A “Request Competitive Quotes” button in Google Local Services Ads is causing uncertainty among advertisers about potential hidden costs.
How it works:
- Users click the “Request Competitive Quotes” button.
- They select multiple businesses for quotes.
- Users enter a message and email address.
- Google sends the request to all selected businesses simultaneously.
Why we care. This feature could significantly impact advertisers’ cost per lead, potentially inflating expenses without their knowledge. The lack of transparency around how these charges are applied makes it harder for advertisers to calculate their true ROI, potentially skewing campaign performance metrics.
What we don’t know:
- Whether Google charges each business for these multi-quote requests.
- How this feature affects overall cost per lead calculations.
What they’re saying: We were alerted to this test by Nick Smith, Senior Digital Strategist at Riester who reported that this information is not available online or in Google’s documentation.
Google has yet to comment on this test.
Why it matters: If each business is charged for these multi-quote requests, it could:
- Artificially inflate lead costs.
- Reduce the effectiveness of advertising budgets.
- Impact ROI calculations for Local Services Ads campaigns.
The bottom line: Advertisers using Google Local Services Ads need clarity on how the “Request Competitive Quotes” feature affects their costs and lead attribution.
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About the author
Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. She covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.
In 2008, Anu’s career started with
delivering digital marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, maximising ROI, automating repetitive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leadership both on agency, client and marketing tech side.
Outside editing Search Engine Land article she is the founder of PPC networking event – PPC Live and host of weekly podcast PPCChat Roundup.
She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on being SMX (US), SMX (Munich), Friends of Search (Amsterdam), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna) and more.
