Local Service Ads, or LSAs, are the listings with the green checkmark badge that sit at the very top of Google, above every other ad. They are different from regular Google Ads in two ways that matter: you pay per lead (a real phone call or message) instead of per click, and Google puts a trust badge on your listing after verifying your business. For a licensed, insured local business that answers the phone, they are some of the highest-intent leads on Google.
This guide walks the whole thing end to end: what they are, how to qualify, how to set them up, and how to manage and rank them once they are live. It pairs with our Google Business Profile Master Guide (you need a verified profile to run LSAs) and our Review Velocity System (reviews are a direct LSA ranking factor).
What LSAs are and why they win the top of the page
Understand the two things that make LSAs different, and you understand why they are worth the setup.
- They sit above everything. LSAs are Google's hyper-local ad result, built to put verified local businesses in front of nearby customers at the exact moment they search. That is why Google places them at the very top, above the regular search ads and above the organic results. When someone searches "emergency plumber near me," the LSAs are the first thing they see.
- You pay per lead, not per click. Regular search ads charge you every time someone clicks, whether they call or bounce in ten seconds. LSAs charge you only when a real phone call or message comes in. You do not pay for clicks that go nowhere.
- The badge is built-in trust. Google shows a "Google Verified" badge on your listing after confirming your license, your insurance, and a background check. To a customer choosing who to call, that badge does a lot of work before you ever pick up.
A note on the badge name. Google retired the old "Google Guaranteed" branding in late 2025 and folded it, along with Google Screened and License Verified, into a single "Google Verified" badge. The verification behind it did not change. What did change: the old $2,000 customer money-back guarantee was discontinued, so do not use that as a selling point anymore. The badge still signals trust, which is what matters.
What you need to qualify
LSAs are gated on purpose. That gate is also what makes the badge mean something.
Before you can run LSAs, Google verifies that you are a legitimate, licensed, insured business. You will need:
- A business license for your trade or profession, where one applies. Requirements vary by category and by state.
- Current liability insurance that covers the work you do, with a future expiration date.
- A background check on the business owner, run through Google's third-party provider. In some categories, lead employees may need one too.
- A verified Google Business Profile whose name, address, and phone number match your LSA profile exactly. This is mandatory, so claim and verify your profile first if you have not. Our GBP guide covers that step.
LSAs are available for home services (HVAC, plumbing, roofing, cleaning, and the like) and a range of professional service categories such as legal, real estate, and financial services. Not every business type is eligible, so check whether your category is covered before you start.
Set up your profile and pass verification
This is the part where most businesses stall, almost always on paperwork. Gather everything before you start.
Create your profile and choose your services
Go to ads.google.com/local-services-ads and build your profile: business name, service area, and category. Google then shows you a list of job types. This is one of the most important choices you make, because the job types you select decide which searches you pay for.
Only select services you actually do. Over-selecting is the number one cause of junk leads. A roofing company should not check "gutter cleaning" if they do not offer it. A law firm should not list practice areas it does not handle. A good gut check: review your selected job types against your last 50 invoices, and remove anything that does not show up there.
Complete verification
Upload your license and your current insurance certificate, and complete the background check when Google emails you the link (it takes about 10 to 15 minutes). Google's official timeline for verification is roughly 3 to 4 weeks after you submit everything. Until you are approved, your ads do not show, so check your status every few days and respond fast to any document request. The most common stalls: a license in a different name than your Google account, an expired insurance certificate, or a GBP that does not match your LSA details.
Your lead inbox: LSAs track every call for you
Google does the call tracking for you. Every call and message is recorded and logged automatically, so there is nothing extra to set up.
Google's Local Services system records and logs every call and every message that comes through your LSA. That native tracking is how Google bills you per lead in the first place, so it is built right into the product. Your job is not to set up tracking. It is to set up your inbox and answer fast.
Before you go live, get set up to handle and review those leads. Download the Google Local Services app, or use the dashboard, as your lead inbox. Every lead shows up there: who called, their number, how long the call lasted, a recording of the call, and whether you answered or missed it. Messages land in the same place. Turn on notifications so a new lead pings your phone the second it arrives, and decide who is responsible for answering before you spend a dollar.
Listen to your own calls. Because Google records them for you, your lead inbox is also the cheapest sales coaching you will ever get. Spend a few minutes a week listening to recent calls. It tells you fast whether a slow month is a lead-quality problem or a problem with how your team answers the phone.
Set your budget and bidding
Start simple and let real data tell you what a lead costs in your market.
- LSAs use a weekly budget, not a daily one. Set it to what you are comfortable testing in a week. Google may spend more some weeks and less others, balancing out over the month.
- Leave it on "Maximize leads." This is Google's automated bidding. It gets you as many leads as possible inside your budget and finds your real lead cost. Do not try to outsmart it with manual bidding. Google's algorithm has far more data than you do, and for almost every business, automated beats manual.
- Expect lead cost to vary widely by category, market, and season. There is no universal number. Track your own, and judge it against what a booked job is worth to you (our metrics guide, Knowing Your Numbers, covers exactly how).
Not getting impressions? Raise your budget. Your weekly budget is also a signal to Google about how much volume you can handle. Google rarely spends the whole thing, so setting it higher does not mean you suddenly pay more. It tells Google you are capable of spending more, which keeps you competitive and helps you show up more often. If your impressions are low, bumping the budget up is often the fix.
Manage and rate your leads
Answering fast protects your jobs and your ranking. A tight setup keeps the junk leads down.
Answer every call fast. Your response rate is a ranking factor, and a customer who does not get an answer just calls the next business on the page. If you cannot answer live, call back within minutes.
Only run your ads when you can answer. LSAs let you schedule the hours your ads show. If your team answers phones from 8 to 6, set your ad schedule to those hours. Running 24/7 when no one is there just racks up missed calls, and missed calls drag down the response rate that drives your ranking.
Rate your leads. In your lead inbox, use the "Rate this lead" tool to flag the bad ones: spam, robocalls, wrong numbers, and duplicates. Google reviews flagged leads and can credit you for the ones that clearly should not count.
Your real defense against junk is a tight setup. Select only the job types you actually do and a service area you actually cover. That is what keeps bad leads from coming in to begin with. You will still get a little, so leave room for it.
Maintain your ranking
Once you are live, budget alone does not decide who shows first. These are the levers you control.
- Reviews. Your Google review count and rating feed directly into your LSA ranking, and recent reviews carry the most weight. Your LSA reviews live on your Google Business Profile, so respond to every one there, positive and negative, as part of keeping your profile quality up. After you close a job that came from an LSA, ask that customer for a review the same day. (Our Review Velocity System is the full playbook.)
- Profile photos. Add real photos to your LSA profile: your team, your vehicle, a finished job. Google counts image quality as part of your profile quality in the ranking, so this is not just cosmetic.
- Response rate. Google tracks the percentage of calls you answer. Let calls go to voicemail and your ranking drops with your response rate.
- Response speed on messages. If you enable message leads, reply within minutes. Set up push notifications so you see them instantly.
- Proximity. Google weights how close you are to the searcher, which you cannot change, but it is another reason to set a realistic service area instead of stretching it.
- Turn on both calls and messages. More ways for customers to reach you gives Google more reason to show you.
Common mistakes
- Over-selecting job types. You pay for leads you cannot convert. Keep your job types tight to the services you actually do.
- Ignoring your lead inbox and call recordings. Google records every call for you. Skip the inbox and you miss creditable junk leads and free coaching on your own calls.
- Not answering during your LSA hours. Slow response drops your ranking and wastes budget. Designate who answers, and treat every missed call as money left on the table, because with LSAs it literally is.
- Letting your license or insurance lapse. The moment a certificate expires, Google removes your badge and suspends your profile, often with no warning beyond an email you might miss. Set a reminder 30 to 60 days before each one expires, and upload the renewal the day your insurer or licensing board sends it.
What good looks like
Directional targets, not promises. Track your own numbers and watch the trend.
- Lead to booked: 50% or more of your LSA calls turning into estimates or jobs. If it is far lower, the issue is usually how calls are handled, not the ad.
- Response rate: 85% or more of calls answered.
- Reviews: a steady weekly flow of new Google reviews, especially from LSA customers.
- Status: "Active" with the Google Verified badge showing and no verification warnings.
- Cost per booked job: in line with what a job is worth to you. Know that number before you scale spend.