Google Home Service Ads expands industries and comes to the East Coast

[James Watt]

For those who missed it, Google Home Service ads is expanding out to a few new industries, and moving into more cities in the US.

Google continues to expand its ad product for local service providers. This week, the company announced home service ads are available to more businesses in more cities.

Painters, electricians and towing companies can now run ads through AdWords Express, joining locksmiths and plumbers, house cleaners and handymen.

Google launched home service ads in 2015 with a pilot in San Francisco. The ad product is also available in Stockton, San Diego, Los Angeles and Philadelphia ? marking its first availability on the East Coast ? in addition to the San Francisco Bay Area. Read the rest.

As I was figuring, Google Home Service ads are expanding into industries where fake business listings are a big problem, and verification methods aren't fully effective at identifying real businesses. Locksmiths of course were one of the ones they started with, but painters, electricians, and towing companies are all SABs with some spam issues in their vertical. Anyone specializing in working with business owners in a spam heavy SAB industry will definitely need to keep a close eye on things, but I think ultimately this particular Google product offering isn't going to influence our work in more concrete, trustworthy industries. What do you think?

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I didn't see where they mentioned the cities it spread to? I may have just missed it.

Also, can you do negative keywords with Adwords Express? I'm really hoping that Google opens up the ads for full Adwords users. Adwords Express kind of sucks. Would love for someone to change my opinion on that though. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

 

[James Watt]

It was just in San Francisco, but now it's in Stockton, San Diego, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Philadelphia was the east coast city. Definitely not country-wide coverage, but it's a good sign they're liking what they're seeing.

My understanding is that adwords express is a poor substitute for an experienced person behind the helm of a real adwords campaign (i.e, it's a stripped down, simpler, harder to fine tune window into the same ad spots) but I could be wrong on that. If no one here pops in with a full answer though, you can always hit Google's adwords forum, they're as good as here and the GMB forum are for local SEO questions.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I've got a client who uses Adwords Express. I got him off of it but he went back on it. He's a painter and gets so many clicks for "paintings" it's ridiculous. I've told him that and that he needs to use the Adwords I set up for him but he likes the way it's done now, even though I explained to him the massive amount of money he is wasting on it.

Crazy.

That's why I'm not pumped about this going through Express.

 

[James Watt]

Did you hook up tracking so you could connect his income with his ad spend? Only a fool would see 'you spent $750 on ads this month and got $300 worth of work from it' and keep going. To each their own though, at the end of the day we are advisers, the client will ultimately make their own decisions.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Did you hook up tracking so you could connect his income with his ad spend? Only a fool would see 'you spent $750 on ads this month and got $300 worth of work from it' and keep going. To each their own though, at the end of the day we are advisers, the client will ultimately make their own decisions.

He's really excited about a creative ad he came up with that Adwords Express will accept but regular Adwords denies. You're right. At the end of the day it's his call.

 

[Kyrton]

I was called today about Google Home Services today. I am in Maryland and an Electrician.

I talked with the rep for a while about how the program works and I will be participating. They do a rather extensive background check as well.

They are targeting smaller companies so we can compete with much larger firms and reduce fake listings.

There will always be a need for good, trustworthy organic SEO experts.

 

[James Watt]

Thanks for sharing Kyrton, sounds like they're going to be rolling out to more cities then over the next few months. I think for industries like yours with a lot of spam and trouble with authenticating who the real businesses are, this maybe is one of the better solutions. We'll see how it goes. If you decided to come back and update the forum in a few months with some impressions for how it's going, I know I'd be interested. Good luck.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I was called today about Google Home Services today. I am in Maryland and an Electrician.

I talked with the rep for a while about how the program works and I will be participating. They do a rather extensive background check as well.

They are targeting smaller companies so we can compete with much larger firms and reduce fake listings.

There will always be a need for good, trustworthy organic SEO experts.

Hey Kyrton, may we ask what city? And is it live now in your city or are they just prepping you for when it does go live?

 

[Kyrton]

I am the Baltimore metro area and I can only assume they are doing it for the DC metro area as well.

The program does not appear to be live yet in my area. I just googled a few terms and the normal PPC ads popped up.

The GHS will be placed above the PPC ads, from what I was told.

No landing pages to set up, no ranking for key words, no max bid/budget wins.

It will be based a lot of your reviews and responsiveness to when you get a lead.