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Local Services Ads (LSAs) have become a major avenue for businesses to gain new customers online. They have plenty of upsides: the ability to reach customers at the right stage of their journey, opportunities for targeted advertising, and paying only for the advertising that earns you leads.
There is a downside to LSAs, though. While you only pay for the leads generated by your ad, there are often leads charged to you that you may not need to pay for. You can dispute the charges, but it can take months to apply the credit to your account. Meanwhile, your LSA budget is depleted by false-charged leads.
Missed opportunities
If a dispute is approved, you can receive credit for the false lead. But this means you pay for the leads first, and you may receive a credit after the fact if the lead turns out to be false. The option to dispute is an excellent feature of LSAs, but it can take a long time for the credit to return to your account.
There are several categories of charged leads that are eligible for dispute. If a lead call is more than 30 seconds and falls under any of these categories, you can petition for a refund:
- Job not served: Your business doesn't turn on the requested service, or it's not 'turned on' in the Google Portal.
- Location not served: The job location (zip code/city) is out of the provider's service area or not targeted in the Google Portal.
- Wrong number: The caller is not a potential customer.
- Spam or bot: The caller is not a human/telemarketer.
- Duplicate lead: The caller contacted the business twice within 15 days and was independently charged (charged twice).
- Incorrect business: The caller is looking for a different business, or the lead does not belong to the business.
Once a dispute has been submitted, it can take anywhere from 24 hours to 1 week to approve the dispute (on average, most approvals happen in 24-48 hours). Not bad, right? Except that time doesn't include getting the refund. Receiving the credit back to your account can take anywhere from 2 - 5 months.
That kind of timeline is tricky for any business. With money tied up in the review process, there is less LSA budget to work with. Outrageous credit balances pile up over time as new disputes overlap approved credits, meaning it's tough to know how much money you have to spend at any given point. The upshot: many business owners end up pretty unhappy with the process. It limits your ability to strategically leverage LSAs for the best possible results.
Bye to the old, hello to the new
In the past, Scorpion did not have a solution to this issue, but today we are in a position to help.
Scorpion is now the only agency partner to give clients their LSA dispute credits back as soon as they are approved.
Scorpion clients will now see LSA dispute credits hit their advertising funds in as little as 24 hours. That means clients can go from dispute to credit received in as little as two days — versus the two-to-five month wait that most business owners experience today.
Expediting LSA credits means disputing bad LSA leads will no longer negatively impact your business. Pending credits will no longer deplete your advertising budget, and those funds can go back into the budget to be used for the growth of your business.
Plus, bad leads won't result in early paused out accounts. You'll have the opportunity to get more quality leads without having to add additional funds to the advertising budget mid-month. That kind of convenience can not only boost your marketing strategy but can reduce your cash needs, as well. It's a win-win.
With these kinds of exclusive benefits, your business will be ahead of the competition. You'll be better able to invest in what's working for you without having to lose money to advertising that isn't working well. You can build on prior success and grow your client base — all in a timely fashion.
Let's talk about managing your LSAs with Scorpion. Schedule a consultation. Talk To Us
