Google Local Services Ads for home services, now in Google Ads

On this page · 10 parts

1. What are Local Services Ads?
2. Where do Local Services Ads run, and what if you're in Australia or New Zealand?
3. What do you actually pay for?
4. What does a Local Services lead cost?
5. How does Google decide who shows first?
6. How do you start Local Services Ads?
7. What changed when Local Services moved into Performance Max?
8. What happens to bad leads after the move?
9. How does Clique to Close run Local Services and Search together?
10. FAQ

What are Local Services Ads?

Local Services Ads are the ads at the very top of Google for searches like “plumber near me” or “AC repair”. Google builds each one from your Local Services profile: your name, star rating, hours and, once you’ve passed Google’s checks, a Google Verified badge.

Three things set them apart from Search ads, the text ads you buy by keyword (see campaign types):

• You pay per lead, not per click. A homeowner can tap your ad and leave, and you pay nothing. You pay when they call, message or book.[1]
• There are no keywords. You pick your service categories, the job types you do and the areas you cover. Google decides which searches match.[2]
• They sit above everything else. WebFX ran 500 home-service searches in May 2026. Local Services Ads showed on about 28% of them, and every time they showed, they were in position one.[3]

So on most home-service searches there’s no Local Services block, and Search ads are the top of the page. The numbers by trade, and how to run the two together, are on Local Services vs Search.

In the US, they’re moving inside Google Ads. Since August 2026, Google has been turning them into a pay-per-lead kind of Performance Max campaign, Google’s automated campaign type. Homeowners see the same ads. Where you manage them, and a few settings, change. That’s covered below.

Where do Local Services Ads run, and what if you’re in Australia or New Zealand?

Google runs Local Services Ads in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and a group of European countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.[4] Not every category is open in every country, so check yours at g.co/localservices.

They don’t run in Australia or New Zealand. There’s nothing to sign up for, and Google hasn’t announced a launch. Owners there cover the same “call someone now” searches with three things they already control in Google Ads:

• Search campaigns built around the urgent jobs, like “blocked drain” or “hot water not working”, with enough budget to stay on all day. See service campaigns.
• Call assets, so your number sits on the ad and a homeowner can ring you in one tap. See assets.
• A Google Business Profile linked to your ads. That’s your free business listing on Google Search and Maps. Linked, your address and hours show with the ad and you can appear on Maps. See Maps advertising.

The rest of this page is for the countries where they do run.

What do you actually pay for?

You pay for a valid lead. Google’s rules for pay-per-lead campaigns count these as valid:[1]

• A call you answer, or a call where you ring the customer back and speak to them.
• A call you miss during your business hours, if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds. A voicemail in business hours counts the same way, whether or not they leave a message.
• A text message or email from the customer.
• A booking request, in the US and Canada only.

Clicks are free. Repeat contact from the same number or email isn’t charged again within 15 days of the last contact. After 15 quiet days, the next call is a new lead.

What does a Local Services lead cost?

About $53 a lead, on average across home services, in the biggest public dataset we’ve found. It comes from SearchLight, a vendor, which tracked 888 contractors and $6.72M of Local Services spend in February 2026.[6] Google doesn’t publish prices. It says the cost of a lead varies by location, job type, lead type and bidding.[1]

Trade	Cost per lead	Source
Electrical	$39	SearchLight, Feb 2026
HVAC	$51	SearchLight, Feb 2026
Plumbing	$57	SearchLight, Feb 2026
Drain and sewer	$59	SearchLight, Feb 2026
All home services	$53	SearchLight, Feb 2026, 888 contractors

Read those as a vendor benchmark, not Google’s numbers. It’s the contractors SearchLight tracks, not a random sample, and the figures are before credits. SearchLight also says the $53 average hides leads near $30 in small markets and over $90 in busy metros.

The number that matters more is what a paying customer costs. In the same data, 43.9% of Local Services leads booked, and each paying customer cost $233. Work out yours: a month of Local Services spend divided by the jobs you were paid for. If that’s well under your profit per job, the ads pay. How this compares with Search is in what Google Ads cost, and the budget math is in the budget guide.

How does Google decide who shows first?

Your bid, your profile quality, and how likely this search is to become your lead. It’s an auction, but the bid is only part of it.[7] In plain terms:

• Responsiveness. Google says missed calls can hurt your responsiveness, and average response time counts toward profile quality. You control this one most.
• Reviews. Your star rating and your number of reviews both count.
• Proximity. Google weighs the search itself, including where the homeowner is. It doesn’t say how much distance counts. Keep service areas to places you’ll actually drive to.
• Hours. The time of the search counts too. Google says message leads help here, because homeowners can reach you at night and on weekends when you can’t pick up.
• Google Verified. The checks you’ve passed count toward profile quality. If Google lets you take leads before your badge comes through (it calls these pre-badge ads), your listing shows below businesses that have it.[8] What the badge checks is on Google Verified.
• Photos and services. Google says higher-quality profiles, “including those with images, may rank higher and may also pay lower costs per lead”. It also reads the services and bio you list.

Google also balances results for “the overall health and diversity” of the ads, so no profile wins every search.

How do you start Local Services Ads?

At g.co/localservices, not inside Google Ads. New pay-per-lead campaigns can’t be created in Google Ads yet, even in the US.[2] Signing up takes an evening. Passing Google’s checks takes weeks, so start well before you need the leads.

That is where service areas sit after sign-up, until your account moves into Google Ads.[13] Once you’re live, the five things above are the job.

Free · no cardSee who gets the call.The Google Journey searches Google like a homeowner in your area and shows who gets the job. It never asks for your Google Ads login.Run my free Google Journey →

What changed when Local Services moved into Performance Max?

Where you manage them, how you bid, and how the budget works. Homeowners see the same ads, and you still pay per lead. Google is moving existing Local Services campaigns into “a specialized Performance Max campaign type optimized specifically for pay-per-lead goals”.[2] It happens automatically, in phases:

1. August 2026: select US businesses in plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and moving.
2. Late 2026: service-area businesses without a storefront, and accounts with custom bidding or booking setups.
3. 2027: every account outside the US, and every remaining category.

The account admin gets an email 14 days before, a reminder 7 days later, and a confirmation once it’s done. Despite the name, this isn’t the Performance Max in our Performance Max guide. It shows only on Search and Maps, has no keywords and charges per lead. Here’s what the move does:

Setting	After the move
How you pay	Still per valid lead. Clicks are free.
Where ads show	Still Search and Maps only, in the same positions.
Bidding	Manual bids and per-category targets are retired. One target cost per lead (target CPA, explained in Smart Bidding) covers the whole campaign. Want different targets? Run one campaign per category.
Budget	Your weekly budget ÷ 7 becomes a daily average. The month can’t go over that average × 30.4.
Old reports	Impressions, clicks, weekly spend and ad-level reports don’t move.
Past leads	Move to a new Leads page, with contacts, messages and call recordings.
Callouts and photos	Callouts are short trust lines on your ad. The BBB (Better Business Bureau) ones are gone. Add at least 6 others, plus up to 100 photos.
Name, address, hours	Come one way from your Google Business Profile. Big edits trigger a review, typically 24–48 hours, that can pause the campaign.
New campaigns	Still start at g.co/localservices, not inside Google Ads.

Your Google Verified badge moves with you. Google’s words: “your verified status and your Google Verified badge will transfer to Google Ads automatically”, and “insurance and license reverification are no longer required.” More on Google Verified.

Google says to allow up to two weeks for the move to finish and for results to settle. If you haven’t moved yet, the before-the-move checklist covers what to save and what to check.

What happens to bad leads after the move?

Google credits some of them automatically. How you dispute one yourself isn’t documented yet. Here’s exactly what Google has and hasn’t said, as of October 2026.

What’s documented. Every lead on the Leads page has a charge status: Charged, Not charged, In review or Credited. Google checks lead quality for 30 days and automatically credits leads it finds poor quality, duplicate or invalid. Each lead has a feedback survey. Automatic credits aren’t offered in the European Economic Area.[1]

What isn’t. How you dispute a lead yourself after the move. Google’s help pages for the new campaigns don’t describe a way to do it, and Google hasn’t published a credit path for the missed calls it started billing on October 1.[5]

Until it does, fill in the feedback survey on every bad lead. Keep your own dated list of spam, wrong-job and out-of-area calls, ready for when Google adds a dispute process.

How does Clique to Close run Local Services and Search together?

As one plan in one account, judged on what each booked job cost. Local Services take the call-now searches. Search takes the big jobs and every search with no Local Services block. Every call is answered inside 60 seconds, day and night, because that’s what Local Services rank on and, since October, bill on. One Cost-Per-Booked-Job Scoreboard shows both campaigns side by side. How to run the pair yourself is on Local Services vs Search.

We’ve run Google Ads for 85+ home-service companies, with $76.5M in reported revenue for our clients. See how Clique to Close works, or the results.

FAQ

Do I need a Google Ads account to run Local Services Ads?

You start at g.co/localservices either way, because new pay-per-lead campaigns can’t be created inside Google Ads yet. In the US, once your account moves, it lives inside Google Ads and the old dashboard redirects there. Outside the US, the old dashboard stays until the 2027 move.

Can I choose the keywords my Local Services Ads show for?

No. You choose categories, job types and service areas, and Google matches searches to them. Getting leads for work you don’t do? Turn those job types off in the campaign settings.

Is Google Guaranteed still a thing?

No. Since October 2025 it’s been one badge, Google Verified, and the money-back guarantee has ended. What changed and what to fix on your own ads is on Google Verified.

How long does it take to get approved?

In the US, Google says screening averages 3–4 weeks after you submit your documents.[14] You also need a public, verified Google Business Profile.

Do Local Services Ads work in Australia or New Zealand?

No, and Google hasn’t announced a launch. Run Search campaigns with call assets, linked to your Google Business Profile, as set out above.