What Local Services Ads are
Local Services Ads appear at the very top of the results for searches like “plumber near me” or “estate lawyer in Austin”, showing your business name, rating, hours and a Google Guaranteed or Google Screened badge. The searcher calls or messages you directly from the ad. You pay for the lead, not the click, and you can dispute leads that were spam, out of area or the wrong service. Eligibility requires passing Google’s background, licence and insurance checks for your category, which is why the setup takes weeks rather than days. Ranking is not bought with a bid alone: review count and rating, how quickly you answer, your hours and your service area all move you up or down.
Where they are available
Local Services Ads are offered in the USA, Canada, the UK and a number of European countries, in categories Google has opened for each. They are not available in Nepal, and Australian businesses do not currently have them either; for those markets the equivalent is a Search campaign with call assets, radius targeting and call tracking, described under lead generation campaigns. This page is for businesses in the markets where the program runs, and the country pages for US businesses and UK businesses cover how I work across the time difference.
Who this is for
- Home services: plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, cleaning, pest control, locksmiths, garage doors, landscaping.
- Professional services in the Google Screened categories: lawyers, financial planners, real estate agents, some healthcare providers.
- Multi-location service companies that need each location verified and budgeted separately.
What Local Services Ads management includes
Verification
Profile creation, business registration and insurance documents, licence numbers per state or region, and the background check for owners and staff where the category requires it. I prepare the submission, track its status and resolve the rejections that come from mismatched names, expired documents or unlisted job categories.
Profile and job types
Service areas set by postcode or zip rather than a radius that reaches places you do not serve, job types chosen and excluded precisely, hours matched to when the phone is answered, and photos and a business description that read like a business someone would call.
Reviews
Reviews are the largest ranking factor. I set up the review request link and a routine for asking after each job, and I connect your Google Business Profile so existing reviews count.
Budget and bidding
A weekly budget per profile and either the maximize-leads setting or a maximum cost per lead, tuned from what a job is worth. Budgets move between locations and job types monthly based on lead cost and lead quality from your CRM.
Lead handling and disputes
Every lead is rated in the Local Services dashboard, because responsiveness affects ranking and because unrated leads cannot be disputed. Spam, wrong-service and out-of-area leads are disputed within the window, and the credit is tracked.
Coordination with Search
Local Services Ads and Search Ads occupy different positions and are billed differently; run together they cover the top of the page and the text results, and the Search campaign picks up the searches Local Services Ads do not show for. I report both against the same cost-per-lead target.
How Local Services Ads are set up
- Eligibility check: your category, country and the licences and insurance required.
- Profile built; documents and background check submitted; status followed until the badge is granted.
- Service areas, job types, hours and photos configured; review link set up.
- Budget and lead-cost setting chosen; lead notifications routed to the phone and inbox that will answer.
- Launch, with leads rated daily in the first month and disputes filed as needed.
- Monthly review of lead cost, lead quality and ranking, with Search results side by side.
What you receive
- A verified Local Services profile with the Google Guaranteed or Google Screened badge.
- A lead-rating and dispute routine, with credits tracked.
- A monthly report on leads, cost per lead, dispute credits and booked jobs where your CRM records them.
Pricing and next step
Local Services Ads are managed inside the monthly PPC management fee, invoiced in USD, GBP or CAD, with the fee confirmed after a scoping call; the wider arrangement is on the packages and pricing page. If you already run Local Services Ads or Search, a free Google Ads audit shows where the leads and the wasted spend are coming from.