If you’re a local business trying to generate leads online, you’ve probably wondered:
“Should I be running Google Ads or Local Services Ads (LSA)?”
From my experience, it’s not an either/or. It could be both.
Choosing between LSA and Google Ads comes down to understanding how each works – and how they fit into your lead generation strategy. Here’s a breakdown based on how we’ve seen both perform in the real world:
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Google LSA is hard to beat. It’s a pay-per-lead program. You only pay if Google sends you a lead. If no leads come in, you don’t pay. That’s what makes it so appealing to many businesses.
That said, here are a few important things to understand:
– LSA ads are heavily regulated by Google, which means you don’t have as much control over the ads. For example:
– Google decides who sees your ad, when they see it, and what triggers it. And keyword data isn’t shared.
– LSA can be very seasonal. When demand is high, leads flow. When demand drops, so do the leads. This is one of the negatives. It’s great when it works, but when leads are down, they’re down.
– Reviews matter a lot. LSA advertisers with the lion’s share of reviews often rank in dominant positions more consistently compared to advertisers who don’t have as many. This means getting more reviews is important, as it helps put your ads in better positions.
– Google tracks and measures your responsiveness to the ads. Missed calls and slow replies can hurt your visibility. If Google sends you a lead and you don’t answer, Google does not charge you – which means they don’t make money. So they prioritize businesses that respond quickly.
– The onboarding process can be a bit of a hurdle. Google requires registration, licensing, and background checks. It can take a few days to a few weeks and can be a hassle, but once you bite the bullet and get it done, you don’t have to do it again other than keeping your business documents up to date. For example, uploading an updated copy of your COI once a year to keep it current.
– You’re limited to Google’s pre-selected categories and service areas. If your business type or service area isn’t listed, you can’t use LSA.
The good news: Google LSA supports many industries and areas of the country – but not all.
As an example, at the time of this writing, in certain markets, there is a Google LSA category for residential house cleaning businesses, but not yet for commercial cleaning businesses.
Another example: LSA offers leads for self-storage facilities in many major cities but not in some smaller cities – at least not yet. You just have to check what’s available in your area.
Their program does change and evolve, so if they don’t have your category or service area yet, they may very well offer it in the future.
✅ In Summary: Google LSA is great for businesses that want a pay-per-lead model and can respond to leads quickly and reliably.
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Google Ads offers significantly more flexibility and control – but it requires more strategy and ongoing management.
With Google Ads, you have the power to:
– Control the keywords, locations, ad copy, landing page experience, and much more.
– Choose from different campaign objectives depending on what you want to achieve – for example, generating calls, driving website traffic, capturing form submissions, or promoting specific services or offers.
– Run different types of campaigns to match your goals – search campaigns, display ads, video ads, shopping ads, and retargeting ads, just to name a few.
– Optimize performance over time with data and testing, so you can get better results and reduce wasted spend.
– Pay per click, not per lead – so your ability to convert traffic into real leads is key.
Google Ads comes with much higher complexity and more options than LSA, and many business owners find it’s too much to tackle on their own. But the upside is that you have very few limitations. With the right strategy, Google Ads can help you show up exactly where your ideal customers are searching – and give you the tools to stay visible when you need it most.
✅ In Summary: Google Ads is ideal for businesses that want more control over where their ads show, what they say, and how they generate interest from potential customers – or that need to supplement Google LSA if it isn’t sending enough leads.
💡 What We Usually Recommend:
If you’re a smaller business just starting out, LSA is often a great place to begin.
The pay-per-lead model is lower risk (since you only pay for the leads) and the setup is relatively straightforward. It’s a good way to test lead quality and volume.
If you’re a larger business, we often recommend maxing out LSA if it’s performing well.
But keep in mind: LSA may not always be enough to keep your pipeline full – especially during slower seasons or in highly competitive markets. That’s where Google Ads can complement your strategy.
Google Ads gives you much more control over targeting, messaging, and budget allocation. Of course, that flexibility also makes it more complex, which is why so many businesses partner with experts to handle it for them.
It’s very common to reach a point where you run both LSA and Google Ads together – letting each program fill in the gaps the other can’t cover.
🎯 Our Perspective
We don’t see one program as “better” than another. From our point of view, a quality lead is a quality lead – and Google LSA, Google Ads, and other channels are simply tools we use to generate those leads for our clients.
If Google LSA is producing the right volume and quality – great.
If they’re not, we assess what other channels make sense.
Each program has its strengths and limitations, and the goal is to combine and manage them effectively for your specific business.
Have questions or want a second opinion on your current ad strategy?
Contact us – we’d be more than happy to help.