Welcome to your 2025 guide to Google Local Services Ads. The platform that’s becoming increasingly popular and increasingly prominent when it comes to service-based searches in and around your local area. As the platform begins to rival the likes of CheckATrade, TrustATrader and other service directories it’s important to take note of its power.
You might already be familiar with Local Services Ads as they begin to work their way to the top of our search results. LSA’s appear at the top of the search results pages when searching for specific services within a local area.
This is Google’s pay-per-lead platform that allows local businesses to gain ultimate prominence for the services they provide and ultimately gain leads for those services.
Here’s what you might see when searching for a “local plumber near me” on a desktop
In the UK and parts of Europe there are a number of service providers that can use Google Local Services Ads. People operating in the following business categories can start to use the service.
| Appliance Repair | Carpenter | Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning |
|---|---|---|
| Countertop Services | Electrician | Fencing Services |
| Flooring Services | Foundation Services | Garage Doors |
| General Contractor | Handyman | Home Inspector |
| House Cleaning | HVAC | Junk Removal |
| Landscaping Services | Lawn Care | Pest Control |
| Plumber | Pool Cleaner | Pool Contractor |
| Removals | Roofing | Snow Removal |
| Tree Service | Water Damage Services | Window Cleaning |
If you offer any of the above services then LSA’s could offer the edge over your local competitors and start to deliver you more leads for your business.
Local Services Ads provide businesses with the option to pay for the leads they receive. Unlike Google Ads, people who advertise on LSA only pay when they get a lead, not everytime someone clicks on their ad.
Businesses receive leads via phone calls and messages. The majority of leads come via phone calls.
Here at Big Gun, we work with a local roofer who has been running LSA’s since 1st July. Spending £738.29 and receiving 102 leads in that time. 95 of which were charged averaging out at £7.77 per lead.
In our opinion, if you run a service-based business and you are in one of the categories above we think that LSAs are a no-brainer. Having received feedback from clients we have found that the quality of leads produced by LSAs are better than those produced via Google Ads or other marketing campaigns. We would recommend trialing LSAs for 3 months to see if they provide you with better quality leads as well as increased volumes.
The setup of Google Local Services Ads is pretty simple. However, we recommend seeking advice if you don’t have experience in using Google’s platforms. In order to get set up you need to ensure you have relevant business licences, insurances and documentation to hand. These are mandatory when setting up your LSAs. Once you’ve cleared that hurdle you’ll need to set up (or optimise) your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business).
You’ll need to get some reviews on this in order to become Google Guaranteed. It’s then a case of setting up the services you want to advertise, attributing some budget to your campaign and wait for the phone to start ringing.
Give us a call on 01494 629007 and ask to speak to Tom or Ella who will chat to you about how we can help you. From as little as £340.00 + VAT we can get you advertising inside 48 hours.
Leads are generally received via telephone. However, there are options to setup message requests and also bookings. Ask us about this when you chat to us about LSAs.
No. LSAs are based on the services you offer and you’re not able to target keywords.
Google allows you to define postcodes you’d like to advertise in. We would recommend targeting your whole catchment area to ensure maximum visibility.
There are a number of factors that contribute to this and not all of them are in our control.
1) The responsiveness of you as a business is crucial. Missed calls negatively affect this and so it’s vital that you’re answering all calls at the time of running ads. Essentially, if you’re missing calls regularly then Google may put you down the pecking order when it comes to displaying your ads.
2) What a customer is searching for can affect the likelehood of conversion. For example, the service or job that a customer is searching for, time of the search, location and other characteristics. How relevant your business is for the customer’s search, for example, services that you provide, your business bio and your proximity to potential customers’ locations.
