How Google Local Services Ads charge for leads in the UK

What counts as a lead

Google charges when a customer contacts you through the ad. Its help page on how leads work sets out what that means in practice:

• Answered calls are charged when you answer, or when you call back and speak to the customer.
• Missed calls during your operating hours are charged if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds.
• Voicemail and automated greetings count as a connected call during operating hours, so the same 20-second rule applies.
• Phone menus: if your phone system asks callers to press a key, the 20-second timer starts again from their first key press. Callers who hang up without pressing anything are not charged.
• Messages sent to you through the ad are chargeable leads.
• Booking requests are only charged in the United States and Canada, so they do not apply to UK advertisers.

The rule that catches people out is the missed call. If your ads run during hours when nobody can answer, you can pay for calls you never spoke to.

When you are not charged again

Contact from the same phone number or email address is not charged again, as long as there has been some interaction with that customer within 15 days. After 15 days without activity, a new contact can be charged as a new lead.

Google also says it does not charge for leads it judges to be invalid or low quality.

What a lead costs

There is no public price list. Google sets the price of each lead, and for phone leads it depends on your location, the job type, the type of lead and your bidding mode. Google says message leads are generally cheaper than calls. The sign-up tool gives an estimate for your area, which is the most reliable starting point before you have any leads of your own.

How the budget works

You set an average weekly budget, based on how many leads you want in a typical week. You can go over it in a particular week, but not over the monthly maximum.

The monthly maximum is your weekly budget multiplied by the average number of weeks in a month. Once you reach it, your ad stops showing for the rest of the month unless you change the budget. A busy fortnight can therefore take you off the results for the end of the month, which is worth knowing before a storm or a heatwave.

Why lead credits matter less in the UK

Guides written for the US often mention disputing poor leads for a credit. Google’s help page says lead credits are not available for advertisers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and that call recordings and lead credits are not available for any verticals in Europe.

So for a UK business the protection against paying for poor leads comes from the settings, not from refunds after the event. You can still rate each lead through the feedback survey in your dashboard, and it is worth doing consistently, but it should not be your plan for controlling cost.

Five settings that decide what you pay for

1. Job types. Switch off any job that is too small to be worth a paid lead, or that you would turn down.
2. Service areas. Match them to where you will really travel, not where you would go for a big enough job.
3. Operating hours. Set them to the hours when someone can answer, because missed calls inside those hours can be charged.
4. Call handling. A long voicemail greeting or a phone menu changes when the 20-second rule applies. Keep the route to a person short.
5. Budget. Set a weekly figure you would be happy to spend every week, and watch how close you get to the monthly maximum.

Is it worth it?

For eligible trades with someone to answer the phone, Local Services Ads can be a straightforward source of enquiries with little set-up. Their weakness is control: there are no keywords, so you cannot choose exactly which searches show your ad. Google Ads search campaigns give that control in return for more work, which is why many businesses run both and compare the results. Eligibility also varies by trade, so check yours first.

If you would like a second opinion on your Local Services Ads, or want to know whether your trade is eligible, see Local Services Ads management or request a campaign review.