Local Services Ads are easy to mix up with Google search ads. Eligibility, trust badges and pay-per-lead billing are decided by Google. A thin explanation can overstate what a business can count on.
You’re great at the work. It’s fair to want plain answers on who may be eligible, how you pay, and what badge can appear, before you spend time on a campaign.
GBPOnly is a digital marketing agency specializing in Google Business Profile management for local businesses, from home services to shops, clinics and offices. GBPOnly can help set up and manage a Local Services Ads campaign where Google offers them. Google decides who qualifies and whether a Google Verified badge appears. No eligibility is promised. If something won’t move the needle, we’ll tell you.
For short definitions, see the local marketing glossary.
What They Are
Local Services Ads are ads for service businesses that Google has screened and verified. They can appear at the top of some Google searches. Instead of paying per click, you pay per lead.
Before your ads run, Google screens and verifies your business. Once verified, your ad can show a Google Verified badge. See Local Services Ads management for how we run the campaign.
Google’s Local Services Help describes the screening and verification process a business goes through before ads run, and official marketing pages describe the ads as a way to reach local customers.
Local Services Ads build on your Google Business Profile. The business a customer sees in the ad should match the one they find on the map. See Google Business Profile management if you want the profile work that sits under a campaign.
Local Services Ads are not a fit for restaurants or hospitality businesses. For home services, and for professional or auto businesses where Google offers the ads, the next sections explain the limits as well as the product.
Who Is Eligible (Google Decides)
Google offers Local Services Ads only for certain business categories and areas, and Google makes the final call on verification. GBPOnly cannot promise you will qualify.
We check whether your category is offered where you work, and tell you plainly before you spend time on it.
For professional services and auto services, Local Services Ads apply only where Google offers them for your category and area. Google decides eligibility, and we can’t promise you’ll qualify.
For marketing for home services and trades, we offer Local Services Ads where Google offers them, and Google decides. No trade, city or profession is automatically eligible.
Google’s screening and verification help explains that a business may need to complete checks before ads run, and may be asked to repeat checks later to stay in the program. The requirements depend on the business and on what Google asks. We will tell you what Google is asking for your category if we take on the work.
If the category or area isn’t offered, we’ll say so. Search ads may still be a fit. See Google search ads and the Local Services Ads and pay-per-click hub.
Pay Per Lead
You pay per lead, not per click.
Google’s Local Services Help says that with Local Services Ads, you pay for valid leads, and that you are charged for each valid lead you receive through the ad. Lead prices can vary. We don’t publish typical lead costs or close rates, because they vary.
A lead is a customer contact that comes through the ad, such as a call or a message, when Google treats it as a valid lead. Google, not GBPOnly, decides what is billable. The official help also describes cases where Google does not charge, or later credits, some low-quality or invalid leads. Those rules are Google’s, they can change, and they do not mean that every weak lead will be credited.
If you’re a fit, we set up your Local Services Ads account, help you through Google’s screening and verification steps, set your service types and areas, and get your profile ready to take leads. Then we manage it: watching lead quality, disputing leads that don’t qualify when Google allows it, and adjusting your budget settings with you.
Disputing a lead is not a promise that Google will credit it. Official help currently describes automated lead credits and a lead feedback survey, and it also notes limits on credits in some cases. We watch quality and follow the process Google allows. We do not promise a credit, a lead volume, or a quality rate.
Every lead should go somewhere. When we run the campaign, calls and messages from the ads are tracked in your Measures Sheet, so you can see what’s coming from Local Services Ads and decide what to do next.
Trust Badges, Including the Google Verified Badge
Once Google has screened and verified the business, the ad can show a Google Verified badge. Google decides who is verified and whether a badge is shown. GBPOnly cannot promise a badge.
Official Local Services Help, in “About Google Verified badge”, says Google is simplifying advertiser badging by launching a single badge for all advertisers, the Google Verified badge. Existing advertisers who have completed verification requirements automatically earn that badge. New advertisers need to complete screening and verification to get it. The same article says Google is discontinuing the Money Back Guarantee associated with the Google Guarantee badge.
Google Guaranteed and Google Screened are no longer the current badge names, and the badge is not only for home services. Category and area still affect whether the ads are offered and what screening Google asks for. Google still decides who is verified and whether a badge is shown.
Official marketing pages also use “Google Verified badge” and list many kinds of eligible services, not only home services. Eligibility for the ads, and for a badge, is still Google’s decision.
We do not promise that a badge will improve rankings. The official badge article says Local Services Ads ranking will not be affected by the badge change.
How This Differs From Search Ads
Local Services Ads and Google search ads are different products. Many businesses use both. Neither one is always the better choice.
- Local Services Ads charge per lead. Google search ads charge per click. That second model is pay-per-click.
- Local Services Ads are offered only for certain categories and areas, and Google decides who is verified. Search ads are a separate campaign type, with their own setup.
- Local Services Ads can show a trust badge after Google’s screening and verification. Search ads do not work that way.
- For Google search ads, conversion tracking is set up before ad spend.
Local Services Ads send customers to a call, a message or a booking, not to a campaign landing page. For Google search ads, a campaign landing page can be a supporting step. Landing page analysis is included in every Google Search Ads package.
If you want the wider ads picture, see Local Services Ads and pay-per-click.
Get a Quote
If this still looks like a fit, Get a Quote. Tell us about the business, the work you do and the area you serve. We learn the business, check whether Google offers Local Services Ads for your category and area, and build a clear plan. We’ll tell you plainly before you spend time on it.
If we take on the campaign, we do the work described on Local Services Ads management, and you see what’s moving in your Measures Sheet. If we don’t think we’re the right fit, we’ll say so and recommend someone who is.
If you want a first look at the profile itself, a Google Business Profile audit is complimentary based on fit. It is not a Local Services Ads approval, and it is not automatic.