Skip to content
Vizible Marketing Agency
Advertising

What is Local Services Ads?

Local Services Ads are Google's pay-per-lead ad format for local service businesses, appearing above ordinary search ads and carrying a Google Guaranteed or Google Screened badge.

Also known as: LSA, Google Guaranteed, Google Screened
How we do paid advertisingGet a free assessment

Local Services Ads are Google's pay-per-lead ad format for local service businesses, appearing above ordinary search ads and carrying a Google Guaranteed or Google Screened badge.

Local Services Ads, usually shortened to LSAs, sit at the very top of the results page — above the conventional search ads — for many home service, legal, and professional categories. They show the business name, rating, review count and a call button, and they are billed per lead rather than per click.

Eligibility requires verification. Depending on the category, that means license and insurance checks and background screening, after which the business carries a Google Guaranteed badge (service categories) or Google Screened badge (professional categories). The verification is a real barrier and is also the reason the format converts well — the badge is a trust signal customers respond to.

Ranking in LSAs is not primarily a bidding contest. Review count and rating, responsiveness to leads, proximity, and how complete the profile is all carry weight, which means a smaller business that answers the phone quickly can outrank a larger one that does not.

Why it matters

In the categories where LSAs appear, they occupy the top of the page before a single search ad renders. For a licensed local business they are frequently the cheaper entry point, and they are decided by things you already control.

The common mistake

Letting leads go unanswered. Responsiveness feeds LSA ranking directly, so missed calls cost you both the job and your position.

Where this fits

Local Services Ads is part of paid advertising

Understanding the term is the easy half. The service page describes what the work actually involves, and the free assessment says whether it is the thing your business should be spending on next — which is frequently a different question.

Paid AdvertisingGet a growth proposal
Related terms

Things that come up alongside it

PPCPPC is pay-per-click advertising — you place an ad and pay only when someone clicks it, rather than paying for it to be shown.Read
Online reputation managementOnline reputation management is the ongoing work of monitoring, generating and responding to reviews and other public feedback about a business.Read
Cost per leadCost per lead is the total spend on a channel divided by the number of enquiries it produced — what each new enquiry cost you.Read
Google Business ProfileA Google Business Profile — commonly abbreviated to GBP, and formerly called Google My Business or GMB — is the free listing that controls how a business appears in Google Search and Google Maps.Read
Every term in the glossary

Request a Free Consultation with a Marketing Expert

A strategist reviews how your business shows up in search today — your listings, your reviews and your site — then walks you through what is working, what is not, and what to fix first.

  • No cost, no obligation
  • Custom to your industry
  • Delivered by a real strategist

Loading the consultation form.