Onboarding Overview

In order to participate become Google Screened real estate professionals must:

• Have a professional headshot be approved by Google; The ad will not launch without an approved headshot, even if the other onboarding steps are completed.

• Pass License verification. Google’s requirements vary on a State by State basis. As an example, Florida Realtors must provide a State of Florida Real Estate license while Michigan realtors must provide either the Michigan State Salesperson license or the Michigan State Associate Broker license. Google has all the data and has done the legwork, determining which specific licensure is required in each city, state and town.

• Pass Insurance Verification. Google’s insurance requirements also vary from state to state. As an example: at the time of writing, Florida Realtors do not require insurance for LSA while Realtors serving North Carolina are required to provide a certificate of insurance showing at least $250,000 worth of coverage. Google remains the foremost authority on their own requirements and these continue to evolve as the program matures and as they receive feedback. The approval process is quite finicky. As an example, we’ve seen multiple instances of realtors providing insurance, only to have it rejected for a mismatch on the business name. We have workarounds for all of these issues, but suffice to say, the onboarding process can be arduous. Here are the basics for the insurance requirement:

1. Provide a legal document that shows affiliation between the brokerage and the business name used in the LSA profile.

1. Provide a URL to the brokerage website which shows affiliation between the business name used in the LSA profile and the brokerage firm on the insurance document.

• Pass Background check with Pinkerton.

• Have at least one approved customer review. 

• Finish setup of Bidding & Budget.

• Finish setup of Billing Information.

OMG National provides tier III support for Local Service Ads and can be reached at 800-789-4619 Option 2

Pre-Badge Ads

Worth noting, it is possible to participate in paid advertising thru LSA by means of a prebadge ad. Pre-Badge ads are a way for applicants to get a taste of LSA before they are entirely complete with their onboarding verification. Naturally, they advertise without the Google Screened badge at this phase. 

• Being badged requires 100% completion of all onboarding verification checks.
• Pre-Badge ads are allowed to go live before the insurance and background check verifications are approved.