Google Search Outage: What Home Service Advertisers Should Do Now
Google is experiencing a data center issue disrupting search results in certain locales, reported at 5:21 pm ET with a follow-up expected within 24 hours. Home service advertisers should expect localized volatility—dips in organic traffic and potential instability in ads and LSAs—and should prioritize call volume and protecting lead flow. Immediate steps include monitoring hourly lead indicators, keeping branded search and call extensions live, loosening impression share targets, capping aggressive tCPA/tROAS bids, and slightly expanding radii in affected markets. After the incident, compare a 48-hour window against 7/28-day baselines, exclude outage hours from Smart Bidding learning if performance tanked, and report the outage impact separately to avoid skewed KPIs.
TL;DR Google has a data center issue disrupting search results in some locales. Reported 5:21 pm ET; next update within 24 hours. Expect organic dips; ads/LSA may wobble. Focus on call volume, protect lead flow, and annotate reports.
What Matters for Contractors
- Prioritize calls and booked jobs over clicks and CTR.
- Hold budgets steady; avoid knee-jerk pauses for 24 hours.
- Expect localized volatility; some ZIPs may dip while others hold.
- Organic traffic may drop; paid can backfill if demand persists.
- Annotate the outage in GA4 and ad platforms for clean reporting.
Immediate Actions
- Watch hourly lead indicators: calls, forms, LSAs, not just sessions.
- Keep branded search live; keep call extensions and LSA schedules active.
- Loosen impression share targets briefly to maintain presence.
- Cap aggressive tCPA/tROAS bids if conversion rate whipsaws.
- Expand radius slightly in impacted markets to stabilize volume.
After the Dust Settles
- Compare a 48-hour window vs. 7/28-day baselines before making changes.
- Exclude outage hours from smart bidding learning if performance tanked.
- Report separately on outage impact to avoid skewing monthly KPIs.