In October of this year, Hurricane Ian hit the gulf coast of Florida head-on. Hurricane Ian is one of the worst storms to hit the Gulf Coast in almost a decade. Clocking in at a category 4, Ian destroyed over 5,000 homes and left millions without power for several days.
Rocco Zaldivar, one of 99 Calls’ customers, is one of those over 5,000 to lose their home in the storm. Unfortunately for Rocco and his family, his home stood directly in the path of the eye of the hurricane. Being so close to Sanibel beach, their home ended up flooding completely within 40 minutes if the storm’s approach. His home is now completely unlivable.
With no true place to call “home” at the moment, Rocco and his family have been forced to stay in a hotel an hour north of Lee County, but that hasn’t stopped him from helping others in his community. Due to the nature of the industry he serves, there are a lot of people who are in need of his assistance. As a Lee County resident himself, Rocco has been traveling back and forth to help home and business owners to repair their damaged and flooded properties. Because he works in both claims adjustment and general contracting, Rocco is in a unique position to be able to provide support both with filing and managing insurance claims and property repairs, which is hard to find!
Both Florida Claims Adjusting Firm and Powerhouse Roofing pride themselves on being honest and good companies with customer service at the forefront of their business models. When you choose to work with either or both of these companies, you can rest assured that you are in great hands. Rocco gained his passion for hard work and getting it right stems from a lifetime of solid role models in his life.
Since he was 15 years old, Rocco has found himself a part of the construction industry. Thanks to the strength and durability that a youthful body possesses, he was a great fit when it came to working for his Uncle’s construction business with his cousins. After learning the labor side of the trade, Rocco went on to get his general contractor’s license. In turn, his cousins began working for him instead of alongside him.
Rocco knows the importance of hard work in order to be successful in business, but he notes that it’s also important to not overwork yourself. As a word of wisdom for future and existing business owners, Rocco recommends finding honest, loving, and humble people to surround yourself with and always following your passions.
Once again Google has made changes to the Google Business Profile management dashboard. Business owners will have to adjust to a new process for managing their GBPs.
Here is the latest on how to navigate the Google Business Profile dashboard. It is quite different from what it used to be.
Once you log into your account, if you just have one profile to manage, the process to access it is simple. You are taken directly to the “in search experience”, which looks like this:
Below we’ve layed out how to navigate the new “in search experience”.
Edit Profile
Here you can manage all the basic details about your business. Business name, category, phone number, website, location, service area, business hours.
Note: For service area businesses, in the previous GBP dashboard you would need to manually clear the address so that it would be removed from the maps. In this new search experience, you’ll see an option like this, where you will turn that field off, so the business address isn’t visible.
Read Reviews
From this option, you can access all the customer reviews on your GBP and respond to them.
Messages
From here, you can either turn your SMS alerts on or off and manage the rest of your chat settings:
There are other chat settings that can be adjusted within “chat settings”:
Add Photo
From this field, you can add your photos, logo, and cover photo.
Performance
From the performance option, you access analytics on your GBP’s performance. This feature was the “Insights” feature in the prior GBP dashboard.
Advertise
This option will direct you to the Google Ads platform where you can build and run an Ads campaign if you’d like.
Edit Products
From here you can highlight any products you sell or promote.
Edit Services
In this section, you can manage a more detailed list of the services you provide.
Booking
Here you can link any online booking tools you would like to use on your GBP.
Quote Requests
This feature allows your customers to directly request a quote from your GBP.
Calls
This feature shows you your call performance or your call history.
Then when you click on the down arrow next to Calls from your menu, you’ll see additional options,
Q & A
This is the question and answer feature allowing you to connect with your customers via GBP.
Add Update
From here you can add Posts, either an update, offer or event. Just choose which type of update you’d like to add and complete the fields prompted.
Ask for reviews
From here you can capture the link to your GBP to make it easier for you to refer your customers to your GBP to leave a review. You can also send the link directly from here to an email address or other platforms such as Whatsapp or Facebook.
Other Management Tools and/or Settings
Some additional management options which aren’t so obvious can be found by clicking on the 3 dots found here:
Business Profile Settings
Business Profile Settings is where you would need to access your user management, Google assistant codes, see profile ID, remove business profile options, and link accounts such as Ads or Merchant Center.
Notifications
From here, you can manage you you wish to receive notifications from multiple fields shown below:
Adding or Managing More than One Profile
If you are managing more than 1 GBP from your account, or want to add a new GBP, then you would select “Add a New Business Profile” or to manage another GBP, select “Your Business Profiles” to see your others.
The last 3 options include Help & Support, Send Feedback, and Terms of Service.
Verifying GBP
If you’ve just created your GBP and you were waiting for a PIN code, once you receive the code, you will see this screen,
You’ll want to click on Enter code to enter your PIN code and verify the profile.
If you look at your menu from your in-search experience and you see this
Then you’ll want to click on “Get verified” and complete your GBP verification via the method you’ve been prompted.
Pros and Cons of Google Local Service Ads (LSA) and Google Ads (PPC)
By Dipa Gandhi and Devon Osborne
Google provides businesses a few different platforms for lead generation. Google Business Profile (GBP), Pay Per Click (PPC), and Local Service Ads (LSA), all of which have their own pros and cons associated with them.
Here we’ll focus on LSA and PPC and the pros and cons of each. Many business owners or marketing managers have asked themselves which route is better, LSA or PPC. They each have their own pros and cons, and both have the potential to generate leads and produce a solid ROI.
First, let’s look at how each result is displayed. If you search Google for “HVAC in Palm City, F” L. Here are the search results presented on the first page:
The first set of results at the top of the page are your LSA:
The next section down contains the PPC results. They are easily recognized by the “Ad” designation to the left.
And directly below these are the Google Business Profile results:
Local Service Ads
Based on this example, let’s take a look at LSA.
Pros
Gain Trust Immediately
Google displays a Google Guaranteed badge on your LSA which lets your customers know you’ve passed Google’s vetting process and that you are a screened and qualified business backed by Google. Being displayed here means you are a legitimate business. You benefit from the attention, recognition, and trust of your business.
What You’re Paying For
With LSA, you are paying for each qualified lead you receive, not click. Again, you are paying for every lead, NOT click. Google uses its own tracking phone number on the LSA itself and vets all the calls which come through the LSA. They remove any unqualified leads and only charge you for qualified leads. Because this is a manual process, they too make errors, and you may be charged for an unqualified lead. However, their platform allows you to dispute a lead if you feel you have been wrongly charged. If Google determines this dispute to be valid, they will credit the charge back to your account.
Cost
Most contractors report that the leads they receive through Google LSA are far less expensive than through Google Ads. For example, HVAC contractors are typically paying $100 – $200 for PPC leads, and less than half that for those received through their LSA campaign, depending on your region of course.
Reviews
Most businesses already have a free Google Business Profile (GBP) set up for these businesses. The great thing about LSA is that the reviews from your GBP will feed directly into your LSA. You don’t have to worry about which platform to have your customers leave reviews on. As long as they leave a great review for your business on your GBP, your LSA will also display it.
It’s SO easy!
LSA’s platform is transparent and simple. Google has made it extremely easy for most business owners and managers to use. It is easy to monitor and once set up, the only adjustment you might want to make is your monthly budget.
Cons
Verification Process
Google does have several requirements before gaining the Google Guaranteed badge. Depending on your industry and your state requirements, you must pass these requirements:
Before getting started, you’ll want to make sure you have a business license if required by your state, proof of insurance and allow Google to run a background check on yourself, as the business owner, and other employees if Google requires it.
Availability
LSA is not yet available for all services in all areas of the United States at this time. There has been a slow rollout of service by service. If your services are not yet being promoted by Google’s LSA program, check back in a few months.
Ranking
The position of your LSA is driven by ranking factors similar to the free organic Google Business Profile. Some of these ranking factors include proximity to your primary location, number, ratings on reviews, optimization of your LSA account, and budget. Another factor that will affect the position of your LSA is the level of competition. In the end, it is more difficult to control where and when Google will choose to highlight your LSA Ad than your PPC Ad.
Google Ads PPC Campaigns:
Pros
Quick Results
Google Ads are auction-style, meaning that you’ll be competing with other businesses in the same area. There is no long “ranking” process the account needs to go through. A well-optimized Google PPC account can expect to see leads being generated within the first week or so of a campaign going live.
Higher Lead Volume
When optimized and properly funded to reflect the going prices for local leads in your industry, you can expect to achieve a higher volume of leads via PPC advertising than you will through an LSA account. Many people get the bulk of their leads through Google Ads but use LSA as a supplement for lower-priced leads.
Flexibility In Targeting Your Most Profitable Services
With Google Ads, you have the ability to choose the keywords for the services you want to target with your campaign. With LSA, you are only able to select the “Job type” or “Category” to indicate the services you offer. There is tremendous flexibility in terms of running different campaigns and targeting locations and adjusting budgets for each campaign.
Less Extensive Verification Process
Google requires only garage door companies and locksmiths to undergo a vetting process. To run Google Ads, there is no extensive verification process like LSA, however, Google may eventually require you to provide proof of business registration.
Cons
Higher Cost
With PPC Google Ads, you are doing just as the name suggests, paying for every click, whether that person is calling or not. Due to the cost per click being auction-based, getting leads via PPC Google Ads can be costly, especially if the campaign is not being properly managed.
Not for Beginners
Running a PPC campaign without the proper knowledge is not advisable. The Google Ads platform can be overwhelming to newcomers. Without knowing the basics behind PPC Ads, you likely won’t know where to find the pertinent information you need to optimize the account or how to use it to your advantage.
Summary
If you are looking for a low-cost set-it-and-forget-it platform to supplement your other lead-generation efforts, LSA is a great option. It does take time to rank among the competition, but simple to set up and maintain. It is easy to optimize an LSA, and adding lots of high-quality reviews will improve your results. If you already have a free Google Business Profile for your business with several great reviews, and not a lot of competition, then LSA might be the best option for you.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for more specific types of leads in a more targeted area, a large number of leads, or faster immediate results, then PPC might be the best option for you.
To capitalize on the number of leads you receive, you can run both LSA and PPC Google Ads simultaneously. The pay-per-click Google Ads will help bring in leads quickly while the LSA builds rankings. Due to the fact that you only pay per lead with LSA, you won’t be wasting money while it grows.
For a free consultation on LSA or PPC for your business, call the experts at 99 Calls at 800-717-4669.
