Local Services Ads · Updated August 2026

You pay when a real lead calls. Never for clicks.

Local Services Ads are the units at the very top of Google when a homeowner searches your trade — the ones with the checkmark badge. They don't bill like normal ads: no charge for clicks or views, a charge only when a real person calls or messages you. That flips the game. The work isn't buying traffic; it's setting the account up so the leads that ring are the jobs you actually want.

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.