Google Local Services Ads
Google Local Services Ads: pay-per-lead, verification-gated, and about to move under Performance Max.
Show up above the Map Pack for "plumber near me" and pay only for a lead that actually calls you, not a click that never books a job. That part of LSA isn't changing. What's changing in 2026 is the platform underneath it, and most agencies still selling it haven't updated their pitch.
Local Services Ads (LSA) puts your business at the very top of Google, above the regular ads and the Map Pack, for searches like "plumber near me." You pay per valid lead, a call or message that actually reaches you, not per click or impression, and you can dispute leads that are spam, wrong numbers, or outside your service area for a credit. Running one requires your business, its owner and your field staff to pass a background check and licensing/insurance verification first. As of October 2025, the separate "Google Guaranteed," "Google Screened" and "License Verified" badges were retired in favour of one unified "Google Verified" badge, and the consumer money-back guarantee that came with the old badge ended with it. The bigger shift: starting August 2026, Google is folding LSA management into Performance Max campaigns, rolling out in phases through 2027, which changes how the campaigns are built and bid, not whether pay-per-lead pricing continues.
By the numbers
- Every existing badge was retired on the same day. Google Guaranteed, Google Screened and License Verified by Google were all discontinued October 20, 2025, replaced by a single Google Verified badge shown with the specific checks a business passed. GOOGLE DOCUMENTED
- The consumer guarantee ended with it. The Google Guarantee money-back program for LSA-booked services was discontinued the same day; claims for service completed before that date had a 30-day submission window. GOOGLE DOCUMENTED
- LSA is moving under Performance Max. Google's own migration notice puts select U.S. home and storefront categories first in August 2026, broader U.S. categories in late 2026, and non-U.S. accounts in 2027. Pay-per-lead pricing and Search/Maps-only placement stay the same; manual bidding and vertical-level Target CPA are eliminated, and weekly budgets convert to daily averages. GOOGLE DOCUMENTED
- Lead cost is auction-driven, not fixed. Google does not publish a flat price per lead. It varies by trade, market competition and season, which is why any agency quoting a single national number is estimating, not reporting. DHM INTERPRETATION
What does Local Services Ads management include?
- The verification gate handled once, correctly. Business licensing, liability insurance and background checks on the owner and field staff all have to clear before a single lead can run; a rejected application usually comes back to a document mismatch that's simple to fix once someone's looked at it before submitting.
- Category and service-area accuracy, since LSA charges you for leads that match what you're actually set up to do; an overly broad service list produces leads you'll dispute, not leads you'll close.
- A dispute routine, run weekly, not occasionally, since credits for spam, duplicate or out-of-area leads only get issued when someone actually files them.
- The 2026 platform migration handled on Google's schedule, not left to happen to you: when your account's category moves into Performance Max, the bidding and budget structure changes and needs to be rebuilt around daily budgets, not carried over unchanged.
- A weekly review tied to actual booked jobs, not lead volume alone, since a rising lead count with a falling close rate usually means the targeting drifted, not that demand grew.
This page is the LSA-specific execution. The full max-ROAS approach across Google Ads and Meta Ads, including how we test budget before scaling it, is covered on the paid ads page.
What most agencies still get wrong about LSA in 2026
That badge and the consumer money-back guarantee behind it were retired October 20, 2025. If a proposal or an active campaign still references "Google Guaranteed" as a selling point, the person managing it hasn't looked at the account since before then.
Starting in phases from August 2026, LSA accounts move into Performance Max, with manual bidding and vertical Target CPA eliminated and budgets converted from weekly to daily. An account left untouched through that migration is running on settings Google no longer supports the way they used to.
Google doesn't publish a fixed price per lead. It's auction-based and moves with trade, market and season. A number quoted with total confidence is a market estimate dressed up as a guarantee, and the real number for your city and trade only comes from actually running the account.
Questions we get
Frequently asked questions
Do I still need a background check to run Local Services Ads?
Yes. That requirement didn't change with the badge update. Your business, its owner and your field staff still need to clear background checks and licensing/insurance verification before ads can run, and it's a common source of onboarding delay when documents don't match cleanly.
What happened to the Google Guaranteed badge?
It was retired, along with Google Screened and License Verified by Google, on October 20, 2025. All three were replaced by a single Google Verified badge that displays the specific checks a business has passed. Existing advertisers who had already completed verification transitioned automatically with no action required.
Is the consumer money-back guarantee gone too?
Yes, it was discontinued the same day as the badge change. Customers whose service was booked and completed before October 20, 2025 had a 30-day window from the service date to submit a claim; that window has since closed for anyone who didn't file in time.
What actually changes when LSA moves under Performance Max?
Management moves from the standalone Local Services Ads dashboard into the main Google Ads platform, manual bidding and vertical-level Target CPA are eliminated, and weekly budgets convert to daily averages. Pay-per-lead charging, the Search-and-Maps-only placement, and keywordless targeting all stay the same. The rollout is phased: select U.S. home and storefront categories first in August 2026, broader U.S. categories later that year, and non-U.S. accounts in 2027.
Can you guarantee a specific cost per lead?
No, and no one honestly can. Google prices leads through an auction that moves with trade, competition and season, not a published rate card. What we commit to is disclosed management, a real dispute routine for invalid leads, and a weekly review tied to booked jobs, not just lead count.
Read next
Where to go from here
Next step
Want your LSA account checked against the 2026 changes?
A free assessment of your current setup, or a clean build if you haven't started yet.
Or call 778-200-8644 · You own your ad account, we never touch your ad spend · We commit to a disputed-lead routine run weekly and a booked-job review, not a fixed cost per lead
Sources
- Google Local Services Help, About the Google Verified badge: retirement of Google Guaranteed/Screened/License Verified badges and the money-back guarantee, effective October 20, 2025.
- Google Ads Help, Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max campaigns: phased migration timeline and what changes for advertisers.
- Google, Google Verified makes it easier to find trusted local businesses advertising on Google, August 2025 announcement.
- Google Local Services Help, How leads work: pay-per-lead charging and the dispute process for invalid leads.
Cost-per-lead figures circulating on agency blogs are market estimates, not Google-published pricing, and are not repeated here as fact. Migration dates are Google's own stated timeline as of this writing and are subject to change.