Inside Local Services Ads: Ranking Signals, Lead Costs, & Why LSAs Beat the Local Pac w/ Eric Levine

Описание: Googe Local Services Ads have become the “top-of-the-page” battleground for high-value local categories—especially professional services. In this episode, Greg Sterling and Mike Blumenthal talk with former LSA team member Eric Levine about how LSAs evolved, what really influences rank, and how Google’s lead marketplace mechanics shape outcomes.

We break down “request multiple options,” lead billing, the big ranking signals (reviews, responsiveness, radius/service area), why LSAs often win user attention over the local pack, and how photos should be chosen and structured to match user decision-making.

Join us next week for Paret 2 of this interview

00:00 – Introduction & Eric Levine’s background at Google
03:30 – Early LSA pilots, cold calling, and product experiments
06:30 – Why Google built a separate LSA review system
08:00 – Verification, Google Guaranteed → Google Verified
10:00 – LSAs vs Google Ads vs Google Business Profile
13:30 – Why LSAs dominate the top of search
15:00 – Multi-provider leads & how billing works
18:30 – What really determines LSA rankings
22:00 – Responsiveness, behavior signals, and algorithm feedback
25:00 – User research, confusion, and why LSAs win clicks
28:30 – Mobile vs desktop & closing thoughts