Question on 3 Pack and the effects on Home Services businesses.

[Conor Treacy]

Hi Folks,

I know that JurisDigital did a posting on the 3Pack and where users are clicking, and it contains a great bit of information. At the end of the day, the focus still comes down to Organic SEO. Granted, this report was skewed a little due to the Organic Listing still having 1 result above the 3-pack (which is now changed).

What I'm looking to find out is if anyone has seen information, or can share their own experiences with regards to the 3 pack and specifically the Home Services based businesses (plumber, locksmith, even towtruck), and what the numbers/percentages look like for those results.

The study above was based on all sorts of industries resulting in 39.5% Organic, 21.5% Local, 29% Paid.

When we look at just the plumbers, locksmiths etc, how does that percentage number change?

Is anyone else working with clients in the San Francisco market that can share the impact of the Google Home Services rollout, and how it's affected the individual's business?

With the latest stuff happening, we have a client that is considering only buying adwords at this point as his phone calls have dropped significantly.

Thanks,

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hey Conor,

I haven't seen much yet about how the new home service paid ads are performing. I think it's too new and too limited to have any concrete results published. I haven't even seen one from Google yet.

This is what I've seen published on the topic so far:

Google Home Services Ads Launch In AdWords Express
The Locals Take On Google's Home Service Ads
Google Home Services Ads For Locksmiths, Plumbers Hit San Francisco Market

 

[Conor Treacy]

Yeah, that's pretty much what we're seeing too Joy - not much information.

The 3 pack really did a number on one of our clients, and while they pay for Adwords currently, they're looking for that next "thing" they need to do, or whether they should abandon everything and only do PPC.

 

[theitsage]

I would not solely focus on PPC. The long term strategies for a home services business should focus on providing the best service it can instead of catering to every change Google makes.

My mac repair business listing while only getting 1% more visibility through the local pack after the switch to 3 Pack, it has gotten 35% increase in clicks. SEMRush Visibility tracker is even more telling. Look at the change and when that happened (mine is blue). This makes perfect sense for a listing which was in the top 3 prior to the switch and remains in the Top 3 after the switch.

It's a natural selection process that Google is trying to replicate. Sure it's not always fair and Google's motivation may be questionable at times. At the end of the day, sooner or later the top performers are the ones getting the majority of visibility and clicks.

 

[DanLeibson]

Hi Folks,
Granted, this report was skewed a little due to the Organic Listing still having 1 result above the 3-pack (which is now changed).

Mike Ramsey did a study after the pack showed up in the #1 spot 93% of the time and people were STILL clicking on the top organic search result more then packs:

5 Revealing New Local Pack Click Through Studies | Nifty Marketing

Also, you need to keep in mind that these studies (while interesting) are not in anyway statistically significant.