Local Services Ads (LSA)

Pay-per-lead ads that sit above everything, including the map pack, a different product from ordinary search ads.

What is a Local Services Ad?

Local Services Ads (LSAs) are Google’s pay-per-lead ad format. Local Services Ads appear at the top of results for many local service queries, above both conventional ads and the map pack. You are charged per lead rather than per click.

Eligibility usually involves a screening process covering licensing and insurance, and participating businesses may display a Google Guaranteed or Google Screened badge.

How is a Local Services Ad different from a paid search ad?

A Local Services Ad is a different product from an ordinary search ad, not a variant of one. Billing is per lead, not per click. Placement is above the map pack rather than beside organic results. And participation depends on passing screening rather than simply funding a campaign.

It is also largely separate from organic and map-pack work — it does not improve them, and they do not improve it.

Where do Local Services Ads fit next to organic and AI visibility?

LSA buys immediate volume. The organic and AI-visibility work compounds but takes quarters. They are complements rather than substitutes, and a business needing calls this month is better served by paid channels than by anything on this site’s longer-horizon list.

How do you check your own Local Services Ads position?

There are two versions of this check, and which one you run depends on whether the ads are already live. If you are running LSAs, pull the last month of leads and mark how many were qualified. Pay-per-lead billing makes the qualification rate the number that matters.

If you are not running them, search your main service in your city and see who occupies the space above the map pack. That is the position you are conceding.

See where you actually stand

A free Visibility Check runs twelve real buying questions for your category across three surfaces.