Services / Lead gen
Local Services Ads: pay for leads, not clicks
LSAs sit above everything else in local service results and bill per valid lead: a call over 30 seconds or a message. Home-services leads average about $53. For a multi-location service brand they are the cheapest qualified demand available, and the most operationally fussy to run well. We handle the fussy part.
What does LSA management involve?
- Google Verified onboarding: the background-check and license paperwork per business and location. The badge replaced Google Guaranteed in November 2025; profiles still referencing the old program read as stale.
- Lead dispute management: wrong-area, wrong-service, and spam leads get disputed for credit on a weekly cycle; unmanaged accounts silently pay for junk.
- Profile and category tuning: service categories, photos, hours, and service areas per branch, since coverage gaps mean invisible branches.
- Answer-rate reporting: ranking follows responsiveness, so the branch ledger includes each location's answer rate next to its cost per lead.
What should a lead cost?
The observed home-services average is about $53 per lead, with HVAC near $51, plumbing $57, and electrical $39, and a broad planning range of $30 to $80 for most trades. Compare that against search: the 2026 cross-industry median CPL is $66.69, and home and home improvement runs $90.92 on a $8.33 median CPC. Where LSAs have inventory, they usually undercut search per lead; the catch is volume, which caps well below what search can deliver. Both channels in the ledger, priced side by side, is the honest setup.
Why do LSAs punish bad call handling?
Because the auction ranks responsiveness. A branch that misses calls slides down the results and pays more per lead that still arrives, a doubly expensive failure. This is operational, never a media problem: rotas, ring groups, and overflow answering fix it. Our reporting makes it visible per branch, and the fix usually belongs to operations, which we say plainly rather than billing media hours against it. The measurement side, calls counted and imported as conversions, runs through call and lead tracking.
Where do LSAs fit in the budget?
As the first euro for service categories with coverage, because pay-per-lead risk is lower than pay-per-click risk at the top of the funnel. Search fills the gaps: research queries, comparison intent, and locations without LSA inventory, managed under the core service. The free audit shows both channels' realistic share for your estate before anything is committed.
Fair questions
How do Local Services Ads charge?
Per valid lead, defined as a phone call lasting longer than 30 seconds or a message through the ad, never per click. Home-services leads average about $53, with common trades planning between $30 and $80. Invalid leads (wrong area, wrong service, spam) can be disputed for credit, which we manage.
What is the Google Verified badge?
The verification badge shown on Local Services Ads after background and license checks. It replaced the green Google Guaranteed badge in November 2025, absorbing Google Screened and License Verified into one program. Onboarding paperwork per business and per location is part of what we handle.
Do LSAs replace regular Google Ads?
No, they stack. LSAs occupy the very top of local service results and bill per lead; search campaigns catch everything LSAs miss, including research-stage queries and locations where LSA coverage is thin. Our accounts typically run both, with the branch ledger showing each channel's cost per lead separately.
What moves an LSA's ranking?
Responsiveness above almost everything: answer rate and speed on lead calls, plus review count and rating, verification status, and business hours coverage. Budget matters less than operators expect. The unglamorous fix that works is call handling; we report answer rates per branch precisely because of this.
Check your LSA coverage
The free audit includes an LSA coverage read for every branch and service category you run.
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