Google to begin including photos in Local Service Ads

According to Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin, Google will now begin selecting photos from advertisers LSA profiles to show in their ads.

In March, Google began asking LSA advertisers for photos in an email that included the screencap, above.

For the first time, Google has said that photos in LSA ads can help improve ad ranking; also that Google will select photos "based on their likelihood to increase engagement with your ad." But ads may not also include photos, "depending on the user query and other factors."

Google recommends uploading at least 3 images.

Google's LSA photo guidelines include:

• high-quality images
• images showing you performing work
• images relevant to your business
• original images
• no phone numbers or other identifying information
• images showing customers (for some types of businesses)
• formats: JPEG, PNG, BMP, ICO, WEBP
• resolution 640px x 640px or better
• max filesize 10 MB

Initially, LSA ads will include photos in the USA and Canada only.

And Google will not be sharing any analytics data - clicks, impressions, etc. - at this time.