Local Services Ads and search ads for the trades: what owners should know before spending a dollar
Two kinds of Google ads bring calls to a contractor. One charges you for each call or message, the other for each click. Here is how each works, what a sensible month looks like, and what we do to run both.
Written by Front Counter AI. Published October 12, 2026.
Local Services Ads: the green check at the top.
Local Services Ads are the listings with the green check that sit above everything else when someone searches for a roofer, a plumber or an air conditioning repair in a town. You pay only when a customer calls or messages through the ad, not when they look. To run them, Google checks your license and insurance and runs a background check, and then puts its badge on your listing. If a call turns out to be a wrong number, a salesperson or a job you do not do, you can dispute it and get the charge back. The budget is set by the week and can be changed any day.
Search ads: the text ads under them.
Search ads are the ones that say Sponsored. You pay for each click, whether the person calls or not, so two things decide whether they work: the list of words you refuse to pay for, and the page the click lands on. Without a block list you pay for people searching for jobs at your company, for do-it-yourself videos and for towns you do not serve. Without a good landing page you pay for clicks that bounce. A page built for the phone, with the reviews and a tap-to-call button, is the difference.
What a month looks like.
Our fee is set on a short call and confirmed in writing before any work starts, and it is month to month. Your ad money goes to Google on top of that, at the budget you set, and you see every dollar of it. A sensible start is a weekly budget you could lose without pain, moved up only when the booked jobs say so. We would rather run a modest budget well than a large one badly, and the recordings and the call log tell you which it is.
What we do for the fee.
- Set up both kinds of ads and run them on our accounts, so one company is accountable for all of it, and handle the license, insurance and background-check paperwork for the green check.
- Build and keep the block list, so junk searches never reach your card.
- Dispute the junk calls every week and get the charges back.
- Write the ads and the landing page so the click lands on a page that books the job.
- Report in plain words every month: what you spent, what called, what booked.
When not to advertise yet.
Ads pour water into whatever bucket you have. If your phone goes to voicemail half the time, fix answering first, with a person or an AI Receptionist. If your listing has fewer than ten reviews, spend three months on reviews first; a customer who sees your ad looks at your stars before calling. If your website fails on a phone, fix that first. We will tell you which of these applies on the first call, even if it means we sell you nothing this month.
Questions owners ask.
Do I need both kinds of ads?
Usually start with Local Services Ads alone, because you pay only for real contacts. Add search ads when the green check listing is full and you want more.
Can I pause it?
Any day. Busy season, a vacation, a crew out sick: the budget goes to zero and comes back when you say.
Who runs the ad account?
We host and run it on our accounts, so one company is accountable for all of it and nothing waits on a sign-up you have not done. What happens if you ever leave is agreed on the call before any work starts.
How soon do the calls start?
Local Services Ads take a week or two for Google's checks, then calls can start the day the ad is approved. Search ads start within a day of approval.
Is it worth it for a company with several crews or trucks?
Only if the phone is answered and the reviews are there. If both are true, the call log shows what the ads booked against what they cost. If either is false, start with that instead.