Google Local Services Ads: the badge changed in 2025
Google Local Services Ads: the badge changed in 2025
And in 2026 the whole product is moving into Google Ads. The green "Google Guaranteed" checkmark is gone. So is the $2,000 money-back guarantee. Both ended in late 2025 — and guides published this year are still telling contractors to advertise a promise Google no longer makes. Here's what actually changed, how the ranking really works, and the billing detail that quietly costs you money every week.
Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads. Announced July 20, 2026, LSA campaigns are being rebuilt as a specialised Performance Max campaign type with pay-per-lead goals, managed inside the main Google Ads interface. The standalone LSA dashboard retires once your account migrates. The rollout is phased from August 2026 through 2027.
The one urgent thing: your historical performance reports do not transfer. Once your account moves, the old dashboard becomes inaccessible and anything you didn't export is gone. Google emails each account admin roughly 14 days before their assigned migration date — you don't get to pick it. If you run LSAs, export your reports this week.
The full detail is further down this page — including why most contractors are probably not in the first phase, despite what the trade list suggests.
Two things. First, Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads as a Performance Max pay-per-lead campaign, phased from August 2026 — and your historical reports do not come with you. Second, and still true: in October 2025 Google replaced the green "Google Guaranteed" and "Google Screened" badges with a single blue "Google Verified" badge, and on November 7, 2025 it discontinued the $2,000 money-back guarantee. The verification requirements didn't change — background check, license and insurance. Ranking is driven mostly by responsiveness and recent reviews, not budget. And any call lasting 30 seconds or more is billed as a lead, whether it was a real job or a wrong number.
The 2026 move into Google Ads
On July 20, 2026 Google announced that Local Services Ads would stop being a separate product. Since launch, LSA has had its own dashboard, its own login, its own reporting and its own lead inbox. That ends. Existing campaigns are being converted into a specialised Performance Max campaign type built for pay-per-lead goals, managed inside Google Ads alongside everything else.[11]
Ignore the name. "Performance Max" normally means your ads scatter across YouTube, Gmail, Display and Discover. These don't. Google states that pay-per-lead campaigns continue to show exclusively on Google Search and Google Maps, in the same positions as before, and stay keywordless.[12] The reach doesn't change. The control room does.
The timeline, and the part that catches contractors out
| When | Who moves |
|---|---|
| August 2026 | A first wave of US home and storefront service advertisers — plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and moving.[12] |
| Late 2026 | Broader groups — including service-area businesses without a physical storefront, and accounts with custom bidding or booking configurations.[12] |
| 2027 | Non-US accounts and every remaining business category.[12] |
Read those first two rows together, because almost nobody is separating them. The trade list in phase one names plumbing, HVAC, electrical and roofing — so a plumber reads it and assumes they're moving this month. But phase one is described as home and storefront service advertisers, and businesses without a physical storefront are explicitly listed as late 2026.
If you're a contractor working out of a truck with your address hidden on your Google profile, you are a service-area business. Your trade is on the phase-one list; your business type probably isn't. You may have months longer than the headlines suggest — which is not a reason to wait on the one thing that's actually time-sensitive.
Export your reports regardless. Historical campaign-level performance reports do not migrate.[11][13] Once your account moves, the standalone dashboard is inaccessible and whatever you didn't download is gone. If you've been running LSAs for a year and ever want to compare cost per lead year over year, that data has to be pulled before your date, not after. Google emails each account admin roughly 14 days ahead, and assigns the date — you don't choose it.[13]
What transfers, what doesn't, and what quietly goes away
| Stays the same | Changes or disappears |
|---|---|
| Pay-per-lead billing — you still pay per lead, not per click | The standalone LSA dashboard retires |
| Search and Maps placement only, same ad positions | Historical performance reports do not transfer |
| Keywordless targeting | Manual bidding is deprecated[13] |
| Your leads, reviews and verified badge transfer automatically | Vertical-level Target CPA goes away[13] |
| Budgets, settings and creative assets carry over | Weekly budgets convert to daily budgets[13] |
| Everything on this page about ranking still applies | Better Business Bureau callouts are removed[13] |
That last column matters most if you run several trades under one campaign. Losing vertical-level Target CPA means a contractor who set different targets for plumbing leads and HVAC leads no longer can — those get handled together.[11]
One place the reporting genuinely disagrees
Google's own help documentation lists phase one as the nine home and storefront trades above. But Search Engine Land reported the first group as US advertisers across pet care, home services, wellness and education[14] — a different set entirely.
I can't reconcile those, so I'm not going to pretend to. Google's own documentation is the primary source and it's the one I'd plan around. But if your trade isn't on either list, that isn't proof you're safe — it means the published information is inconsistent and the only reliable signal is the email Google sends you.
And the honest headline: almost nothing about the economics changes. You still pay per lead. You still appear on Search and Maps. You still rank without keywords, on the same signals this whole page is about — responsiveness, reviews, profile completeness. This is a change to where you manage things, not to what makes the channel work. It is not a reason to panic-hire anyone, including me.
What changed, and what half the internet still gets wrong
Two things happened at the end of 2025 and a lot of published advice hasn't been updated since.
The green badge became a blue one
Google announced it was replacing the green "Google Guaranteed" checkmark and the "Google Screened" badge with a single unified "Google Verified" blue checkmark.[1] The verification requirements stayed exactly the same — background checks, license verification and insurance documentation.[1]
The $2,000 money-back guarantee was discontinued
The customer-facing guarantee that gave the old badge its name ended.[2] The blue badge still appears on your listing and still functions as a ranking signal — but the money-back promise behind it is gone.[3]
Here's why that matters to you specifically. Guides published in 2026 — months after the change — still describe the green Google Guaranteed badge and still tell contractors that Google may refund customers up to $2,000. If you've built any part of your marketing on that promise, take it down. You can no longer describe your business as backed by Google's money-back guarantee, because Google no longer offers one.
Nothing you did was wrong. The change was announced quietly in a product update, and the people writing about it mostly didn't notice. But it's your business name on the claim, not theirs.
How Local Services Ads actually rank
The most expensive misunderstanding in this product is that you can buy your way to the top. You can't. Google describes the placement as an auction that considers your bid and overall profile quality, along with responsiveness, the customer's search context, service relevance, your business bio, and how many ways customers can contact you.[4]
In practice it comes down to a short list, roughly in this order.
| Factor | How much it matters | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Responsiveness | The biggest, and the most ignored | Answer every call. Missed calls read to Google as a bad customer experience, and it shows a competitor who picks up instead.[5] |
| Review velocity | Recent beats total | A new company with five recent reviews can outrank a twenty-year-old business with fifty old ones.[5] Ask after every job. |
| Proximity | Significant, uncontrollable | You can't move — the same constraint that decides where you sit on Google Maps. You can set a sensible service area instead of the widest one available. |
| Profile completeness | Moderate | Accurate service categories, correct hours, connected Google Business Profile, fresh photos. |
| Verified status | A gate, not an advantage | Without the badge your ads don't show at all. Everyone running LSAs has it. |
| Weekly budget | Volume, not position | A bigger budget buys more leads. It will not rescue a slow-answering profile with old reviews. |
The connection nobody spells out: your Google Business Profile reviews feed your Local Services Ads ranking directly. They aren't separate systems. Which means the free local SEO work — finishing your profile and asking every customer for a review — is what makes the paid ads cheaper. The full profile checklist is here, free, no email required.
One tuning note worth acting on today: if your bidding is set to "Max Per Lead," switch it to "Maximize Leads." Google itself recommends it, on the grounds that advertisers with similar quality and budgets tend to get more leads that way.[4]
The 60-second threshold
Response speed has always mattered here. In 2026 it got sharper, and the numbers are specific enough to plan around.
Accounts answering inside 60 seconds held their rankings. Accounts averaging 90 seconds or more saw impression share drop 30 to 50% between March and May 2026 across HVAC, plumbing and electrical.[3] Thirty extra seconds, a third to a half of your visibility.
The same analysis found that operators adding eight or more reviews a month outranked competitors who had thirty more reviews in total but were adding fewer than two a month.[3] Recency beats accumulation, again.
And a smaller one that's easy to action: accounts uploading eight or more new job photos during 2026 saw roughly a 12 to 18% lift in lead volume compared with accounts still running photo sets from 2024.[3]
What that means practically
If you're missing more than about 5% of calls, or your average response is over ten minutes, that is your single biggest obstacle — bigger than budget, bigger than your profile.[1] Set up call forwarding so every lead reaches someone. If you advertise 24/7 availability, an answering service costs less than the leads you're paying for and losing.
None of this is new information about how customers behave, incidentally. The shared-lead article covers the research: 78% of homeowners hire whoever responds first, and a study across 15,000 leads found a five-minute response produced a hundred times the odds of connecting versus thirty minutes. Google has simply built that reality into its ranking.
The 30-second billing rule and other money leaks
This is the one I'd want to know first, and it's rarely mentioned.
Any call lasting 30 seconds or longer is billed as a lead automatically — even if it wasn't a fit, wasn't in your area, or was somebody asking a question you don't answer.[6] A 31-second wrong number costs the same as a booked job inquiry.
Which makes disciplined call handling a budget decision, not just a customer-service one. Qualify fast and politely: what's the job, where is it, when do you need it. If it's not a fit, say so early.
Three more leaks worth plugging
- Service categories you don't actually perform. If you're a plumber who doesn't do gas fitting, don't tick gas fitting. The mismatch generates invalid leads you'll pay for and then have to dispute.[7]
- A service area drawn too wide. Every town and job type you don't really want is a lead you'll be credited for at best, and paying for at worst.
- A weekly budget cap set too low. Your ads pause when the cap is hit — which tends to happen exactly when demand spikes, which on this coast means the week after a storm.[2]
And dispute the bad ones. Approval rates are far better for documented disputes than asserted ones, so log the date, time and outcome of every call attempt.
Why your contractor ads might not be running at all
Three causes account for most of it, and two of them are silent.
Your Google Business Profile isn't verified — or got suspended
A linked, verified profile is mandatory. If yours is unverified or suspended, the ads simply don't run. No error, no email, no leads. If your listing went down and your ads went quiet at the same time, that's not a coincidence. Suspension recovery is a fixed-price job, and the article on profiles covers the triggers.
A license or insurance certificate expired
An expired document can pause your ads immediately, with no grace period.[7] Put renewal reminders in your calendar 30 days ahead and upload the new certificate before the old one lapses.
You're still in verification
Background checks alone run several business days, and the whole process can take one to four weeks.[2] Gather your insurance certificate, business license and background-check consent before you apply — doing that first can cut two to three weeks off the process.[8]
What Local Services Ads cost contractors, by trade
Local Services Ads charge per lead rather than per click. Typical 2026 ranges:[9]
| Trade | Cost per lead |
|---|---|
| Electricians | $20–45 |
| Plumbers | $25–50 (emergency $40–80) |
| HVAC | $25–60 |
| General contractors | $30–65 |
| Roofers | $30–75 (some markets $50–120) |
The blended 2026 benchmark sits around $53 per lead at a 43.9% book rate.[9] Published estimates of what that works out to per booked job vary considerably — the full channel comparison covers that, and why the sources disagree. Across every source, it's the cheapest of the paid channels.
And the honest limit. LSAs are available for most home services, legal, real estate, financial services and healthcare — but not for product retailers or ecommerce, and coverage varies by market.[10] Check before you plan around it.
Where I'd start, if you're deciding
Fix the free things first, because they're the same things the paid ads are ranked on — and the same things that decide where you land on Google Maps. Finish the Google Business Profile. Build a habit of asking for a review after every job. Answer the phone inside a minute. Then turn the ads on, and they'll cost you less than they would have.
That's not a sales pitch for delaying. It's that the paid channel and the free one are ranked by the same signals, so the work you do for one lowers the price of the other.
And that stays true through the migration. Moving into Google Ads changes the dashboard, not the signals. Reviews, responsiveness and a complete, verified Google Business Profile are what rank these ads before and after — which is why the free work is still the first thing to do.
Questions people ask about this
Are Local Services Ads moving into Google Ads?
Yes. Google announced on July 20, 2026 that Local Services Ads campaigns will be converted into a specialised Performance Max campaign type with pay-per-lead goals, managed inside Google Ads, and that the standalone Local Services Ads dashboard will retire once an account migrates. The rollout is phased from August 2026 through 2027. Pay-per-lead billing, Search and Maps placement and keywordless targeting are preserved, but historical campaign-level performance reports do not transfer and should be exported before the migration date. Google emails each account administrator roughly 14 days in advance and assigns the date.
Is my business in the first phase of the Local Services Ads migration?
Google's documentation describes the August 2026 phase as select United States home and storefront service advertisers, including plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and moving. Service-area businesses without a physical storefront are listed separately as late 2026, alongside accounts with custom bidding or booking configurations. A contractor whose trade appears on the phase-one list but who operates as a service-area business with a hidden address is therefore likely to migrate later than the trade list alone suggests.
Is the Google Guaranteed badge still available?
No. In October 2025 Google replaced the green Google Guaranteed and Google Screened badges with a single blue Google Verified badge. The verification requirements are unchanged, covering background checks, license verification and insurance documentation.
Did Google discontinue the $2,000 money-back guarantee?
Yes, on November 7, 2025. The customer-facing money-back guarantee associated with the old Google Guaranteed badge has ended. Businesses can no longer describe themselves as backed by Google's money-back guarantee, though the blue Google Verified badge still displays and still functions as a ranking signal.
How do Google Local Services Ads actually rank?
Primarily by responsiveness and recent review velocity, then proximity, profile completeness, verified status and weekly budget. Budget buys lead volume rather than position. Measured 2026 data found accounts answering within 60 seconds held rankings while those averaging 90 seconds or more saw impression share fall 30 to 50 percent.
Why did my Local Services Ads stop running?
The three usual causes are an unverified or suspended Google Business Profile, which is mandatory for the ads to run at all; an expired license or insurance certificate, which pauses ads immediately with no grace period; or verification still being in progress, which can take one to four weeks.
When does Google charge for a Local Services Ads lead?
Any call lasting 30 seconds or longer is billed as a lead automatically, even if the caller was not a fit, was outside the service area, or was asking about a service not offered. Disputes are available and approval rates are considerably better for documented disputes than asserted ones.
- Boomcycle Digital Marketing, Google Local Service Ads Ranking Factors (2026 Update) — the October 2025 badge replacement, unchanged verification requirements, and response-time and missed-call thresholds.
- PushLeads, Google Local Service Ads 2026: Setup & Optimization Guide — discontinuation of the Google Guaranteed money-back program on November 7, 2025, verification timelines, budget-cap behavior, and review targets.
- Blue Grid Media, Google LSA Ranking Factors 2026 — badge change confirmation, the 60-second versus 90-second response-time impression-share findings for March–May 2026, monthly review-velocity comparison, and photo-refresh lead lift.
- Explore Digital, Advanced Guide to Google Local Services Ads — Google's stated auction factors and the Maximize Leads bidding recommendation.
- Olly Olly, How the LSA Algorithm Really Works — responsiveness as the primary ranking signal, and recent reviews outweighing older accumulated ones.
- Young Web Solutions, Google Local Services Ads in 2026 — the 30-second automatic lead-billing rule and Google Business Profile reviews powering LSA ranking.
- Omologist, Google Local Services Ads Best Practices — service-category mismatch, and expired license or insurance pausing ads without a grace period.
- South Arc Digital, How to Set Up Google Local Service Ads in 2026 — preparing documentation before applying to shorten the verification timeline, and ranking-factor ordering.
- SearchLight Digital, February 2026 — blended cost-per-lead benchmark, book rate, and cost-per-lead ranges by trade.
- My Leads Factory, Google Local Services Ads Guide — eligible and ineligible industry categories.
- Search Engine Journal, Google Is Bringing Local Services Ads Into Google Ads, July 2026 — migration to Performance Max pay-per-lead campaigns, retirement of the standalone dashboard, and the Target CPA consequence for multi-service campaigns.
- Google Ads Help, Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals — the phased rollout schedule, phase-one trades, the late-2026 inclusion of service-area businesses without storefronts, and confirmation that placement remains Search and Maps only.
- PPC Land, Google folds Local Services Ads into Google Ads, cuts historical reports, July 2026 — deprecation of manual bidding and vertical-level Target CPA, weekly-to-daily budget conversion, removal of Better Business Bureau callouts, the 14-day notice, and non-transfer of historical reports.
- Search Engine Land, Local Services Ads come to Google Ads via Performance Max, July 2026 — reports the first rollout group as pet care, home services, wellness and education, which conflicts with Google's own documentation.
The free work is what makes the paid ads cheaper.
Your Google Business Profile reviews rank your Local Services Ads. Send me your business name and I'll tell you where you stand on the things the ads are actually scored on — and what to fix before you spend anything.
