This article explains how local service contractors can use Connected TV (CTV) to generate branded search demand and drive more inbound calls. It outlines what CTV is, why it matters for search-led businesses, and where to buy it without a traditional TV buyer, starting with YouTube and scaling to premium inventory. It emphasizes creative best practices, sensible local budgets, and tight targeting (geo-first, layered audiences, frequency caps, and dayparting). Measurement focuses on video engagement plus downstream lift in branded searches, calls, and booked jobs, ideally validated with geographic holdouts. A step-by-step playbook shows how to bolt CTV onto search campaigns to capture and scale demand.

Black Friday can drain margin for home service contractors due to coupon abuse, affiliate brand bidding, and unsecured partner traffic. The playbook recommends locking down coupons with single-use or dynamically validated codes, enforcing one-offer policies at the CSR level, and tagging all offers for reconciliation and fraud review. It also calls for zero-tolerance contracts on affiliate brand bidding and search arbitrage, continuous monitoring and trademark enforcement, and dominating brand impression share. Finally, it stresses making every partner click traceable and compliant to avoid paying twice for the same lead, with payment contingent on verifiable, compliant calls and jobs.

Yelp introduced AI-powered replies, enhanced lead capture, and real-time engagement features designed to speed initial contact and reduce ghosted leads—especially useful for home services. The guidance emphasizes using AI only for immediate acknowledgment and data collection, then quickly handing off to humans for qualification, scheduling, and conversion, with emergencies routed to calls. Contractors should set guardrails around pricing, services, service areas, after-hours rules, and tone to protect margins and accuracy, and implement a clear triage-to-scheduling workflow. Focus measurement on call-through and booked jobs rather than chat volume, enforce strong lead capture and CRM logging, and avoid generic replies or AI-based estimates that bypass on-site diagnostics.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Atlas, a new web browser whose integrated search appears to draw from Google results. Expect more zero-click behavior as users consume AI-generated summaries, compressing ad and organic click opportunities but potentially increasing the intent of remaining clicks. Contractors should measure performance by browser, protect high-intent keywords and add negatives in Google Ads, and make websites friendly to AI summaries. The focus should be on driving phone calls and bookings rather than low-intent, curiosity-driven clicks.

Google Merchant Center has introduced an Issue Details Page (IDP) within Diagnostics under the “Needs attention” tab, consolidating issues, their impact, and step-by-step fixes. It highlights recommended actions, impact metrics, and examples of affected products to speed troubleshooting, as noted by PPC News Feed’s Hana Kobzová. The article explains why this matters for contractors and ecommerce parts sellers, helping them prioritize and resolve disapprovals, data mismatches, and policy problems to protect revenue ahead of peak season. It also provides a 15-minute daily triage routine and feed hygiene best practices to keep listings compliant and minimize downtime.

Google Ads is testing auto-assigned New Customer Value (NCV) within New Customer Acquisition campaigns, injecting a fixed value without advertiser consent. This padding inflates conversion value and ROAS metrics and introduces many “unknown” classifications that muddy analysis. Because Smart Bidding optimizes to value signals, these phantom values can misdirect spend. For contractors (HVAC, plumbing, electrical), the mismatch between real booked jobs and Google’s guessed value can erode trust and shift budget away from qualified calls, so teams should audit columns and anchor optimization to calls, booked jobs, and CPA rather than Google’s assumed LTV.

This piece argues that YouTube ads can meaningfully lower contractor cost per lead—reportedly by up to 47%—while also lifting search conversions through increased familiarity. It recommends YouTube when search CPCs are high or impression share is maxed, and for seasonal demand seeding, brand proof, and smoothing midweek dips. To drive calls, it prescribes custom intent audiences built from high‑intent queries, remarketing with frequency caps, customer list inclusions/exclusions, strict geo targeting, and brand safety controls. Creative should be scripted for phone conversions with a 5‑second hook, rapid proof (trucks, techs, reviews), and clear offers and policies.

This article argues that Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) is valuable for contractors only when grounded in clean, business-representative data and directly tied to calls, booked jobs, and profit. It prescribes a minimum viable dataset spanning lead sources, call outcomes, revenue/margins, capacity, seasonality/weather, pricing/promos, competition, and tracking. The author warns against attribution inflation, assuming instant impact, ignoring capacity limits, and overconfidence in tracking, advocating for simple models with sensible lag/decay, saturation, and out-of-sample validation. Implementation should shift spend toward channels that drive qualified calls, align budgets with crew capacity and geography, and be refined on a regular cadence with reality checks, simplifying when drift appears.

This post explains how to redesign a multi-location contractor website without losing calls and leads. It emphasizes preserving SEO assets, building a precise one-to-one 301 redirect map, and maintaining strict NAP consistency across locations. It details how to create localized, conversion-focused location pages, implement scalable site architecture, and prioritize mobile performance. It also recommends rolling out in phases and closely monitoring redirects, citations, and lead metrics post-launch to quickly catch and fix issues.

Google will permanently delete canceled Google Ads accounts six months after cancellation, sending a 30‑day warning email beforehand. This change threatens the loss of valuable historical data, conversion setups, and refined campaign structures—especially harmful for home services contractors who rely on seasonal trends and call-driven metrics. Contractors should quickly audit canceled accounts, decide whether to reactivate or export, back up structures via Google Ads Editor, document conversion tracking, and ensure deletion alerts reach the right admins. For seasonal pauses, they should pause campaigns rather than cancel accounts to avoid triggering the deletion timeline.