Pay for the lead, not the click.
Local Services Ads are the pay-per-lead listings at the very top of Google for trades and local service searches, marked with the blue Google Verified badge (the program most people still call Google Guaranteed). Ziwi handles the screening, the setup and the daily management from $297 a month with lead spend up to $1,500.
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Where do businesses lose here?
A business license, a certificate of insurance and a background check all have to clear before a single ad can run. Most owners start the paperwork, hit one rejected document, and never finish.
Wrong job type, wrong town, wrong number, a wholesaler fishing for work. Google credits a share of those automatically now, but only if someone is reading the lead log and reporting what the model misses.
Google ranks these listings partly on whether you pick up and how you respond. A missed call is two losses: the job, and your position in the block.
What Local Services Ads actually are
Why it matters: for most trades the Local Services block is the first thing on the screen, above the search ads and above the map. You pay per lead rather than per click, so a curious click costs you nothing. And the badge does a job no ad copy can do: Google has already checked the license, the insurance and the background of the business a homeowner is about to let inside their house.
Local Services Ads are Google's pay-per-lead product for local service businesses. They sit at the very top of the results for searches like emergency plumber or roof repair near me, they show your review score, your hours and your years in business, and the customer calls or messages you straight from the listing. You set a weekly budget, and Google charges only for the calls and messages that arrive in the job categories and service area you selected.
The badge changed names recently, which matters when you are shopping for help. Google folded Google Guaranteed, Google Screened and License Verified by Google into a single Google Verified badge in late 2025, and the green check became blue. Google also retired the money-back guarantee that used to sit behind it: the last consumer reimbursement requests covered jobs booked before December 7, 2025 (Google Local Services Help, checked September 2026). The screening did not change, and neither did the position at the top of the page.
- Local Services Ads
- The pay-per-lead listings at the top. Charged per call or message, paced by the weekly budget you set.
- Google Verified badge
- The blue check next to your name. It says Google has checked your license, your insurance and your background, and it replaced the Google Guaranteed badge in late 2025.
- Search ads
- Pay per click, below the Local Services block. Most accounts run both, because they answer different searches.
Local Services Ads run alongside search ads under one management fee, and the whole ladder is on the published prices page. The categories where they usually earn the first dollar are the trades: HVAC, plumbing, roofing and electrical. About 480 people a month search lsa management (our September 2026 pull), most of them owners trying to run this on their own.
Everything Local Services Ads management includes
Run it standalone or wired into a plan. Either way, the accounts and the data are yours.
We assemble the license, the certificate of insurance and the background check paperwork, submit it, and push it through the rejections until the badge is live.
The job types you actually want and the towns you actually drive to, so you are not paying for a lead two counties away.
This product rewards businesses that pick up. Calls and messages are answered day and night, including the ones that land at 9pm on a Sunday.
Your review score is one of the biggest levers on where you sit inside the block, so review asks run every week alongside the ads.
Every charged lead is checked against the job that came out of it, and the junk gets reported so the credits actually land.
Budgets here are weekly, not monthly. We set the pace so you are not dark by Friday in the middle of your season.
Cost per lead and cost per booked job, by category, next to your search campaigns. Not a screenshot of the dashboard.
The Local Services account stays in your name with every lead in it. Keep all of it if you leave.
What happens in your first 30 days?
Paperwork first, because nothing runs until Google clears you. We do that part so it does not sit on your desk for a month.
License, certificate of insurance and background checks submitted, the profile built out, call tracking wired to the listing.
As soon as Google clears the screening, categories, service area and the weekly budget go live.
Job types tightened, the service area trimmed to what you will actually drive, bad leads reported, review asks running.
What the leads cost, which categories produced real work, and what changes next month.
Management is $297 a month with lead spend up to $1,500, $497 with $1,500 to $3,500 in spend, and $797 above $3,500. Your lead budget is paid to Google from your own account on top of the fee, and the same fee covers search ads running next to the Local Services block, so you are not paying twice for one account. All month to month. One caveat we say up front: Google controls the screening clock, not us, and a background check can push go-live past week two.
Ziwi, a lead broker, or doing it yourself?
| Compared on | Angi or Thumbtack | DIY | Ziwi |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay | Per lead, plus a membership, plus a race to the bottom on price | Your evenings, on hold with support | From $297 a month, flat, published |
| Who owns the customer | The platform does | You do | You do, in your own Google account |
| Lead exclusivity | Shared with competing pros | n/a | The call comes to you from your listing |
| Screening paperwork | Their own process, their rules | You chase every document | Assembled and pushed through for you |
| Bad leads | Credited if you argue for it | You eat them | Logged and reported every week |
| Commitment | Annual memberships are common | n/a | Month to month |
Local Services Ads are not open in every category or every market, and Google decides both, not us. See published pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Anything this page does not answer, ask on the call. Book a discovery call and keep the plan either way.
Google Guaranteed is now the Google Verified badge: Google merged Google Guaranteed, Google Screened and License Verified by Google into one blue badge in late 2025, and retired the money-back guarantee behind it, with the last consumer reimbursement requests covering jobs booked before December 7, 2025 (Google Local Services Help, checked September 2026). The screening behind the badge is unchanged, and about 5,400 people a month still search the old name (our September 2026 pull).
Ziwi's management fee is $297 a month with lead spend up to $1,500, then $497 with $1,500 to $3,500 in spend and $797 above $3,500, month to month. The lead spend itself goes to Google from your own account, and the price per lead is set by your category and your market, so a handyman lead and a legal lead are not close to the same number. You set the weekly budget and can change it any week.
Licensed local service businesses, in the categories Google runs in your metro, once 3 checks clear: business registration or license, liability insurance at the level Google asks for in your category, and a background check on the business and, depending on how you are structured, on the owner. Ziwi assembles and submits all 3 in week 1, but Google sets the approval timeline.
Not for the ones Google's system catches. Since 2024 Google credits invalid and low-quality leads automatically instead of taking manual disputes for them, usually inside 30 days, and the original charge stays on the invoice while the credit lands on your account balance. Credits are not available in health care verticals, for tax specialists, or in EMEA (Google Local Services Help, checked September 2026). We read the lead log every week and escalate what the model misses.
Most trades run both, and Local Services Ads usually earn the first dollar because you pay per lead instead of per click. Search ads then cover what the Local Services categories do not include: a specific brand of furnace, commercial work, a service Google has no category for. Both sit inside one $297 management fee at spend up to $1,500, which is why we rarely split them.
Four things move it, and 3 of them are yours: your review score and review count, how fast and how often you answer, your proximity to the searcher, and your budget being high enough to stay on all day. Proximity is the one nobody controls. That is why review asks and 24/7 answering are part of the same plan rather than a separate line item.
Pair it with
Local Services Ads produce phone calls, so the answer matters as much as the ad: we pair them with Ziwi Engage for 24/7 answering and reviews and reputation, because your review score moves where you sit in the block. They run next to Google Ads under the same fee. Book a discovery call.
Google Ads & LSAs
Someone is searching for exactly what you do today. We make sure they land on your offer, call your tracked number, and show up in your cost-per-booked math.
Ziwi Engage
The business that answers first wins the customer. Engage texts every new lead in seconds, answers questions, and books the appointment. Even at 9 PM on a Friday.
Reviews & Reputation
Buyers compare you to the competitor down the street before they ever call. We make that comparison a landslide: automated requests, managed responses, a profile that earns the click.