Local Services Ads charge you for each valid lead, such as a phone call or a message, and show your verified profile, rating and reviews on Google Search and Maps. Google Search ads charge you for each click and send people to a page on your website. So Local Services Ads lean on your reviews and how fast you answer, while Search ads lean on your website.
Neither one is cheaper by default, because both prices come out of auctions. The way to choose is to try one, count the jobs it books, and compare cost per booked job. This is advice only: we don’t run ad accounts and won’t suggest a budget. For how ads fit with your site and Google profile, see our contractor websites page.
The two side by side
| Local Services Ads | Google Search ads | |
|---|---|---|
| You pay for | Each valid lead: a call, message or booking | Each click on the ad |
| Where people go | Your Local Services profile, with call and message buttons | A page on your website that you pick |
| Before it can run | Google’s screening and a verified Business Profile | A Google Ads account, billing and an approved ad |
| What decides placement | Your bid, how responsive you are, and your profile quality | Your bid and the quality of your ad and landing page |
How you pay
Local Services Ads: per lead
Google’s page on how leads work lists three kinds of leads: phone calls, messages by text or email, and booking requests in the US and Canada. Some details worth knowing before you start:
- A missed call can still be charged if the caller stays on more than 20 seconds during your business hours.
- A caller who hangs up at your automated phone menu before pressing a key isn’t charged.
- If the same customer contacts you again within 15 days from the same number or address, you aren’t charged twice.
- Google reassesses charged leads and may credit low-quality ones on its own. You can also flag a bad lead in that lead’s feedback survey.
You set a bid, the most you’ll pay for a lead, and Google’s ad rankings page says you may pay less. Once you reach your budget, the ad stops showing until the budget resets or you change it.
One change is under way. Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. The first phase began in August 2026 for select US home and storefront service advertisers, such as plumbing, HVAC and roofing, with more groups later in 2026 and the rest in 2027. Google says you still pay only for valid leads, the ads still show only on Search and Maps, and your verified status moves over. Manual maximum cost-per-lead bidding goes away, and old performance reports won’t be available, so save any numbers you want.
Search ads: per click
With Search ads you pay for the visit. Google’s bidding basics page explains that with cost-per-click bidding, you pay only when someone clicks your ad and comes to your site. What happens after the click is up to your website. A visitor who leaves without calling costs the same as one who books a job. With Local Services Ads, by contrast, a customer has to contact you before you’re charged.
What Local Services Ads require
Every Local Services advertiser needs a verified Google Business Profile. Google’s screening and verification page lists what each category requires on top of that. For common US trades such as plumbing, HVAC and roofing, the list includes:
- background checks on the business and the owner
- business registration checks
- state-level business and owner licenses
- general liability insurance
Many of those items are marked “select users,” and the list changes by category, state and country. Google treats some trades, such as plumbing, HVAC and electrical, as urgent categories, and plumbers go through an extra level of screening that includes background checks on service professionals. Google says the process takes 3 to 4 weeks on average after you submit your documents. Not every trade is offered everywhere, so find your category on that page before you plan around it.
Have these ready before you sign up:
- your legal business name, written the same way on your license, insurance certificate and Business Profile
- the license numbers for the business and the owner, if your state licenses your trade (our guide to showing your contractor license number covers wording)
- a current general liability insurance certificate
Once you pass, Google shows a Google Verified badge on your profile. Google is also ending the Money Back Guarantee that came with the old Google Guarantee: reimbursement requests only cover services booked before December 7, 2025. If your website still says “Google Guaranteed,” update it.
What each one needs from your website
Local Services Ads: the profile does most of the selling
A Local Services customer can call or message you from the ad without opening your website, so most of the work goes into the profile. Google’s ad rankings page says placement depends on your bid, how quickly you respond, how relevant you are to the search, which contact options you turn on, and profile quality: your rating, number of reviews, average response time, high-quality photos and completed verification checks. So the to-do list is short:
- Answer the phone during business hours and reply to messages fast. Responsiveness affects placement, and missed calls can still be charged.
- Earn a steady flow of real reviews. Our guide on how to ask customers for Google reviews covers doing it within Google’s rules.
- Add real photos of your own jobs.
- Pick only the job types and areas you want, so you don’t pay for leads you’d turn down.
Your website still matters for anyone who looks you up before calling. The business name, phone number and service area on your site should match the profile, and you can add your website in the profile settings.
Search ads: one landing page per service
Search ads depend on the page they send people to. Google describes landing page experience as its estimate of how relevant and useful your page will be to someone who clicks your ad, and says better-rated pages are usually well organized, with text that relates to what the person searched for.
For a contractor, that means:
- One page per service you advertise. An ad for water heater replacement goes to a page about water heater replacement, not your home page.
- A headline that matches the ad, in the same words, and only promises what’s true.
- A form and tap-to-call in the first screen. On a phone, nobody should have to scroll to reach you. Keep the form short: name, phone or email, town and what’s wrong.
- Proof for that job. Real photos of that kind of work and the towns you serve.
- Tracking. Record every form send and phone tap as a conversion in Google Ads, so you can see which keywords bring calls. Google’s conversion measurement page explains the options.
Our landing pages page shows how we build these. If you don’t have a page for a service yet, build it before you advertise that service.
Judge both by cost per booked job
Cost per lead and cost per click are easy to see in the dashboard, but a cheap lead that never books costs more than a pricier one that does. To compare the two:
- Pick a test period and leave everything else alone while it runs.
- Write down the total ad spend for the period.
- Mark every lead in your job records with the channel it came from.
- Count the jobs that actually booked from those leads.
- Divide spend by booked jobs to get cost per booked job.
- Compare that with your average gross profit per job for that service.
Google Ads reports conversions such as form sends and calls, and Local Services Ads report leads. Neither one knows which leads turned into jobs. That step only shows up in your own records, so ask every new customer how they found you and write it down.
Which one to try first
Local Services Ads tend to fit when your trade is offered in your area, you can pass screening, you already have some reviews, and someone answers the phone during business hours.
Search ads tend to fit when Local Services Ads aren’t offered for your trade, when you want to go after specific high-margin jobs by keyword, and when you have a landing page and tracking for each of those jobs.
You can run both. Either way, both stop the day you stop paying. Your website and Google Business Profile keep bringing in calls without a per-click or per-lead fee, which is why we’d get those right before spending on either.
How we can help
We don’t manage ad accounts. We build the parts that decide whether ads pay off: a service page or landing page for each job you advertise, quote forms we test before launch, and tracking for form sends and phone taps. If you’re planning to start ads, tell us which jobs you’d advertise on our contact page, and see the landing pages we build for trades on our contractor websites page.
