Louisiana

“Safer boating, better fishing” is the motto of Basin Boat Lighting, makers of lighting systems for recreational boaters. Founder Brian Signorelli was on his boat one murky morning, trying to steer, run the throttle, and light the way with a spotlight all at once when he drove into a concealed tree stump. He narrowly avoided being thrown into the water with a 12-foot-long local alligator. “I knew exactly where I was going, and I knew where that gator lived,” Brian recalls, “but I was late in recognizing where I was.” The ex-U.S. Navy electronics technician decided to find a better way to see and be seen on the water. “I'm not an engineer,” says Brian, “but to me, it was all about safety.” Over time his original idea for a simple light morphed into a refined device that includes a 12,000-lumen spotlight and a horn, phone charger, and GPS-based SOS feature.

Brian uses Google Ads to spread the word about Basin Boat Lighting, and he averages around 150,000 impressions via Ads monthly, he says. Not all of them buy right away, but with Google Ads, Brian can track their purchase behavior. "Most are not impulse buyers,” he says. “They look at it two or three times. It's a $180 or $200 purchase so they discuss it with their spouse.” AI-powered Performance Max campaigns work especially well for Brian’s products and helped him increase the number of units he sold in 2023. "Performance Max is the reason we stay with Google Ads," he says. Brian also uses Google Analytics to make the most of his ad dollars: "You're always trying to figure out where your spend is actually working.” Now he also uses his YouTube channel to publish simple explainers that show how to operate Basin Boat lights. Brian says he always looks out for his fellow veterans, whether it means hiring them or extending discounts to customers. “Something just to acknowledge their service," he says.

Founded in 2019, Addis NOLA serves authentic Ethiopian cuisine and is the vision of Dr. Biruk Alemayehu, who wanted to bring the flavors of her country to New Orleans. Her son, co-owner Prince Lobo, was training to be an airline pilot when his mother told him of her dream to open a restaurant. “She wanted people to come together for community, food, and sharing culture,” Prince says. “My mom came to me with the idea and we opened three months later.” With Prince working front of house, his father and two sisters in the kitchen, and his mother overseeing it all, Addis NOLA quickly grew from 30 seats to nearly 100, moving to historic Bayou Road in 2022. Today they serve sambusas, lamb wot, whole red snapper, and other classic East African dishes to about 200 diners a night.

Prince used Google Docs to write the initial business plan and still uses it for everything from recipes to the employee handbook to training manuals. “It’s the easiest way to share information and circulate knowledge,” Prince says. Other Google Workspace tools, like Sheets and Calendar, help him track inventory or schedule evaluations with staff. “It’s literally embedded in the day-to-day operations. Otherwise passing along that information and collaborating as a team would be a lot more complicated,” he says. Meanwhile, their Google Business Profile has gotten 134,000 views in just the last six months and gathered nearly 700 reviews. “That’s a lot of traffic coming from Google,” Prince says. “To have those Google reviews and people who are honestly sharing their experiences–it’s such a great way to get raw testimonials from customers.” Google Ads helps Addis NOLA reach even more diners, particularly during events like Mardi Gras. “Google Ads makes it really simple to put out information and connect with those people,” Prince notes. “It helps us capture that extra bit of business during busier times.”

Laundry can be a thankless, never-ending chore. That’s what Laurel Hess realized when she came home from a business trip to find laundry piling up with no time to do it. After talking to some stay-at-home mom friends looking for a way to make extra money, she founded hampr in 2019. The hampr app connects families with on-demand wash-and-fold laundry services, picked up and dropped off at their doorstep by local at-home “washrs.” ”I love helping people, whether it's helping a busy family catch up on laundry and spend more time together, or helping our washrs by giving them a flexible opportunity to generate income,” Laurel says. Today, hampr washes and delivers over 15,000 loads of laundry per month to over 10,000 happy members. Revenue is tripling year over year, and hampr has expanded to serve cities in 15 different states.

Laurel makes use of Google Workspace tools like Sheets and Docs to make hampr’s fully-remote operations run smoothly and efficiently. With developers in Seattle and product managers in New York, the entire hampr team uses Workspace to collaborate and get things done asynchronously without worrying about time zones or schedules. “We can get so much work done in less time by working together in Docs or Sheets simultaneously. It's so much easier and more efficient,” Laurel says. From day one, the hampr app has been available on Google Play, with over 10,000 downloads to date. “Having access to the Google Play ecosystem makes promoting our business a seamless experience,” Laurel says. As hampr looks to the future, they plan to use data from Google Play to identify and expand into promising new markets where demand is greatest. “Our goal has always been to lighten the load for busy families, and part of that is ensuring we’re there when someone needs us,” Laurel says.

In 1985, David McGraw purchased a small piece of land in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and started raising crawfish to support his family. But what started as a relatively small operation transformed when a friend asked David if he could ship the delicacy to the East Coast. David saw an opportunity to grow his business, and he began shipping crawfish to markets and restaurants all over. When Louisiana Crawfish Company launched its first website in 1998, David also started to market to consumers directly. “E-commerce was a whole other world that allowed us to reach individual consumers, which is the majority of our customer base at this point,” said Avery Smith, David’s daughter and the company’s CEO. “The impact of having a website and being able to reach people all across the globe is immeasurable, and it has to do with our growth,” she continued. Today, the company is set to take that growth even further with the launch of a new website and a budget devoted almost entirely to digital advertising and optimization.

Google products help the business spread the word about the crawfish and other specialty Louisiana food products it sells. “We use Google Analytics to track clicks and conversions so we can make better decisions about our advertising dollars. We also use the G-Suite tools to manage internal communications and YouTube to share our company philosophy and how we do things,” said Avery. Those YouTube videos are also featured on the updated Louisiana Crawfish Company website. “It’s important for us to stay on top of the times and keep up with the technology available to us,” said Avery.

Today, David’s little crawfish are bringing in big business, led in part by Google Ads, which directly contributed to more than $2.1 million in sales last year. What started as a small family-run farm in rural Louisiana is now the top crawfish distributor in the state. The company’s staff of 45 serves around 40,000 customers each year all across the country, and the company has plans to further expand its business internationally. “In addition to the U.S., we ship to Canada and Puerto Rico. We’ve also done test shipments to South Korea and Colombia. We’re looking to expand into more international shipping,” said Avery. “And Google will play a big role in what we’re able to do in the future.” Reflecting on her journey, Avery said, “Being a part of a company my father built and continuing to grow it for future generations is incredible.”