ReferenceBusiness Profile suspension
Ineligible: lead generation
Google lists lead generation agents or companies among the businesses not eligible for a Business Profile. A business whose product is collecting inquiries and passing or selling them to other businesses is in this group. A business that takes its own inquiries and serves its own customers is not. Describe what the business sells before changing anything, since the description is what the reviewer reads.
At a glance
- Where it shows
- In the profile's suspension decision, under the eligibility rules.
- What stops
- The profile's eligibility is in question, so it can be suspended.
- How serious
- Serious. The type is named as not eligible, so the change has to be to the business description, or to the business itself.
What it means
Google's eligibility guidelines list lead generation agents or companies among the businesses not eligible for a Business Profile. The type is defined by the service: the business generates inquiries and passes or sells them to other businesses.
The category is about what the business sells. A business that receives inquiries through its own forms and serves those customers itself is a different case, even though both take leads.
What actually triggers it
A company that sells contacts or appointments to other businesses
The product is the contact, and the buyer is another business. The profile's description or services say the business books or finds customers for others.
A marketing service that brings in inquiries for other businesses' customers
A firm that runs ads or forms to send inquiries on to other businesses fits the description, even when it never serves those customers itself.
A lead form built to resell the details it collects
The form exists to pass the contact details on, not to serve the person who filled it in.
Fix it in this order
- Describe what the business sells in one sentence, as a customer would receive it. If the sale is the contact, the business is a lead business.
- If the business does serve its own customers, check the profile's category, description and services for wording that reads as finding customers for others.
- Rewrite those fields to describe the service the business performs itself, with the inquiry form as one way to reach it. Wording that hides a lead business does not change what it is.
- If the business is a lead business, it is not eligible for a profile. Reach its customers through its website and ad accounts instead, and do not appeal a correct classification.
Google's page does not say how the classification is reviewed, so describe the business accurately in every field a reviewer may read.
When to appeal
An appeal can succeed when the business does serve its own customers and the profile was misread. Send the description, the services and an account of how customers are served.
An appeal for a business that sells leads to others will not change the decision, because the rule is about the service.
Often confused with
Ineligible: no in-person contact during stated hours
A lead business can pass the hours test and still be ineligible, and a service business can fail the hours test without being a lead business. Check each rule on its own.
Ineligible: online-only business
An online-only business sells its own product or service online. A lead business sells contacts to others. Both are ineligible, but the owner has to know which applies before deciding what to change.