Local Services Ads or Google Ads for a trade business.

The short answer

Both kinds of ad appear when someone searches Google for a trade near them, and they work very differently:

• How you pay. Local Services Ads charge for each valid lead: a call, a message or a booking request. Google Ads charge for each click, whether or not the person then contacts you.
• Where people go. A Local Services ad opens your profile on Google, where people call, message or request a booking. A Google ad opens a page on your website.
• What you control. In Local Services Ads you choose your job types, your service area, your hours and a weekly budget. In Google Ads you choose the searches, the wording, the page, the areas, the times and the budget, in far more detail.
• Who shows first. In Local Services Ads, your bid and your profile: rating, number of reviews, how fast you respond and your photos. In Google Ads, your bid, your ad and the page behind it.
• What you need first. Local Services Ads need Google's screening and verification. Google Ads need a landing page and tracking.

Neither is better for every trade. The right one depends on whether Google covers your trade and area, how fast you answer, how good your reviews are and which jobs you want more of.

How Local Services Ads work

Local Services Ads show in Google search results with your business name, star rating and number of reviews, your hours and your town, and can include photos, a short bio and a Google Verified badge. Tapping one opens your Local Services profile. People call, send a message or, in the US and Canada, request a booking, without visiting your website. Calls go through a Google tracking number to your business phone.

To run them:

• Google has to offer them for your trade in your country. Check on Google's Local Services sign-up page.
• Your business passes Google's screening and verification. Depending on your trade and region, Google may check licences, insurance and the backgrounds of the business, its owners and the people who do the work.
• In some countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the ad must also be linked to a matching Google Business Profile. If you work from a van or from home, see Google Business Profile without a storefront.
• You set an average weekly budget and a bid mode: let Google get the most leads for your budget, aim at a target cost per lead, or set the most you will pay for one.
• You choose the job types and areas you serve, and the hours you take calls.

Google now uses one badge for every advertiser, Google Verified, for businesses that pass its screening. Businesses still being screened can get leads, but they show below those with the badge. Google has also ended the money-back promise that came with its older badge, so do not count on it.

What you pay for, lead by lead

You pay for valid leads, and Google's rules decide what counts as one:

• An answered call is charged, based on the conversation.
• A missed call during your business hours is charged if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, voicemail included.
• Message leads usually cost less than calls.
• The same customer getting back in touch within 15 days, from the same phone number or email, is not charged again.
• Spam, duplicates and short missed calls are not charged.

Two settings follow from this. Set your business hours to the hours someone really answers, because a missed call in those hours can still cost you. And switch on message leads, so evening and weekend customers can write instead of ringing a phone nobody picks up.

Bad leads and credits

Google reassesses charged leads for 30 days and credits low-quality, duplicate and invalid ones to your account automatically. You can also rate each lead in the feedback survey on the Leads page. Google uses those ratings to send better-matched leads, and occasionally credits a lead you report.

Some old habits no longer work:

• Google no longer credits leads for a job type you do not do, or from outside your area. Your defence is your settings: list only the job types you want and the areas you really serve.
• Automatic credits are not available in EEA countries.
• Lead credits do not apply to health care or tax specialists.

Check your job types and service areas the day you start, and again whenever a run of wrong leads arrives. Narrower settings bring fewer leads, and more of the right ones.

Why answering fast matters more here

With Google Ads, a slow reply can lose you the customer. With Local Services Ads it can also lose you your place. Google ranks these ads on your bid and your profile, and the profile includes your average response time. Google says missed calls may count against your responsiveness, and that a consistently fast response time could improve your ranking.

For a two-van plumbing firm whose owner is under a sink half the day, that changes the setup:

• Send the Local Services calls to whoever can answer during your business hours, not to a phone in a van.
• Set business hours you can cover, and use the ad schedule for the rest of the week.
• Turn on message leads, and reply to each one quickly from the Leads page or the notification.
• In the US or Canada, turn on booking leads too, if your calendar is kept up to date.
• Agree who answers on the day the usual person is off sick.

If the honest answer is that nobody can pick up during the day, fix that before you start. Local Services Ads favour the businesses that answer.

How Google Ads differ for a trade

Google Ads are the text ads at the top and bottom of the search results. You pay when someone clicks, whether or not they then call or send a form, so the page they land on decides whether the click was worth paying for. In return you control much more:

• The searches. You pick keywords, such as boiler installation, and shut out searches you do not want with negative keywords, such as jobs, course or DIY.
• The jobs. You can advertise only the work you want more of, such as full bathroom refits, and say nothing about the small jobs.
• The page. Each campaign can send people to a page built for that job, with photos of your work, the areas you cover, prices or what decides them, and a short form.
• The areas, days and hours, set as finely as you like.
• Calls, through a call button on the ad, counted as conversions once they last long enough.

The catch is the work. Someone has to choose the keywords, read the search terms report, add negatives, test the page and track which clicks became jobs. Run badly, Google Ads can spend a budget on clicks that never become a call. How to track leads from Google Ads covers the tracking, and landing pages for ads covers the page.

The same plumber, both ways

Take a two-van plumbing firm in home services that tries both for a month. A worked example, with no figures:

• Local Services Ads bring calls and messages from people who need a plumber soon: blocked drains, leaks, a boiler that will not start. The firm pays for each valid lead, and Google credits the ones it judges invalid. In this example most of the work is small and urgent. Good reviews put the firm near the top in its town, and missed calls on busy days push it down.
• Google Ads, run only for bathroom installation and boiler replacement, bring fewer contacts. Each one clicked through to a page about that job, saw photos and the areas covered, and sent a form with a photo of the old bathroom. The firm pays for every click, including people only comparing prices, and the jobs that do come in are larger.
• At the end of the month the owner works out what each booked job cost from each source. Local Services Ads fill the vans with small jobs. Google Ads bring fewer, bigger ones, at the price of more setup and weekly attention.

Neither result is a rule for every plumber. The method is the useful part: record how each lead ended, then compare the cost of a booked job from each source, which tells you more than cost per lead or cost per click.

Reviews decide a lot in both

In Local Services Ads, your reviews are most of your ad. Google says star ratings and the number of reviews affect how a business ranks there, and those reviews are managed in your Google Business Profile, not in the ads account. Your Local Services account gives you a review link to send customers, under Business Verifications, on the Google Business Profile tab.

With Google Ads, a customer may check your reviews before they call anyway. Either way, ask every finished customer the same way, never only the happy ones: how to ask for Google reviews without breaking the rules covers what Google allows.

When Local Services Ads suit you best

• Google offers them for your trade in your area.
• Much of your work comes from people who need help soon: repairs, call-outs, a cleaning company asked for an end-of-tenancy clean this week.
• Someone can answer calls and messages quickly during the hours you set.
• You already have good reviews on your Google Business Profile, or a plan to get them.
• You do not have a page on your website for each service yet, or the time to run campaigns.

When Google Ads suit you best

• Your trade or area is not covered by Local Services Ads.
• You want more of particular jobs, especially larger ones that people research before they call.
• You have, or will build, a page for each of those jobs.
• You want to test a new service or a new area before you commit to it.
• Someone, you or a paid manager, will look at the campaigns every week.

Running both

You can run both and split the work: Local Services Ads for urgent jobs, Google Ads for larger jobs or the ones Local Services Ads do not cover or do not bring. If you do:

• Keep the two budgets apart, so you can see what each one costs.
• Bring every lead into one list, marked with its source: Local Services Ads, Google Ads, organic search or a referral.
• Record how each one ended, the same way for both.
• Do not advertise the same urgent jobs on both without a reason. Compare the cost of a booked job and move money to the cheaper source.

Local Services leads arrive in their own inbox in the ads account, so copy them into your list the same day, or have an automation do it where your tools allow.

Setting up each one, in order

For Local Services Ads:

• Check that Google offers them for your trade and area.
• Gather what screening asks for, such as licences, insurance and business details.
• Link your Google Business Profile if your country requires it, with matching details.
• Choose your job types and service areas narrowly, and set business hours you can cover.
• Write the business bio and add real photos of your work and your team.
• Set a weekly budget you can keep up for a month, and switch on message leads.

For Google Ads:

• Pick one job you want more of, and build or improve the page for it.
• Set up conversion tracking that counts real enquiries and calls.
• Start with a few closely matched keywords and a list of negatives.
• Read the search terms report every week and adjust.
• After a month, compare the cost of a booked job with your other sources.

Whichever you choose, the reply matters as much as the ad. Enquiry follow-up gives every lead an owner and chases the ones nobody answered.

Mistakes trades make with either

• A service area wider than you will really drive to.
• Business hours set to the whole day when nobody answers until the evening.
• Message leads switched off, so evening customers have to ring a phone nobody answers.
• Google Ads clicks sent to the home page instead of a page about the job.
• No negative keywords, so the budget goes on people looking for jobs or DIY help.
• Judging either one on cost per lead or per click instead of the cost of a booked job.
• A profile with old photos, no bio and reviews nobody has answered.