PPC advertising is one of the tried-and-tested methods for running an effective online marketing campaign. You may be a small business person targeting local clients or an enterprise looking at reaching scale or the potential to acquire global positioning for your brand. The fantastic thing about PPC ads is that it is flexible and scalable, reaching your target audience.

But which PPC campaign management services fits your business – Google Local Services Ads or Google Ads? Both are unique in themselves but serve a different purpose with different target audiences. In this in-depth guide, we break the differences, advantages, and what may go wrong with each option so that by the end of it, you may have an idea about which PPC campaign management services will best suit your business.

What is Google Local Services Ads (LSA)?

Google LSAs connects local businesses with people in their area. The ads show up at the top of Google search results when people look for services, whether it is a plumber, an electrician, or a pest control company. One of its key features is that LSAs favour local business, and below the company’s name, it has a badge of trust called Google’s “Google Guaranteed” or “Google Screened.”.

Key Features of Google LSAs:

• Pay-per-lead model: Under pay-per-lead model, a company will be paid only if their prospect customer gets in touch with them through an LSA.
• Verified reviews: Verified review is a flagship of customer rating and reviews that determine the ranking of the LSAs.
• Business protection: Google offers a money-back guarantee if a service provider bears the Google Guaranteed badge.
• Proximity-based targeting: The ads are shown according to the users’ locations. So it is great for service-type industries like HVAC, pest control, or even a law firm.

What is Google Ads?

Google Advertisements is a full-fledged advertising system that does not restrict its targeting based on keywords to the global masses. These ads then show up on Google search and Google’s display network where it spreads into millions of websites, mobile applications, and videos. These top the chart when one talks about PPC campaign management services. 

Key Features of Google Ads:

• Pay-per-click model: The business is charged every time a user clicks on the advertisement.
• Extensive targeting options: Google Ads serves targeting options in terms of demography, interests, keywords, which makes the campaign very versatile both for local and international campaigns.
• Customizable ad formats: Google Ads supports a wide variety of ads, from search ads to display ads, video ads, shopping ads, and will enable companies to advertise their products or services through almost any medium.

Comparing Google LSA and Google Ads

1. Cost Structure

One difference in the cost structure: Google LSA is cost-based, and Google Ads is cost-per-click.

• Google LSA: The model only charges you when an actual person contacts your business. That can be much cheaper if you’re looking for qualified leads without throwing money into clicks that don’t convert. Local service businesses, for instance, may have CPLs significantly lower in LSAs than in Google Ads, where a fluctuating CPC potential may keep it much higher because of the massive competition.
• Google Ads: Here, you pay on CPC basis rather than per lead. The average CPC for all industries on Google Ads is $4.66 as of 2024. However, your industry determines just how pricey keywords can get. A business has to be precise with keyword bids to not spend big and waste money, especially in a very competitive market.

2. Targeting Options

Both of these platforms offer extremely strong PPC campaign management services and targeting capabilities but really are here for slightly different types of needs.

• Google LSA: Because LSAs are proximity-based, they are well-suited to firms that serve local areas. Service areas can be set up so that an ad only shows to potential customers who are within a certain distance of the business. This makes LSAs very well-suited to businesses such as plumbers, landscapers, and real estate agents, where proximity is paramount.
• Google Ads: It has comprehensive keyword-based targeting options. Businesses are able to select relevant industry keywords and, hence, get the chance to be shown to users when they key specific terms. Google Ads also offers demographic targeting and retargeting options, enabling businesses to target new customers and returning customers. This thereby increases the flexibility on where to target global audiences or specific niches beyond local boundaries.

3. Lead Quality

As long as you have a business in mind, the quality of the leads depends on the either side between LSAs and Google Ads.

• Google LSA: Since LSAs display the Google Guaranteed or Google Screened badges, they are thought of as being more authentic, resulting in better lead quality. More customers click on companies that have been verified by Google so LSAs are very effective at creating high-quality leads. A report says that 88% of users trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and having verified reviews from Google can really impact your lead quality.
• Google Ads: Google Ads drives traffic to your website, but the quality of that traffic depends on how well-optimized your ads are. Consider as an illustration a business bidding on broad keywords. It may attract people to click through who aren’t yet ready to convert. Although you can use tools like conversion tracking to improve your campaigns, the average conversion rate on Google Ads across all industries is around 3.75%.​

Although that might be true, Google Ads can still be used for quality leads if you target the right type of audience with the right kind of keywords and turn out to be the best PPC campaign management services.

4. Ad Placement and Visibility

The placement of your ad can make all the difference when it comes to clicks and leads.

• Google LSA: LSAs have emerged to become the highest ranked ads in search results even above a standard Google Ads. This gives LSAs a competitive edge concerning visibility when it comes to performing local search. The term “plumber near me” will surge the top of the page full with LSAs as they shove other search ads to the long tail of the page. In most local queries, LSAs CTR will always be higher compared to standard Google Ads.
• Google Ads: While Google AdWords may not necessarily drive up the page search result in local searches, they do drive major views across all the search results and other popular content on Google’s display network. Further, Google Ads reaches a broader audience than local search in that they are not limited to only searching locally. Ads will also appear across websites, YouTube, and apps, so there is broader visibility across web pages.

5. Ad Formats

The design of your ad might play a very important role in its success or failure.

• Google LSA: These LSAs are pretty to-the-point and simply consist of a name, rating, and contact info. Not a lot of creative latitude in these, and also slightly limited in how businesses can present themselves beyond reviews and Google’s verification.
• Google Ads: Google Ads is used in making many kinds of ads like text ads, shopping ads, video ads, and display ads. This has more choices to how you reach out to the potential customers. For example, through rich media, businesses now have interesting display ads or extended product listings for e-commerce.

6. Industry Applicability

Some businesses benefit by adopting one platform or the other.

• Google LSA: LSAs are more on service-based businesses. These work best for industries like home services, legal services, or healthcare providers. Most of the customers that most of these businesses receive are local ones, so the LSAs generate pretty well within any given area.
• Google Ads: Google Ads is very versatile and works well for virtually any niche. Whether you are in e-commerce, SaaS, or hospitality, Google Ads can help you reach local or global customers. Its big choice of targeting allows for much more complex advertising strategies, such as remarketing campaigns or product-specific ads.

Final Words; Which PPC Strategy Is Best for You?

The best PPC campaign management services choose between the two: Google LSA or Google Ads, depending on what you want your business to achieve.

• Choose Google LSA if: You are running a service-based business having a need to deliver top-quality leads in specific locations. The ad is best suited for businesses that rely or require proximity and trust. LSAs are a no-risk, cost-friendly option. It is a pay-per-lead model and has a high conversion rate, mainly because of the verified reviews and trust linked to the Google Guarantee.
• Choose Google Ads if: You are targeting a wider and global audience. Here are more leeway choices in terms of targeting, formats, and reach of the ads. For e-commerce and B2B services, any business that needs extensive customer targeting and retargeting, Google Ads is the best choice.

Each has their strengths, and depending on the business, the best solution may be a mix of both. Harness the LSA’s attributes – building trust for your local audience and broad reach for Google Ads – to tailor your PPC strategy for maximum ROI.

Our PPC campaign management services at UpRango can help walk you through every step with optimizing your PPC campaigns. We can start by creating targeted Google Ads and ensure maximum visibility with LSAs in order to get leads for your business-growth.