Within the last month, Google’s Local Service Ads rolled out their Automated Lead Crediting process as promised. This strips away the need to manually request credit for any bad leads that may come in through LSA. The changes have been occurring periodically throughout the months of July and August to all accounts. For many Results Guaranteed Marketing accounts, the change came within the last day or two. Moving forward, a shaky confidence level in Google’s ability to classify leads is almost certain at this point. And as expected, there have been issues.
Automated Lead Credit Rollout Issues
Yesterday, a client of ours received a lead that would have been credited or “Not Charged” in the past. Now, it seems like the specifications are not quite in place yet on what determines the classification of a lead. When speaking with LSA support, the customer service member did not know the details of the changes that had taken place on our account. Wouldn’t it be smart for Google to inform their staff on the possible issues that may occur with Automated Lead Crediting? Google replaced the ability to “dispute” a lead with a new Rating System. I was told on the phone yesterday by LSA support, that marketers and businesses should focus on rating each lead that comes in. Any bad lead that managed to slip by Google’s Automated Lead Credit system should be rated as “Strongly Dissatisfied”. This will give the lead a higher chance of being reviewed for a second time by Google’s team. Side note; Google’s Automated Lead Credit Process is their own support members vetting each lead as it comes in to determine if it is profitable for your business or not.
A Massive Glitch or a Gift to Advertisers?
First thing this morning, our LSA interface revealed that each of our clients had a lucrative credit to spend towards next month’s billing activity. For one client it was $465,200.00, and for another it was over $1.2 million. Based on our conversation with LSA support, these Lead Credits are inaccurate, and in order to see the true amount of lead credits, you must go to the Reports Page for your accounts as you have done previously.
While this may seem like a bad joke being played on Google’s clients, we are not laughing. How will these issues affect our business clients and their monthly revenue? Every lead matters in the Service Industry. Why does Google not have a tighter grip on arising issues? After rolling out a monumental change to Lead Review, it is Google’s job to maintain our trust that they will handle this efficiently. One may also wonder if a name change is coming to LSA. Currently on monthly billing activity report in Google Ads, the name “Home Services Ads” has appeared. Google’s support team did hint that this may be a Beta test of where ad credit information will show in the future, however; the current numbers being shown are inaccurate.
Google has constantly treated LSA as an after thought, this roll out continues to signal Google’s low priority for LSA accounts and their advertisers. This is shocking given the revenue Google has historically received from CPCs within industries such as Roofing, HVAC and Law.
Michael Burdsall – Results Guaranteed Managing Partner
Google’s LSA now places leads in “In Review” status while their support determines whether it is chargeable or not. How long this period lasts, is anyone’s guess. Personally, I have had multiple leads over multiple client’s interfaces “In Review” for a couple hours and counting. Based on our conversation with LSA support, a lead can remain under “In Review” for up to 24 hours. If you are someone that likes to get your work completed promptly, this may trigger you. Will Google hold leads captive for days at a time? I understand the process of moving on and learning from mistakes, but this should have been completed prior to a live rollout. One should expect an email briefing from Google on their current LSA issues, but I will not hold my breath.
Overall, catching mistakes like these and giving feedback to Google will hopefully help solve the issues. The rocky start to the Automated Lead Crediting process is not what we had hoped for, but we must roll with these punches. I advise marketers and businesses to remain extremely vigilant with Google’s Local Service Ads. Budgeting can be highly affected by the mistakes that are taking place during this fresh rollout.