With Local Services Ads, you pay for valid leads. Here’s how it works:
- Set an average weekly budget based on the average number of leads you want to receive in any given week.
- Note: You can spend more than your average weekly budget in a given week on your leads, but you’ll never spend more than your monthly max. Your monthly max can be calculated by multiplying your average weekly budget by the average number of weeks in a month. Learn How to edit your budget.
- Set your bidding mode for the max you’re willing to pay for a lead. Learn How bidding works for Local Services Ads.
- Leads are first assessed when the potential customer makes initial contact, and leads determined to be invalid or low quality are not charged.
- Charged leads get reassessed by our models over time, and may be issued credits automatically if determined to be low quality.* If you believe the lead you received is poor quality, you can let us know in the Feedback Survey for that lead. We’ll do our best to send you more of the leads that you want and fewer of those you don’t want. We may also occasionally credit leads you report as poor quality through this survey. Learn About Automated Local Services Ads lead credits.
*Lead credits aren't available for health care verticals, tax specialists, or for advertisers in EMEA.
How you’re charged
You're charged for each valid lead you receive through your Local Services ad. Lead prices may vary depending on your location, the job type, the type of lead, or your bidding mode, but each lead received will count towards your budget.
After you’ve reached your monthly max, your ad won't appear for the remainder of the month (unless you adjust your budget).
You can view how much you've been charged for your leads by going to the "Billing" menu in your leads inbox. Learn more about How to pay for Local Services Ads.
Billing for Local Services Ads is managed by Google Ads. Any suspension in your Google Ads account will also suspend your Local Services Ads. To pause or edit campaigns, use the Local Services Ads inbox rather than the main Google Ads interface.
Note: Message leads are typically priced lower than the corresponding phone lead price, although that’s not always the case. Message lead price is based on the customer’s estimated likelihood to book your business, based on factors including but not limited to:
- Message lead type (standard message lead, Request a Quote, etc.)
- The service requested by the customer
- Whether the customer has contacted other Local Services advertisers
- Customer's previous engagement with Local Services Ads
Your reporting dashboard shows your total spending and the number of leads generated through different channels like message, call and book.
Booking leads are only available in the United States and Canada.
What are valid leads?
Valid leads are related to your business and can occur when customers find your ads on Google. Google's automated systems proactively filter out invalid activity (such as spam or duplicate contacts) and machine learning models automatically credit low-quality leads. Valid leads can be generated in the following scenarios:
- You answer a phone call or you call the customer back and speak with the customer.
- You missed a phone call during your business hours and the customer stays on the line for more than 20 seconds.
- If your call-receiving setup requires customers to press a key to route them to the relevant department, then the 20 second-timer will start once customers press the key. You won’t be charged if customers don’t press a key to get routed.
- You receive a text message or email from the customer.
- You receive a voicemail from the customer..
- You receive a booking request from a customer (United States and Canada only).
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Note: Call recordings and lead credits aren't available for tax specialists or for health care verticals located within the United States. Call recordings and lead credits aren’t available for any verticals in Europe. |
Text message and email leads
Message leads allow prospective customers to reach you via text or email directly from your ad. Message leads are typically priced lower than phone leads, although that is not always the case. Pricing is based on the customer’s estimated likelihood to book your business, which considers factors such as the lead type (standard message lead or Request a Quote), the service requested, whether the customer has contacted other local advertisers, and their previous ad engagement.
Here’s how messaging works:
- Privacy and routing: Google routes messages through anonymized proxy numbers and email aliases to protect consumer and business privacy.
- Notifications: You can receive new lead notifications via email, text message (US only), or both, and manage notification preferences in your account settings.
- Replying to leads: You can reply directly from the Leads page in Google Ads, or by responding to the notification text or email.
Charge statuses for leads
You can track each lead's billing status under the Charge Status column on the Leads page in Google Ads (marked as “Charged,” “Not charged,” “In review,” or “Credited”). Google continuously assesses lead quality over a 30-day period. If a lead is determined to be of poor quality, duplicate, or invalid, a credit is automatically applied to your account balance. Automatic lead credits are not available for accounts located in European Economic Area (EEA) countries.
If you’re receiving unwanted leads, navigate to campaign settings to refine your service areas, categories, and service types. Narrowing your targets can help attract your ideal customers, though it may reduce overall lead volume. You can also share feedback on individual leads using the survey on the Leads page. Google collects this feedback data to improve models and processes over time.