LSA Spy + Claude — Local Services Ads Intelligence

Google Ads reporting tells you how your LSA campaigns perform. What it doesn’t tell you is how the market performs — which competitors hold which positions, whether a new entrant just appeared at #1, or why your rank dropped from 2 to 5 last week.

LSA Spy provides the market-level intelligence Google doesn’t offer. It tracks which businesses appear in LSA positions across markets over time, showing rank stability, volatility, new entrants, and competitive dynamics that explain rank changes.

What LSA Spy Tracks

LSA Spy monitors Local Services Ads at the market level — a service category in a geographic area:

Market composition: Which businesses appear in LSA for “plumber Phoenix” or “personal injury lawyer Dallas”? LSA Spy tracks the full list, not just your own position.

Rank position over time: Where does each business rank, and how has that changed? Historical data shows whether a competitor’s rise to #1 is recent or long-established.

Rank stability: Is the market stable with consistent leaders, or volatile with frequent position changes? Stability indicates established competitors; volatility indicates opportunity.

New entrants: Has a new competitor entered the market? Early detection enables response before they establish a dominant position.

Competitive metrics: Review counts, response times, and Google Guaranteed status for each competitor — the signals that drive LSA ranking.

For practitioners managing LSA campaigns, LSA Spy answers questions Google Ads can’t: “Who am I competing against? Why did my rank drop? What do the leaders have that I don’t?”

Why LSA Rank Data Matters

LSA rank is not reported at the market level in Google Ads. You can see your own impressions, leads, and cost per lead. You cannot see:

  • Which competitors are above you
  • What signals those competitors have (review count, response rate)
  • Whether your rank dropped because you declined or competitors improved
  • How volatile or stable your market is
  • When new competitors enter

This visibility gap makes LSA optimization reactive rather than strategic. Without market context, you only know something is wrong when leads drop — and you don’t know what changed.

LSA Spy fills this gap with continuous market monitoring. The lsa-spy-tool skill connects this data to Claude’s analytical capabilities.

Diagnosing LSA Rank Drops with Claude

The most common use case: a business that was consistently in top LSA positions starts slipping.

Prompt: "Check LSA Spy for Valley Plumbing in the Phoenix plumber market.
My rank has dropped from #2 to #5 over the last month. What's causing it?"

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

Output:
LSA MARKET 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)
2. Accelerate review generation (current velocity: 4/month, need 8+)
3. Ensure all leads receive response within 1 hour

PROGNOSIS: With response rate improvement and 2 months of higher
review velocity, competitive position #3-4 achievable. #1-2 requires
sustained effort against strong new competitor.

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

Market-Level Competitive Tracking

LSA Spy organizes data by markets (service category + geography), not campaigns or businesses.

Identifying markets to monitor: Track markets where you have active LSA campaigns. For multi-market businesses, prioritize highest-revenue markets.

Market structure analysis:

  • Stable markets: Same top 3 businesses for months. Incumbents have strong positions. Breaking in requires sustained signal improvement.
  • Volatile markets: Frequent position changes. Opportunity to capture position with focused effort.
  • Growing markets: New entrants appearing regularly. Market expanding; room for additional players.
  • Declining markets: LSA volume dropping. May indicate category or geographic shifts.

Reading market data:

Market: Personal Injury Lawyer — Dallas

Position stability (last 90 days):
#1: Davis Law Group — Stable (held #1 for 87/90 days)
#2: Fluctuating between 3 firms
#3: Fluctuating between 4 firms
#4-5: High volatility

Market assessment: Strong incumbent at #1, competitive for #2-5.
Opportunity level: Medium (can achieve #2-5 with good signals,
#1 requires exceptional performance or incumbent stumble)

LSA Spy + lsa-ads Skill Workflow

The lsa-spy-tool skill provides data. The lsa-ads skill provides strategy. Together:

  1. Monitoring: LSA Spy tracks market positions continuously
  2. Alert: Position change detected (your rank dropped, new competitor appeared)
  3. Analysis: Claude interprets what changed and why
  4. Strategy: lsa-ads skill generates improvement recommendations
  5. Action: Implement changes (improve response rate, generate reviews, optimize profile)
  6. Verification: LSA Spy confirms whether changes improved position

The workflow is continuous rather than reactive. You don’t wait for lead volume to drop to notice a problem — you see competitive shifts as they happen.

Setup and Connection

  1. LSA Spy account: Sign up at LSASpy.com and obtain your API key

  2. MCP server configuration: Add LSA Spy to Claude Code:

Server URL: https://api.lsaspy.com/mcp
Authentication: API key
  1. Configure market tracking: Identify which markets to monitor:
Set up LSA Spy tracking for [Business Name] in these markets:
- [Category] — [City]
- [Category] — [City 2]
  1. Verify connection:
Pull LSA Spy data for [your market] and show me current rankings
and recent position changes.

Once connected, the lsa-ads skill can pull LSA Spy market data to inform strategy recommendations, and you can monitor competitive position alongside your own campaign performance.