Imagine your name or your firm’s name on the front page of the internet, that is Google. Wouldn’t that be rad? Well, this is what local service adverts can do for you. If you are a bit confused as to what are local service ads and how they can help your law firm, well, let’s get into the ultimate guide to local service ads for lawyers.
What Are Local Services Ads (LSAs)?
To understand local service ads, lets have for ourselves a little practical: go to Google and search for marriage lawyers near you. The top results that come in with different names and numbers? Well, these are your local service ads. And these are basically the people who pay Google to advertise their services once anybody in a certain location searches for it.
Benefits of Local Service Ads for law firms?
Small outreach, small location, small business. That’s how it goes, usually. But here, in the case of local service ads, and especially in the case of local service ads for law firms, this strategy is going to go a long way toward paying off well. Here are some of the benefits of local service ads for law firms.
Gain Trust with Credibility Badge
Know that to get on with local service ads, Google first verifies you with ay stubs, tax returns, and a whole menagerie of other business items that you will have. This allows them to confirm that you are a legitimate service provider, and in turn, you get their coveted credibility badge and can advertise directly to the people now.
Pay per Lead- Not Click
The second great thing? Whereas in any other form of advertisement, you pay for the advert running, which means that even if the advert fails to gain traction, you’ll still end up paying out of your pocket. What Google does with LSAs is what it calls the ‘pay-per-lead model’, which works exactly as it sounds. You pay for any lead that gets converted into business, not the other way around. Great advertising and marketing scheme.
Highlight Positive Reviews
This benefit is like Google’s take on Yelp!, but with the whiny, negative part removed. Once you are a subscriber to local service ads, Google will highlight the positive reviews people leave for you to ensure a newcomer not only looks but is convinced at transacting business with you.
Compete with Big Players
Never before has it been easier for a small company to compete with bigger fish in the market than with LSAs. Big companies rely on big bucks to get big advert coverage. Google helps you take the fight to them by targeting the exact customers or business leads and putting you in front to generate business, and in turn, revenue for both yourself and Google. Very nifty, this way.
Types of Lawyers that Qualify for Google Local Services Ads?
Every aspect of law being practiced today can qualify for Google Local services ads if you meet their requirements, which are again, more pertinent to good business practices and bookkeeping. The most common types of lawyers that you can see on local services ads and those who qualify for it are personal injury lawyers, divorce attorneys and lawyers, civil lawyers, and attorneys that help with property, taxes, and whatnot.
- Bankruptcy Lawyer
- Business Lawyer
- Contract Lawyer
- Criminal Lawyer
- Disability Lawyer
- DUI Lawyer
- Estate Lawyer
- Family Lawyer
- Intellectual Property Lawyer
- Immigration Lawyer
- Labor Lawyer
- Litigation Lawyer
- Malpractice Lawyer
- Personal Injury Lawyer
- Real Estate Lawyer
- Tax Lawyer
- Traffic Lawyer
What is Google Screened?
As the name suggests, Google Screened is a screening service that is described as an ‘extensive background and license check’ conducted for businesses intending to register with the LSA service. This obviously does not supersede local or state regulatory bodies and is just a check of whether your licenses are all up-to-date or not.
Importance of Google Screened and how it helps lawyers
Google Screened helps weed out the unsavory, the unregistered, and the unfair business or downright illegal businesses that might be running within brick-and-mortar establishments. It helps lawyers by disallowing the shady ones to join, and by verifying to people that the law practice they are thinking of enlisting is legitimate, has a lot of wonderful reviews, and is a business that can help you get what you want.
Difference between Google screened vs Google Guaranteed?
The difference is minute between the two services, but the difference is there. Both cover the same legal grounds of background checks including criminal and civil background checks that can help you single out and eliminate the businesses which haven’t been fair in the past or have dealings that don’t normally look good in the clientele list. The only considerable difference between the two is that with Google Screened, the search engine giant removes the satisfaction and the money-back guarantee that Google otherwise promotes with its products or through Google Guaranteed.
How lawyers can run Google Service Ads
Following are some of the steps that are imperative for any law firm or group of lawyers to take if they intend to run Google Service ads for their law services that people can search for and hire.
- Confirm the Eligibility of your services and area: The first and foremost step is to confirm the eligibility of your service and your area, for obvious reasons of course. Considering that Local Services Ads are designed around a specific locality or area, you will be asked for a postcode and other proofs of operation at the specific operation.
- Create Google Business Profile: Once you’re done with that, you will be redirected toward the Google Business Profile page. Here, you can make your profile for the business that will be represented via the Local Service Ads for lawyers. Google Business profile not only improves your visibility in Google Maps but also helps in Local SEO as well.
- Become Google Screened: As explained beforehand, the purpose of Google Screened is to vet businesses that apply for Google’s Local Service Ads, because nobody wants a dishonest business on their site, least of all, Google. So, in this step, you will be asked to furnish some documents and some licenses from your respective state or local regulatory authority. These are important for the overall procedure.
- Add Legal Documents: As it is with law firms and professionals from the legal fraternity, you will need to add legal documents (including certification and licenses) to ensure that whatever services you are providing via your Local Service Ad are actually backed by something.
- Verify from Pinkerton: The last and final step is verification from Pinkerton Detective Agency. The business needs a green light from them to ensure the smooth passing of this whole process.
Local Services Ads for Lawyers: Ads Structure
As you might have seen from our previous experiment, Google’s Local Services Ads follow a specific structure, and while the niche and services is definitely unique for lawyers, the ad structure is usually the same as you would find for a plumber or any other service for that matter.
- Business Name: First up on the advert is your firm’s name, or as Google calls it, the business name. This is the name that will be displayed primarily in the advert, in bold, to ensure that the user interacts with the business name first before anything else.
- Phone Number: Next up is the phone number, which will be registered with the local authority and cannot be unlisted.
- Location: As it is called Local Service Ads, the locality is very important in this case and your address is highlighted for people who might be nearby.
- Reviews: We’ve already touched this point, but for the sake of being pedantic, let’s go through it again. Google highlights the user reviews your previous clients will have left and will focus on the reviews that are positive, have five-star ratings, and portray a good picture of your business.
- Business Hours: The local service ad will also include the business hours during which you are open to new business and are operational.
- Google Guarantee or Google Screened: This credibility badge is also included in the advert, to show potential clients that the service has been thoroughly vetted and is a legitimate place of business.
- Photos: Much like Google Maps, you can choose to upload photos of your establishment to further help people identify and easily locate your business while out in the market or town center.
- Business bio: A brief business bio will intimate users and readers of what services you provide, how long have you been in business, mention any famous or significant cases or clientele and why should your business be preferred for any legal transaction between two parties.
Commonly Asked Questions regarding Local Service Ads for Lawyers
Here are some of the frequently asked questions that people or businesses might have prior to registering themselves for local service ads for lawyers or establishments relevant to the legal fraternity. Many of these questions can help you better understand how Local Service Ads for lawyers work, and how you can use them to generate more business and increase your revenue from non-walk-in sources.
How to show up on top in Google Service Ads?
Google itself helps your ad rank higher and show up top in the service ads. It suggests improving your ad rank, focusing on the relevance of your niche and the service that you are providing, keeping your bids competitive, and actively monitoring and implementing small changes that Google suggests to your advert to keep it fresh, relevant, and at the top of the Google Service Ads.
How much does it cost to generate LSA leads?
According to many sources that actually deal with LSAs, a lot of pricing options depending on the service and what niche you are providing. Costly services in costly niches can run you up to $150 per lead, which sounds very expensive. But if your niche isn’t that much of a hot cake, prices can go down significantly to make this a good marketing option, one that doesn’t crash the bank for you.
How Dispute in LSA works if leads are not relevant?
If your lead hasn’t actually paid off, you can dispute that with Google LSA and if the case is right, they will refund or credit your account. It works like this: you sign in to the LSA lead inbox, select Leads from the menu and click on Dispute. Add the reason for why the dispute has been added, and Google will get back to you. As of right now, the backlog has been exacerbated, so it will be quite some time before they actually get back.
Conclusion
To conclude, Google’s Local Service Ads have many advantages over regular and more conventional styles of marketing, even within digital marketing. When used the right way, they can turn in loads of profit for you, but the key is to identify the niche, stick to it and make it relevant. This way, you can reap all the benefits of what LSAs have to provide to you, the service provider.
