Google Local Services Ads in the UK: a guide for trades

Google Local Services Ads are adverts that Google shows prominently in search results for local service businesses, and in the UK you pay for each lead (a call or a message) rather than for each click. Plumbers, electricians, roofers, cleaners, heating engineers and 23 other home and trade categories are on Google's UK list, and Google screens every business before its ad goes live.

Say Jason runs a two-van plumbing firm in Leeds. He searches "plumber near me" on a Saturday and sees a rival in a sponsored box with a tick and the words Google Verified. Jason wants to know three things: can he get that, what does it cost, and is it better than the directory he already pays for.

This guide answers them from Google's own UK help pages, checked on 20 October 2026: who qualifies, what replaced Google Guaranteed, what setting up takes, how charging and disputes work here, and how the ads compare with Google Ads, Checkatrade-style platforms and your own profile.

Key Takeaways

• Google Local Services Ads in the UK charge per valid lead, and Google publishes no UK price list: its help page says lead prices vary by location, job type, type of lead and bidding mode.
• Google's UK list has 28 home and trade categories, including plumbers, electricians, roofers, HVAC and pest control, while legal services and estate agents are a pilot open in Greater London only.
• Google has replaced its old badges with a single Google Verified badge and discontinued the Google Guaranteed money-back guarantee, so customers can only claim for services booked before 7 December 2025.
• Google's help pages say lead credits are not available to advertisers in EMEA, so a UK trade gets no automatic credit back for a poor lead once it has been charged.
• A missed call counts as a charged lead if it comes during your opening hours and the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds.
• Google says screening takes three to four weeks on average after documents go in, and every advertiser needs a public, verified Google Business Profile.

What are Google Local Services Ads?

Local Services Ads are a separate kind of Google advert built for service businesses, and you pay when a customer contacts you through the ad, not when they click. Google's getting started page for the UK says leads "come in as phone calls and messages sent through your Local Services ad", and that the ads show "when people search for the services that you offer in areas that you've chosen".

The ad links to a Local Services profile, and once you pass screening the Google Verified badge sits next to your business name. The phone number on it is not yours. Google's page on managing leads says it is a forwarding number that changes often, and that calls from it play the message "Call from Google" so you know where the customer came from.

Ordinary Google Ads work differently: you choose the searches, write the advert, and pay for every click to your website, whether or not that person calls. If you would rather have a person run ordinary Google Ads for you, see how we run Google Ads for trades; you always pay Google directly, never through us.

Which UK trades and areas qualify for Local Services Ads?

Most home and trade services are on Google's UK list with no area limit stated, and a short list of professional services is open in Greater London only. Google's UK getting started page lists these categories (names shortened here):

Listed for the UK	Greater London only (pilot)
Appliance repair, carpenters, carpet cleaning, cleaning services, worktop services	Lawyers: general, contract, corporate, criminal, employment, family, immigration, insolvency, IP, litigation, malpractice, probate, property and tax, plus Google's category for driving-offence lawyers
Electricians, fencing, flooring, foundations, garage doors, general contractors, handyman	Estate agent services
Home inspection, HVAC (heating or air conditioning), junk removal, landscaping, lawn care	Personal injury services
Moving, pest control, plumbers, pool cleaning and contracting, roofers
Snow removal, tree services, water damage, window cleaning, window repair

Google's screening requirements page says the professional services are "currently being piloted and are only available in Greater London". A family solicitor in Leeds cannot advertise this way yet. A plumber in Leeds can.

Locksmiths do not appear on the current UK list. Gas engineers are not a category of their own: the nearest is HVAC, which Google labels "heating or air conditioning", and Google's description of plumbers says they "may also service gas". If your trade is not on the list, Google's getting started page links to a check eligibility step for your area.

What happened to Google Guaranteed and Google Screened?

Google has replaced its old badges with one: Google Verified. Its page on the new badge says Google is "launching a single badge for all advertisers", and that existing advertisers who have completed verification earn it automatically, with no action needed.

The old names still float around. Google Guaranteed was the badge for home services, and it came with a money-back guarantee for customers. Google Screened was the badge for professional services such as lawyers and estate agents. On the guarantee, Google's page now says it "will be discontinuing the money-back guarantee associated with the Google Guarantee badge", and that eligible customers can claim only for services booked through the ads before 7 December 2025, within 30 days of the job finishing.

So if a homeowner asks whether Google will refund them for bad work, the answer for anything booked now is no. The badge says you passed Google's checks, nothing more.

Why so much advice about Local Services Ads is out of date

Much of what you will read about these ads describes a programme that has moved on. We pulled the Google results for "google local services ads uk" on 20 October 2026 (DataForSEO live results, United Kingdom, desktop), and three things stood out.

1. The fifth organic result, a page dated 6 August 2018, still says the ads are available in the UK only for locksmiths and plumbers. Today plumbers are one of 28 home and trade categories on Google's UK list, and locksmiths are not on it.
2. Google's own AI answer at the top of that search described a money-back guarantee under Google Guaranteed, which Google's help centre says has been discontinued.
3. Google's sales page for Local Services Ads still talks about displaying "the Google Guaranteed, Google Screened, or License verified by Google badge", while the help centre describes a single Google Verified badge. Google Verified appears there just once, in an answer about setting up further down the page.

None of this makes the ads a bad idea. It means trusting the help centre, with the United Kingdom selected, over blogs, AI answers and even Google's marketing pages, and checking anything important in your own account.

What does it take to set up Local Services Ads?

Setting up takes a verified Business Profile, proof of registration, proof of insurance and a budget. Google's requirements page says that "on average, this process takes 3–4 weeks to complete after submitting your documents", so start well before your busy season.

For a UK plumber or electrician, Google's pages ask for these, in roughly this order:

1. Check eligibility and sign up, online or through Google's sales team.
2. Link a public, verified Google Business Profile. Google says advertisers "must have a public and verified Google Business profile". The person completing the checks must be an owner or manager of that profile, not just someone at the firm. If you have not claimed yours, our guide to setting up your Google Business Profile covers it.
3. Prove the business is registered. For the UK, Google's screening and verification page lists two options: a VAT number, or your company registration number from Companies House. If you are a sole trader with neither, ask Google's support team what they will accept before doing anything else.
4. Upload proof of insurance. Home services need public liability cover. For Europe, Google asks for a public or general liability or professional indemnity document showing the amount, the company or owner name and the address, and says "employer liability insurance isn't accepted".
5. Confirm your licences. Google lists a country-level business licence for each trade, marked "where applicable by local law", and asks you to confirm you hold all relevant licences.
6. Set up billing and a budget. Billing runs through Google Ads, by card or bank account.

Background checks on owners and staff are "required for selected users in the US and Canada", according to Google's page. You can also start early: pre-badge ads take leads once the preliminary checks pass, but the listing sits below providers who have earned the badge.

How much do Google Local Services Ads cost in the UK?

There is no published UK price. Google's page on how leads work says "lead prices may vary depending on your location, the job type, the type of lead or your bidding mode", and the only figure you will see is the one in your own account. Anyone quoting you a single UK price for a lead is guessing.

What Google does explain is how the spending works:

• You set an average weekly budget. Some weeks you spend more and some less. Your monthly max is the weekly budget multiplied by 30.4 and divided by 7, so a weekly budget of one hundred pounds caps the month at about four hundred and thirty-four pounds. When you hit the cap, the ad stops until the next month unless you raise the budget.
• You choose how to bid. Google recommends Maximise leads, where it sets the bid, with a budget of at least 10 leads a week. The alternatives are a target cost per lead or a manual maximum.
• Messages usually cost less than calls. Google's page says message leads are "typically priced lower" than phone leads, though not always. The price of a message depends partly on "whether the customer has contacted other Local Services advertisers", so the same homeowner may be messaging your competitors too.
• Better profiles can pay less. Google's page on how ads are ordered says profiles with higher quality "may rank higher and may also pay lower costs per lead". Quality there means your rating, number of reviews, response time, photos and completed checks.

For comparison, DataForSEO's UK Google Ads data, pulled on 20 October 2026, put the average cost of one click at about twenty-three pounds for "emergency plumber" and about eight pounds for "plumber near me". On ordinary Google Ads you pay that for a visit, and the visitor still has to decide to call. On Local Services Ads you pay only when they do, at a price you see only inside the account.

What counts as a charged lead, and can you dispute one in the UK?

A charged lead is a call or message Google judges real and related to your business. Google filters out spam and duplicates first, and charges you when:

• you answer a call, or call the customer back and speak to them
• you miss a call during your opening hours and the customer stays on the line for more than 20 seconds
• the customer sends a text, an email or a voicemail

Repeat contact from the same number or email within 15 days of the last interaction is not charged again. After 15 quiet days, it counts as a new lead.

Disputing is where the UK differs. In the US and Canada, Google re-checks charged leads and credits poor ones automatically. Its lead credits page says "lead credits aren't available for health care verticals, tax specialists or advertisers in EMEA", and the how leads work page adds that call recordings and lead credits "aren't available for any verticals in Europe". Google's own link labelled "How to dispute charges" goes to that same lead credits page.

A UK advertiser can still rate each lead: open Leads, choose Rate this lead and fill in the survey, which Google says it uses to send you more of the leads you want. Narrowing your service areas and job types also helps, though Google warns it can cut lead numbers.

Take an electrician on a ladder all morning with his phone in the van. Three people ring, wait half a minute and hang up; in his opening hours, all three can be charged. Google also warns that regularly missing calls means where your ad appears "may be affected". Set hours you can answer in, or turn on message leads so customers can write instead (how to handle quote requests covers the answering side).

Local Services Ads vs Google Ads vs Checkatrade vs your own profile

The four routes differ most in how you pay and who keeps the customer. The directory maths is in is Checkatrade worth it and the wider argument in buying leads vs being found, so this is the short version.

	Local Services Ads	Google Ads (search)	Checkatrade-type platform	Your own Business Profile and website
How you pay	Per valid lead, inside a weekly budget	Per click, inside a budget you set	Subscription or per lead, depending on the platform	Your time, or someone you pay to build and look after it
Who owns the customer	You, once they contact you; calls arrive via a Google number	You; they land on your own website	You get the enquiry, but your reviews live on the platform	You, start to finish
Where reviews live	On your Google Business Profile	Not part of the ad	On the platform's page for you	On your Google Business Profile
What it needs	An eligible trade, a verified profile, registration and insurance checks, three to four weeks	A website that turns visits into calls, and someone to manage it	Passing the platform's checks and its contract	Months of steady work on pages, photos and reviews
When you stop paying	The ad disappears	The ad disappears	The profile and its reviews usually go	It keeps working

One point in Local Services Ads' favour: the reviews are yours. Google's reviews page says customer reviews "are managed through Google Business Profile Manager", so those reviews stay on your profile if you stop advertising. That makes getting more Google reviews useful twice over.

When do Local Services Ads make sense for a trade?

They make sense when your trade qualifies, you can answer the phone quickly, and you need enquiries before your own presence can bring them. They make less sense when you already show up well on Google Maps, or cannot pick up during the day.

A fair test, in five questions:

1. Is your trade on Google's current UK list, and does your patch have enough searches for it?
2. Can you, or someone, answer calls within your stated opening hours?
3. Is your Business Profile verified, with a decent rating and recent reviews? Your ad leans on the same profile.
4. Can you live with paying for some leads you would not choose, given that UK advertisers get no automatic credits?
5. What will you track? Count jobs won from the ad, not calls, and compare it with what each job is worth to you.

Picture a roofer in Bristol with eighty Google reviews who already shows in the map results for his town. Local Services Ads would mostly charge him for customers who would have found him anyway. Now picture a new cleaning company with six reviews and a one-page website. The ads can bring calls in the first month, while the reviews, photos and pages for each service in each area build up underneath.

Paid ads of any kind are a tap: useful while it is on, gone when you turn it off. Our pillar on how trade businesses win work online covers the parts you keep. To talk through whether ads, your own presence or both fit your trade, book a free call. We will not promise you a position on Google, and you always pay the ad platforms directly.

Before you sign up: a short checklist

Google Local Services Ads in the UK are a reasonable way for an eligible trade to buy calls rather than clicks, if you go in with the current rules.

• Check your trade on Google's UK list, and remember legal and estate agency ads run in Greater London only.
• Have your Business Profile, Companies House number or VAT number, and public liability insurance ready, and allow three to four weeks.
• Set opening hours you can answer in, because missed calls past 20 seconds can be charged.
• Assume no refunds on poor leads in the UK, and rate every lead anyway.
• Keep building the profile, reviews and pages you own alongside the ads.

If you would rather a person set up and manage ordinary Google Ads around your own presence, see how we run Google Ads for trades.