Google Local Services Ads are the sponsored listings at the very top of Google for trades like plumbers, electricians and roofers. You don’t pay for clicks. You pay when a customer rings or messages you through the ad.
They run in both the UK and Ireland, and the last twelve months have changed more about them than any time since they launched here in 2020. The Google Guaranteed badge is gone. Lead disputes work differently in Europe. And Google is folding the whole product into Google Ads, with UK and Irish accounts moving in 2027.
Most guides you’ll find were written before any of that, and most were written for America. Google’s own help pages, checked on 19 September 2026, say what applies in the UK and Ireland.
| At a glance | United Kingdom | Ireland |
|---|---|---|
| Available since | 2020 | 2020 |
| Trades covered | 28 home-service categories | 29 home-service categories |
| Solicitors and estate agents | Yes, Greater London only | No |
| Badge | Google Verified | Google Verified |
| Business registration accepted | Companies House number or VAT number | CRO number or VAT number |
| Automatic lead credits | Not available | Not available |
| Moves into Google Ads | 2027 | 2027 |
What are Google Local Services Ads?
Local Services Ads, or LSAs, are a separate kind of Google ad made for local service businesses. When someone searches for a trade in an area you cover, Google can show your business in a sponsored unit at the top of the results, with your name, your star rating and a button to call or message you.
Here’s what that looks like on a phone in Ireland, searched on 19 September 2026.
Each listing shows the rating and number of reviews, the trade, years in business, whether you’re open, the area you serve and a couple of short highlights you choose, like “Free estimate” or “24/7 emergency services”. The unit sits above the ordinary “Sponsored results”, which are standard Google Search ads.
Three things make them different from ordinary Google Ads.
- You pay per lead, not per click. A charge happens when someone contacts you through the ad, not when they look at it.
- There are no keywords. Google matches you to searches from the trade, the job types and the areas you choose.
- Google checks you first. Your registration, insurance and in some trades your licences are checked before you can earn the badge.
Google’s own illustration shows the same parts on a single card.
You don’t need a website to run them either. The ad links to a Google profile page built from what you enter and from your Business Profile, and leads come straight to your phone and inbox.
What happened to Google Local Services Ads?
They weren’t killed, whatever the YouTube thumbnails say. They changed, a lot, in a short space of time.
| When | What changed | Does it affect the UK and Ireland? |
|---|---|---|
| Earlier | Manual lead disputes were replaced by automatic lead credits | No: lead credits are US and Canada only |
| 20 October 2025 | Google Verified replaced Google Guaranteed, Google Screened and the money-back guarantee | Yes. The last guarantee claims closed on 7 December 2025 |
| 2026 | Pre-badge ads let a business take leads while it finishes verification | Yes, with some trades excluded |
| August 2026 | US accounts start moving into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals | Not yet |
| 2027 | Non-US accounts, and the remaining categories, move into Google Ads | Yes, this is when UK and Irish accounts move |
So if you run LSAs in Dublin, Leeds or Birmingham, your ads, your dashboard and your pay-per-lead billing carry on as they are for now. Google will email your account’s administrator 14 days before your account moves, and again 7 days later.
What happened to Google Guaranteed and Google Screened?
Google retired both on 20 October 2025. In their place is one badge, a blue tick called Google Verified, and alongside it Google lists the checks your business passed.
Not every page has caught up, Google’s own included.
The money-back guarantee went with them. Under Google Guaranteed, a customer could claim back what they paid for a job booked through the ad, up to a lifetime cap, if the job went wrong. Claims had to be in by 7 December 2025. There is no Google-backed refund now, whatever an older guide or an agency page tells you.
Two more details matter. Google doesn’t show the badge on every ad. In the two Dublin searches above, neither unit showed it at all. And Google says the badge doesn’t change where you rank. It tells customers you’ve been checked, that’s all.
So when Google’s UK marketing page shows the old Guaranteed badge, as it still did in September 2026, don’t let it confuse you. The help pages and the sign-up screen both use Google Verified.
Are Local Services Ads available in the UK and Ireland?
Yes, in both. Google’s help pages cover the UK and Ireland as separate markets.
What differs is the list of trades. In the UK and Ireland it’s home services, with a London-only pilot for some legal and property services. In the US it’s far wider, covering health, beauty, cars and more.
UK categories
Google lists these home services for Great Britain: appliance repair, carpenters, carpet cleaning, cleaning, worktops, electricians, fencing, flooring, foundations, garage doors, general contractors, handyman, home inspection, HVAC (heating and air conditioning), junk removal, landscaping, lawn care, moving services, pest control, plumbers, pool cleaning, pool contracting, roofers, snow removal, tree services, water damage, window cleaning and window repair.
Solicitors and estate agents can advertise too, but only in Greater London, as a pilot. The legal categories are contract, corporate, criminal, employment, family, immigration, insolvency, intellectual property, litigation, malpractice, personal injury, probate, property, road traffic and tax law, plus general lawyer services and estate agents. Outside Greater London, those services aren’t available.
Locksmiths, accountants and financial planners aren’t on the UK list. A boiler engineer fits under HVAC.
Ireland categories
Ireland has 29 home-service categories, including siding. Google lists no legal categories there, so a solicitor in Dublin can’t use Local Services Ads.
They’re live. The two searches in the screenshot were made on a phone in Ireland, and both brought up a full Local Services unit.
Northern Ireland is the one question mark. Google’s pages don’t mention BT postcodes either way, so check your own postcode at sign-up rather than trusting anyone’s say-so, ours included.
What’s US-only
A few features you’ll read about in American guides don’t exist here. Booking leads, lead-credit tracking and review requests from the dashboard are US and Canada only. In Europe, Google checks the business itself, including its registration and licences.
Where do Local Services Ads show up?
At the top of Google Search, above the ordinary ads and the map results, and on Google Maps. They appear on phones and computers.
Your ad can show when someone searches for your trade (“plumber near me”), for a job you’ve told Google you do (“boiler repair”), or for your trade in a place you cover (“electrician Navan”), and when the searcher is inside your service area. You can exclude postcodes you don’t want to serve.
How much do Local Services Ads cost in the UK and Ireland?
You set a budget, and Google charges you for each lead, not each click. What a lead costs depends on your trade, your area, the type of lead and how you bid.
Google doesn’t publish a price list for the UK or Ireland.
Your first month is the only real price list you’ll get.
How budgets and bidding work
You set a weekly budget. Then you choose how to bid:
- Target cost per lead: you tell Google the average you want to pay, and it aims for it.
- Maximum per lead: you set a ceiling for any single lead.
When your account moves into Google Ads in 2027, the weekly budget becomes a daily one (the weekly figure divided by 7), and your monthly spend is capped at 30.4 times that daily figure. The maximum-per-lead option goes, and so does setting a different target for each trade in one campaign.
A quick worked example, with made-up round numbers. A plumber who sets £200 a week and pays £25 a lead averages 8 leads a week. If 1 in 3 becomes a job worth £300, that’s about 2.7 jobs and £800 of work a week for £200 of ads.
Swap in your own figures: what a lead costs you, how many you win, what a job is worth. Our Google Ads budget calculator does the same sum for ordinary Search ads.
VAT
Local Services Ads are billed through Google Ads, so check how VAT applies to your account with your accountant.
What counts as a lead, and what you pay for
A lead is a customer getting in touch through your ad: a phone call or a message. Booking leads exist too, but only in the US and Canada.
Google has announced a change to charges for some missed calls from 1 October 2026. We could not confirm from Google’s pages whether it applies to UK and Irish accounts, so check the notice in your dashboard. The fix is the same either way: answer the phone, or set your hours to the ones you actually answer.
How to set up Local Services Ads, step by step
Setting up takes an afternoon. Verification takes longer, so start there.
- Get your Google Business Profile verified first. Our guide to Google Business Profile verification covers every method.
- Check you’re eligible. Go to Google’s Local Services sign-up at ads.google.com/localservices/signup, sign in with the Google account you want to manage it from, and enter your trade and postcode.
- Add your business details. Name, phone number, years in business, and the service area, by postcode or distance.
- Pick your job types. Tick only the jobs you want. Every job type you leave on can bring a lead you pay for.
- Set your hours. The hours you’ll really answer the phone, not the hours on your door.
- Set your budget and bidding. As above. You can change both later.
- Upload your verification documents. See the next section.
- Set up billing and go live. With pre-badge ads, you may start getting leads before the badge comes through, shown below businesses that have it.
What documents you need
| What Google checks | UK | Ireland |
|---|---|---|
| Business registration | Companies House number or VAT number | CRO number or VAT number |
| Insurance, where your trade needs it | Google checks it | Google checks it |
| Licences | Where the law requires one for your trade | Where the law requires one for your trade |
Google doesn’t promise a timescale for checks.
How do I log in to Local Services Ads?
Until your account moves, you manage it in the Local Services dashboard at ads.google.com/localservices, signed in with the Google account you set it up with. There’s no separate app any more.
After the move in 2027, the old dashboard redirects to Google Ads. Your leads move with you. Your old performance reports don’t, so download or screenshot them before your date.
How are Local Services Ads ranked?
Google’s help pages name several factors:
- Responsiveness. Answer calls and reply to messages. Google says ranking may be affected if you regularly miss calls or ignore messages. Reply even when you’re turning a job down.
- Relevance. The job types and areas you’ve chosen, against what was searched and where.
- Reviews. Your rating and the number of reviews, the same ones as on your Business Profile.
- Profile quality. Photos, a proper business description, the checks you’ve passed.
One thing that isn’t on Google’s list, despite what you’ll read: the badge itself. Google says it doesn’t affect ranking.
Reviews are the lever most businesses under-use. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews shows how to ask.
Can I dispute a bad lead in the UK or Ireland?
Not the way American guides describe. Google’s automatic lead credits are available in the US and Canada only, so they don’t cover the UK or Ireland.
What you can do is rate every lead in the lead feedback form, and tighten your settings. A stream of calls for jobs you don’t do usually means a job type is switched on that shouldn’t be, or your area is wider than you’d like. Change those first.
What changes when your account moves to Google Ads in 2027
Google’s help page on the move is clear on what stays the same: you still pay per lead, the ads still show only on Search and Maps, there are still no keywords, and your Google Verified badge carries over. You won’t need to re-verify insurance or licences.
Before your date, do four things:
- Download or screenshot your performance reports. They don’t move across.
- Note your budget as a weekly figure, and work out the daily one (divided by 7).
- If you use a maximum per lead, decide on a target cost per lead instead.
- If you run several trades with different targets, plan a separate campaign for each; Google Ads can’t hold different targets for different trades in one.
Your business name, address and hours will sync one way from your Business Profile, so make sure it’s right. A big change to your name or address triggers a review that Google says usually takes 24 to 48 hours.
Local Services Ads vs Google Ads, which should you use?
| Local Services Ads | Google Search ads | Performance Max | |
|---|---|---|---|
| You pay for | Leads (calls and messages) | Clicks | Clicks |
| Where it shows | Top of Search and Maps | Search results | Search, Maps, YouTube, Gmail, Display |
| Keywords | None | You choose them | None; Google decides |
| Who can use it | Listed trades only | Any business | Any business |
| Best for | Urgent, local, phone-first jobs | Planned jobs, research, anything off the LSA list | Wider reach once the basics work |
If your trade is on the list, LSAs are usually where to start: they sit higher, they’re simpler, and a bad week costs you leads, not clicks from people who never rang. Search ads earn their place alongside them for jobs people research before they pick up the phone, and for any service that isn’t on Google’s list.
Run both where they fit: LSAs for the customer who wants someone now, Search ads for the one still comparing. Our guide to what Google Ads costs in Ireland covers the Search side.
How to get more leads from Local Services Ads
Answer the phone. It’s the single biggest thing, because Google ranks you on it and charges you for leads either way. If you can’t answer during the day, shorten your hours to the ones you can, or use call handling that picks up in your name.
Keep your job types tight and your area honest. Every job type switched on is a lead you might pay for, so switch off the jobs you’d turn down.
Get reviews steadily. They feed the rating on your ad, and a trickle from real customers beats a burst from friends.
Fill in the profile properly: real photos of real jobs, a clear description, your years in business.
Are Google Local Services Ads worth it?
For a trade on Google’s list, usually yes, with one condition: you have to be able to take the calls.
They suit a business that sells jobs by phone, covers a clear area and has a steady stream of reviews. They suit less well a business that can’t answer during the day, wants to pick and choose jobs, or sells work people research for weeks before they ring. For those, Search ads and a strong website often work harder.
How do I turn off Local Services Ads?
To stop leads for a while, pause your ad in the Local Services dashboard. You can switch it back on at any time, and your profile and badge stay in place. After the move to Google Ads, you pause the campaign in its settings.
If Google Ads is taking money you didn’t expect, check the Google Ads account linked to your Local Services profile. Local Services Ads are billed through Google Ads, so that’s where the charges come from.
Other questions people ask about Local Services Ads
What does LSA stand for?
Local Services Ads, Google’s pay-per-lead ads for local service businesses.
Do I need a website for Local Services Ads?
No. The ad links to a Google profile page and leads come by phone and message. A website still helps customers who want to check you out before they ring.
Do I need a Google Business Profile?
Yes. Google asks for a verified Business Profile.
Can solicitors use Local Services Ads?
In the UK, yes, but only in Greater London, as a pilot. In Ireland, no: Google offers only home-service categories there.
Do Local Services Ads show on Google Maps?
Yes. Google says they show on Search and Maps, and that stays the same after the move to Google Ads.
Do Local Services Ads help SEO?
Not directly. They’re paid placements, so they don’t change your organic rankings.
How long does Local Services Ads verification take?
Google doesn’t commit to a timescale. Pre-badge ads can bring leads in the meantime in most trades.
Is the Google Guarantee still available?
No. It ended with the switch to Google Verified in October 2025, and the last claims closed on 7 December 2025.
If you’d rather have someone check your setup
Setting LSAs up is straightforward. Running them well is mostly unglamorous: checking every lead, trimming job types, chasing reviews, and making sure the phone gets answered.
Tell us your trade and your county through our contact page. No obligation.
We’re a Google Partner, in the top 3% of Google Partners in Ireland. Our Google Ads management starts at €450 a month plus VAT.
Sources
The rules here come from Google’s own pages, checked on 19 September 2026, except the missed-call change, which is quoted from trade reports of Google’s notice. Google changes this product often, so check the help pages again before you act.
