Find Local Businesses With Bad Reviews to Pitch
By Doug Nielsen, Product Manager · Updated · first published
To find local businesses with bad reviews, scrape a category ZIP code by ZIP code and filter the export to ratings under 4.0 with enough reviews to matter. One city-wide search won't do: only 2.6% of the 70,065 rated top-ranked listings we sampled were under 4 stars.
Key takeaways
- Industry matters: 8.8% of gyms rate under 4 stars, 0.4% of hair salons.
- Ratings on under 10 reviews are fragile: pitch review requests, not repair.
- Sell what raises ratings, never the removal of honest reviews.
On this page8
How rare low ratings are at the top of Google Maps
Our samples are the first results of 6,399 Google Maps searches, one per industry and city, in ranked order: 20 kinds of local business in 324 cities across the US, UK, Germany, Canada and Australia, sampled between July 2026 and September 2026. Among rated listings, 1,828 were under 4.0; the average was 4.7 stars.
The share climbs down the first page; Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking. We sample only page one (ten results, twenty in some ZIP-code searches).
- under 4 stars in positions 1 to 3 (of 18,555)
- 1.5%
- under 4 stars in positions 4 to 6 (of 18,556)
- 2.5%
- under 4 stars in positions 7 to 10 (of 24,502)
- 3.0%
Which industries have the most
Most often under 4 stars: gyms 8.8%, veterinarians 5.2%, nail salons 4.3% and accountants 4.2%. Least often: hair salons 0.4%, restaurants 0.5%, chiropractors 0.7% and med spas 0.8%. Each figure rests on at least 2,787 rated listings.
Tip
Judge against the industry
Few reviews, fragile ratings
Listings with fewer than 10 reviews were under 4 stars 7.5% of the time (286 of 3,831), against 2.2% with 10 or more (of 61,453). Thin bases need review requests; established low ratings need service and response work.
Why one city-wide search isn't enough
A single Google Maps search stops at roughly 100 to 120 results however big the city, and few low-rated businesses sit near the top. Splitting the city into ZIP codes gives each area its own first page; the location picker in Hubertino's Google Maps scraper does that split for you.
Every row costs a credit, and a business two neighboring ZIP-code searches both return is two rows. At the top-of-results rate, 1,000 businesses under 4 stars take about 38,000 unique listings, which before that overlap fits in one month of the Starter plan (50,000 credits for $19).
Find the low ratings yourself
- 100 free credits
- No card required
Filtering the export
Set the unrated aside
No rating means no reviews yet (0.8% of top-ranked listings sampled): a prospect for first reviews, not repair.Keep ratings under 4.0
Filter the rating column to less than 4, or 3.5 for the clearest cases.Split on review count
Under 10 reviews in one campaign, the rest in another.Check they're open and reachable
Keep business_status OPERATIONAL and rows with a phone, email or website; dedupe on place_id.Read the reviews before you write
Paste the shortlist's location_link or cid values into a Google Maps review scraper job: repeated complaints in one- and two-star reviews, and gaps in owner_response, are your pitch.
Pitch angles for reputation-management agencies
Lead with a specific finding, and sell what raises ratings, never the removal of honest reviews. Low ratings are one of three gaps an agency can pitch; thin reviews and no website are in marketing agency leads by segment.
The unanswered complaint
Recent low-star reviews with no owner_response: show one with the reply you'd have written, and offer to handle replies.The industry laggard
Rated below its industry's average and its map neighbors: name them and their ratings.The recurring complaint
Missed callbacks, surprise charges or long waits in several reviews: offer the monitoring that catches it and replies showing it's fixed.
Watch out
Don't open with the star rating
Common questions
What counts as a bad Google rating?
Can I filter by rating before I scrape?
How many reviews should a business have before I pitch reputation work?
Can I cold-email the businesses I find?
Sources
Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google (read September 24, 2026)
Written by
Doug Nielsen, Product Manager
Doug works on Hubertino; the guides on this site are published under his name. Last updated .