Local Services Ads are pay-per-lead ads that appear at the very top of Google search results, above the regular results. You pay when a homeowner calls or messages you.
Since October 1, 2026, Google charges for a missed call during business hours when the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds. (How Google's new billing works)
Your crews are in the field. The one person who answers the phone is on another line, out sick, or not in yet at 8:30. The homeowner with a limb on the fence won't wait. They call the next name on the list, and Google can still bill you for the call you missed.
Now picture the other version
Every call during business hours gets answered. Each lead is logged, rated, and marked booked when the job sells, so Google learns what a good lead looks like for your company. Your Weekly Leads Report shows what came in, what was answered, and what happened next. You stop wondering whether Local Services Ads work, because you can see the results for yourself.
Local Services Ads fit best when your phones are covered and your crews have room for more work. When they aren't and don't, we tell you before you spend a dollar generating leads you can't answer or fulfill.
We set up, run, and report on your account so Google sends you the jobs you want in the places you serve.
We get your account verified and live during Foundation, with your business details, license, insurance, and ISA certification information complete and current.
Together, we pick the cities or ZIP codes where you're most likely to get good jobs, exclude the areas you don't serve, and choose the job types that match the work you want. Google also opts every tree care advertiser into general searches like “tree service near me” by default. We decide account by account whether to turn that off, which may mean you'll get fewer, but more relevant, leads.
Unanswered calls only get billed during the hours you tell Google to show your ads. If you can't answer the phone evenings and weekends, we'll help you make a data-based decision on whether it's worthwhile running LSAs during those times.
Your budget tells Google how much you're willing to spend on LSA leads, but it doesn't mean you'll actually spend it. Review ratings, recency, and frequency usually outweigh budget in determining the number of leads Google sends you. If you're booking estimates four or more weeks out, we'll pull back on paid search instead of buying leads you can't serve.
As of August 2, 2026, Google no longer allows photos that were generated or edited with AI in Local Services Ads. We use real, non-AI edited photos from your jobs, and we'll ask you for them.
Google now pulls service descriptions, offers, and pricing from your website into your ads. Thin service pages show up as incorrect or confusing details in your paid listing. Our websites service builds pages thorough enough to represent you well. (Source)
We record each call and message and sort it: quotable or not, answered or not, the service requested, inside or outside your service area, new or existing customer, spam, and more. You'll rate leads in your account and mark the jobs that book. Google makes the final call on credits for poor-quality leads, and we never promise one.
You pay all fees directly to Google with no markup.
We run Local Services Ads for tree care companies only, and we show you the lead behind every charge.
We know the difference between the value of a removal inquiry and a pruning request, and we have proprietary benchmark data showing average lead costs by service across the country. That means you can make informed decisions about where to focus your LSA budget.
In our client data, a steady stream of positive new reviews does more for Local Services Ads than a big total built up years ago. Our reviews and reputation service is built to keep those reviews, and LSA leads, coming.
We never charge a percentage of what you spend. Every LSA dollar spent goes directly to Google to pay for leads.
We can't guarantee how many leads Google sends, where your ad appears, or whether Google credits a lead. Local Services Ads don't fix a phone nobody answers. Whether you can run them depends on Google verifying your business and offering the program in your area. We tell you all of this before you start.
The Growth Readiness Assessment takes about five minutes and shows where your company loses work between the first call and the booked estimate. Or call us at 520-900-1226 and talk with people who know tree care.
Local Services Ads are part of the Demand Engine, the Arborist Operating System™ (AOS) component that gets the right customers to find you.
Every new client starts with Foundation. We set up Local Services Ads there when they fit your company. After the Foundation is in place, you move month-to-month through the stage that matches your business.
Local Services Ads are part of the base program where they fit, alongside your website, Google Business Profile, and reviews.
See MomentumWe add call and lead-quality analysis and a lead response review, so you see what happens to each paid lead after it arrives.
See PerformanceThe same system runs across locations and markets, with location-level visibility.
See ScaleThe order is on purpose. A paid lead only pays back when someone answers and follows up, so we fix intake and follow-up first and add spend after.
Our Conversion Engine and GROWth Team are two parts of the Arborist Operating System that help with response gaps you can't staff.
Local Services Ads charge per lead from people ready to hire. Google Ads charges per click and lets us choose the searches and the page each visitor lands on. Many companies run both.
Across 6,922 Local Services Ads leads at 20 TCMS clients between June 1 and September 2, 2026, answered calls became quotable leads 55.6% of the time. Unanswered calls became quotable leads just 2% of the time. Only 60.1% of calls were answered, which means about four in ten paid leads were lost immediately.
Method: Leads are Local Services Ads calls and messages recorded for 20 TCMS clients from June 1 to September 2, 2026. A quotable lead is a person in your service area asking for a quote for a service you provide. Read the full study: Missed LSA calls cost more.
You pay per lead, and Google sets the price of each one. Google doesn't publish lead prices. It bases them on how likely the customer is to book, which depends on the lead type, the service requested, and the market. Message leads usually cost less than phone leads, but not always. You set the budget, Google bills you directly, and our management is a flat fee.
Sometimes, and Google credits many of them automatically. Google reviews each lead for up to 30 days after it comes in, and poor-quality, duplicate, and invalid leads get an automatic credit. A lead can show as Charged, Not charged, In review, or Credited. Credits appear on your next month's invoice. You can't dispute a lead directly anymore and Google's decision is final, so we recommend rating every lead to give Google the feedback it uses. We never promise a specific credit. (Google's lead rules)
If it's during the hours your ad is scheduled to run, then it's running. But that doesn't mean Google is showing it every time someone in your area searches for the services you selected. Plus, searching for yourself is the least reliable way to check if your ads are active. Google shows different people different results based on their location and search history; two people standing right next to each other could see very different results for the same search.
Google verifies your business before your ads run, so expect to provide business registration, license, and insurance details, as well as go through a background check. Some new accounts are now asked for a D-U-N-S number. If you can't get one, Google also accepts a Secretary of State business registration, an IRS EIN document, or a Department of Revenue registration. Accounts that are already verified don't need to do anything. You also need a verified, active Google Business Profile before you can apply for a Local Services account (and if that gets disabled, so do your LSAs). If you don't already have an LSA account, we'll help you through all the steps and tell you exactly what you need to do and when.
During your business hours, yes, because that's when you can be charged for unanswered calls. Voicemail and automated greetings count as a connected call, so Google charges the lead if the caller stays on the line more than 20 seconds. If your office has a regular gap when phones aren't answered, such as an early-morning hour, tell us and we'll adjust your ad schedule around it.
It happens, and it's one of the most common frustrations we hear. We classify every call as inside or outside your service area and rate it, so Google gets the feedback it uses. Your Weekly Leads Report shows how many out-of-area calls came in. Google makes the final decision on any credit, so we can't promise one even if we agree that it's not a valid lead.
When your Local Services Ads budget is set correctly, you won't run out of opportunities. We set your Local Services Ads budget higher than you're likely to hit, so ads don't switch off before month-end. If your crews are booked out or you don't want more leads, we pull the budget back instead.
You do. Always make sure you hold primary owner access to your Google Business Profile, Local Services Ads, and Google Ads accounts. We work as managers on accounts in your name, and we'll tell you what we need access to on day one.
Yes, and it's happening now. Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads through a new Performance Max campaign type for pay-per-lead goals. About half of our clients' accounts have already moved, and we expect the rest to be in the Google Ads platform within a few weeks. You still pay per lead. The dashboard, bidding controls, and reporting move into Google Ads, and weekly budgets become daily budgets (with the same monthly cap). Google emails each account 14 days before its move. As managers on your account, we get that notification too, and we'll handle the switch for you. We back up your lead history before every migration because that's the one thing that doesn't carry over from the old platform to Google Ads. (Source)
FEATURED RESOURCES
Our data on answered calls, how reviews affect your lead flow, and what “Get competitive quotes” means for your company.
ArticleRaising your LSA budget doesn't book more work if the calls go unanswered. Our data on 6,922 LSA leads from 20 tree care companies shows what an answered call is worth.
ArticleThink a higher LSA budget will get more leads? Probably not. Instead, review activity - consistently getting new reviews - drives more LSA leads at lower costs.
ArticleHow Google's "Get Competitive Quotes" feature works in Local Services Ads, what it means for your lead costs, and how tree service companies can respond and track results.
Local Services Ads only pay back when the calls get answered, rated, and followed up. The Growth Readiness Assessment shows where your company loses leads between the first call and the booked estimate, so you know whether Local Services Ads are your next move. Or talk with us about setting up an account that matches your hours and your capacity. Call us at 520-900-1226 if you'd rather talk.
