Local Services Ads vs Google Ads: which should you run?

What is the actual difference?

Local Services Ads charge you per lead and appear above everything else including the map pack, carrying a Google Verified badge earned through licence and insurance checks. Google Ads charge you per click, appear below LSAs, and can target any search you can think of. One buys outcomes, the other buys traffic.

That difference cascades. With LSAs you cannot write the ad, choose keywords, or control much beyond service categories, service area and weekly budget \u2014 Google matches you to searches itself. With Google Ads you control almost everything, which is powerful and also means an unmanaged account will happily spend your money on searches with no buying intent.

The badge matters more than contractors expect. Homeowners hiring someone who will be in their house are buying reassurance as much as service, and a verified badge above the map pack does work that ad copy cannot. Note that professional service categories carry Google Screened rather than Verified, a weaker signal. Also worth knowing: what was called Google Guaranteed was renamed Google Verified in October 2025, so a lot of guidance still uses the old name.

What does each cost in 2026?

By trade, LSA costs in the February 2026 benchmark: electrical $39, HVAC $51, plumbing $57, drain and sewer $59, roofing $50\u2013$130. Google Ads non-branded runs considerably higher \u2014 HVAC $149, plumbing $183, roofing $228.

Can you actually run Local Services Ads?

Not everyone can, and this is where the comparison ends for some contractors. LSAs require category eligibility, licence verification, insurance verification and background checks. Not every trade is covered in every market, and verification takes days to weeks rather than minutes.

A quick eligibility check before you plan around it:

• Is your trade an available category in your market? Coverage varies by region
• Can you produce current licence and insurance documents matching your business name exactly?
• Does your business name match across your licence, insurance, Google Business Profile and website? Mismatches stall verification
• Do you have review volume? Reviews feed LSA ranking heavily, and a thin profile ranks poorly even once verified
• Can you answer the phone? LSAs deliver calls. An unanswered call is a lead you paid for

That last point deserves emphasis. LSA leads are charged whether or not you convert them, and the ranking system factors in your responsiveness. A contractor who cannot answer during business hours will pay more per booked job here than the benchmark suggests.

What Local Services Ads cannot do

Three things, and they are why Google Ads does not simply become redundant.

They only cover core service categories. Specialised or unusual services often have no matching LSA category, so demand for them is unreachable. A general contractor doing historic restoration, a plumber specialising in commercial backflow \u2014 those searches exist and LSAs cannot target them.

You cannot control messaging. No ad copy, no offer, no seasonal promotion, no landing page. If your differentiator is financing, a warranty or a specific guarantee, LSAs give you nowhere to say it.

They only capture bottom-of-funnel demand. Someone researching "how much does a furnace replacement cost" is months from hiring and is not seeing your LSA. Google Ads can reach them, and so can organic search, which is generally the better tool for that job.

Should you run both?

Usually yes, but not simultaneously from a standing start. The sequence that works for most contractors is LSAs first until they are producing consistently, then Google Ads for the gaps \u2014 because LSAs are cheaper per booked job and need less management, so proving the phone converts there costs less than proving it in a channel you also have to build.

Once both are running, two things stop them wasting money on each other. Split branded from non-branded reporting, since branded searches are people who already knew you. And if you run Performance Max, add brand exclusions \u2014 it will otherwise happily charge you for traffic you already had, and it books at 32.2% against 37.6% for non-branded search.

Budget-wise, a common starting split is roughly two-thirds LSA and one-third search until you have ninety days of data showing cost per booked job for each. Then move money toward whichever is winning, which is a decision you can only make if tracking is installed properly before you start.

Common questions