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Expansion IQ

Find your next market, zone by zone.

Expansion IQ divides a market into hexagonal zones and scores each from 0 to 100 on nine factors: demand, competition, demographics, your existing coverage and more. You see where to expand next, and the evidence behind every score.

Talk to us about Expansion IQ Try the weights
  • Scout any US city
  • Nine factors, weighted your way
  • Evidence shown for every score
Higher score Mixed Lower score Illustration: white pins are existing locations
  • Two ways to startaround your locations, or in a brand-new city
  • Three zone sizesmetro, neighborhood or fine-grained hexagons
  • Nine factorseach scored 0 to 100, with weights you set
  • Saved scenariosup to 20 per project, compared side by side

Two ways to start

Expand where you are, or scout somewhere new.

A project is a market you're studying. Start one in under a minute, and the first analysis is ready a few minutes later.

My Locations

Grow around the markets you're already in

  • Pick one or more of your Local Optics locations
  • Choose a finished GeoGrid scan for each, all on the same keyword
  • Zones inside the scan carry your real rank data; zones beyond it are added as unscanned candidates
  • Areas you already dominate are set aside, so the ranking shows true headroom

Market Research

Scout a city you've never worked in

  • Search for any US city with more than 5,000 residents
  • Enter a business keyword: plumber, HVAC, roofer, garage door
  • Set a radius of 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 miles
  • No locations, scans or Google Business Profile needed; up to 500 zones, nearest the center first

Zones and scores

Every hexagon gets a score, a rank and a reason.

Zones are equal-sized hexagons, so a dense neighborhood and a sprawling suburb are compared on the same footing. Choose how fine the grid should be; changing it runs a fresh analysis.

Metroabout 2 square miles a zone
Neighborhoodabout a third of a square mile; the default
Finea few city blocks

It knows what you've already won

With GeoGrid data, every zone is classed by how visible you already are there, and the score respects it.

  • Strong: top-three average rank on 80% or more of grid points. Excluded from the ranking and shown in blue.
  • Fringe: top-ten on at least 40% of points. Its score is capped, because improving an almost-won zone beats opening next to it.
  • Weak: scanned, but you rank poorly or not at all. This is where expansion buys the most.
  • Unscanned: outside your scans, scored on market data alone.
Excellent80 to 100Strong on the factors you weight most.
Good60 to 79A solid target, usually with one weak factor.
Fair40 to 59Mixed. Check which factors drag it down.
Low20 to 39Weak on most factors, or capped.
Poorunder 20Little to recommend it today.
Needs researchno scoreNot enough evidence to score honestly.
Strongnot rankedYou already dominate here.

The scoring model

Nine factors. Nothing hidden.

Each factor is scored from 0 to 100, where higher is better, then combined using its weight. The number in the corner is the default weight out of 100.

Market factors

25

Competition

Competitors found in and around the zone, adjusted for their strength: ratings and review counts. Fewer, weaker competitors score higher.

Google Maps searches for your keyword

15

Coverage gap

How much visibility headroom exists. Zones where you rank poorly, or not at all, score high, because that's where expansion buys the most.

Your GeoGrid scans

10

Commercial viability

Commercial lease listings inside the zone: a signal of commercial activity and available space.

Commercial real estate listings

Demographics

15

Demographic demand potential

Population density, household count and resident turnover: a demographic proxy for how much service work the area can generate.

US Census

10

Home value

Median home value, plus a premium for homes aged 10 to 60 years and older. Older homes need more repair spend.

US Census

5

Demographics fit

Income, home ownership, housing age, single-family share and vacancy, blended into "does this look like a home-services customer base".

US Census

5

Ticket size

Home value, income and home size blended into a demographic ticket-potential estimate. It is not observed job revenue.

US Census

Growth and risk

10

Growth trajectory

Housing-unit and population growth in the surrounding ZIP area over recent years. Growing areas create new customers.

US Census, where enough history is available

5

Visibility separation

Distance to your nearest strong zone, so a new site isn't placed on top of visibility you already have. It is a visibility measure, not a revenue one.

Your GeoGrid scans

When a factor has no evidence for a zone it takes a neutral 50 and is labelled as missing, never guessed. A zone with no usable evidence at all is marked "Needs research" and left unscored.

Your priorities

Change the weights. Watch the ranking change.

A franchise chasing open territory and an owner avoiding a crowded market want different things. Move the sliders and the three sample zones are rescored and re-ranked, just as they are in the app.

Factor weights

25
15
15
10
10
10
5
5
5

Zone ranking

1Zone AFew competitors, weak coverage today73Good
2Zone BDense, affluent, plenty of commercial space66Good
3Zone CFast-growing, few lease listings58Fair

Sample zones with made-up factor scores. In the app, weights rebalance to total 100, each factor can be inverted, and settings are saved with the scenario.

Show your working

A score you can argue with.

Open any zone and see exactly how its number was reached: what each factor scored, how many points it contributed, and how solid the evidence was.

  • Per-factor bars with the weight, the points contributed and a one-line explanation
  • An evidence label on every factor: observed, estimated, partial or missing
  • An evidence coverage rating of high, medium or low for the zone as a whole
  • Leading and limiting factors spelled out in plain language
  • The Census area each zone was matched to, with a note that it describes the area, not the hexagon
  • Tabs for market data, GeoGrid rank, competitors, leases and customer economics

Map and market data

Everything about a zone, on one map.

Read the ranked list from the top, then click any hexagon for the full picture. Nine layers switch on and off, and eleven color modes repaint the zones by score, competition, demand, income and more.

  • Zones
  • Scores
  • GeoGrid points
  • Cities
  • Competitors
  • Leases
  • ZIP codes
  • City limits
  • Drive times
  • Competitor searchSearch the map for any keyword and see each business's rating, review count and address, with the average, the strongest competitor and a quality-gap score for the zone.
  • Lease listingsWhere commercial space is listed for lease, with a link through to each listing.
  • Drive-time rings5, 10, 15 and 20 minute driving areas around the zone you've selected.
  • Market Data ExplorerSortable tables of every competitor and lease found, plus population, income, density and ownership totals for the area.
Illustration: drive-time rings around a candidate zone

Two optional layers

Sharper competitor data, and your own numbers on the map.

AI competitor relevance

A keyword search turns up businesses that aren't really competitors. Describe your services in a service profile, and AI sorts each business it finds. A person can review and overrule any call, with a note.

DirectDoes what you do, for the customers you serve.

AdjacentRelated, but not a head-on rival.

IrrelevantMatched the keyword, not the trade.

Needs evidenceToo little information to judge.

Suggestions and reviews are advice. They don't change scores, weights or ranks.

Customer economics from ServiceTitan

Connect ServiceTitan and see what you actually earn, zone by zone, beside what the market suggests you could.

  • Completed jobs and recorded revenue for each zone and the whole market
  • Average and median ticket, and repeat customers
  • A comparison with the same period a year earlier
  • Color the map by jobs or revenue

This is an overlay. It does not feed the ticket size or demand factors, or any score.

Scenarios

Every analysis is kept. Compare any two.

Each time you press Analyze, the result is saved as a scenario: the zones, the scores, the weights and the evidence as they were. Try a different zone size or a different set of priorities without losing the last one.

  • Up to 20 scenarios in a project, each with a name you choose
  • Compare two side by side: average score, zones by class and the top five zones of each
  • Changing weights rescores a scenario straight away, with no new data collection
  • Sort zones by score, distance, low competition, high demand or high income, and filter by band
  • If an analysis fails, your last results stay available
Illustration: nine weights, three zones changing places

How to use it

From a blank map to a shortlist worth testing.

  1. Start a project

    Choose your locations and their GeoGrid scans, or a city, a keyword and a radius.

  2. Analyze

    Zones are drawn, data is gathered and every zone is scored. It takes a few minutes.

  3. Read the zones

    Excellent and Good zones first, then click hexagons for the factor breakdown and evidence.

  4. Verify

    Test your top zones with a GeoGrid scan, a Local Services Ads trial or a mailer before you commit.

Straight talk

What Expansion IQ is, and what it isn't.

Use zones to prioritize where to verify, not as a guarantee. Estimates describe areas, not your future customers.

What it is

  • A consistent way to rank every part of a market on the same nine measures
  • Transparent: every score breaks down to its factors and its evidence
  • Tuned to your priorities through weights you control
  • Aware of where you already rank, when you bring your GeoGrid scans
  • Built on public Census data, map searches and your own scans

What it isn't

  • A revenue forecast or a probability of success
  • A census of every competitor. Map searches are samples and can undercount
  • Hexagon-precise demographics. Each zone takes the figures of its nearest ZIP or city area
  • Based on search volume, or on your revenue. Neither feeds the scores
  • Available outside the US, or tuned for trades other than home services
  • An export or reporting tool yet. Results are read in the app

Who uses it

For anyone deciding where the next truck, branch or campaign should go.

Owners and operators

See which neighborhoods around you are open, crowded or already yours before adding a truck or a crew.

Multi-location and franchise teams

Scout a new city from a keyword and a radius, and compare candidate markets on the same scale.

Agencies

Bring a ranked map to the strategy call, and show a client where their visibility has headroom.

Questions

Expansion IQ, answered.

Want to see your market scored?

What is Expansion IQ?

Expansion IQ is a market research tool inside Local Optics. It divides a market into hexagonal zones and scores each from 0 to 100 on nine factors, including competition, demographic demand and your existing coverage, to show where to expand next. Each analysis is saved as a scenario you can revisit and compare.

What are the nine factors?

Competition, coverage gap, demographic demand potential, commercial viability, growth trajectory, home value, demographics fit, visibility separation and ticket size. Each is scored from 0 to 100 and combined using weights you can change.

Do I need existing locations to use it?

No. Market Research mode scouts any US city from a keyword and a radius, with no locations or Google Business Profile required. My Locations mode expands around markets you are already in and uses your finished GeoGrid scans.

Where does the data come from?

Demographics and growth come from the US Census American Community Survey. Competitors come from Google Maps searches for your keyword. Lease locations come from commercial real estate listings. Coverage comes from your own GeoGrid scans, and the optional customer economics overlay comes from ServiceTitan.

Does a high score mean a location will succeed?

No. A score describes an area, not your future customers, and it is not a prediction of revenue. Use the ranking to decide where to verify first, with a GeoGrid scan, a Local Services Ads test or a mailer.

Does it use my ServiceTitan revenue in the scores?

No. Customer economics from ServiceTitan is an optional overlay that shows jobs, revenue, ticket size and repeat customers by zone. It does not change scores or rankings. The ticket size factor is a demographic estimate.

Does it work outside the United States?

Not at present. The demographic, growth and boundary data come from the US Census, so Expansion IQ is built for US markets.

How long does an analysis take?

A few minutes. Changing the weights afterwards rescores the same analysis straight away without collecting the data again.

Where should you grow next?

Tell us the market you're weighing up, and we'll show you how its zones score.

Talk to us about Expansion IQ Call 602.217.0279