Manage leads and jobs

The number displayed on your ad is a Google forwarding number. When potential customers call this number, the call will be forwarded to your actual business number. The number displayed is a dynamic number, meaning it will change often as different people search on Google and click and interact with your ad. There is no way to choose your tracking number.

When you get a call from your ad, you’ll hear the message: “Call from Google.” That way, you’ll know which customers your ad is bringing in. Note: You may not hear the “Call from Google” message if you have any type of call forwarding or VoIP set up on the business phone number on your Local Services account.

Note that in the US and Canada, all inbound calls from customers via the Google forwarding number are recorded by Google to improve quality and support policies and research (and customers are notified of this by a pre-recorded message immediately before you hear the “Call from Google” notification). Learn more About Local Services data.

When a customer submits a new message lead, you'll receive an email and get an SMS text message.

You can choose whether to receive notifications via email, SMS text message, or both. You can change your notification preferences in the “Profile & budget” page of your account. For SMS text notifications, you can designate the phone number the notifications will be sent to. The number doesn’t have to be the same as your business phone number but can be one designated for notifications only.

You can reply directly to Google’s email or SMS text message to respond to the new lead in one of 3 ways:

• Reply to the customer by entering your message in the conversation box and clicking Send. This will deliver your message as an email or text message to the customer.
• Call the customer by dialing the number listed on the lead page.
• Decline the request by clicking the Decline button. If you decline the request, it will be removed and the customer will be notified. You can send a response with more information about why the request was declined. Once declined, requests can be recovered if something changes.

You can change whether to allow customers to contact you by message lead from the lead inbox on desktop:

1. In your Local Services Ads lead inbox, click the menu icon in the top left.
2. Select Profile & budget from the menu.
3. Click the message leads toggle to turn the feature on or off.

It may take a few hours before your changes go live on Google Search.

Once you respond to a new lead, it becomes “active". You can find all active leads in the “active” section of the inbox. You'll also receive emails if there are new customer messages or calls on active leads.

When you send a message, Google doesn’t share your email address with consumers. Instead, Google routes your back-and-forth message communications with providers through an anonymized alias.

Messaging responsiveness estimates

If you have 2 or more message leads in the last 90 days, estimated messaging response times may appear in your ads. Estimates range from “a few minutes” to “one day”. The estimate is calculated differently depending on whether you have specified your business hours (Learn how to Edit your business hours). If you have specified your business hours, we calculate your average message response time during those business hours in the last 90 days. This is a weighted average that gives higher importance to the more recent leads within that period. If you have not specified your business hours, then leads received between 7 AM–9 PM are considered for this calculation. For questions about messaging responsiveness calculation or if you think your estimate is incorrect, contact support.

Message leads typically cost less than phone leads. Enabling message and/or booking leads means there are more ways for customers to reach you, which can increase the likelihood of receiving a lead, especially during nights and weekends when you can’t answer the phone, or when consumers want to reach out to you but don't expect to hear back immediately. In fact, many customers today prefer messaging and direct booking over calling. For message leads, your average response time may be displayed in your ad, and quick response times can drive greater consumer engagement on your ad. How likely your ad is to result in a lead is one factor in the Local Services Ads auction. Learn how to Manage leads and jobs.