How Optometrists Can Succeed with Google Local Services Ads in 2025
- Leverage New Trends: Costs per lead are rising, but click-through rates are improving—making smart use of AI tools like Performance Max more important.
- Strengthen Trust Signals: Verified reviews, the Google Guaranteed Badge, and fast response times all improve rankings and patient confidence.
- Optimize for Local Success: Focus on reviews, responsiveness, business hours, and complaint-free service to rank higher in Google’s Local Services Ads results.
Do you want to grow your optometry practice by increasing the number of local clients you have? Then one of the best local advertising strategies for optometrists to consider is Google Local Services Ads. Designed for service-related businesses like yours, Google Local Services Ads will help you get seen by the people in your area who need your services.
What Are Google Local Services Ads?
Google Local Services Ads are an advertising type that Google offers to service-based businesses, like optometry practices. This can be a key factor in an effective local search marketing plan for optometrists, because these ads offer a pay-per-lead advertising structure that specifically targets people searching for optometry services in their area. The goal of Local Services Ads is for someone to call, message, or book an appointment with you.
Local Services Ads are different from traditional Google ads in that you don’t bid on keywords. Instead, you pay for leads. You’ll only pay when a customer contacts you through the ad, so if the ad is doing its job well, you should only pay when you are talking to a potential client. Also, the ads are based on location and service over keywords, so you should reach highly local clients looking for optometry services.
Local Services Ads appear at the top of the search results before the sponsored optometry advertising, Google Map Pack, and organic results. They include your business name, star rating, any verified badges you have, and important information like the number of years in business, your preferred contact information, or your hours. Searchers can easily click on them to call, email, or message your business from your Google Business page.
2025 Google Local Services Ads Trends You Should Know
If your optometry practice is going to delve into Google Local Services Ads, then it’s time to learn a little more about them. The latest trends in Google Local Services Ads for optometrists include statistics about the cost, a focus on AI, and a focus on trust signals. Here are some of the key things to look at when moving toward Google Local Services Ads.
1. Advertising Costs Are Increasing
Online advertising is increasing in cost. According to Wordstream, the average cost per lead for search advertising in 2025 is $70.11. This is up 5% from 2025, when the cost was $66.69. From 2023 to 2024, the cost jumped by 24% as more local businesses started embracing this advertising method, so the cost seems to be stabilizing, though still increasing.
While the cost per lead is going up, most industries, including optometry, are seeing a slight increase in click-through rate. However, this increase is only about 6.66%, an increase of 3.74% over 2025, which is lower than in past years.
While the click-through rate is only increasing slightly and costs are going up, most industries have seen increases in the click-through rate. In the healthcare industry, the average click-through rate in 2025 is 6.73%, and overall, a more stable economy is helping people feel more confident in clicking on ads and booking services.
What does all of this mean for your optometry practice? It means you need to ensure you are using Google Local Ads effectively so you receive targeted, local leads that bring the highest ROI for a growing investment. It also means finding ways to automate your Google Local Services Ads is important.
2. Increased Voice Search for Optometrists
Voice search is growing every single year, and marketers are using voice search keywords in the PPC campaigns. Google Local Services Ads don’t utilize keywords, but they are shown for voice search when someone searches with Google Assistant. If you want to ensure that you’re reaching local customers with an urgent need to see the optometrist, then you will reach more through voice search if you invest in Google Local Services Ads.
3. Trust Signals Becoming More Important
When choosing which optometry practice to show for a particular search, Google is going to start looking for trust signals. Verified reviews and a high review score will be helpful in landing a good ranking. For this reason, eliciting reviews for your optometry practice will be a crucial part of your Google Local Services Ads campaigns.
One valuable trust signal you can request is the Google Guaranteed Badge. This badge, which is available to those who purchase Local Services Ads and go through a screening and verification process, promises that Google will reimburse a client for services if they are unhappy with what they received from your practice. This badge goes far in establishing trust and, therefore, improving your ranking.
4. Growing Importance of AI
Whether you love it or hate it, AI is taking central stage in the online marketing world for 2025. The role of AI is present in all types of online advertising, and Google is not exempt.
For Google Local Services Ads, those that utilize Performance Max can have greater visibility across a larger number of channels, which can increase the competitiveness of your campaigns.
Performance Max is an AI-powered campaign that asks for your goals and then uses an AI-powered algorithm to decide where to post the ads. The campaign can post ads on all of Google’s advertising channels, including YouTube, Maps, Gmail, Discover, Display, and, of course, Search.
You set your conversion goals, and the bidding, posting, and ad optimizing is done by the AI software. Google taps into its data on search intent and preferences to better target your potential clients where they spend their time online.
Is Google Performance Max perfect? No. Some users get frustrated by the lack of performance data when they use Performance Max. However, it is preferred by the search engine giant, and this means it’s something you will need to learn to make your Google Local Service ads effective. If you want the ability to appear on all of Google’s channels, without managing multiple individual campaigns, then consider learning Performance Max.
5. Emphasis on Response Times
When you get leads through your Google Local Services Ads campaigns, responding to them quickly is vital. Google factors in your response time to their ranking decision, so a faster response time will mean a better ranking. It’s also good customer service to respond to people quickly when they ask about your optometry practice.
Surefire Local makes it easy to respond to leads as quickly as possible. You can see all of your contacts in one location, allowing you to respond to them from the software platform without having to visit different advertising platforms to craft a response. Automated responses are also possible through the platform.
Know How to Optimize Your Google Business Page for Local Services Ads
One of the challenges for optometry practices that want to start with Local Services Ads is the different way that Google ranks for these. You can’t change your keywords or ad copy to rank better, because the main factors the search giant considers are:
- Review score
- Number of reviews
- Responsiveness
- Business hours
- Complaints about your business
So how can you “optimize” for Local Services Ads? Focus on generating many high star reviews, offering reasonable or extended business hours, and responding to inquiries promptly. All of these will increase your ranking score and increase the chances that your optometry practice is one of the three shown when someone searches for you.
Stay Organized for All Optometry Marketing with Surefire Local
Since reviews and responsiveness are two of the most important factors for Google Local Search Ads, you’re going to need the right tools to generate reviews and respond to clients. You’ll find both with Surefire Local.
Our local marketing platform has review-gathering tools, such as automated requests for reviews, that make it more likely that your satisfied customers will leave a raving review.
In addition, we’ve built a small business marketing platform that lets you see and respond to reviews without leaving our software. You can also respond to and engage with leads directly from Surefire Local. This means you save time and energy while improving your rank with Google Local Services Ads.
Not only that, but you can directly manage your ad campaign through our small business marketing software. This means you don’t have to log into Google directly whenever you want to make a change. If you have other online marketing campaigns, like PPC campaigns or social media advertising, you can monitor the results for all of them directly on the platform.
Google Local Services Ads are a must for optometry practices. If you want to get help managing and optimizing for these, Surefire Local can assist. See how the software works for yourself by making plans to attend a demo today.