Google Business Profile Setup for Ads Success (Complete Guide)

Your Google Ads account is open and ready. Now we need to set up your Google Business Profile.

Before we dive in, let me address something important: your Google Business Profile is tied to a physical address. It’s easiest when you have a real business location—an office, storefront, or service center—because Google can verify it through pictures and videos. The approval process is straightforward in those cases.

Sometimes this becomes a struggle. If you work from home, use a virtual office, or operate as a mobile-only service business, verification can be more complicated. If you run into issues, we may need to discuss alternative approaches. But for most businesses with a physical location, the process is simple.

Google Business Profile is essential for local lead-generation businesses. It powers Local Service Ads, enables location extensions in your Search Ads, and displays your reviews directly in your ads. It’s completely free and takes about 30 minutes to set up.

What Is Google Business Profile & Why It Matters

Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is your business listing that appears on Google Maps and in local search results. While it’s not technically part of Google Ads, it’s essential for lead-generation advertising.

Local Service Ads are the most important reason to optimize your profile. If your business qualifies—and most home services, legal services, and professional services do—LSAs put you at the very top of Google search results with a “Google Guaranteed” badge. These ads run on pay-per-lead instead of pay-per-click. You can’t run LSAs without a verified Google Business Profile.

Here’s what makes LSAs so powerful: they’re driven by the number of reviews you have and the constant flow of new reviews. Google ranks LSA providers primarily by review count, average rating, and responsiveness. A business with 150 reviews from the past year will outrank a business with 200 reviews from three years ago. The constant flow matters tremendously for LSA effectiveness.

Your profile also enables location extensions in your regular Search Ads, showing your address and phone number directly in your ads. This makes them larger, more credible, and drives higher click-through rates. Review extensions display your star rating in your ads—powerful social proof that increases conversions.

Beyond paid advertising, your profile gives you free local visibility. When people search “plumber near me” or “divorce lawyer in Denver,” your profile can appear in the map pack. That’s free traffic.

Let me address negative reviews, which frustrate many business owners. I know it’s maddening when a difficult customer leaves a one-star review for the world to see. But negative reviews are unavoidable in any service business.

The solution isn’t to hide from reviews—it’s to make sure you’re actively collecting and showcasing the majority of your customers who had positive, great experiences. If you have 50 five-star reviews and 2 one-star reviews, the math speaks for itself. But if you have 2 five-star reviews and 2 one-star reviews, you’ve got a problem—not because the negative reviews exist, but because you haven’t collected enough positive ones to drown them out.

Claiming or Creating Your Profile

First, check if your profile already exists. Search for your business name plus your city on Google. If a profile appears on the right side or in Google Maps, it already exists—click “Claim this business.”

If no profile exists, go to google.com/business and create a new one. The process takes about 15-20 minutes if you have your information ready.

Start with your business name. Enter your legal business name exactly as it appears on official documents. Don’t stuff keywords—Google can suspend profiles for that.

Choose your business category carefully. This is critical for Local Service Ads eligibility. Your primary category determines whether you can run LSAs. Choose the most specific category: “Plumber” not “Home Services,” “Personal Injury Attorney” not “Lawyer,” “HVAC Contractor” not “Contractor.” You can add secondary categories later, but the primary category drives LSA eligibility.

Set your location or service area. If customers visit your location, enter your address. If you go to customers, select “I deliver goods and services to my customers” and define your service area by radius or zip codes. Be honest—don’t claim areas you don’t actually serve.

Add contact information: phone number, website URL, and business hours. Having your website, phone numbers, and other details finalized before this step makes the process much smoother. You want to link all your online properties correctly from the start.

Make sure your hours reflect when you can actually answer the phone. If you can’t take calls on Sundays, don’t mark yourself as open.

Verification is required. Google typically sends a postcard with a verification code to your business address (5-14 days). Some businesses qualify for instant phone, email, or video verification. Once verified, your profile goes live.

Managing Multiple Locations

If you have multiple physical locations, you need a separate Google Business Profile for each one.

When I was running The Sofa Company, we had five showrooms across Southern California plus our headquarters. Each location had its own Google Business Profile. This was critical because each showed up on Google Maps distinctly, had its own reviews, and could be targeted with location-specific ads.

Here’s how it works: Each location gets its own profile with its own address, phone number, hours, and photos. Reviews accumulate separately for each location. If someone searches “furniture store near me” in Orange County, they’d see our Orange County showroom. If someone in Culver City searched, they’d see our Culver City location.

The management advantage: You can manage all locations under a single user account or set up multi-location management at the administration level. I managed all five showrooms from one dashboard, which made updating hours, responding to reviews, and adding photos much more efficient than logging into separate accounts.

When you connect to Google Ads, you can choose which locations to promote in specific campaigns. If you’re running a campaign targeting Orange County, you can show only your Orange County location. If you’re running a broader campaign, you can rotate between locations based on the searcher’s proximity.

Each location needs to be verified separately, which means five postcards if you have five locations. Budget 2-3 weeks for verification when setting up multiple locations.

This approach lets you grow your review base location by location, target ads geographically with precision, and track performance by location—all essential for multi-location businesses.

Optimizing Your Profile for Lead Generation

Creating your profile is step one. Optimizing it is where most businesses leave money on the table.

Keep your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistent across your website, Google Business Profile, and all online listings. Inconsistencies confuse Google and hurt your rankings.

Your primary category drives LSA eligibility. Double-check it’s correct. Most home services (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing), legal services, and some professional services qualify for LSAs. Get the category right.

Photos build trust. Profiles with photos get 42% more requests for directions and 35% more clicks to websites. Add a logo, cover photo, and 3-5 work photos minimum. Before-and-after shots, completed projects, your team in action—these show potential customers what to expect.

Reviews Are Everything

Here’s what I’ve learned: reviews are the most important factor for lead generation through Google Business Profile.

For Search Ads, reviews increase click-through rates dramatically. A 4.8-star rating with 200+ reviews builds instant trust. For Local Service Ads, reviews are even more critical. Google ranks LSAs primarily by number of reviews, average rating, and responsiveness.

The constant flow of new reviews matters. A business with 80 reviews from the past six months outranks one with 150 reviews from two years ago. You need fresh reviews consistently.

How do you get them? Ask. Most satisfied customers will leave a review if you simply ask. After completing a job, send an email or text with your Google review link within 24-48 hours. Your profile dashboard has a “Get more reviews” button that gives you a direct link—use that in every follow-up.

Build this into your process. Every completed job equals a review request. If you complete 50 jobs per month and get a 20% response rate, that’s 10 new reviews monthly—exactly what keeps your LSA ranking high.

Respond to ALL reviews, especially negative ones. Thank customers for positive reviews. For negative reviews, respond professionally, acknowledge the issue, and offer to make it right. Potential customers will see how you handle problems, and that matters as much as the review itself.

List your services specifically. “Emergency AC Repair” is better than “HVAC Services.” “Roof Replacement” is better than “Roofing.” The more specific, the better your visibility.

The Google Guaranteed badge is available if you qualify for LSAs. Google runs background checks on your business and employees. If you pass, you get a green checkmark badge that builds massive trust. Apply through the LSA setup process (covered in Chapter 3).

Connecting to Google Ads

Once verified, connect your profile to Google Ads. In Google Ads, click the tools icon, go to “Linked accounts,” find “Google Business Profile,” and link it.

This enables location extensions (address and phone in your ads), review extensions (star rating in ads), and Local Service Ads eligibility. Verify it’s working by using Google’s Ad Preview tool to check if location extensions appear.

Common Mistakes

Wrong category limits visibility and disqualifies you from LSAs. Choose carefully.

Inconsistent NAP across platforms confuses Google. Make everything match.

Ignoring reviews—not asking for them, not responding—huge missed opportunity.

Outdated information (wrong hours, old phone numbers) drives customers to competitors.

Not linking to Google Ads means you lose extensions and LSA eligibility.

No photos makes your profile look inactive.

Ready to Move Forward

Before continuing, verify you’ve completed:

☐ Profile claimed or created and verified
☐ NAP accurate and consistent
☐ Primary category correct for LSA eligibility
☐ Service area set properly (or multiple locations if applicable)
☐ Hours match when you can answer calls
☐ Photos added
☐ Services listed
☐ Linked to Google Ads
☐ Review collection process in place

Your Google Business Profile is now optimized and connected. It’s powering location extensions, enabling Local Service Ads if you qualify, and showcasing your reviews to potential customers. More importantly, you have a system for collecting reviews consistently—the constant flow that makes LSAs incredibly effective.

Next, we’ll set up Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics 4—the tracking foundation that tells you which keywords drive which customers and how to optimize for maximum ROI.