Local Services Ads: How Screening, Pay-Per-Lead, and Credits Actually Work

Google puts Local Services Ads at the very top of the results page, above the search ads and above the map. The listing shows your business name, your star rating and a screening badge, and a customer can call you straight from it. It’s the most visible spot a plumber, roofer or HVAC company can hold on that page.

If you run a home service company, you’ve probably noticed the block of businesses that sits above everything else on Google, each one with a star rating and a green check next to the name. Those are Local Services Ads, and they run above the search ads and above the map. (Google, “How leads work”).

What Local Services Ads are, and how they differ from search ads

With a search ad you’re buying intent you’ve guessed at, so you pick keywords, write headlines and pay the moment someone clicks, whether or not that click ever becomes a job. An LSA works the other way around: Google shows your business name, your review rating and a screening badge, and charges you when a potential customer actually contacts you. The unit is built from your profile instead of copy you wrote.

Sources: Google, “How leads work” · Google, “How providers qualify” · Google, “Business screening and verification requirements, United States”.

Both channels can run at once, and for most home service clients they should, because someone typing “emergency plumber” at 9pm is in a different frame of mind than someone pricing a bathroom remodel on a Sunday. Search ads can also be measured with call reporting, which Google documents in Google Ads Help, and our PPC services page walks through how we run that side of an account.

Getting screened is the real barrier to entry

That badge isn’t a setting you switch on. Requirements differ across Local Services Ads categories and regions, and screening may include license, insurance, and background checks (Google).

You’ll need a public, verified Google Business Profile, and the person completing the checks has to be an owner or manager of that profile (Google). If a former marketing vendor still controls your profile, nothing else in the account can move until you get access back, and that request can take weeks on its own, so start it early.

Screening also takes longer than most owners expect. Google puts the screening and verification process at an average of three to four weeks after you submit documents (Google). A roofer who decides in late August to be visible for fall storm season is already behind, because the documents alone take most of September.

Once you’re approved, the screening starts working for you. Every business showing up in that unit had to pass the same checks, so you’re competing against a shorter list than you would in the regular ads auction.

How the budget and the charges work

You set an average weekly budget based on the number of leads you want in a week. Then you set a bidding mode for the most you will pay for a lead (Google).

Spend can run above your weekly average in any given week, but it won’t pass your monthly max, which Google describes as the weekly budget multiplied by the average number of weeks in a month (Google). That means a busy storm week can spend more than a quiet one, and you’ll want enough crew on to handle the extra calls when it does.

The monthly max is where people get caught. Once you hit it, your ads stop showing for the rest of the month unless you raise the budget (Google). We’ve watched businesses sit dark for the last ten days of a month without knowing it, because nothing looks broken in the account and the money is simply spent.

Your Local Services Ads dashboard shows spend and the leads you receive by channel, split into message, call, and booking (Google). Prices per lead move with your location, the job type, the lead type, and your bidding mode (Google). A drain clog and a full sewer line replacement won’t cost you the same to acquire.

Bad leads, credits, and the follow-up that decides everything

Not every lead is charged. Google assesses leads when the customer first makes contact, and leads found to be invalid or low quality are not charged at all. Charged leads can also be reassessed later and credited automatically (Google, “About Automated lead credits”).

You can also dispute a lead you believe is invalid, and a successful dispute is credited back to US and Canadian advertisers (Google, “Introduction”).

The limits matter as much as the policy. Google no longer supports credits for “job type not serviced” and “geo not serviced” leads, and credits are unavailable for health care verticals, tax specialists, and advertisers in EMEA (Google). Credits generally land on your account balance within 30 days, and the original charge still shows on the invoice (Google).

Since out-of-area and wrong-job leads are no longer creditable, your job types and service area settings now work as a budget control, and anything you leave loose gets paid for out of pocket.

All of this only works if someone actually picks up. Leads come in on a Google forwarding number that changes from customer to customer, and you don’t get to pick it. When the call connects you’ll hear “Call from Google,” so whoever answers knows where it came from (Google, “Manage leads and jobs”).

Leads you reply to move to your active inbox, so you can see which potential customers are still waiting, and inbound calls through that forwarding number are recorded in the US and Canada (Google). Sit down with a month of those recordings and you’ll hear exactly where your quotes fall apart, and you can use those calls to coach the team.

If you’re weighing up whether Local Services Ads belong in your mix, or whether the Google Ads spend you already have needs fixing first, talk to our team and we’ll go through the account with you. Trade businesses can also see how the paid, local and organic pieces fit together on our home services marketing page.

Frequently asked questions