Google does not publish a price list for Local Services Ads. You pay for each valid lead, meaning a phone call, a message or a booking request, and nothing for clicks. The price of each lead depends on your location, the job type, the lead type and your bidding, and Google says message leads usually cost less than phone calls. What you spend in a month is the number of charged leads times their price, up to your budget.
Since August 2026, Google has been moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads as a pay-per-lead Performance Max campaign. You still pay only for valid leads, and the ads still show in the same places on Search and Maps. What changes is the budget, which becomes a daily average, and the bidding, where manual bids are being retired.
What counts as a charged lead
Google’s help page on how leads work lists three kinds of lead:
- A phone call you answer, or a call you return and speak with the customer. A missed call also counts when the customer stays on the line for more than 20 seconds during your business hours and ad schedule.
- A text message or an email from the customer. Voicemails count as leads too.
- A booking request, in the USA and Canada only.
Some contacts are not charged. Google doesn’t bill leads it judges invalid or low quality at first contact, or duplicate contacts, or callers who hang up on an automated phone menu before pressing a key. If the same customer calls or messages again and there has been contact within the last 15 days, you aren’t charged again. After 15 days with no activity, a new contact from that customer is a new lead.
Because missed calls during business hours are billable, an unanswered phone costs money and books nothing. Google also says missed calls may count against your responsiveness, which affects where your ad shows.
What sets the price of a lead
Google names four inputs: your location, the job type, the lead type and your bidding mode. It publishes no prices for any of them.
Your profile affects the price as well as your position. Google’s page on ad rankings says the order of the ads depends on your bid, on how likely you are to get the lead, and on the quality of your profile: “your rating, number of reviews, average response time, use of high-quality images” and the checks you have completed. Likelihood covers how well your services and business bio match the search, how fast you answer, and whether customers can send messages or bookings. Google adds that higher quality profiles “may rank higher and may also pay lower costs per lead.”
Google recommends five or more reviews, and in some business types a profile needs five reviews before its ad shows at all. The rating and the review count on the ad come from your Google Business Profile.
Budgets and bidding after the move to Google Ads
Google’s transition page sets out the order:
- August 2026: selected home and storefront service advertisers in the USA, including plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and moving.
- Late 2026: service-area businesses without a storefront, and accounts with custom bidding or booking setups.
- 2027: accounts outside the USA and every remaining business category.
What changes when your account moves:
- Weekly budgets become daily averages, and monthly spend is capped at the daily average times 30.4. A $100 daily average can spend up to $3,040 in a month.
- Manual bidding, such as a maximum cost per lead, and industry-level targets are being retired. One target cost per lead applies to the whole campaign, so trades that need different targets need separate campaigns.
- Better Business Bureau callouts are no longer supported.
- Past performance reports do not move to Google Ads, so download them, or take screenshots, before your account moves. Past leads, messages and older call recordings do move, to the new Leads page.
Credits for leads you shouldn’t pay for
Google reassesses charged leads over time and credits low-quality ones automatically. In most cases the credit reaches your account balance within 30 days, and the original charge still shows on your invoice. You can also rate each lead through “Rate this lead,” which gives Google more to go on.
Google no longer gives credits for “job type not serviced” or “geo not serviced” leads. A job type you don’t do or a town you don’t serve, left switched on, costs you every lead it brings, so set both before the first lead arrives. Automatic credits are also not available for health care, tax specialists or advertisers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Cost per booked job, the number to watch
Whether the ads pay depends on what each booked job costs: the cost per lead divided by the share of leads your team books. The figures below are a sample, not a benchmark.
| Month 1 | Month 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead | $60 | $60 |
| Leads | 40 | 40 |
| Spend | $2,400 | $2,400 |
| Share of leads booked | 35% | 45% |
| Booked jobs | 14 | 18 |
| Cost per booked job | $171 | $133 |
The spend is the same in both months. Month 2 books more jobs from the same leads because the team answered more of the calls and replied to messages faster. To see this number at all, each lead has to be matched to a job in your CRM, which is what our lead tracking work sets up.
Questions about Local Services Ads cost
Is there a set price or a monthly fee from Google?
No. Google publishes no lead prices. You set a budget, and you pay only for valid leads within it.
Do I pay for a call I missed?
Yes, when the caller stayed on the line for more than 20 seconds during your business hours and active ad schedule. A missed call outside those hours is not charged.
What happened to Google Guaranteed?
On October 20, 2025, Google replaced the Google Guaranteed, Google Screened and License Verified by Google badges with one Google Verified badge, and ended the money-back guarantee that came with Google Guaranteed.
Do better reviews lower the cost?
They can. Google says your rating and number of reviews count toward your ranking, and that higher quality profiles may pay lower costs per lead.
Who can run the account for us?
We set up and run Local Services Ads for home service companies in the USA and Canada. The account stays in your business’s name, and you pay Google directly for each lead. Our Local Services Ads management page explains the work, and our home services marketing page covers the rest of what we do for local trades.
Sources
- Google, How leads work (Local Services Help), read November 2026.
- Google, About ad rankings (Local Services Help), read November 2026.
- Google, Improve your Local Services Ads performance (Local Services Help), read November 2026.
- Google, Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals (Google Ads Help), read November 2026.
- Google, About Automated Local Services Ads lead credits (Local Services Help), read November 2026.
- Search Engine Roundtable, Google To Replace Local Service Ads Badges With One Verified Badge, August 21, 2025.
Disclaimer: We are a marketing company, not a legal one. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice; all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only.
Roman ZelvenschiChief Storyteller
Roman Zelvenschi is a digital marketing strategist and founder with over 15 years of experience helping businesses grow through data-driven marketing and brand strategy. Since 2008, he has turned ideas into profitable, scalable ventures—working with brands ranging from global enterprises like Mondelēz to startups such as The Kosher Express. His expertise lies in SEO, AI-driven marketing, and lead generation, particularly within highly regulated industries such as healthcare, long-term care, and finance. Roman believes effective marketing blends brand investment for long-term growth with short-term performance through lead generation and customer lifetime value optimization. An early adopter of AI in marketing, Roman has leveraged machine learning since 2022 to enhance targeting, personalization, and campaign performance. He continues to advocate that technology should amplify human creativity—not replace it.
Schedule a Call
