You pay when a real lead calls. Never for clicks.
Local Services Ads are the results at the very top of Google when a homeowner searches your trade — the ones with the checkmark badge. No charge for clicks or views: you pay only when a real person calls or messages. My job is setting the account up so the leads that ring are the jobs you actually want.
- Pay per lead, never per click
- Google Verified badge, set up right
- Junk leads become credits, not costs
One real account: $46.66 per charged lead in April 2026, down to $39.89 by July. See every month →
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Find out where your leads are leaking — and what fixing it is worth to you.
The 2026 rules, straight
Most agency pages about LSA are describing a product that no longer exists. What's true now:
- — The badge is "Google Verified." The old "Google Guaranteed" and "Google Screened" badges were retired in late 2025, and the consumer money-back guarantee is discontinued. If a pitch promises to get you "Google Guaranteed," it's reading from old notes — and that tells you something.
- — Lead disputes are gone. Since 2024, bad leads run through Google's automated credit review — resolved within about 72 hours, no forms, no human channel. Nobody can "fight your disputes" anymore. What I do instead: set the account so junk rarely gets through, and watch the credit ledger weekly so charged leads stay honest.
- — LSA is moving into Google Ads. Starting August 2026, Google began folding LSA into Google Ads pay-per-lead campaigns — plumbing, HVAC, electrical, cleaning, lawn care, and pest control in the first wave, with service-area businesses following late 2026 and manual bidding on its way out. Your account will be migrated whether anyone is watching it or not. Mine are watched.
- — Not every trade has a category. Drywall doesn't, for one. There's an honest workaround — an adjacent category with only your job types switched on — and it's how the drywall plan books jobs anyway.
What I actually do
- — Run the Google Verified screening with you: license, insurance, background checks.
- — Set the category and switch on only the job types you want billed for.
- — Draw the service area around your real routes, not a vanity radius.
- — Manage bidding and budget by season, and brief you on the Google Ads migration.
- — Watch the credit ledger weekly so junk leads become credits, not costs.
- — Coach the part software can't fix: answer fast, mark every lead in the app.
Proof, not promises
One account, my father's drywall company, dashboards straight from Google — the slow month published next to the good one:
Every month between those two — May, June, the whole year-to-date — is in the case study, with dated screenshots.
Where LSA fits
LSA is the fast lane, not the whole machine. The Business Profile earns calls that cost nothing per lead, and the website compounds until it carries weight on its own. The mix depends on your trade — pick yours and read the plan.
Want your own version of that July?
The audit call is free and the first leads land before you pay. If LSA isn't right for your trade or your town, I'll tell you that on the call.
Get your free lead-flow audit
Find out where your leads are leaking — and what fixing it is worth to you.