
(00:53):
under the same umbrella.
One is paper click, one ispaper call.
On this episode, we're gonna gointo the differences between
them, the story and evolutionabout them, and what you as the
service based business, as theplumber, as the funeral home, as
the towing contractor, need toknow about where you should
invest your precious marketingdollars in twenty twenty four
and beyond.
(01:14):
So Henry, what else do theyneed to know, brother?
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Let's go.
Let's go.
So let's think about how we gotto twenty twenty four.
How how we got to an age wherelocal service ads dominate the
top of Google Search.
And then, you know, we stillsee Google ads and then we see
the local pack.
Where the Google BusinessProfile reigned supreme as they
(01:39):
say.
Now back twenty years ago, whenGoogle first started their
advertising platforms, they werecompeting with yellow pages.
Right?
They were competing withancient advertising strategies
that, you know, still still havetheir place today.
Print advertising, TVadvertising, radio advertising.
(02:03):
Right?
But when you think about theseareas that a small business had
to or they were only able tocompete in back in those days.
It was against businesses withlarge marketing budgets.
Right?
And you'd have to shell out athousand five thousand dollars
(02:26):
for a good ad on yellow pages,you'd have to shell out the same
type of money for a radio spot.
Imagine how much it costs forbillboard.
Right?
But with Google, Google startedtheir their new Google ads back
whenever they did back twentyyears ago, they gave small
(02:49):
businesses the opportunity tocompete in an area where they
didn't have to invest as much.
Right?
It was it was low budgets.
It was tailored to the user andto the small business because
that's what users want.
They wanna do business withactual authentic people.
And when you're going you'reyou're listening to the radio
(03:13):
and you see and you listen to anad that tells you to call an
eight hundred number, It's verythere's not personalization.
It seems like it's just a bigcompany.
You're gonna yeah.
You're you're just a number ina in a list, in a in a CRM.
Right?
You're a number in a CRM.
That's where Google Ads givesyou the comp the the a
(03:34):
possibility communicate directlywith with a business.
Right?
And then, you know, Google Mapscame along, but what ended up
happening inevitably, Ajay,you'll let us know.
Right?
Tell us all about thesestrategies that ended up corrupt
thing Google ads and had, youknow, other platforms surge.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, man.
So basically, it's everythingHenry is saying.
There used to be thispredominance of print mediums,
things like yellow pages and andbillboards and and traditional
traditional advertising.
Right?
And then the Internet hit, andGoogle was at the forefront of
this boom.
And Google Google's main stateone of their main revenue
drivers still is today is GoogleAds.
(04:16):
Right?
This is the traditional PPCpaper click.
And how it works is very simplein in concept.
Imagine an auction setting likeeBay where you're bidding on
stuff.
The only difference here isthat you're bidding on keywords
typically.
So if I'm an AC repaircontractor in in South Florida,
let's say, I'm bidding onkeywords like AC repair, and I'm
running my campaign to show upat the right place at the right
(04:36):
time on the Internet for folkswho are in their home, maybe
they're AC unit broke down andthey need someone.
Well, that's all great anddandy, but this system has been
running for, you know, nowGoogle Ads is over twenty years
old.
What happens to prices in anauction setting, what happens to
the prices of those keywords asmore people move into South
Florida, as these major metrosget more populated, as
(04:57):
competition increases andbolsters, even more, these
prices go up and up and up andup.
Now if you're our our targetaudience, if you're the true
small to medium sized enterprise.
You've got a limited marketingdollar budget.
You've got maybe five hundredbucks.
Maybe a thousand bucks that youyou need to invest very
carefully.
And so these keywords now today, an an AC repair keyword in
(05:20):
South Florida we looked at,that's fifty dollars a click.
Right?
At the high end to becompetitive.
We're not talking to low end.
Nobody cares about that.
We're talking to high end.
Fifty dollars a click is veryexpensive.
If you run this math, one clickdoes not equal one customer.
People.
Even with the best PPC campaignin the world, we're extremely
good at what we do.
Not not even us can get oneclick, one conversion.
(05:41):
That's insane.
You're gonna need multipleclicks to get a conversion with
a really, really good PPCcampaign.
The better the PPC campaign,the lower the click get a
conversion.
So do that math real quick.
Fifty bucks a call or excuse me.
Fifty bucks a click, and thennow you need three, four, five
clicks to convert, that's twohundred and fifty dollars a
customer in the best casescenario.
Think about how that's gonnaeat your budget.
(06:02):
So this wasn't sustainable, andGoogle knew it.
And you they knew that it wasicing out, you know, the the
thousands and thousands of smallbusinesses that depend on it.
So this is all happening.
Google Ads is sitting there,everyone is spending on it, but
you're watching this whole classof businesses get iced out, be
unable to compete.
And then what happens, Henry?
Then other people come into thescene.
(06:23):
So who comes into the scene anddisrupts this for Google?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Oh, businesses with larger budgets and companies
that see a a an area fordisruption, like Angie's list,
like how's, like home adviser.
So when you do like you'resaying, when you do have a
circumstance or scenario wherelarge budgets dominate the
(06:48):
Google advertising space, it itbecomes an area where trust
diminishes because you can'treally, you know, filter through
or sift through all thesebusinesses to see who is
actually legitimate, who isactually a lead generation
business that's gonna send youto another, you know, service
(07:09):
provider that you didn't want tocall in the first place.
So Angie's List, how is homeadvisor?
They definitely saw anopportunity to disrupt market
because of the loss of trustthat Google Ads saw, because of
the circumstances and scenarioswe talked about.
Now, imagine Google and the andthe meetings that they were
(07:33):
having.
Right?
Oh my god.
We're we're giving thesewebsites an opportunity to be on
our search engine, and thenpeople are going over to these
websites to do business and findservice providers that they
trust.
What are we doing here?
This is not the right thing todo.
We're losing market sure.
(07:53):
We're losing capital.
We're losing users.
How are we doing this?
Tell me what you think aboutthat today.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
No.
I I love how you're paintingthe scene there.
That's exactly what We don'tneed to work for Google to know
that that they were there wasprobably some fire in in those
boardrooms in those days because, yeah, like, you said Google
owns the search it's theirsearch engine.
Nine out of ten customers,eight out of ten, nine out of
ten, majority of people withmoney who want to spend it are
on Google.
And all of a sudden comecompanies like home advisor and
(08:21):
angios that start popping out,ranking really well, and
grabbing, you know, grabbingdollars from the marketplace.
Small businesses like you whowanna advertise And they start
doing well and Google's hereover here like, man, we have a
problem.
People are using our searchengine to go over to home
advisor and how do we need tofix this?
And so they come up with areally, really brave and bold
(08:41):
solution.
They come up with this platformcalled local services ads.
Now local services ads wasoriginally launched in twenty
fifteen, very small test markets, very limited amount of
categories.
Local services ads will put agraphic on your screen right now
is basically, as we've coveredthe very top of the screen, you
pay to get calls.
There it's trusted advertising,your background check, your
(09:02):
license check, this is the bestof the best.
And instead of home advisor andAngie's list, right, where
you're where these companies aresending the same lead to
different contract factors andhaving a an ensuing price war
where you're all bidding for thesame frustrated customer that
just wants to get somebody tohelp them.
Local services ads is reallyinteresting.
Like, our CEO says it offers areal at bat a a phone call with
(09:26):
the customer.
This customer potentialcustomer is calling you, you
know, wanting to do businesswith you.
Let's go back to our AC repairexample.
If all of you listening andwatching.
You don't know what this is yet.
Simply go on your phone andtype in AC repair near me.
AC repair near Miami, Florida.
You'll start to see theseGoogle guaranteed ads at the top
.
And so this is a better answerpeople.
You can dispute bad calls.
(09:47):
You can save your money.
The same lead isn't gettingsent to fifty other people.
Businesses are happier,customers are happier, the
Internet as a whole is doingbetter because there's a better
trusted answer on top.
So local services ads is highlydisruptive.
Now Google made a bold call whyBecause the main one of the key
revenue drivers for Google, itwas Google Ads.
(10:08):
So Google Ads is a paidplatform, pay per click.
Local services ads is a paidplatform paper call.
What essentially Google isdoing is they're they're being
bold because they'recannibalized in their own
revenue.
They're taking dollars awayfrom Google ads essentially and
now funneling them into localservices ads.
They had to do that.
That was an awesome solution todeter that threat.
Of home advisors, of Angie's ofall these competitive platforms
(10:31):
.
So then we're at a reallyinteresting space where local
service is Ad's launch.
And what what are peoplefinding?
How is the market responding?
Well, they love these calls.
They love the quality.
The cost ends up being better.
We've talked about the costproblem where if you're running
traditional Google ads, runningsearch, well, that cost per call
starts to get really, reallyhigh because the cost per click
(10:51):
is getting really, really high.
The more dense you go in amajor city, a major metro, think
South Florida, Broward County,Miami, Florida these these
keywords are incrediblycompetitive.
Now, LSA comes and says, hey,just pay me for a call.
Right?
And that's awesome.
And then they started launchingbidding to where it's an
auction based environment forLSA too.
You can also bid on the calls.
(11:13):
This is relevant because weneed to understand as the small
business where are, you know,what's happening with our money.
Right?
What are we spending it on?
So Google is still is is stillfostering a competitive
environment on LSA where you canstill bid for the calls.
Even with that in mind, localservices ads broadly speaking
for most categories today isstill cheaper than Google Ads.
(11:34):
And we'll show an example up onyour screen of, you know, the
cost click of an AC repair inSouth Florida.
And one of our clients,actually, in in South Florida on
local services ads where youcan see their cost per lead,
their cost per phone call.
And you can get an idea of thedifferential there.
So that's where we're up topresent day to day.
Henry's kind of local servicesad sits at the top of the SERP
(11:55):
Google Ads is still still abeast, still highly versatile
platform, but
Speaker 1 (12:00):
they had the change.
Didn't they?
They had the change.
They had of pivot, like yousaid, because they were losing
that trust.
And and the the bold call wasto cannibalize that tough spot
that top layer, but they did itso elegantly with a nice check
mark.
Right?
So so people know and consumersknow that this business
(12:21):
actually went through some someadditional verification steps,
some some, like, real hard stuffto get this badge Google
doesn't give it lightly.
But then, let's think about howthey have to pivot Google ads.
Right?
Like, it's their it's theirbaby.
It's the monster.
It's what created thejuggernaut that Google is.
(12:43):
Right?
So using all of the data thatthey've compiled and their AI
that they now, you know, boastvery proudly they're they're
using Google Ads in a differentway.
Right?
They're using Google Ads to totarget audiences through other
(13:03):
networks, through their massiveGoogle universe.
So tell us a little about howthey've pivoted with these
different resources and new adtypes?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah.
So we've talked a lot about AIand how that's changing
everything and make no mistakeas Henry says Google was very
hard at work refining their ownmachine learning, their own AI
to use it to benefit businesses,believe it or not.
So one example of that is thesmart campaign.
Smart campaigns are kind oflike cookie cutter campaigns
where you assign you give Googlea little bit of money to play
with, and they're going to kindof use it where they best see
(13:38):
fit.
Their AI is going to startmaking decisions for you.
Understand this is a shift fromthe traditional medium of
Google Ads, whereby you have avery talented you know,
strategists go in, manuallycreate those campaigns and make
very complicated decisions as towhere they're gonna allocate
what percentage of budget.
So smart campaign starts doingthat and it's hit or miss.
It's still dangerous.
You're still playing with fire.
(13:59):
Small businesses are putting acard number in, running smart
campaigns, and potentiallyburning a lot of money.
Spending two hundred dollarsper click.
It's still not it it stillisn't very good at the time
we're talking about.
But they keep refining this.
They keep iterating it.
So smart campaigns, and thenfast forward to today, you're
seeing the the kind of matureiteration of that, something
called performance Mac.
(14:19):
In Google Ads in the Google Adsecosystem.
PerformanceMax is essentiallyan AI machine learning
supercharged monster.
What it's doing is it's takingyour marketing dollars, it's
taking your ad spend, yourbudget, and it's carefully using
their machine learning, usingtheir AI to afford keywords that
you can afford and also notonly just go through traditional
(14:41):
search medium, it's also doingYouTube ads.
It's also doing discovery ads,Gmail ads, The whole premise
behind performance max is adiverse paid ads marketing
strategy.
It's trying to use its fancy AIand machine learning to take
your precious marketing dollarsand then use those marketing
dollars where it makes sense,where you can afford it.
That's a very complicatedquestion.
(15:03):
And it's a very fancytechnology being put the use
behind the scenes to solve forthat question.
So Google Ads is very muchalive and kicking.
It has evolved.
Most people who are a truesmall medium sized enterprises,
if you know what you're doingand and please listen because
this is the point of thispodcast.
The whole point is that ifyou've got a five hundred dollar
marketing budget, you know,throwing that into Google Ad
(15:24):
search regardless of whatindustry you're in is probably
not the move anymore.
You gotta you gotta think alittle bit more to that question
.
What Henry and I are saying isthat if you're a plumber, if
you're an electrician, if you'rean HVAC towing company funeral
service, you're a traditionalservice based medium business.
You want to now run localservices ads.
Those calls are gonna becheaper.
They're gonna be moreaccessible.
(15:45):
They're gonna be better.
But you don't wanna forgetabout Google Local services ads
is just one layer at the top.
And we all know that to havethe best chance of of succeeding
in this game, we gotta show ourbusiness name loud and proud on
every advertising layer that wecan afford to be in.
There's LSA at the top.
There's Google Ads.
There's the Google BusinessProfile, the Mac.
Right?
(16:05):
And today, we're focusing onjust those paid layers.
LSA and Google Ads at the top.
But what Henry and I are sayingis local services ads is
probably your you you know, thefirst basket you wanna dip in
for paid lead acquisition paidlead gen.
Then on top of that, you wannatake Google Ads now to help you.
Once you profit on LSA, onceyou start breaking in the dough.
We wanna reinvest some of thatand we typically, you know,
(16:26):
depending on your budget, we maygo smart campaign and your
industry.
We may go display, we may goperformance max.
It all depends on how how manycalls you want and what budget
we're working with and how wellLSA kicking but so we can
reinvest those dollars.
But what we're sayingessentially ladies and gentlemen
is that this game has gottenmore complicated.
But that's okay.
(16:46):
There's still a way to play it.
We just gotta be smarter aboutwhat we're doing.
We gotta be more intentional.
So it's not as simple of ananswer as it was in, you know,
two thousand four where you gostart a search campaign and you
put your AC repair keywords inthere, you put your other
keywords in there, and then yourphone keeps ringing.
No.
You're gonna go broke doingthat Right.
Today.
That's a
Speaker 1 (17:04):
great point.
That's a great point.
Yeah.
You know, the thing is, like,in two thousand four, consumer
behavior was very different.
Right?
We were coming out of printsand regular old TV and and radio
advertising coming into thisnew digital age, nobody was used
to it.
So it was easy to manipulateconsumer behavior and Google's
(17:28):
own organic and advertisingplatforms.
With the change in consumerbehavior, consumers becoming
more savvy with Angie's list,with how is in giving consumers
different options, Google had tochange.
And and and consumers continueto change.
AI is a technology that'sdisrupting everything.
(17:48):
So for advertisers andmarketers to think that they can
do better than a PMAX campaign,but not giving, you know,
Google the reins to do theirthing is silly.
Right?
People are are changing andmaybe they don't.
You know, convert on that localservice ad phone call.
(18:12):
But they remember your yourcompany because of the phone
call that they did have withthis company, then they go back
and they're being and they theyvisit the website.
They get they visit the website.
They get they get the displayas they get the the all of the
different factors that Googlehas.
Right?
They get email campaigns, theyget YouTube ads.
(18:32):
These things will helpinevitably bring a customer back
customer journey is evolving,so you never know where they're
going to convert.
It could be a great phone callthat is a great lead that might
not convert.
But in the end, you know,they're gonna call three
different four differentcompanies on LSA.
(18:53):
They're gonna do their research.
They're gonna go to the mapsection, read some reviews.
Then they're gonna choose.
So we need to really thinkabout that and be conscious of
how consumer behavior ischanging.
And, you know, the savior theconsumer becomes the more
important those badges are gonnabecome and those trusted
sources are gonna become.
(19:13):
That's my piece.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
All if you want a summary of where advertising is
going in twenty twenty four andbeyond, it's all about trust and
transactions.
If it's not about trustedtransactions, consumers probably
don't care and they're probablynot spending too much time on
it.
So it's all about where you getthat conversion too.
Now we're not we're saying thatlocal services ads and Google
Ads are part of the answer thatyou gotta use them together and
use them creatively.
(19:35):
Outside of the way youtraditionally just run Google
Ads search, that strategy isn'tgonna work anymore.
But we're also saying thatalong with that guys, along with
running Google Ads and LSA intandem, you still need a
backbone for this.
So I know that we're focusingon paid advertising this episode
.
And and the point of it isessentially think about how
you're using local services adsand Google ads in tandem.
(19:56):
But please, let's not forgetabout marketing strategy.
Running all sorts of paid adsin and of themselves is not a
coherent marketing marketingstrategy.
That is the equivalent of Henryand I hopping in hopping in a
ride and then going to the drivethru every time we need to eat.
It's not sustainable andthere's too much risk in it.
Think about it.
If you're an AC contractor inMiami, Florida, what do you do
(20:17):
when someone down the street,opens up shop, and they've got
ten thousand reviews, they'vegot a call center, they've got
more money than you, and they'reblowing you out of the water.
All of a sudden, now what?
Your local services ads leadsare gone?
And that's a marketing strategy.
You got it.
It's all about risk.
When we're in two places withLSA and Google Ads, we're
hedging against risk And we'realso focusing on keeping that
cost per conversion down bysearching for different answers
(20:39):
in different places.
But even beyond the paidadvertising rella.
We wanna think more cohesivelyin terms of marketing strategy.
In terms of marketing strategy,the whole thing is underpinned
by organics.
We're talking Google BusinessProfile.
We're talking the directories.
We're talking a strong website.
So paid advertising in and ofitself is not the answer.
But if you're going to do paidadvertising, right, and you are
(21:00):
one of these businesses that weare focusing on.
Service based businesses who dothings like plumbing,
electrical work, fencing, oreven professional services suit
and tie.
Criminal attorneys, personalinjury attorneys, or or even,
you know, funeral homes, petgrooming, you you name it.
You're going to want to lookinto local services ads, then
you're gonna wanna look intoGoogle ads, see how those two
(21:22):
can complement each other.
And you're not you're gonnawanna not forget that the whole
thing can be made more safe andmore risk free by a strong
Google business profile, givingyou those free customer actions,
calls, website visits,direction requests.
All for free in in thebackground and a good website.
But in paid ads, land, LSA, andGoogle ads are are should
(21:43):
certainly be dancing together.
Twenty twenty four and beyondis I think the moral of the
story here.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And with that, I think we'vecome up to our time we want to
thank everybody for joining ustoday.
And this is a very importantepisode about Google Ads, LSA,
and classic Google Ads.
We really are passionate aboutthese two layers.
(22:09):
Think that every small business, medium sized business should
be on them.
I learned, you know, they'resaying when I started doing
marketing here at OMG.
It's scared money.
Don't make no money.
And it's it's legit.
It's the truth.
There's always gonna be a risk.
But if you don't move forward,you know, with that risk, you
(22:32):
you'll never know if there's areward at the at the other side
of it.
So what I would encouragebusinesses to do is to minimize
that risk with different avenues.
Right?
You know, spread your money.
Google ads, Google organic,even meta ads.
Can help businesses emailmarketing, all of that can help
(22:55):
your business grow if you thinkabout it cohesively.
Right?
It's a customer journey.
They're everywhere.
And as a business, youshouldn't care where they come
from.
You should just care thatthey're coming to you.
Jay, appreciate your time.
Appreciate you, man.
And thank you for anotherbusiness Google Business Buzz.
Appreciate you guys later.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
See you guys.
With the change in consumer behavior, consumers
becoming more savvy with Angie'slist, with how is in giving
consumers different options,Google had to change.
Hello, and welcome to anotherGoogle Business buzz.
(00:21):
Thank you for joining us.
This is Henry, and I amaccompanied by my colleague and
brother Ajay Ajay.
We got a big one for him.
Tell us all about it.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
What's up Henry?
Hey, everybody.
It's good to be in front of youagain.
We are super excited at OMGbecause it is about to be Google
Ads and local services Adsmonth.
This is a month in which wedelve into these products and
platforms which have changedadvertising as we know it.
So local services ads, Googleads, all paid advertising, all
(00:53):
under the same umbrella.
One is paper click, one ispaper call.
On this episode, we're gonna gointo the differences between
them, the story and evolutionabout them, and what you as the
service based business, as theplumber, as the funeral home, as
the towing contractor, need toknow about where you should
invest your precious marketingdollars in twenty twenty four
and beyond.
(01:14):
So Henry, what else do theyneed to know, brother?
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Let's go.
Let's go.
So let's think about how we gotto twenty twenty four.
How how we got to an age wherelocal service ads dominate the
top of Google Search.
And then, you know, we stillsee Google ads and then we see
the local pack.
Where the Google BusinessProfile reigned supreme as they
(01:39):
say.
Now back twenty years ago, whenGoogle first started their
advertising platforms, they werecompeting with yellow pages.
Right?
They were competing withancient advertising strategies
that, you know, still still havetheir place today.
Print advertising, TVadvertising, radio advertising.
(02:03):
Right?
But when you think about theseareas that a small business had
to or they were only able tocompete in back in those days.
It was against businesses withlarge marketing budgets.
Right?
And you'd have to shell out athousand five thousand dollars
(02:26):
for a good ad on yellow pages,you'd have to shell out the same
type of money for a radio spot.
Imagine how much it costs forbillboard.
Right?
But with Google, Google startedtheir their new Google ads back
whenever they did back twentyyears ago, they gave small
(02:49):
businesses the opportunity tocompete in an area where they
didn't have to invest as much.
Right?
It was it was low budgets.
It was tailored to the user andto the small business because
that's what users want.
They wanna do business withactual authentic people.
And when you're going you'reyou're listening to the radio
(03:13):
and you see and you listen to anad that tells you to call an
eight hundred number, It's verythere's not personalization.
It seems like it's just a bigcompany.
You're gonna yeah.
You're you're just a number ina in a list, in a in a CRM.
Right?
You're a number in a CRM.
That's where Google Ads givesyou the comp the the a
(03:34):
possibility communicate directlywith with a business.
Right?
And then, you know, Google Mapscame along, but what ended up
happening inevitably, Ajay,you'll let us know.
Right?
Tell us all about thesestrategies that ended up corrupt
thing Google ads and had, youknow, other platforms surge.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, man.
So basically, it's everythingHenry is saying.
There used to be thispredominance of print mediums,
things like yellow pages and andbillboards and and traditional
traditional advertising.
Right?
And then the Internet hit, andGoogle was at the forefront of
this boom.
And Google Google's main stateone of their main revenue
drivers still is today is GoogleAds.
(04:16):
Right?
This is the traditional PPCpaper click.
And how it works is very simplein in concept.
Imagine an auction setting likeeBay where you're bidding on
stuff.
The only difference here isthat you're bidding on keywords
typically.
So if I'm an AC repaircontractor in in South Florida,
let's say, I'm bidding onkeywords like AC repair, and I'm
running my campaign to show upat the right place at the right
(04:36):
time on the Internet for folkswho are in their home, maybe
they're AC unit broke down andthey need someone.
Well, that's all great anddandy, but this system has been
running for, you know, nowGoogle Ads is over twenty years
old.
What happens to prices in anauction setting, what happens to
the prices of those keywords asmore people move into South
Florida, as these major metrosget more populated, as
(04:57):
competition increases andbolsters, even more, these
prices go up and up and up andup.
Now if you're our our targetaudience, if you're the true
small to medium sized enterprise.
You've got a limited marketingdollar budget.
You've got maybe five hundredbucks.
Maybe a thousand bucks that youyou need to invest very
carefully.
And so these keywords now today, an an AC repair keyword in
(05:20):
South Florida we looked at,that's fifty dollars a click.
Right?
At the high end to becompetitive.
We're not talking to low end.
Nobody cares about that.
We're talking to high end.
Fifty dollars a click is veryexpensive.
If you run this math, one clickdoes not equal one customer.
People.
Even with the best PPC campaignin the world, we're extremely
good at what we do.
Not not even us can get oneclick, one conversion.
(05:41):
That's insane.
You're gonna need multipleclicks to get a conversion with
a really, really good PPCcampaign.
The better the PPC campaign,the lower the click get a
conversion.
So do that math real quick.
Fifty bucks a call or excuse me.
Fifty bucks a click, and thennow you need three, four, five
clicks to convert, that's twohundred and fifty dollars a
customer in the best casescenario.
Think about how that's gonnaeat your budget.
(06:02):
So this wasn't sustainable, andGoogle knew it.
And you they knew that it wasicing out, you know, the the
thousands and thousands of smallbusinesses that depend on it.
So this is all happening.
Google Ads is sitting there,everyone is spending on it, but
you're watching this whole classof businesses get iced out, be
unable to compete.
And then what happens, Henry?
Then other people come into thescene.
(06:23):
So who comes into the scene anddisrupts this for Google?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Oh, businesses with larger budgets and companies
that see a a an area fordisruption, like Angie's list,
like how's, like home adviser.
So when you do like you'resaying, when you do have a
circumstance or scenario wherelarge budgets dominate the
(06:48):
Google advertising space, it itbecomes an area where trust
diminishes because you can'treally, you know, filter through
or sift through all thesebusinesses to see who is
actually legitimate, who isactually a lead generation
business that's gonna send youto another, you know, service
(07:09):
provider that you didn't want tocall in the first place.
So Angie's List, how is homeadvisor?
They definitely saw anopportunity to disrupt market
because of the loss of trustthat Google Ads saw, because of
the circumstances and scenarioswe talked about.
Now, imagine Google and the andthe meetings that they were
(07:33):
having.
Right?
Oh my god.
We're we're giving thesewebsites an opportunity to be on
our search engine, and thenpeople are going over to these
websites to do business and findservice providers that they
trust.
What are we doing here?
This is not the right thing todo.
We're losing market sure.
(07:53):
We're losing capital.
We're losing users.
How are we doing this?
Tell me what you think aboutthat today.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
No.
I I love how you're paintingthe scene there.
That's exactly what We don'tneed to work for Google to know
that that they were there wasprobably some fire in in those
boardrooms in those days because, yeah, like, you said Google
owns the search it's theirsearch engine.
Nine out of ten customers,eight out of ten, nine out of
ten, majority of people withmoney who want to spend it are
on Google.
And all of a sudden comecompanies like home advisor and
(08:21):
angios that start popping out,ranking really well, and
grabbing, you know, grabbingdollars from the marketplace.
Small businesses like you whowanna advertise And they start
doing well and Google's hereover here like, man, we have a
problem.
People are using our searchengine to go over to home
advisor and how do we need tofix this?
And so they come up with areally, really brave and bold
(08:41):
solution.
They come up with this platformcalled local services ads.
Now local services ads wasoriginally launched in twenty
fifteen, very small test markets, very limited amount of
categories.
Local services ads will put agraphic on your screen right now
is basically, as we've coveredthe very top of the screen, you
pay to get calls.
There it's trusted advertising,your background check, your
(09:02):
license check, this is the bestof the best.
And instead of home advisor andAngie's list, right, where
you're where these companies aresending the same lead to
different contract factors andhaving a an ensuing price war
where you're all bidding for thesame frustrated customer that
just wants to get somebody tohelp them.
Local services ads is reallyinteresting.
Like, our CEO says it offers areal at bat a a phone call with
(09:26):
the customer.
This customer potentialcustomer is calling you, you
know, wanting to do businesswith you.
Let's go back to our AC repairexample.
If all of you listening andwatching.
You don't know what this is yet.
Simply go on your phone andtype in AC repair near me.
AC repair near Miami, Florida.
You'll start to see theseGoogle guaranteed ads at the top
.
And so this is a better answerpeople.
You can dispute bad calls.
(09:47):
You can save your money.
The same lead isn't gettingsent to fifty other people.
Businesses are happier,customers are happier, the
Internet as a whole is doingbetter because there's a better
trusted answer on top.
So local services ads is highlydisruptive.
Now Google made a bold call whyBecause the main one of the key
revenue drivers for Google, itwas Google Ads.
(10:08):
So Google Ads is a paidplatform, pay per click.
Local services ads is a paidplatform paper call.
What essentially Google isdoing is they're they're being
bold because they'recannibalized in their own
revenue.
They're taking dollars awayfrom Google ads essentially and
now funneling them into localservices ads.
They had to do that.
That was an awesome solution todeter that threat.
Of home advisors, of Angie's ofall these competitive platforms
(10:31):
.
So then we're at a reallyinteresting space where local
service is Ad's launch.
And what what are peoplefinding?
How is the market responding?
Well, they love these calls.
They love the quality.
The cost ends up being better.
We've talked about the costproblem where if you're running
traditional Google ads, runningsearch, well, that cost per call
starts to get really, reallyhigh because the cost per click
(10:51):
is getting really, really high.
The more dense you go in amajor city, a major metro, think
South Florida, Broward County,Miami, Florida these these
keywords are incrediblycompetitive.
Now, LSA comes and says, hey,just pay me for a call.
Right?
And that's awesome.
And then they started launchingbidding to where it's an
auction based environment forLSA too.
You can also bid on the calls.
(11:13):
This is relevant because weneed to understand as the small
business where are, you know,what's happening with our money.
Right?
What are we spending it on?
So Google is still is is stillfostering a competitive
environment on LSA where you canstill bid for the calls.
Even with that in mind, localservices ads broadly speaking
for most categories today isstill cheaper than Google Ads.
(11:34):
And we'll show an example up onyour screen of, you know, the
cost click of an AC repair inSouth Florida.
And one of our clients,actually, in in South Florida on
local services ads where youcan see their cost per lead,
their cost per phone call.
And you can get an idea of thedifferential there.
So that's where we're up topresent day to day.
Henry's kind of local servicesad sits at the top of the SERP
(11:55):
Google Ads is still still abeast, still highly versatile
platform, but
Speaker 1 (12:00):
they had the change.
Didn't they?
They had the change.
They had of pivot, like yousaid, because they were losing
that trust.
And and the the bold call wasto cannibalize that tough spot
that top layer, but they did itso elegantly with a nice check
mark.
Right?
So so people know and consumersknow that this business
(12:21):
actually went through some someadditional verification steps,
some some, like, real hard stuffto get this badge Google
doesn't give it lightly.
But then, let's think about howthey have to pivot Google ads.
Right?
Like, it's their it's theirbaby.
It's the monster.
It's what created thejuggernaut that Google is.
(12:43):
Right?
So using all of the data thatthey've compiled and their AI
that they now, you know, boastvery proudly they're they're
using Google Ads in a differentway.
Right?
They're using Google Ads to totarget audiences through other
(13:03):
networks, through their massiveGoogle universe.
So tell us a little about howthey've pivoted with these
different resources and new adtypes?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah.
So we've talked a lot about AIand how that's changing
everything and make no mistakeas Henry says Google was very
hard at work refining their ownmachine learning, their own AI
to use it to benefit businesses,believe it or not.
So one example of that is thesmart campaign.
Smart campaigns are kind oflike cookie cutter campaigns
where you assign you give Googlea little bit of money to play
with, and they're going to kindof use it where they best see
(13:38):
fit.
Their AI is going to startmaking decisions for you.
Understand this is a shift fromthe traditional medium of
Google Ads, whereby you have avery talented you know,
strategists go in, manuallycreate those campaigns and make
very complicated decisions as towhere they're gonna allocate
what percentage of budget.
So smart campaign starts doingthat and it's hit or miss.
It's still dangerous.
You're still playing with fire.
(13:59):
Small businesses are putting acard number in, running smart
campaigns, and potentiallyburning a lot of money.
Spending two hundred dollarsper click.
It's still not it it stillisn't very good at the time
we're talking about.
But they keep refining this.
They keep iterating it.
So smart campaigns, and thenfast forward to today, you're
seeing the the kind of matureiteration of that, something
called performance Mac.
(14:19):
In Google Ads in the Google Adsecosystem.
PerformanceMax is essentiallyan AI machine learning
supercharged monster.
What it's doing is it's takingyour marketing dollars, it's
taking your ad spend, yourbudget, and it's carefully using
their machine learning, usingtheir AI to afford keywords that
you can afford and also notonly just go through traditional
(14:41):
search medium, it's also doingYouTube ads.
It's also doing discovery ads,Gmail ads, The whole premise
behind performance max is adiverse paid ads marketing
strategy.
It's trying to use its fancy AIand machine learning to take
your precious marketing dollarsand then use those marketing
dollars where it makes sense,where you can afford it.
That's a very complicatedquestion.
(15:03):
And it's a very fancytechnology being put the use
behind the scenes to solve forthat question.
So Google Ads is very muchalive and kicking.
It has evolved.
Most people who are a truesmall medium sized enterprises,
if you know what you're doingand and please listen because
this is the point of thispodcast.
The whole point is that ifyou've got a five hundred dollar
marketing budget, you know,throwing that into Google Ad
(15:24):
search regardless of whatindustry you're in is probably
not the move anymore.
You gotta you gotta think alittle bit more to that question
.
What Henry and I are saying isthat if you're a plumber, if
you're an electrician, if you'rean HVAC towing company funeral
service, you're a traditionalservice based medium business.
You want to now run localservices ads.
Those calls are gonna becheaper.
They're gonna be moreaccessible.
(15:45):
They're gonna be better.
But you don't wanna forgetabout Google Local services ads
is just one layer at the top.
And we all know that to havethe best chance of of succeeding
in this game, we gotta show ourbusiness name loud and proud on
every advertising layer that wecan afford to be in.
There's LSA at the top.
There's Google Ads.
There's the Google BusinessProfile, the Mac.
Right?
(16:05):
And today, we're focusing onjust those paid layers.
LSA and Google Ads at the top.
But what Henry and I are sayingis local services ads is
probably your you you know, thefirst basket you wanna dip in
for paid lead acquisition paidlead gen.
Then on top of that, you wannatake Google Ads now to help you.
Once you profit on LSA, onceyou start breaking in the dough.
We wanna reinvest some of thatand we typically, you know,
(16:26):
depending on your budget, we maygo smart campaign and your
industry.
We may go display, we may goperformance max.
It all depends on how how manycalls you want and what budget
we're working with and how wellLSA kicking but so we can
reinvest those dollars.
But what we're sayingessentially ladies and gentlemen
is that this game has gottenmore complicated.
But that's okay.
(16:46):
There's still a way to play it.
We just gotta be smarter aboutwhat we're doing.
We gotta be more intentional.
So it's not as simple of ananswer as it was in, you know,
two thousand four where you gostart a search campaign and you
put your AC repair keywords inthere, you put your other
keywords in there, and then yourphone keeps ringing.
No.
You're gonna go broke doingthat Right.
Today.
That's a
Speaker 1 (17:04):
great point.
That's a great point.
Yeah.
You know, the thing is, like,in two thousand four, consumer
behavior was very different.
Right?
We were coming out of printsand regular old TV and and radio
advertising coming into thisnew digital age, nobody was used
to it.
So it was easy to manipulateconsumer behavior and Google's
(17:28):
own organic and advertisingplatforms.
With the change in consumerbehavior, consumers becoming
more savvy with Angie's list,with how is in giving consumers
different options, Google had tochange.
And and and consumers continueto change.
AI is a technology that'sdisrupting everything.
(17:48):
So for advertisers andmarketers to think that they can
do better than a PMAX campaign,but not giving, you know,
Google the reins to do theirthing is silly.
Right?
People are are changing andmaybe they don't.
You know, convert on that localservice ad phone call.
(18:12):
But they remember your yourcompany because of the phone
call that they did have withthis company, then they go back
and they're being and they theyvisit the website.
They get they visit the website.
They get they get the displayas they get the the all of the
different factors that Googlehas.
Right?
They get email campaigns, theyget YouTube ads.
(18:32):
These things will helpinevitably bring a customer back
customer journey is evolving,so you never know where they're
going to convert.
It could be a great phone callthat is a great lead that might
not convert.
But in the end, you know,they're gonna call three
different four differentcompanies on LSA.
(18:53):
They're gonna do their research.
They're gonna go to the mapsection, read some reviews.
Then they're gonna choose.
So we need to really thinkabout that and be conscious of
how consumer behavior ischanging.
And, you know, the savior theconsumer becomes the more
important those badges are gonnabecome and those trusted
sources are gonna become.
(19:13):
That's my piece.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
All if you want a summary of where advertising is
going in twenty twenty four andbeyond, it's all about trust and
transactions.
If it's not about trustedtransactions, consumers probably
don't care and they're probablynot spending too much time on
it.
So it's all about where you getthat conversion too.
Now we're not we're saying thatlocal services ads and Google
Ads are part of the answer thatyou gotta use them together and
use them creatively.
(19:35):
Outside of the way youtraditionally just run Google
Ads search, that strategy isn'tgonna work anymore.
But we're also saying thatalong with that guys, along with
running Google Ads and LSA intandem, you still need a
backbone for this.
So I know that we're focusingon paid advertising this episode
.
And and the point of it isessentially think about how
you're using local services adsand Google ads in tandem.
(19:56):
But please, let's not forgetabout marketing strategy.
Running all sorts of paid adsin and of themselves is not a
coherent marketing marketingstrategy.
That is the equivalent of Henryand I hopping in hopping in a
ride and then going to the drivethru every time we need to eat.
It's not sustainable andthere's too much risk in it.
Think about it.
If you're an AC contractor inMiami, Florida, what do you do
(20:17):
when someone down the street,opens up shop, and they've got
ten thousand reviews, they'vegot a call center, they've got
more money than you, and they'reblowing you out of the water.
All of a sudden, now what?
Your local services ads leadsare gone?
And that's a marketing strategy.
You got it.
It's all about risk.
When we're in two places withLSA and Google Ads, we're
hedging against risk And we'realso focusing on keeping that
cost per conversion down bysearching for different answers
(20:39):
in different places.
But even beyond the paidadvertising rella.
We wanna think more cohesivelyin terms of marketing strategy.
In terms of marketing strategy,the whole thing is underpinned
by organics.
We're talking Google BusinessProfile.
We're talking the directories.
We're talking a strong website.
So paid advertising in and ofitself is not the answer.
But if you're going to do paidadvertising, right, and you are
(21:00):
one of these businesses that weare focusing on.
Service based businesses who dothings like plumbing,
electrical work, fencing, oreven professional services suit
and tie.
Criminal attorneys, personalinjury attorneys, or or even,
you know, funeral homes, petgrooming, you you name it.
You're going to want to lookinto local services ads, then
you're gonna wanna look intoGoogle ads, see how those two
(21:22):
can complement each other.
And you're not you're gonnawanna not forget that the whole
thing can be made more safe andmore risk free by a strong
Google business profile, givingyou those free customer actions,
calls, website visits,direction requests.
All for free in in thebackground and a good website.
But in paid ads, land, LSA, andGoogle ads are are should
(21:43):
certainly be dancing together.
Twenty twenty four and beyondis I think the moral of the
story here.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And with that, I think we'vecome up to our time we want to
thank everybody for joining ustoday.
And this is a very importantepisode about Google Ads, LSA,
and classic Google Ads.
We really are passionate aboutthese two layers.
(22:09):
Think that every small business, medium sized business should
be on them.
I learned, you know, they'resaying when I started doing
marketing here at OMG.
It's scared money.
Don't make no money.
And it's it's legit.
It's the truth.
There's always gonna be a risk.
But if you don't move forward,you know, with that risk, you
(22:32):
you'll never know if there's areward at the at the other side
of it.
So what I would encouragebusinesses to do is to minimize
that risk with different avenues.
Right?
You know, spread your money.
Google ads, Google organic,even meta ads.
Can help businesses emailmarketing, all of that can help
(22:55):
your business grow if you thinkabout it cohesively.
Right?
It's a customer journey.
They're everywhere.
And as a business, youshouldn't care where they come
from.
You should just care thatthey're coming to you.
Jay, appreciate your time.
Appreciate you, man.
And thank you for anotherbusiness Google Business Buzz.
Appreciate you guys later.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
See you guys.
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