How Local Services Ads work
LSAs are built for local service businesses. Homeowners see your business name, rating, review count, years in business and a Google verification badge — not a written ad. When they call or message you through the ad, that's a lead, and you pay for the lead rather than for a click.
To run LSAs, your business goes through Google's screening, which can include license, insurance and background checks depending on your trade and location. Your position is influenced by things like your proximity to the customer, your reviews and rating, how responsive you are to leads, and your business hours.
If a lead is clearly invalid — for example a wrong number, spam or a job you don't offer — you can dispute it in the LSA dashboard.
How Google Search Ads work
Search Ads are the text ads that show for searches like “emergency plumber near me” or “roof replacement cost.” You choose the keywords, write the ads, pick the landing page and set bids. You pay each time someone clicks, whether or not they call.
That control is the strength: you can target high-ticket services specifically, exclude junk searches, run call-only ads, and send traffic to a page built to convert. The trade-off is that a poorly managed account can waste budget on clicks that never become jobs.
Side by side
- Billing: LSAs — per lead. Search Ads — per click.
- Placement: LSAs — very top of the page. Search Ads — sponsored results below LSAs and above the map.
- Control: LSAs — limited (service types, areas, budget, hours). Search Ads — full control of keywords, ads and landing pages.
- Setup: LSAs — Google verification required. Search Ads — no verification needed to start.
- Scale: LSAs — limited by how many leads Google sends. Search Ads — scales with budget and keywords.
Which should you run first?
If you can pass verification, LSAs are usually the fastest, lowest-risk place to start because you only pay for actual leads. Search Ads add volume and let you go after specific, profitable services. Running both covers the top of the page twice — and lets you compare true cost per booked job across the two.
Whichever you run, two things decide whether it pays: tracking every call back to a booked job, and answering leads fast. Unanswered LSA calls still hurt your responsiveness, and slow follow-up wastes paid clicks.
How MADBUZZ runs them
MADBUZZ runs LSAs and Search Ads in parallel for home service companies, with call tracking on every channel, and shifts budget to whichever produces booked jobs at a lower cost. Ad spend is billed by Google directly to you with no markup, and you keep ownership of your accounts. See Google Ads & LSA management →