Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Which Cities & Categories Currently Have Google Home Service Ads & Advanced Verification
Google provided me a comprehensive list of cities and the categories that are currently under the Home Service Ads & Advanced Verification banners in those cities.
This program is hard enough to keep track of with it’s many changes and the recent increase in rollout that I thought the list would help you understand more about the markets that you are working in.
For some of the practical implications see Joy’s article: Is Google Going to Remove the 3-Packs? What You Need to Know about Home Service Ads (HSAs) (the answer is no but…)
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San Francisco Bay Area: |
locksmiths, plumbers, house cleaners, handyman, general contractors, electricians, HVAC contractors, painters, overhead door, auto glass repair, roadside assistance |
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Sacramento: |
HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, auto glass repair, general contractors, roadside assistance, house cleaners, handyman, painters, overhead door |
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Stockton: |
HVAC contractors, plumbers |
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Philadelphia: |
plumbers, HVAC contractors, electricians, locksmiths |
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Atlanta: |
plumbers, HVAC contractors, electricians, locksmiths, overhead door |
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Phoenix: |
plumbers, HVAC contractors, electricians, locksmiths, overhead door |
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Seattle: |
plumbers, HVAC contractors, electricians, locksmiths, overhead door |
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Los Angeles: |
HVAC contractors, electricians, overhead door, plumbers, locksmiths |
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San Diego: |
HVAC contractors, electricians, overhead door, towing, auto glass, plumbers, locksmiths |
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Comments
36 Comments
I’m curious about how far the HSA spans outside of its primary city. For example, I have a client in Alpharetta, GA who was affected by it… which is about 30 miles away.
Great question…
Dallas will be added soon, our locksmith company has been contacted to join the program and said they would be launching in about a month.
@Stephanie thanks for the tip. I wonder what other markets will soon be joining?
Thanks Stephanie! I was curious about whether or not Google contacted the companies outright, or vice-versa.
Sarah – the markets seems to expand fairly far outside of the main city in most cases. For Atlanta they let you target as far north as Canton, as far east as Loganville, as far south as Jonesboro, and as far west as Douglasville – up to 40 miles in any direction.
In Phoenix, they go as far north as New River, as far East as the Fountain Hills area, as far south as the Sun Lakes area, and as far west as the Buckeye area. Another pretty sprawling area.
New York Metro didn’t launch yet, but their plan there was to cover parts of Bergen, Essex, Passaic, Union and Hudson county in New Jersey. Google said they are aiming for middle of September here.
When they launch in Washington DC, I know it will hit parts of both Maryland and Virginia as well.
Also, tip from Google was that they are looking at Miami as one of their next potential areas, as well as going international.
Can confirm regarding Miami a client got a call today (garage doors)
Locksmith client in Buffalo, NY required to pass advanced verification.
I saw that in the log, Graham! Do you know if they’ll be invited to join the Home Service Ads or are they only being required to pass advanced verification in general?
Google is rolling this program out fast, and they already have backlog for existing clients in Google Home Services. The customer service for the new products has been basically non-existent. Has anyone else had a similar experience?
For advanced verification, did Google provide any feedback about the process for the locksmith?
They are currently verifying our license (not sure what the exact process is). I supplied a copy of our license certificate. We submitted background checks on everyone that would be going out to a customer’s home and they ran a background check on the business itself. We also submitted an insurance certificate showing what our liability limits are as well as to confirm we are insured.
Is the advanced verification process also going to be applied to companies participating in Adwords (in those industries) ?
Any information regarding the affect of ctr for Adwords/maps/organic ?
*pay per call in HSA for locksmith in Atlanta is currently $14
@Richard
The advanced verification is being applied to any business that wants to use Adwords OR Adwords Express (including HSA).
Thanks for the pricing information.
I will leave it to others to address CTA
Sarah – the markets seems to expand fairly far outside of the main city in most cases. For Atlanta they let you target as far north as Canton, as far east as Loganville, as far south as Jonesboro, and as far west as Douglasville – up to 40 miles in any direction.
Has anyone been able to test these adds yet? I’m wondering how well they are performing.
@Danielle When the ads are running, there is no data in the Home Services Dashboard that shows how often your ads show (impressions), average positions, etc., like you might see in AdWords. What we are seeing so far is that they are providing far fewer leads than expected, considering the ads get prime real estate at the top of the page.
My customers are a little concerned because they are getting repeat customers and others that have looked them up by brand calling them through Google Home Services, and consequently getting charged for those leads. Has anyone else had a similar experience?
Oh wow, that’s interesting. Thanks for the insight, Ashley!
Seeing the same thing in L.A. but I push back on my client. They need to stay in their customers’ minds via traditional means (branded fridge magnets, branded pens, etc) so that returning clients don’t use search to find them again.
Ashley, I own an agency in Los Angeles, Ventura county, I want to apply to Google HSA on behalf of one of my customers, can’t find anyway online to do it, do you know how?
give this a try. (https://adwords.google.com/homeservices/signup) I have been trying to get my customer who is a plumber involved for around 3 months now still unsuccesful! No one in the india call center or even U.S. know how to get people enrolled in this. its a mess in my opinion. Let me know what happens.
The guy I interviewed said that he was contacted by a Google Rep. personally. He never completed the form or anything. Right now, I think it’s mostly invite only based on your current status – such as if you have a bunch of great reviews.
@Doug
This was the form most recently recommended by Google.
https://adwords.google.com/homeservices/signup
I was told by the Google team that sometimes they review the application and deem the business unfit, but Google never bothers to notify that business of their decision or the reason they made that decision.
I am working right now to see if we can find out more about how the application process is working. So far Google has been fairly tight-lipped.
The other way to get a company into the program has been to get someone that is already in for that industry to recommend/refer you. Do you know anyone else that has gotten in for the vertical you are working on?
@Ashley, thanks, right now we don’t know another company in the vertical, we do know there are agency’s approved by Google for HSA. But of course, they are Google Premiere Partner status to begin with.
I dont think ALL Google Premier Partners have the ability to add a someone in HSA. I recently contacted a friend of mine who is regional manager with YP and he stated they are unable to add clients into HSA and are having the same issue.
Has anybody possessed the capacity to test these includes yet? I’m thinking about how well they are performing.
I called someone from the HSA finder and interviewed them to find out a little more. He said that the leads were VERY qualified and he was happy with the service so far. He said he was receiving about 4-5 calls a week from the HSAs and he has only had to dispute one call.
I’m not sure how well-founded this piece of info is, but he also told me that his marketing guy was told that HSAs wouldn’t be available for resellers for a minimum of two years. And that when he was invited to HSAs he had to remove his marketing guy from his AdWords Master account.
Super interesting to see which industries HSA is rolling out to and in which markets. I have a client who is an HVAC, so this will be of interest to him.
I have a client we in los angeles who is a plumber. It has been a little over 2 months of trying to get his HSA created. Can anyone give me a direction as to how to get this started.
I have filled out both of these forms a 3 times in the last 2 months
https://www.google.com/adwords/express/home-service-ads/
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/advancedverification/
Any idea when Dallas will roll out?
Tom Waddington has already reported having seen them in the Dallas area.
They are in Charlotte NC as well. Should be active November 6th.
When do you expect to roll out the Handyman vertical in Dallas/Fort Worth?
Within the next 60-90 days
Any updates on if Google is going to remove the 3 pack?
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