Significant drop in LSA impressions and leads—looking for help identifying the cause

[Aviatoo]

Hi everyone,

I own a Home Inspection company on Long Island NY and I’m looking for help understanding a significant decline in my Google Local Services Ads impressions and leads.

Previously, LSA consistently generated business. Here are some actual results:


Job Types That I use for GLSA Buyer Seller Inspection, commercial Properties, Mold, Full Home Inspection & New Construction (5/18) Are selected

June 1-June30th
$2163 Ad Spend
45 Total Leads
6000 Impressions 98% top impression rate 37.7% Absolute top


Job Types That I use for GLSA Buyer Seller Inspection, commercial Properties, Full Home Inspection & New Construction (4/18) Are selected

July 1-July 31 (My ads were down for half of July - Google business profile page was suspended)
$1100 Ad Spend
21 Total Leads
2681 Ad Impressions 97% Top Impression rate 21% absolute top

Aug 1 - Aug 30th
$1,930 Total Lead Spend

35 Total Leads
3799 Impressions 95% Top Impression Rate
20% Absolute Top.

Sept 1 - Sept 30th

$977 Total Lead Spend
20 Total Leads
4119 Impressions 98% Top 24.5% Absolute Top.

Oct 1 - Present

$403 Total Lead Spend
7 Total Leads
1903 Impressions 94% Top Impression Rate 18% Absolute Top


I cant make sense of the slow down. My reviews are good (241) My response times are quick, i have high quality images.



Relevant account history and changes:

• My service area previously included Suffolk, Nassau, and Queens.
• On September 17, I added Brooklyn and Manhattan. The slowdown became noticeable around that period, although I cannot confirm the expansion caused it.
• I removed Brooklyn and Manhattan on October 5.
• I discovered a duplicate LSA account that had been live since September 7 and removed it on October 7.
• Most recently, I narrowed the service area to Suffolk County only. Initial impressions and absolute top placement appeared better, but it is too early to judge.
• My account has been reviewed and is eligible, up to date, and in good standing.
• I have been using automated Maximize Leads bidding. My weekly budget has been far above actual spending ($5000 Weekly)

I am willing to increase my cost per lead to get things going again - this has unfortunately affected my business pretty significantly. I only run GLSA - I dont do PPC ads. I did try PPC two different times with no luck.

Any advice is so greatly appreciated !

 

[Chris Barnard]

Hi everyone,

I own a Home Inspection company on Long Island NY and I’m looking for help understanding a significant decline in my Google Local Services Ads impressions and leads.

Previously, LSA consistently generated business. Here are some actual results:


Job Types That I use for GLSA Buyer Seller Inspection, commercial Properties, Mold, Full Home Inspection & New Construction (5/18) Are selected

June 1-June30th
$2163 Ad Spend
45 Total Leads
6000 Impressions 98% top impression rate 37.7% Absolute top


Job Types That I use for GLSA Buyer Seller Inspection, commercial Properties, Full Home Inspection & New Construction (4/18) Are selected

July 1-July 31 (My ads were down for half of July - Google business profile page was suspended)
$1100 Ad Spend
21 Total Leads
2681 Ad Impressions 97% Top Impression rate 21% absolute top

Aug 1 - Aug 30th
$1,930 Total Lead Spend

35 Total Leads
3799 Impressions 95% Top Impression Rate
20% Absolute Top.

Sept 1 - Sept 30th

$977 Total Lead Spend
20 Total Leads
4119 Impressions 98% Top 24.5% Absolute Top.

Oct 1 - Present

$403 Total Lead Spend
7 Total Leads
1903 Impressions 94% Top Impression Rate 18% Absolute Top


I cant make sense of the slow down. My reviews are good (241) My response times are quick, i have high quality images.



Relevant account history and changes:

• My service area previously included Suffolk, Nassau, and Queens.
• On September 17, I added Brooklyn and Manhattan. The slowdown became noticeable around that period, although I cannot confirm the expansion caused it.
• I removed Brooklyn and Manhattan on October 5.
• I discovered a duplicate LSA account that had been live since September 7 and removed it on October 7.
• Most recently, I narrowed the service area to Suffolk County only. Initial impressions and absolute top placement appeared better, but it is too early to judge.
• My account has been reviewed and is eligible, up to date, and in good standing.
• I have been using automated Maximize Leads bidding. My weekly budget has been far above actual spending ($5000 Weekly)

I am willing to increase my cost per lead to get things going again - this has unfortunately affected my business pretty significantly. I only run GLSA - I dont do PPC ads. I did try PPC two different times with no luck.

Any advice is so greatly appreciated !

Hey,

My first thought is the location changes; there's usually some catch-up time after location and budget changes.

My second thought is the second account, what did you do to remove this? But if your existing LSA account is not suspended, then it's probably all good.

My third thought is the recent sync update, did your LSA account name recently change to match the linked GBP name? (we have noticed somewhat of a trend of lead volume suffering following the sync)

Reviews matter a bunch, with recency and velocity having similar impact - so don't stop the review acquisition efforts, ever. All the other best practices apply too: notating leads, rating, marking as booked...etc. Those are my thoughts - the location changes + sync (if that occurred).

Also, I would add city-level (and possibly zips) locations in addition to the county. I know they'll be duplicates, but in the past the city-level locations were needed to have ads served for those explicit searches (ex: home inspection holbrook).

PS - You should run PPC too, you're missing out. It's not luck; find somebody good to create and manage the ads. You can't DIY IMO unless you have years of PPC experience.

PPS - I'm familiar with the locations; I grew up in Wantagh.

 

[Aviatoo]

Hey,

My first thought is the location changes; there's usually some catch-up time after location and budget changes.

My second thought is the second account, what did you do to remove this? But if your existing LSA account is not suspended, then it's probably all good.

My third thought is the recent sync update, did your LSA account name recently change to match the linked GBP name? (we have noticed somewhat of a trend of lead volume suffering following the sync)

Reviews matter a bunch, with recency and velocity having similar impact - so don't stop the review acquisition efforts, ever. All the other best practices apply too: notating leads, rating, marking as booked...etc. Those are my thoughts - the location changes + sync (if that occurred).

Also, I would add city-level (and possibly zips) locations in addition to the county. I know they'll be duplicates, but in the past the city-level locations were needed to have ads served for those explicit searches (ex: home inspection holbrook).

PS - You should run PPC too, you're missing out. It's not luck; find somebody good to create and manage the ads. You can't DIY IMO unless you have years of PPC experience.

PPS - I'm familiar with the locations; I grew up in Wantagh.

Hey chris ,

Thanks so much for the reply.

I’ve added and removed locations before - I’ve never had a slow down this bad. Ideally I would like to add more locations but it seems like areas are too far for me (had manhattan and Brooklyn on for a few weeks got very few leads).

I turned it off and called GLSA to deactivate it. Not sure what happened it still shows up when I log in. But it’s no longer active.

My LSA did change to my Google business profile name. My LSA also randomly stopped working around this time for about a week or two and it was randomly fixed. I called a bunch to address this & got me nowhere. I would say this was the real start to the slow down.

I’m wondering if a high manual bid or automated bidding with a high CPL will turn things around?

If you run ppc please DM me if that’s allowed. Thanks for the help !