By Welton Hong, founder and CEO, Ring Ring Marketing
There is a temptation with any new marketing opportunity to think the first question is, “How do I get more leads?”
With Google Local Services Ads, I think that is the wrong place to start.
The better question is: “Are we ready for the leads when they arrive?”
Local Services Ads can put a funeral home prominently in front of people searching for the services it offers, and the consumer can call, message or, where available, book directly from the ad. Google also uses factors such as responsiveness, profile quality, reviews, relevance, service area and other signals when determining ad ranking.
That means LSA isn’t simply a switch you flip and then wait for the phone to ring. It is a system in which your reputation, your marketing profile and your operation all matter.
For funeral homes, there is another reason to prepare carefully. The person calling you from a Local Services Ad may be having one of the most difficult conversations of his or her life. What happens next is up to you.
Get Your House in Order Before You Advertise
The first thing I would look at is your Google review profile.
Google explicitly says that star ratings and the number of reviews affect how businesses are ranked in Local Services Ads. Google recommends at least five reviews for LSA participation, depending on the business category, but I would not confuse a technical minimum with a competitive benchmark.
Imagine two funeral homes appear beside each other in a Local Services search. One has a 4.9-star rating with 140 reviews, while the other has a 4.3 with 17 reviews. The consumer may know nothing else about either funeral home. At that moment, the review profile becomes part of the sales presentation.
And that is how to think about reviews: They are silent salespeople.
Before launching an LSA campaign, look at your rating, the total number of reviews, how recently the reviews were posted and what people are actually saying about you. A funeral home with a strong rating but almost no recent activity may not create the same impression as one whose reputation appears active and consistently reinforced by families.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking the goal is simply to accumulate five-star ratings. The goal is to generate authentic stories from real families who can explain what your funeral home did well. A review that says, “Great service” is nice. A review that explains how your staff helped a family navigate an unexpected death, accommodated a difficult request or made an overwhelming process easier tells someone much more.
Of course, the reviews must be legitimate. Don’t manufacture testimonials, incentivize reviews improperly or create fake accounts. Google has policies governing customer reviews, and reviews that violate those policies can be removed.
The next step is to make sure your Google Business Profile and LSA information are accurate and complete. Verify your business information, service areas, hours and services.
I would also take a hard look at the photos you’re using: Your LSA profile should look like a real, professional, trustworthy business, which can contribute to better LSA rankings.
Then comes the part that I think is often overlooked: Your staff needs to know the campaign is coming.
If you are about to spend money generating more phone calls, don’t let the first employee who answers the phone discover the marketing campaign when the first call arrives.
Have a conversation with the entire team. Explain what Local Services Ads are, what types of calls may come through them and what the expectations are for answering those calls. Make sure everyone understands that these are not necessarily people who already know your funeral home. Many will be comparing several providers.
That brings us to price shoppers.
When someone asks, “How much does a funeral cost?” that’s not a bad lead. That’s a person who is often overwhelmed and trying to determine whether your funeral home is financially within reach.
Your staff needs a consistent strategy for handling those conversations.
Before launching LSA, role-play the difficult calls. Have someone play the consumer who immediately asks for the price of direct cremation. Have someone ask about the cost of a traditional funeral. Have someone say, “I’m calling three funeral homes and just need your cheapest price.”
Then listen to how your staff responds.
Do they immediately throw out a price and stop talking? Do they sound irritated? Do they talk too fast? Do they use terminology the caller may not understand?
Make the time to really listen to these calls. Then train your staff to ask better questions, acknowledge the family’s situation, explain what is included in the price and give callers a reason to continue the conversation.
You should also establish who is responsible for answering LSA calls, what happens when the primary person is unavailable, how missed calls are handled and how quickly messages are returned. Google specifically notes that responsiveness matters to LSA performance and that regularly failing to answer calls or respond to messages can affect ad ranking.
Finally, decide what success means before you begin. Don’t measure the campaign solely by the number of calls. Track leads, qualified opportunities, appointments or arrangements where appropriate, cost per lead and ultimately the business generated. Google provides reporting on leads and spending, and valid leads are generally those related to the business and generated through the Local Services platform.
The team at Ring Ring Marketing stands ready to help you get your Local Services Ads up and running and to get a strategy in place before the first call comes in.
My next article on Local Services Ads will focus on the hidden training tool embedded within the service that many funeral homes are missing.
Welton Hong is the founder & CEO of Ring Ring Marketing, which has helped over 600 small businesses grow their revenue through online marketing strategies. He is also the author of “Making Your Phone Ring with Internet Marketing for Funeral Homes.” Visit ringringmarketing.com and follow the company on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X.
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