Google Local Services Ads for UK trades: what you pay and what Google checks

Google Local Services Ads can put your business at the top of Google's results when someone in the areas you choose searches for the work you do, and you pay for each lead rather than each click. The UK rules differ from the US ones in ways that change the sums: there are no lead credits here, and the checks ask for a VAT or Companies House number. In both countries, the Google Guaranteed badge has gone.

Every rule below comes from Google's own UK help pages, read on 1 October 2026. That matters because much of what ranks for this search has not caught up: of the 25 pages we read in Google's UK results that day, 13 still described Google Guaranteed or its money-back guarantee as current, Google's own UK sign-up page among them.

One thing to be straight about first: we sell websites and SEO to trades, which is one of the routes this guide compares Local Services Ads with. That gives us an interest in the comparison, so it sticks to how each one charges, in Google's own words, and leaves the verdict to your figures.

How Google Local Services Ads work

Local Services Ads, often shortened to LSAs, are Google's pay-per-lead adverts for local service businesses. They are separate from ordinary Google Ads, although the billing runs through a Google Ads account.

• Where they show. Google shows the Local Services unit prominently in its search results when people search for the services you offer, in the areas you have chosen.
• How customers reach you. They tap your ad to call you or send you a message, and you get an email when someone gets in touch.
• What you pay for. Valid leads, not clicks or views. In the UK, Google's list of valid leads includes a call you answer, a voicemail, and a missed call that you return.
• Who shows first. An auction decides the order. Google weighs your bid, how likely your ad is to bring a lead, and the quality of your profile: your rating, the number of reviews, your average response time, your photos and the checks you have passed. Google says higher quality profiles may rank higher and may also pay less per lead.
• Why answering matters. Google says missed calls may count against your responsiveness, and that if you regularly fail to answer calls or reply to messages, your ranking may be affected.

You manage leads, reply to messages and pause the ad from the Local Services inbox, not from the main Google Ads screens.

Is Google Guaranteed still a thing?

No. On 20 August 2025 Google announced that, starting in October 2025, a single Google Verified badge would replace its other Local Services badges and programmes, including Google Guaranteed, Google Screened, License Verified by Google and the Money Back Guarantee.

Google's UK help page on the change, read on 1 October 2026, says:

• The money-back guarantee has been discontinued. Customers can only ask for reimbursement for services booked through Local Services Ads before 7 December 2025, and must claim within 30 days of the job being finished.
• Existing advertisers had nothing to do. Businesses that had already passed verification moved to the Google Verified badge automatically.
• New advertisers earn the badge by passing Google's screening and verification, which is covered below.
• Ranking was not affected by the change.

The badge shows on your Local Services profile alongside the specific checks you have passed, and Google may show it in other places where it thinks it helps. So if a customer asks whether you are "Google Guaranteed", the honest answer is that the scheme has ended. What they can check now is the Google Verified badge and the list of checks on your profile.

Be wary of any page that still sells you the guarantee. Some UK agency pages, one of them updated in September 2026, still describe customers as protected up to £1,500, and Google's own UK sign-up page still showed Google Guaranteed and Google Screened labels when we read it.

What Local Services Ads cost a UK trade

Google publishes no UK price per lead. Its UK sign-up page gives no figure and points you to a budget calculator on the Local Services homepage instead (checked 1 October 2026). What Google's help pages do explain is how the price is set:

• Lead prices vary with your location, the job type, the type of lead and your bidding mode.
• Your bid is the most you would pay for a lead. When similar local businesses bid on the same lead, those bids decide what it is worth, so the more local firms bidding for the same jobs, the more a lead is likely to cost.
• Message leads are usually priced lower than phone leads, though not always.
• Higher quality profiles may pay less per lead.

Any typical price you see quoted elsewhere comes from other businesses' accounts, in other trades and towns, so treat it as theirs. The figure that counts is yours: once you are live, the Billing menu in your leads inbox shows what each lead cost.

How the budget works

• You set an average weekly budget, based on how many leads you want a week.
• In a busy week you can spend more than the weekly figure, but never more than your monthly maximum: your weekly budget times the average number of weeks in a month, roughly 4.3.
• Once you reach the monthly maximum, your ad stops showing for the rest of the month unless you raise the budget.
• You choose one of three bid modes. Maximise leads lets Google set your bid to get the most leads for your budget, and is the one Google recommends. Target cost per lead is automated bidding with an optional target, either Google's recommendation or a figure you set, which is around the average you will pay. Max per lead is a manual ceiling on what you pay for any one lead.
• For Maximise leads, Google recommends a budget of at least 10 leads a week, which is about 43 leads a month, and says results take about two weeks to settle while its model learns your business.
• Billing runs through Google Ads, and a suspension of your Google Ads account suspends your Local Services Ads too.

No lead credits in the UK

This is the detail that most changes the sums, and almost none of the pages ranking for this search mention it.

In the US and Canada, Google automatically credits back leads that its systems later judge to be poor quality. That does not happen here. Google's help pages say lead credits are not available to advertisers in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), which includes the UK, and that automatic lead credits are only available in the United States and Canada (checked 1 October 2026).

What does apply here is the first check: Google assesses each lead when the customer first gets in touch, and does not charge for leads it judges invalid or low quality at that point. After that, Google's pages offer no credit to a UK advertiser, so treat every charged lead as spent.

You can still rate a lead in Google's feedback survey, which Google says helps it send you more of the leads you want. If unwanted leads keep coming, Google's advice is to tighten your service areas, job types and categories, accepting that this can mean fewer leads.

Work out what a job costs you

Because nobody can give you a price in advance, decide before you start what the ads have to achieve, then check it against your own figures after the first month or two.

1. Take what you spent in the month from the Billing menu.
2. Count the paid jobs that came from those leads, not the leads.
3. Divide the spend by the jobs. That is what each job cost you to win.
4. Compare it with the profit on a typical job, not the price. If a job costs more to win than it makes, the ads are not paying, however busy the phone is.

The lead cost calculator does the arithmetic and puts the answer beside your other channels. That link opens it on 43 leads a month, Google's recommended minimum; put in your own cost per lead and how many leads you win.

Who can advertise, and what Google checks in the UK

Local Services Ads are only open to certain categories, and availability also depends on your area: Google's eligibility check on the Local Services site tells you whether yours is covered.

Seven of the ten trades we build websites for have a category on Google's UK list (checked 1 October 2026):

Trade	Google's UK category
Plumbers	Plumber
Electricians	Electrician
Roofers	Roofing
Builders	General contractor
Carpenters	Carpenter
Handymen	Handyman
Landscapers	Landscaping services, and lawn care
Decorators	None of its own
Plasterers	None of its own
Tilers	None of its own

The rest of the UK list covers appliance repair, carpet and upholstery cleaning, house cleaning, worktops, fencing, flooring, foundations, garage doors, home inspection, HVAC (heating or air conditioning), rubbish removal, pest control, pool cleaning and pool contractors, removals, snow removal, tree services, water damage, window cleaning and window repair. Lawyers and estate agents can advertise in Greater London only.

What Google checks

Every UK home services category lists the same three requirements: a business check, public liability insurance, and a business licence where the law requires one. Google's screening page fills in the detail.

• Business registration. Google's UK options are a VAT number or a company registration number from Companies House.
• Insurance. Public liability insurance, for every UK trade category. Google accepts a public or general liability or professional indemnity document showing the amount of cover and the company or owner's name and address. Employer's liability insurance is not accepted. If your policy rolls on with no expiry date, you need proof of payment for the last year. The minimum cover depends on your category and location.
• Licences. Google lists a "business licence on a country level" for every UK trade, marked "where applicable by local law". Its pages do not say which UK registrations that means, so have ready any registration your work legally needs.
• Your Google Business Profile. It must be public and verified, and the person completing the checks must be an owner or manager of it. Google says that step can take up to 24 hours to show as done.
• Reviews. Some categories have a minimum number of reviews before you can go live.
• Advanced Verification. Some categories also need this, and it can include a video interview with Google.
• Repeat checks. Google can ask you to repeat any check to keep advertising.

Background checks on owners and workers apply to selected businesses in the US and Canada only, according to Google's help pages, although its UK sign-up page still mentions one.

Google says the whole process takes 3 to 4 weeks on average after you submit your documents. You may be able to start sooner with a pre-badge ad once the preliminary checks are done, but Google places pre-badge listings below providers who have finished every check.

If you are a sole trader without a VAT number

This is the gap in Google's UK rules. A sole trader who is not registered for VAT has neither a VAT number nor a Companies House number, and Google's UK list names nothing else. Its screening page does say businesses can prove registration "by attestation or other means", without saying what that means in the UK.

The National Pest Technicians Association, a UK trade body, wrote in September 2025 that utility bills were no longer accepted, that Google had not confirmed whether sole traders could use their Unique Taxpayer Reference instead, and that traders without VAT registration or a Companies House record "may not be able to get verified". We found nothing newer from Google. Before you spend time on insurance documents and profile work, start the sign-up and see what your dashboard asks for. A Companies House number would also do, but forming a company changes your tax, paperwork and website too; our sole trader or limited company guide sets out what changes.

Local Services Ads, Google Ads or SEO

People ask whether Local Services Ads are different from Google Ads, and which is better. They are different products that charge in different ways, and SEO is a third route to the same searches.

Route	You pay for	When you stop paying
Local Services Ads	Each valid lead	The ad stops
Google search ads	Each click	The ad stops
SEO	The work, not each enquiry	The site, its pages and your reviews stay yours

Which is better? Neither, in general. Local Services Ads charge only when a customer gets in touch, and Google does the vetting your customers see, but you have to pass Google's checks first, and in the UK you cannot claim back a poor lead. Search ads on cost per click bidding charge for each click whether or not the visitor gets in touch, but you choose the words and the page the click lands on. SEO does not charge per enquiry, but it takes months to build and nobody can promise where you will rank.

What they share. Local Services Ads rank you on your reviews, your response time, your photos and how complete your profile is. Those are the same things a customer weighs when they find you any other way, which is why work on your Business Profile and reviews is worth doing whichever route you take. You can run paid leads while your rankings build, and cut back once the website and profile bring in enough work.

Directories are a fourth route, charging by the month or by the lead, and our Checkatrade alternatives guide compares them.

Before you sign up

1. Check your category and area with Google's eligibility check.
2. Have your registration ready: a VAT number or a Companies House number. If you have neither, find out what the dashboard accepts before doing anything else.
3. Find your public liability certificate, showing the amount of cover and your name and address. If the policy rolls on with no expiry date, have proof of payment for the last year as well.
4. Make sure you own or manage your Google Business Profile, and that it is public and verified.
5. Decide who answers the phone. Missed calls can count against your ranking, and a voicemail counts as a lead you pay for.
6. Set a budget you can judge. Google's recommended minimum is 10 leads a week and its bidding takes about two weeks to settle, so decide in advance how many jobs the first two months must bring in.
7. Read the terms of any sign-up offer. Google's UK sign-up page offers ad credit to new advertisers, but the credit only arrives once you meet a minimum spend within the first 60 days.
8. Track every lead to a job, with the source, the quote and whether you won it. Without that you cannot do the sum above.