Local Services Ads: the real cost guide
Per-lead billing looks cheaper than per-click and can cost more per job. The number that decides it is one most contractors have never calculated.
- You pay per lead. Whether that is cheap depends on your qualification rate.
- Average job value times close rate times qualification rate is what a lead is worth.
- Wrong-area and out-of-scope enquiries bill the same as a booked replacement.
- Dispute bad leads in the same week. The credits are real money.
How does Local Services Ads billing work?
You are charged per lead rather than per click. A lead is typically a call of qualifying length or a message through the ad. The cost per lead varies by trade, market and competition, and Google sets it dynamically.
We are not going to publish a per-lead figure for your trade, because it moves by market and season and a number quoted here would be wrong by the time you read it.
What is an LSA lead actually worth to you?
Three numbers out of your own books decide what an LSA lead is worth. Take your average job value. Multiply by your close rate on inbound enquiries. Multiply by the share of enquiries that are qualified at all. That is what a lead is worth to you.
Compare it to the per-lead cost your account is quoting. If the gap is thin before you have counted your own time on the phone, it is thinner than it looks.
Why is the gap thinner than the per-lead price suggests?
Wrong-area enquiries, price shoppers and out-of-scope jobs all bill the same as a booked replacement. Seasonal spikes raise demand and cost together. And the qualification rate is the variable most contractors have never measured, which means the arithmetic gets done with a guess in the middle of it.
| Enquiry type | Bills the same as a booked replacement | Named in Google’s dispute process |
|---|---|---|
| Booked replacement job | The job the other rows are measured against. | Not one of the three types named. |
| Wrong-area enquiry | Yes. | Yes — “wrong area”. |
| Out-of-scope job | Yes. | Yes — “out of scope”. |
| Price shopper | Yes. | Not one of the three types named. |
| Spam lead | Not stated in this guide. | Yes — “spam”. |
What we read from that, and this part is our judgement rather than anything the sources state: the expensive row is the one with no dispute route. A price shopper bills like work and is not one of the three types Google names, so the only lever on it is the qualification rate in your own arithmetic.
Can you get money back for bad LSA leads?
Google provides a dispute process for leads that are spam, wrong area or out of scope. Most contractors under-use it, and the credits are real money.
Build the habit of disputing in the same week rather than at month end.
Where does LSA fit next to local SEO and AI visibility?
LSA buys volume now. Map and local search work and AI visibility compound over quarters. Neither improves the other, and a business that needs work this month is better served by the first. They are two different purchases, and which one you need first depends on how soon you need the phone to ring.
“Cheaper per contact, sometimes more expensive per booked job.”
Questions owners ask
Established local businesses, three surfaces: Google Maps, organic search, AI answers. Youssef scores all three every quarter against a protocol anyone can read. Anything unverifiable is left out.
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