Is Google My Business a good lead generator?

[jayjaydee]

Hi sweaters

I started my painting and decorating biz in May and have been focusing on optimising my GMB profile (reviews, photos, offers, description, etc.)

However...

I have had 0 calls

Is GMB really working for anyone? I have 18 reviews and feel the images are strong.

Google My Business Profile

Any ideas why it’s a lacklustre channel? Is it Time? Is it all a lie? Is it the niche?

I’m UK based (London)

Look forward to thoughts

Thanks

 

[schlappy]

@jayjaydee My google listing gets tons of traffic but never leads.

I would suspect that there's a lot of half conscious browising that goes on, as well as googl3 showing people my listing and counting that as an impression even if they didn't actually "see" it.

 

[jayjaydee]

@schlappy It’s strange. Loads of people go on about GMB but as I say the results have been pretty lacklustre. That said, I got ONE call in August that resulted to some good business.

 

[itspt95]

@schlappy My photos supposedly get thousands and thousands of views, which I don't really buy.

 

[rls]

@jayjaydee Are you posting to it regularly? This is the best way to up your rankings for free. An active page with the same number of pics and reviews as an inactive page will be shows much higher in Google searches.

 

[inmatetalks]

@jayjaydee Google my business has helped some with my service business. Google Local Services ads is REALLY effective and absolutely worth the investment.

 

[jayjaydee]

@inmatetalks I am trying to post something at least once every month. I have been uploading photos at least every two weeks.

 

[jayjaydee]

@inmatetalks Ah I don’t think Google Local Services ads are live or open in the UK at the moment. Will keep an eye out for when it does

 

[jayjaydee]

Just to add. I even ran GMB ad campaigns for 4 weeks spending £5-7 a day and got ZERO calls. I just received spam calls from India... I’m seriously befuddled because of the hype around GMB for local SEO and my results,

 

[oldsaint]

@jayjaydee Depends on your business.
Depends on your profile.
Depends how much traction your profile has, and how well your profile converts that traction into actual business.

At the end of the day, all exposure is good. It's "awareness" level marketing. People won't know you exist if they aren't aware of you.

Then you have to continue campaigns towards your target market to make sure they think of you top of mind when they enter the buying cycle.

Crack that code, you'll do fine!

 

[incorporeal]

@jayjaydee You might not just have enough time in yet. Almost all of our service work comes from google

 

[judgev]

@jayjaydee It all comes down to how you rank on google when people search for your service in your area. If you are #1 then you will get a lot of calls usually. Especially for a home service business. I would test out a search for "painting service - your city" and see who shows up #1. Look at their keywords they are using in their business name. Also you can get more than 1 location to show up if you make multiple google my business locations. you just have to have different phone numbers and location addresses but they can all lead back to your website.

Imagine your somewhere in town and you search for a Starbucks or coffee shop. It will pull up the nearest coffee shop. The same is with multiple locations or multiple GMB profiles. You can create a spider web around the city.

Hope this helps.

 

[jayjaydee]

@judgev Thanks. I like the idea of having multiple locations under the same brand. I think this could be effective, especially in key target areas. Thanks for the tip!

 

[judgev]

@jayjaydee No problem. If you do this method, I would also use different email addresses to set up each GMB profile to keep everything separate in googles eyes.

 

[jayjaydee]

@judgev Ah so. It won’t leverage the existing GMB reviews and profile it will be seen as an entirely different business? Different phone number and same website?

 

[judgev]

@jayjaydee Yes it will appear as new business but you can add fake reviews or ask friends/family for reviews. Kinda just have to do it like that if you really want high traffic quick. This is literally what all the big companies do. so you have to put morality aside and just compete.

 

[belledandy]

@jayjaydee When you say 0 calls, do you mean 0 calls from GMB or zero calls at all? You should be running it in conjunction with Google Ads, IMO.

Also, are you tracking call attribution? I see you have GA and GTM installed on your site, are call clicks being tracked to their referral source?

In my experience the best way to boost performance of any GMB listing is by getting customers to post photos with their reviews.

 

[saint7]

@jayjaydee I see you have 18 reviews. How does that compare to your competition? That could be the difference.

 

[jayjaydee]

@saint7 I think it’s pretty strong. Not many competitors are using GMB. This is the surprise.

 

[rhema520]

@jayjaydee GMB can definitely be a solid lead generator, but it does take time and consistent effort.

Make sure your profile is fully optimized with up-to-date info. I’ve had better luck after using hifivestar to manage and boost my reviews.

Their platform helps get more positive feedback and improves visibility.

It might take a bit of time, but stick with it! Also, consider other marketing channels to complement your GMB efforts.