News & Notes From Google Local Services Ads: November 2023

We’re back with more updates from the latest edition of the Google Partner newsletter! Read this post to learn more about the recent changes and tweaks that matter most to lawyers using Google Local Services to market their practices.

Approximate Read Time: 3 Minutes

Google Local Services Ads (LSAs) remain a constantly evolving product but offer consistent value in helping lawyers and law firms effectively market their practices in Google Search results. LSAs appear first on the Google search engine results page (SERP) before any other paid ad or organic search results. Plus, they are the only Google advertising product that offers the “Google Screened” badge to participating businesses.

Despite the benefits LSAs offer for lawyers’ legal marketing strategies, the constantly changing nature of the product can often make it difficult to keep up with the latest need-to-know info and best practices. At Justia, our team of legal marketing specialists keeps a watchful eye on these Google updates! Check out this post for the latest insights shared in the exclusive Google Partner newsletter that may impact lawyers and law firms.

New: Receive and Respond to Message Leads by SMS

If your law firm has enabled message leads for your Google Local Services Ads, this new feature is likely to be useful for you! Now, advertisers can send and receive message content from message leads via SMS. This means that you can receive and respond to a message lead directly by text message or email.

Law firms that enable this feature have the option to use the same phone number for phone leads and message leads or select a different number for each. The firm can also choose email or text as its preference for receiving new message leads. Receiving both email and text leads is also an option.

Then, lawyers receiving a lead via SMS can either call the consumer, respond directly via text message, or click a link to respond via the LSA dashboard.

Unfamiliar with message leads? This lead type typically costs less than phone leads and means you are providing potential clients with more ways to reach your practice. You can easily opt in to receive message leads on the LSA dashboard.

FYI: New Updates to Ad Ranking Recommendations

Google recently updated its LSA ad rankings article and resources on improving LSA performance.

We recommend reading each of these articles to deepen your understanding of how to maximize your law firm’s Google LSA performance. However, some key points to remember include:

Expand Your Job Types/Service Areas: Set your advertising info more broadly to match with more potential clients. For instance, try setting your service area to your whole county rather than limiting your service area to a few specific zip codes.
Encourage Past Customers to Review Your Business: You need Google Reviews for Local Services Ads. Depending on your target practice areas, Google requires getting at least one or five reviews (see requirements), though in general, you’ll likely need numerous reviews to have a successful campaign. While collecting reviews for your ad, we encourage you to prioritize LSA-verified reviews and to check out our tips for avoiding review flags on Google.
Maximize Leads: Automatically optimize your advertising budget with “Maximize Leads” instead of a “Max Per Lead” bidding strategy. Unsure of what these terms mean? Check out our PPC and LSA glossary for lawyers.
Use High-Quality Photos: Your ads should always use high-quality photos to maximize your return on investment.
Enable/Opt-In to New Lead Types: You can improve your ad performance by taking advantage of new lead types and opt-in features, such as the message leads and SMS functions discussed above.

Remember, a number of factors play a role in LSA ranking. Factors included in the auction such as whether you have earned your Google Screened badge, the amount bid, the likelihood your ad will result in a lead (including the time in which you respond to leads), relevance to the search, profile quality, and more all play a role.

If your law firm has multiple office locations serving the same geographic area, it is also important to remember that only your highest-ranking ad will be shown, rather than multiple LSAs for your practice.

Final Thoughts: Why Do You Care?

Maximizing your return on investment in digital marketing strategies helps your law firm achieve its full potential! Keeping up-to-date on the latest information impacting your ads helps ensure your law firm’s listings are performing their best.

If you want help to ensure your Google Local Services Ads are optimized to help your law firm achieve your goals, we invite you to explore the options available with our Justia Amplify PPC management services. Contact us to schedule a free consultation today!

Justia offers premium website, blogging, and online marketing solutions for law firms. We have an unparalleled record in helping law firms grow. Regardless of whether you are just starting your online marketing efforts or have a fully developed website and blog, we have solutions to help propel you to the next level. In addition to our website and blog services, we also help clients with content, lawyer directory services, social media, local SEO, and PPC Management. Contact us for more information, or call us at (888) 587-8421.