Local Services Ads sit at the top of some local searches: a business name, stars, "Serves St. Louis" and buttons to call or message. There's no headline and no landing page. Google charges for each lead the ad brings in, not for each click.
A charge per lead sounds like the safer deal. But the rules for a lead include calls nobody answered, the ad gives a business little to steer, and Google is moving these ads into Performance Max.
This bonus chapter covers how they charge, where they showed in our example market, why we run them only as a test beside Search, and what the Performance Max move takes away.
Local Services Ads Charge by the Lead, and a Missed Call Can Count as One.
Google's help page on how leads work lists the contacts it treats as valid leads. A business pays for each one:
- A phone call the business answers, or a callback where it reaches the customer.
- A call that goes unanswered during business hours, when the caller hangs on longer than 20 seconds.
- A text message or email from the customer.
- A voicemail from the customer.
- A booking request, in the United States and Canada.
Google's own answer to "voicemail or greeting without a key press" is that a call going to voicemail during business hours "is charged if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, whether or not they leave a message."
A few details soften it. If the business's phone menu asks the caller to press a key, the 20-second timer starts at the first key press, and a caller who hangs up without pressing anything isn't charged. Once a lead is charged, follow-up calls and messages from the same phone number or email within 15 days don't create a new charge. And a call the business answers is judged on the conversation, not on how long it rang.
The budget is set by the week. Google says a business can spend more than its weekly average in a given week, but never more than its monthly max, which is the weekly budget times the average number of weeks in a month. Once the monthly max is spent, the ad stops showing for the rest of the month unless the budget changes.
Google Charges for Missed Calls Only During the Hours on Your Business Profile. Nine of 12 Businesses We Checked Listed Conflicting Hours.
Google defines "business hours" for this rule as the hours set in the Google Business Profile. If the business also runs an ad schedule, unanswered calls are charged only when they come in during both the ad schedule and the profile hours.
That makes the profile's hours a billing setting. In our St. Louis sample, 9 of the 12 businesses showed different hours in different places: on the site, on the Google listing, in the site's code or in an ad card. One listing said "Open 24 hours" while the site said Monday through Saturday, 9 to 5. Another business's ad card said "Open 24 hours" while its weekday hours ended at 4:30 PM.
For a business running Local Services Ads, a profile that says "Open 24 hours" means every missed call at 2 AM can be billed once the caller holds on past 20 seconds, unless an ad schedule leaves those hours out. Eight of the 12 businesses we checked claimed some form of after-hours, emergency or 24/7 service. For a business that sells emergency calls, that claim is only safe when someone answers at night; when the phone goes to voicemail, it's an expensive one.
Missed calls also cost a business its position. Google's ranking page weighs two things: the bid, and how likely the ad is to bring a lead, which covers responsiveness, the search and profile quality. On phones it doesn't hedge: "Missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness."
Customers notice too. In the Google reviews we read for the 12 businesses, 68 reviews mentioned calling, callbacks or getting through to the office, and 37 of them were complaints. "Their emergency number was never answered," one wrote.
Before these ads go live, the Chapter 12 profile check gains one line: list only the hours a person is there to pick up.
Local Services Ads Showed Up on Plumbing, Cleaning and Lawn Searches. None Showed on Dentist, Auto Repair or Roofing Searches.
Not every local business sees these ads, and not every category that's eligible shows them. We ran 27 business searches in the St. Louis example market, three times each, and recorded where a Local Services unit appeared in any of the three captures:
- Emergency service-area trades (plumber, HVAC, electrician): 5 of 6 searches.
- Recurring services (pest control, house cleaning, lawn care): 7 of 7.
- Planned high-ticket projects (roofer, remodeler, landscaper): 0 of 6.
- Storefront and appointment businesses (dentist, auto repair, gym): 0 of 7.
Two cautions. The device matters: Local Services units appeared on 11 searches in the mobile capture and only 4 in the first desktop run, so a desktop check that shows nothing isn't proof a trade has none. And "none seen" isn't "not available." Google lists roofers, auto repair shops and dentists among its Local Services categories; they just didn't show in these captures.
Google's eligibility check is the place to confirm a category and area: "To check if Local Services Ads are available in your area, check your business eligibility." Some categories get less from the program. Lead credits and call recordings aren't available for health care in the United States, and Google lists extra screening for urgent trades like plumbers, electricians and HVAC companies.
18 of 21 Businesses Seen in Local Services Ads Also Ran Search Ads. Local Services Ads Belong Beside Search, Not in Place of It.
Across those captures, 21 businesses appeared in Local Services units. We looked up every one of them in Google's public ad library, and 18 had Search ads that ran in the 90 days before our captures. In this market, Local Services Ads are mostly one channel among several.
That matches how we run them. Local Services Ads are a test we add once Search is bringing in booked work, for three reasons.
There's nothing to choose. The ads are keywordless. Google matches them from the business's categories, job types and service areas, so the business can't pick the searches it wants or add negative keywords for the ones it doesn't. The Isolation campaign from Chapter 6 exists because exact control over which searches a business pays for is what protects a small budget.
There's almost nothing to write. No headline, no description, no landing page: just a business bio and a few callouts. Rank comes from the bid, reviews, responsiveness and profile quality. A business with few reviews or a phone that isn't always covered starts at a disadvantage it can't fix with better ads.
There's less to learn from. A Search campaign shows which searches turned into calls and what each booked job cost. That's the data Chapter 7 uses to set bids and Chapter 3 uses to judge cost per lead against the job. Google's help pages describe lead counts, charges and cost per lead for these ads. None of them describe a report of the searches behind each lead.
When a business does add Local Services Ads, we give them their own budget and hold them to the number Search answers to: what each booked job cost. For accounts not yet moved, Google's bidding page points businesses to "Maximize leads," wants a budget big enough for 10 leads a week, and gives the model about two weeks to settle. If 10 leads a week won't fit beside the Search budget, wait.
Our HVAC guide covers the trade-specific version, including why Local Services Ads won't credit a lead you're too booked to take.
Google Is Moving Local Services Ads Into Performance Max. Manual Bids per Lead Go Away.
Google started folding Local Services Ads into Google Ads in August 2026. Each one becomes a Performance Max campaign whose goal is a paid lead. The first phase covers select US home and storefront service businesses, including plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and moving. Late 2026 brings service-area businesses without storefronts and professional services; 2027 brings the rest, including health care. Each account gets a warning email two weeks ahead of its own move, and that email, not the trade, sets a business's date.
Some things stay put. Placement doesn't change: Search and Maps, nowhere else. There are still no keywords, and the business still pays per lead.
Several things change:
- Bidding. Google's migration page says "manual bidding and industry-level Target CPA are being deprecated." A maximum price per lead is no longer an option, and one target cost per lead applies to the whole campaign. A business that wants different targets for different categories, such as plumbing and HVAC, sets up a campaign for each.
- Budget. The old weekly budget is divided by seven into a daily average, and monthly spend is capped at that daily average times 30.4.
- Reporting. "Your Local Services Ads performance reports will not transition to Google Ads." Past leads and call recordings move over; the old reports don't. Save them before the move: Google says a download option is coming and suggests screenshots in the meantime.
- The profile. The business name, address and hours "sync in one direction" from the Business Profile to Google Ads, which makes Chapter 12's profile check even more important.
Google asks for up to two weeks after the move for performance to settle. New advertisers still sign up through Google's Local Services site; Google says new pay-per-lead campaigns can't be created directly in Google Ads yet.
An account already running Chapter 10's Performance Max campaign ends up with two, each with its own goal. Judge each by its own booked jobs.
Google Credits Some Junk Leads on Its Own. A Call From Outside Your Area No Longer Earns a Credit.
Google's credits page says it screens out invalid and poor leads before charging, and charged leads "may be issued credits automatically if later determined to be low quality," usually within 30 days. Google's page on how leads work lists the status each lead carries on the Leads page: charged, not charged, in review or credited.
What's gone is the old way of getting money back for the wrong kind of call. The same page says Google stopped crediting leads for jobs a business doesn't do and for places it doesn't serve. A caller from a town the business doesn't serve, or someone asking for a job it doesn't do, no longer earns a credit for that reason.
That puts the control in the settings. Google's own advice for unwanted leads is to narrow service areas, categories and job types, while warning that narrower settings can mean fewer leads. For a local business, the service area in Local Services Ads should match the territory set in Chapter 9 and on the profile, and the job types should list only work the business wants to book.
The feedback survey on each lead is still worth the minute. Google says it steers future leads by it, and occasionally credits a lead reported as poor.
Next: Smart Bidding Ignores Location Bid Adjustments. Towns That Deserve Different Bids Need Separate Campaigns.
Chapter 15 turns to territory: the radius around the shop, towns worth paying more for, businesses with two or more addresses, and what Smart Bidding does to bids a business set by hand.
Every chapter is on the guide's home page. Want someone else to judge whether Local Services Ads pay off for your trade? Our Google Ads management runs them on a separate budget beside Search and shuts them off when a booked job through them costs more.
