LSA Spy Skill — Local Services Ads Market Intelligence

Local Services Ads operate on a fundamentally different model from traditional search ads. You do not bid on keywords — you bid on leads. You do not write ad copy — Google generates the ad from your profile. The competitive dynamics, the pricing model, and the optimization levers are all different from PPC. And the data about LSA markets is harder to find than standard paid search data because Google does not expose LSA auction data the same way.

LSA Spy fills that data gap. The lsa-spy-tool skill connects Claude to LSA Spy’s market intelligence, giving the lsa-ads strategy skill the competitive data it needs to assess opportunities, estimate costs, and analyze competitor presence in any LSA market. This is data that LocalSEOData does not cover — LocalSEOData’s local_services_ads endpoint shows which businesses currently appear in LSA results, but it does not track positions over time, estimate bids, or profile competitor signals.

What This Skill Does

The lsa-spy-tool skill enables Claude to pull LSA market data for any service category and location: which businesses are running LSAs, estimated monthly spend, review counts and ratings, Google Guaranteed or Google Screened status, rank position trends, and approximate cost-per-lead in that market.

Prompt: "What does the LSA landscape look like for plumbers in Denver?
Who's running ads, what are they spending, and is there room for another player?"

Skills fired: dispatch → lsa-ads + lsa-spy-tool
Data pulled: Market overview, competitor ad presence, bid estimates

Output:
LSA Market Analysis — Plumbers, Denver CO

Active advertisers: 14
Average estimated monthly spend: $2,800
Cost per lead estimate: $45-85
Google Guaranteed businesses: 11 of 14

Top 3 by estimated spend:
  1. Mile High Plumbing — ~$5,200/mo, 342 reviews (4.8), Google Guaranteed
  2. Denver Drain Pros — ~$4,100/mo, 218 reviews (4.7), Google Guaranteed
  3. Front Range Plumbing — ~$3,600/mo, 156 reviews (4.9), Google Guaranteed

Market assessment: Moderately competitive. 14 advertisers below saturation
for a metro this size. Entry point viable at $1,500-2,500/mo budget.
Key barrier: Google Guaranteed verification (2-4 week process).
Review threshold for competitive position: 80+ reviews at 4.5+ rating.

When Dispatch Routes Here

Dispatch routes to lsa-spy-tool when:

  • The prompt mentions LSA, Local Services Ads, or Google Guaranteed rankings
  • The prompt asks about LSA competitive positioning or market analysis
  • The lsa-ads strategy skill needs market-level data to inform recommendations
  • The prompt asks who ranks in LSA positions for a given category and location
  • The prompt asks about LSA bid estimates or market costs

The lsa-ads strategy skill is the primary consumer of lsa-spy-tool data. When someone asks an LSA strategy question, dispatch fires lsa-ads for the strategy and lsa-spy-tool for the data.

LSA Market Assessment and Opportunity Analysis

The primary use case is market assessment before entering an LSA market or diagnosing problems in an existing one. The lsa-ads strategy skill knows the optimization framework — what makes an LSA profile competitive, how lead quality varies by category, what budget levels make sense. LSA Spy provides the market-specific data that makes those assessments concrete.

Market assessment answers three questions: How competitive is this market (number of advertisers, their spend levels, their review profiles)? What is the entry cost (estimated cost-per-lead, minimum competitive budget)? What are the barriers (Google Guaranteed requirements, review thresholds, category-specific dynamics)?

Prompt: "Should my client start running LSAs for 'personal injury lawyer' in Chicago?
What would they need to be competitive?"

Skills fired: dispatch → lsa-ads + lsa-spy-tool

Output:
LSA Opportunity Assessment — Personal Injury Lawyer, Chicago

Market intensity: HIGH
Active advertisers: 28
Estimated cost per lead: $180-350
Average monthly spend (top 10): $8,400

Minimum competitive requirements:
  - Google Screened verification (mandatory for legal)
  - 40+ Google reviews at 4.5+ rating
  - $3,000+ monthly budget to maintain visibility
  - Response time under 15 minutes for lead acceptance

Recommendation: Viable but expensive. Client needs 40+ reviews before
launch. Below that threshold, ad spend generates leads but at
cost-per-lead 40-60% higher than established competitors.
Build review base first, then enter at $3,000/mo.

Diagnosing LSA Rank Drops

The second most common use case: a business that was consistently in top LSA positions starts slipping. Google Ads data shows that leads declined, but it does not show why.

Prompt: "Our LSA rank dropped from #2 to #5 for plumber Phoenix in two weeks. Why?"

Skills fired: dispatch → lsa-ads + lsa-spy-tool
Data pulled: Market rankings (past 30 days), competitor signal profiles, rank change events

Output:
LSA RANK DROP ANALYSIS: Plumber — Phoenix

Your position trend:
- 4 weeks ago: #2
- 3 weeks ago: #3
- 2 weeks ago: #4
- Current: #5

CAUSE ANALYSIS:

Market changes detected:
1. New entrant: ProFlow Plumbing (appeared 3 weeks ago at #3, now #1)
   - Reviews: 89 (higher than your 67)
   - Response rate: 98% (higher than your 84%)
   - Google Guaranteed since: March 1

2. Existing competitor improvement: Arizona Plumbing Masters
   - Reviews increased from 52 to 78 in past month
   - Response rate improved to 96%
   - Moved from #4 to #2

Your position factors:
- Reviews: 67 (below new market average of 73)
- Response rate: 84% (below threshold for top 3)
- No significant negative signal changes

DIAGNOSIS: Not a decline in your signals — market competition increased.
Two competitors improved their signals past yours.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:
1. Improve response rate to 95%+ (most actionable lever)
2. Accelerate review generation (current velocity: 4/month, need 8+)
3. Ensure all leads receive response within 1 hour
4. Consider bid increase of 15-20% to remain competitive

This diagnostic connects market data to specific improvement actions — impossible without LSA Spy’s competitive visibility.

Competitor Ad Monitoring

For businesses already running LSAs, the skill tracks competitor activity: who enters or exits the market, spend changes, review growth, and positioning shifts. This data informs ongoing LSA optimization.

Prompt: "Pull LSA competitor changes for locksmiths in Atlanta over the last 60 days.
Any new entrants or significant spend changes?"

Skills fired: dispatch → lsa-ads + lsa-spy-tool

Output:
LSA Competitor Movement — Locksmiths, Atlanta (60 days)

New entrants (2):
  - QuickKey Locksmith — entered 3 weeks ago, ~$1,200/mo, 23 reviews
  - Atlanta Safe & Lock — entered 5 weeks ago, ~$800/mo, 67 reviews

Spend increases:
  - ProLock Atlanta: $2,100 → $3,400/mo (+62%)

Exits (1):
  - FastLock Services — stopped ads 4 weeks ago (review rating dropped to 3.8)

Impact: Market getting more competitive. ProLock's spend increase
pushing them into top-2 visibility consistently.

Which Strategy Skills Use LSA Spy Data

lsa-ads — The primary consumer. Every LSA strategy recommendation is informed by LSA Spy market data. When lsa-ads diagnoses a rank drop, lsa-spy-tool provides the competitive context that explains what happened.

local-competitor-analysis — When competitive analysis includes LSA presence, lsa-spy-tool provides the market positioning data that shows where each competitor stands in paid local results.

local-seo-audit — Full audits that include LSA assessment pull LSA Spy data to show where the business stands in its LSA market relative to competitors.

client-deliverables — Monthly reports and proposals that include LSA performance use LSA Spy data for market context that Google Ads reporting alone cannot provide.

When to Use LSA Spy vs LocalSEOData

LocalSEOData covers organic local search data — GBP profiles, geogrids, citations, reviews, keywords. Its local_services_ads endpoint shows which businesses currently appear in LSA results for a query, but this is a snapshot of current presence only.

LSA Spy covers LSA market intelligence exclusively — position tracking over time, competitor signal profiles, bid estimates, spend tracking, market structure analysis, and new entrant detection.

There is minimal overlap between these tools. If the question involves LSA competitive dynamics, market costs, or position trends, dispatch routes to LSA Spy. If the question involves organic local search, dispatch routes to LocalSEOData. The lsa-ads strategy skill uses LSA Spy data for paid recommendations and LocalSEOData for organic context when building a complete local marketing strategy.

Use localseodata-tool when you need to check whether a business currently appears in LSA results.

Use lsa-spy-tool when you need to understand the competitive dynamics of an LSA market, diagnose ranking changes, estimate costs, or develop LSA strategy.

Connecting LSA Spy to LocalSEOSkills

  1. LSA Spy account with API access from LSASpy.com
  2. API key from LSA Spy dashboard
  3. In Claude Code, add the MCP server:
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lsaspy": {
      "url": "https://api.lsaspy.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}
  1. Restart Claude Code
  2. Configure markets to track:
Set up LSA Spy tracking for these markets:
- Plumber — Phoenix
- HVAC — Phoenix
- Plumber — Scottsdale
  1. Verify connection:
Pull current LSA rankings for [category] in [city] from LSA Spy.

Get Started

Show me the LSA competitive landscape for [service category] in [city].
Who's running ads, what's the estimated cost per lead, and what does
it take to rank in the top 3?

This pulls the full market view: who ranks where, their signal profiles, bid estimates, and market stability. From there, the lsa-ads skill turns data into actionable strategy.

Learn More

To learn what this skill can do for your local SEO workflow, see the skill overview.