Google Local Services Ads
in the UK, Explained

Local Services Ads are Google's pay-per-lead ads for local trades and services. They sit at the top of the search results with your star rating and a Google Verified badge, and you pay when someone calls, messages or leaves a voicemail through the ad, rather than when they click. In the UK they're open to a list of home service trades, including plumbers, electricians, roofers, heating engineers and landscapers, once you've passed Google's business and insurance checks.

For a small trade that answers the phone and has a few good reviews, they're usually worth testing. Go in knowing the limits: less control than normal Google Ads, and in the UK, no credits for junk leads.

Search "plumber near me" or "roofer Llandudno" and you might see a strip of business listings above everything else, marked Sponsored. Each shows a name, star rating, review count, opening hours and the Google Verified badge. Tap one for a short profile with call and message buttons.

Those are Local Services Ads. They show on Google Search and Google Maps, and UK advertisers run them from their own Local Services account rather than inside Google Ads.

You don't write the ads or choose keywords. You tell Google which jobs you do, which areas you cover, when you're open and what you want to spend. Google builds the listing from that, your profile and your reviews, then decides which searches to show it on.

Google's list also has a few that won't trouble North Wales much, like snow removal and pool contracting. Solicitors and estate agents are in a separate pilot that's limited to Greater London.

Some trades I get asked about, like plasterers, bricklayers and groundworkers, don't appear by name on the UK list as I write this. Some of their work might fit a wider category such as general contractor, and Google adds categories now and again. If yours isn't covered, normal Google Ads and a well-kept Business Profile do much the same job.

You pay per lead. According to Google's help pages, a lead is a call you answer, a missed call during your opening hours where the caller held on for more than 20 seconds, a voicemail, or a message. Ring time isn't charged, and nor are missed calls outside your opening hours or ad schedule. If the same person gets back in touch from the same number or email within 15 days, you're not charged again.

There's no price list. Google says the cost per lead varies with your location, the job type, the type of lead and how you bid, and that messages are usually cheaper than calls. You'll see an estimate when you sign up. Treat it as a starting guess.

You set an average weekly budget. Some weeks spend a bit more, but the month as a whole won't go over its limit. You can let Google bid for as many leads as it can (Maximise leads, which Google recommends), give it a target cost per lead, or cap what you'll pay per lead.

The UK catch: Google's help pages say lead credits aren't available to advertisers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and that call recordings aren't available in Europe. In the US, junk leads can be credited back. Here, assume the odd wrong number, sales call or job you don't do is part of the price.

Before your ads show at full strength, Google checks your business. For UK home service trades, Google's requirements page lists a business check, public liability insurance, and a licence where the law says your trade needs one. You'll also want a claimed, verified Google Business Profile in the business's name, with the same name used everywhere.

Pass and you get the Google Verified badge. Until October 2025 there were several badges, including Google Guaranteed, which came with a money-back guarantee for customers, and Google Screened. They've all been folded into Google Verified, and the guarantee has gone: Google only took claims for bookings made before 7 December 2025.

Google says the checks take three to four weeks on average once you've sent your documents. In some categories you can run pre-badge ads in the meantime, after passing the preliminary checks. These show below businesses that already have the badge.

Sole traders, take note. The National Pest Technicians Association reported that Google no longer accepts utility bills as proof, and that businesses without VAT registration or a Companies House record may struggle to get verified. Google hadn't said whether an HMRC Unique Taxpayer Reference would do instead. Check what your account asks for before you plan around it.

Google says it ranks Local Services Ads on three things: your bid, how likely you are to get a lead, and the quality of your profile. In plain English, that's how quickly you answer calls and messages, whether your services and bio match the search, your rating and number of reviews, decent photos, completed checks, and having message leads switched on.

Missed calls count against you, so the cheapest improvement for most trades is answering the phone, or not running ads in hours you can't. Reviews come next, and they help your map listing too.

Often, yes, with a few conditions. They suit a one or two-van business: you pay when someone gets in touch, and the badge and reviews do some of the selling.

They work best when you answer the phone while the ads are running, you've got some reviews, your trade's on the list and there are enough searches in the area you cover. North Wales is a lot of small towns and a lot of countryside, so in some trades and postcodes there just aren't many searches to show up for. Google won't tell you that up front. A few weeks of running will.

They're harder going if you can't take calls on the tools, if you only want one particular kind of job (you can pick job types, but not as precisely as with normal Google Ads), or if the odd dud lead really stings. Leads aren't jobs. Judge it on the work you win.

My usual advice: get your Business Profile and reviews sorted first. They're free, and they feed the ads. Then test Local Services Ads for two or three months alongside a small, tightly run Google Ads campaign for the jobs you want most. Keep whichever brings in work at a price you're happy with. Quite often that's both.

If you'd like a second pair of eyes first, my free 15-minute review gets you a written list of the three things I'd fix. If you'd rather hand it over, I run Local Services Ads alongside Google Ads as part of my marketing for trades, from £250 a month.