Google has two ad products. They're not the same one.

Local Services Ads and search PPC sit on the same results page and behave nothing alike. Here's what each is for and how they run beside Meta.

The short version

Contractors have two products on Google. Local Services Ads sit at the very top, carry a Google Guaranteed badge, and bill per lead. Search PPC sits below them, bills per click, and gives you control over exactly which searches you appear for. LSA captures homeowners ready to call now; PPC captures the wider range of what they type on the way there.

Both are demand capture: they reach people already searching. That makes them a different job from Meta, which creates demand among homeowners who weren't looking yet, and it's why the engine runs all three rather than arguing about which is best.

How the pieces actually fit.

Four distinctions worth understanding before anybody spends money on your behalf.

Local Services Ads: highest intent, least control

LSAs appear above everything else, carry the Google Guaranteed badge, and bill per lead rather than per click. You pass a license and insurance check to run them.

The badge is the point. For a homeowner comparing strangers, a Google-verified check mark does work that ad copy cannot, which is why LSA tends to convert better than anything else on the page.

What you give up is control. You do not choose keywords; Google matches on your categories and service area. Your rank is influenced by review volume and score, responsiveness, and proximity, which means your Google Business Profile and your answer speed are effectively part of your ad performance.

Disputing bad leads is part of running LSA properly. Charges for leads outside your service area or outside your trade can be contested, and contractors who never dispute quietly overpay.

Search PPC: full control, and full responsibility

PPC bills per click and lets you choose precisely which searches you appear for. That precision is the value and the risk.

Contractor keywords are expensive because the jobs are large, and the difference between a well-built account and a careless one is enormous. Broad match with no negative keywords is the fastest way to fund clicks from homeowners who wanted a repair when you sell replacements, or from people three states away.

Landing page matters as much as the account. Sending every click to a homepage wastes the precision you just paid for; a click on a specific service in a specific city should land on the page about that.

PPC is also where you buy your own brand name defensively, which is cheap and stops competitors from collecting homeowners who were already looking for you.

Why Meta is still the primary engine here

Google captures homeowners who are already searching. Meta creates demand among homeowners who weren't. For volume at capacity, creation scales further than capture.

There are only so many people typing your trade plus your city in a month, and that ceiling is fixed no matter how much budget you point at it. Meta reaches homeowners who have been thinking about the project without searching yet, which is a much larger pool.

The tradeoff is intent. A Meta lead needs more qualifying than an LSA lead, which is exactly why the qualifier and the booking flow matter so much on that side.

Running them together is not hedging. Google takes the ready-now demand at the top, Meta builds the volume beneath it, and the organic layer eventually reduces what you pay for both.

The only metrics that pay for trucks

Cost per click and cost per lead are inputs. Cost per qualified appointment, cost per booked job, and cost per closed dollar are the numbers that decide whether any of it worked.

A channel with a higher cost per lead and a better close rate beats a cheap channel that fills the calendar with people who were never going to sign. Judging channels on lead cost alone systematically favors the worst ones.

This requires lead-to-booked tracking in the CRM rather than a platform dashboard. Ad platforms report what they can see, which stops at the form, and every meaningful thing happens after that.

Here, the reporting is denominated in booked jobs and closed dollars because that is what the model is priced on: you pay per qualified appointment, and there is no separate ad spend to approve because media is on us.

Questions to ask before anyone spends your money.

Whether it's us or somebody else, these answers tell you most of what you need to know.

Am I set up for Local Services Ads, and have I passed the license and insurance check?
Who disputes my invalid LSA leads, and how often does it actually happen?
What negative keyword list is on my PPC account? Ask to see it.
Where do my ad clicks land: the homepage, or the page about that service in that city?
Am I bidding on my own brand name, and is a competitor bidding on it?
What's my cost per booked job, not per lead? If nobody can answer, nobody is tracking it.
Does the ad budget sit on top of the fee, or is media included?

$64,000

The first appointment we ever issued Arthur Garcia closed as a $64,000 project. One appointment, one signed job.

Read the case study

“We're adding staff because of the amount of new customers and new projects.”
Arthur Garcia · Owner, Aquatic Pools and Spas
Meta and Google run together in the engine, with no separate ad budget to approve. You pay per qualified appointment that shows, which puts the cost of a bad campaign on our side of the table.

What paid search won't do.

It buys speed. Speed is worth a lot, and it is not the same thing as an asset.

It stops the day you stop
Paid demand ends with the budget. That's the case for building the organic and AEO layers underneath it, which keep producing when spend pauses but take 3 to 6 months to compound.
It can't exceed what people search
Search demand for your trade in your market is a fixed ceiling in any given month. Past that point, more budget buys worse traffic rather than more of the good kind, which is where Meta does the heavy lifting.
It won't rescue a weak close rate
Paid traffic is the most expensive place to discover that the sales process isn't working. In-home sales training runs beside the ad spend for that reason, not as an upsell after it.

Straight answers on Google Ads for contractors.

What's the difference between Local Services Ads and Google Ads?: Local Services Ads sit above everything else, carry the Google Guaranteed badge, bill per lead, and require a license and insurance check. Search PPC sits below them, bills per click, and lets you pick exactly which searches you appear for. LSA gives you intent and the badge; PPC gives you control.
Are Local Services Ads worth it for contractors?: For most home improvement trades, yes, because the Google Guaranteed badge does trust work that ad copy can't, and the placement is above everything. The caveats are that your rank depends on reviews, responsiveness, and proximity, and that you need to actually dispute invalid leads instead of paying for them.
How much do Google Ads cost for contractors?: Clicks in home improvement are expensive because the jobs are large, and the range varies enormously by trade and metro, so any specific figure quoted without knowing your market is a guess. In this engagement there's no separate ad budget to approve at all: media is on us and you pay per qualified appointment.
Should I run Google Ads or Facebook ads?: Both, doing different jobs. Google captures homeowners already searching, which is limited by how many people search in your market each month. Meta creates demand among homeowners who hadn't started looking, which is a bigger pool but needs more qualifying. Meta is the primary appointment engine here, with Google LSA and PPC beside it.
How fast can Google Ads produce appointments?: Campaigns can be live within 48 hours of kickoff and put qualified appointments on the calendar the same week. That speed is precisely why paid runs first while SEO and AEO compound over the following 3 to 6 months.
Why are my Google Ads not converting?: The usual three: clicks landing on a homepage instead of the page matching the search, no negative keyword list so you're paying for repairs when you sell replacements, and follow-up that takes hours when the homeowner filled three forms in one sitting. Fix the landing page and the response time before touching bids.
Should I bid on my own brand name?: Usually yes. It's cheap, it stops competitors from intercepting homeowners already looking for you specifically, and it lets you control the first thing they see. The main argument against it is that you'd have gotten the click free, which stops being true the moment a competitor bids.
What should I track instead of cost per lead?: Cost per qualified appointment, cost per booked job, and cost per closed dollar, pulled from your CRM rather than a platform dashboard. Judging channels on lead cost alone consistently favors the channels producing the worst leads.

Want the paid layer run on booked jobs?

Meta as the appointment engine, Google LSA and PPC beside it, no separate ad spend, and reporting in booked jobs rather than clicks. One contractor per trade, per market.

Check if your market's open See how the pricing works

How the pieces actually fit.

Four distinctions worth understanding before anybody spends money on your behalf.

Local Services Ads: highest intent, least control

LSAs appear above everything else, carry the Google Guaranteed badge, and bill per lead rather than per click. You pass a license and insurance check to run them.

The badge is the point. For a homeowner comparing strangers, a Google-verified check mark does work that ad copy cannot, which is why LSA tends to convert better than anything else on the page.

Disputing bad leads is part of running LSA properly. Charges for leads outside your service area or outside your trade can be contested, and contractors who never dispute quietly overpay.

Search PPC: full control, and full responsibility

PPC bills per click and lets you choose precisely which searches you appear for. That precision is the value and the risk.

PPC is also where you buy your own brand name defensively, which is cheap and stops competitors from collecting homeowners who were already looking for you.

Why Meta is still the primary engine here

Google captures homeowners who are already searching. Meta creates demand among homeowners who weren't. For volume at capacity, creation scales further than capture.

The tradeoff is intent. A Meta lead needs more qualifying than an LSA lead, which is exactly why the qualifier and the booking flow matter so much on that side.

Running them together is not hedging. Google takes the ready-now demand at the top, Meta builds the volume beneath it, and the organic layer eventually reduces what you pay for both.

The only metrics that pay for trucks

Cost per click and cost per lead are inputs. Cost per qualified appointment, cost per booked job, and cost per closed dollar are the numbers that decide whether any of it worked.

This requires lead-to-booked tracking in the CRM rather than a platform dashboard. Ad platforms report what they can see, which stops at the form, and every meaningful thing happens after that.

Questions to ask before anyone spends your money.

Whether it's us or somebody else, these answers tell you most of what you need to know.

Am I set up for Local Services Ads, and have I passed the license and insurance check?

Who disputes my invalid LSA leads, and how often does it actually happen?

What negative keyword list is on my PPC account? Ask to see it.

Where do my ad clicks land: the homepage, or the page about that service in that city?

Am I bidding on my own brand name, and is a competitor bidding on it?

What's my cost per booked job, not per lead? If nobody can answer, nobody is tracking it.

Does the ad budget sit on top of the fee, or is media included?

What paid search won't do.

It buys speed. Speed is worth a lot, and it is not the same thing as an asset.

It stops the day you stop

Paid demand ends with the budget. That's the case for building the organic and AEO layers underneath it, which keep producing when spend pauses but take 3 to 6 months to compound.

It can't exceed what people search

Search demand for your trade in your market is a fixed ceiling in any given month. Past that point, more budget buys worse traffic rather than more of the good kind, which is where Meta does the heavy lifting.

It won't rescue a weak close rate

Paid traffic is the most expensive place to discover that the sales process isn't working. In-home sales training runs beside the ad spend for that reason, not as an upsell after it.

Straight answers on Google Ads for contractors.

What's the difference between Local Services Ads and Google Ads?

Local Services Ads sit above everything else, carry the Google Guaranteed badge, bill per lead, and require a license and insurance check. Search PPC sits below them, bills per click, and lets you pick exactly which searches you appear for. LSA gives you intent and the badge; PPC gives you control.

Are Local Services Ads worth it for contractors?

For most home improvement trades, yes, because the Google Guaranteed badge does trust work that ad copy can't, and the placement is above everything. The caveats are that your rank depends on reviews, responsiveness, and proximity, and that you need to actually dispute invalid leads instead of paying for them.

How much do Google Ads cost for contractors?

Clicks in home improvement are expensive because the jobs are large, and the range varies enormously by trade and metro, so any specific figure quoted without knowing your market is a guess. In this engagement there's no separate ad budget to approve at all: media is on us and you pay per qualified appointment.

Should I run Google Ads or Facebook ads?

Both, doing different jobs. Google captures homeowners already searching, which is limited by how many people search in your market each month. Meta creates demand among homeowners who hadn't started looking, which is a bigger pool but needs more qualifying. Meta is the primary appointment engine here, with Google LSA and PPC beside it.

How fast can Google Ads produce appointments?

Campaigns can be live within 48 hours of kickoff and put qualified appointments on the calendar the same week. That speed is precisely why paid runs first while SEO and AEO compound over the following 3 to 6 months.

Why are my Google Ads not converting?

The usual three: clicks landing on a homepage instead of the page matching the search, no negative keyword list so you're paying for repairs when you sell replacements, and follow-up that takes hours when the homeowner filled three forms in one sitting. Fix the landing page and the response time before touching bids.

Should I bid on my own brand name?

Usually yes. It's cheap, it stops competitors from intercepting homeowners already looking for you specifically, and it lets you control the first thing they see. The main argument against it is that you'd have gotten the click free, which stops being true the moment a competitor bids.

What should I track instead of cost per lead?

Cost per qualified appointment, cost per booked job, and cost per closed dollar, pulled from your CRM rather than a platform dashboard. Judging channels on lead cost alone consistently favors the channels producing the worst leads.