Sam Karam & Sons Saves $6K Through Local Service Ads

Sam Karam & Sons is a home improvement company that has been serving the Massachusetts and Rhode Island area for over 45 years. Historically, Sam Karam had utilized multiple advertising channels like TV and radio ads to reach their customers but found these channels to be cost prohibitive and difficult to track ROI. They came to Black Propeller looking to test digital advertising as a new lead source.

Our team conducted an audit of their market and recommended that the client invest the majority of their budget into Google Local Service Ads, rather than Google search ads, as the CPC costs for search were significantly higher than what their starting budget would accommodate.

Because Google Local Service Ads are charged per lead, rather than per-click, we felt that this would be the best channel to start with.

Goals

• Integrate a strong lead generation strategy that would provide consistent opportunities for the sales representatives
• Prioritize spend toward quality leads with a high qualified-to-unqualified ratio
• Increase top-of-page visibility
• Earn back money that was spent on unqualified leads by disputing callers requesting business outside of Sam Karam & Sons expertise

• Lack of previous data from a Local Service Ads account
• Setting up a new Local Service Ads account
• Competitive General Contractor landscape

The first step was setting up the GLSA account and consulting with the client to get their Google My Business listing optimized.

Next was optimizing our Local Services Account on a day-to-day basis to ensure maximum performance- more visibility, more leads, and more sales. The three key initiatives to increase the visibility of Local Service Ads are:

• The accounts overall rating
• The quantity of positive reviews
• The overall responsiveness rate to incoming phone calls.

Our team discussed a plan with the client to generate more highly rated reviews, as well as a plan to improve their intake team’s responsiveness rate.

To ensure we were driving qualified leads, our team listened to & disputed calls that were outside of our client’s scope of business & earned back credits from Google. Two examples of an unqualified call include a customer calling from outside of the targeted service area or a service request regarding a service not on the Local Service Ads profile. Through the process of listening to & disputing unqualified calls, we’ve saved this client over $6,000 in ad spend.

The initial results of our Local Service Ads have been remarkable. The client’s lead volume is up by 34%. GLSA has proven to be the most cost-effective advertising solution they have ever utilized, reporting a CPA decrease of nearly 200%.