Google Local Service Ads are the listings with the Google Verified badge that show up near the top of the results when someone in Etobicoke searches for an emergency plumber or a homeowner in Laval looks for an electrician. Unlike regular search ads, you don't pay for clicks. You pay when a potential customer calls, messages or books you through the ad.

I've been launching and optimizing Google Ads campaigns for over 20 years, and Local Services Ads (Google's official name, often shortened to LSA) are one of the first things I look at when a licensed trade asks us about paid search. They're also changing fast. The badge, the rules and even where you manage the ads have all shifted in the past year. This guide covers how they work in Canada today, who qualifies, what they cost, how ranking works and what to do before your account moves into Google Ads in 2027.

What Are Google Local Service Ads?

Local Services Ads are a pay-per-lead ad format for local service businesses. Three things make them different from the search ads most people know:

• You pay per lead, not per click. Google charges for phone calls, messages and booking requests that come through the ad, not for people who simply look at your listing.
• There are no keywords. You choose your service categories, job types and service area, and Google decides which searches to show you for. The ads appear on Google Search and Maps.
• Every advertiser is screened. According to Google's Local Services Ads page for Canada, all businesses must pass Google's screening and verification process, and verified businesses earn the Google Verified badge.

Google Guaranteed Is Gone. Google Verified Replaced It.

If you remember the Google Guaranteed and Google Screened badges, they no longer exist. Google replaced them, along with the License Verified by Google label, with a single Google Verified badge on October 20, 2025. The money-back guarantee that came with Google Guaranteed was discontinued at the same time. If your website, truck wraps or sales sheets still say "Google Guaranteed," it's time to update them.

Local Service Ads vs. Google Search Ads

Local Services Ads in Canada: A Short Timeline

Google first introduced Local Services Ads in Canada in Toronto and Vancouver in 2018, then extended the program across the country in early 2019, starting with plumbers, HVAC companies and locksmiths. The program has grown to cover many more categories since, and the last year brought the biggest changes since launch.

• October 20, 2025: Google Verified replaces Google Guaranteed, Google Screened and License Verified by Google.
• July 6, 2026: Google renames its Local Services platform policies to "Local Services Ads requirements", putting verification at the centre of eligibility.
• August 2026: Google begins moving Local Services Ads into the Google Ads interface as Performance Max campaigns built for pay-per-lead goals, starting with a limited group of U.S. advertisers.
• 2027: Non-U.S. accounts, including Canadian advertisers, are scheduled to follow.

Who Can Run Local Services Ads in Canada?

Google's screening requirements for Canada currently list these home service categories: appliance repair, carpet and upholstery cleaning, electricians, garage door services, house cleaning, HVAC, junk removal, lawn care, locksmiths, movers, pest control, plumbers, roofing, tree services, water damage services, window cleaning and window repair. Google's marketing materials mention other verticals as well, so use the eligibility check in Google's getting started guide for Canada before you plan around it.

On top of the right category, you need a public, verified Google Business Profile. If yours needs work, our Google Business Profile tips for the map pack are a good place to start.

What Google Verified Screening Involves

Screening is where most of the setup time goes, so it pays to have your documents ready before you start. Here's what Google lists for Canadian businesses:

• Background checks: a business check and an owner check, which Google lists for select users in Canada and the U.S., plus a business representative check.
• Service professional checks: electricians, garage door providers, HVAC companies, locksmiths and plumbers also need a service professional check. Google treats these as urgent categories with extra screening, and garage door and locksmith providers go through Advanced Verification as well.
• Insurance: general liability and professional liability for most categories. Tree service, water damage, window cleaning and window repair need public liability insurance instead.
• Licences: a business licence and an owner licence at the provincial or national level, where local law requires them.
• Timing: Google says the process takes about three to four weeks on average after you submit your documents.

Provincial Licences Google May Ask For

Google checks licences where local law requires them, which in Canada usually means provincial rules. These are the ones that come up most for the trades we work with:

• Electricians in Ontario: the Electrical Safety Authority says Licensed Electrical Contractors are, with certain exemptions, the only businesses legally authorized to do electrical work in Ontario, and it tells consumers to always ask for an ECRA/ESA licence number.
• HVAC and gas contractors in Ontario: most fuels regulations require contractors to be registered with the TSSA, with a separate registration for each fuels field, and the technicians they employ must hold the right certificates.
• Plumbers in Ontario: plumbing is a compulsory trade, so working plumbers need a certificate of qualification (or an approved training agreement) and must appear on Skilled Trades Ontario's public register.
• Contractors in Quebec: the Régie du bâtiment du Québec issues contractor licences and runs a public registry where customers can check them. If you advertise in Montreal, our Google Ads Montreal page covers the French-language rules too.

One practical tip: make sure the business name on your licence, your insurance certificate and your Google Business Profile all match. Google syncs your name and address from your Business Profile, and once LSAs move into Google Ads, significant name or address changes can trigger a 24 to 48 hour verification review that pauses your ads.

How Much Do Local Service Ads Cost in Canada?

Google doesn't publish a price list. According to Google, what you pay per lead varies by location, job type, lead type and bidding mode, and message leads are usually cheaper than phone leads. You set an average weekly budget, and your monthly maximum is that weekly budget multiplied by the average number of weeks in a month. Google's Local Services Ads page also has a budget calculator for estimates.

What you pay for, and what you don't, is spelled out more clearly:

Google also reassesses charged leads over 30 days and can automatically credit low-quality, duplicate or invalid leads. You can flag bad leads through lead feedback, but Google says it only occasionally credits reported leads, so don't count on disputes to fix a weak setup.

My advice: judge LSAs on cost per booked job, not cost per lead. An expensive lead that turns into a furnace replacement is cheap. A cheap lead from outside your service area is expensive. Track which leads book, and you'll know quickly whether LSAs deserve more budget than your search campaigns. For comparison, our Google Ads pricing breakdown covers typical click costs for regular search campaigns.

How Google Ranks Local Service Ads

Google lists the factors that affect Local Services Ads ranking:

• Your bid: the most you're willing to pay for a lead.
• Likelihood of a lead: how likely your ad is to produce one.
• Responsiveness: missed calls can hurt your ranking.
• Search context: the job being searched for, the time of the search and the location.
• Business relevance: how well your services and business bio match the search.
• Lead channels: turning on message and booking leads gives customers more ways to reach you.
• Profile quality: your rating, number of reviews, average response time and image quality.

Google recommends the Maximize Leads bid mode and says providers with similar quality and budgets who use it typically get more leads than those who don't.

What Actually Moves the Needle

Budget matters, but in my experience the trades that win with LSAs run them like a dispatch line, not an ad campaign:

• Answer the phone. If calls go to voicemail during the day, fix staffing or call forwarding before you raise your budget.
• Turn on messages and bookings so you can capture leads after hours.
• Ask every happy customer for a review. Rating and review count are part of profile quality.
• Set hours you can actually cover. Google warns that regularly missing calls or messages can affect your ranking.
• Only select the job types you want. If you don't do commercial roofing, don't pay for those leads.
• Keep your service area realistic. A crew based in Etobicoke might cover Mississauga, Oakville and the west end of Toronto. Chasing leads in Scarborough or Pickering means long drives and more missed calls.

Moving Into Google Ads in 2027: What Canadian Advertisers Should Do Now

Google has started migrating Local Services Ads into the main Google Ads interface, with non-U.S. accounts scheduled for 2027. Based on what Google has documented for the first U.S. wave, as reported by Search Engine Journal, here's what changes and how to prepare:

• Download your reports now. Historical LSA reports don't transfer.
• Expect daily budgets. Weekly average budgets become daily budgets.
• Plan for new bidding. Manual max cost-per-lead bidding goes away, and per-category target CPA is replaced by a single campaign-level target CPA.
• Learn Lead Manager. The separate LSA dashboard and inbox are retired, and leads are handled inside Google Ads.
• Replace BBB callouts. They're no longer supported, and Google recommends at least six alternative callouts.
• Watch for the notice. Admins get 14 days' notice before migration and a reminder 7 days later, and performance can take up to two weeks to settle.

The bigger shift is strategic. Once your LSA and search campaigns live in one account, budgets and conversion data sit side by side. That's good news if your call tracking and lead tracking are clean, and a real risk if they're not. If junk calls or fake form fills already muddy your data, read our guide to fake clicks on Google Ads before the migration lands.

Should You Run Local Service Ads, Search Ads or Both?

For most licensed trades, the answer is both. LSAs are hard to beat for "near me" and emergency searches from people ready to hire today. Search campaigns give you control over specific services, commercial work and offers that LSAs don't cover, plus ad copy you write yourself. We show how that split works for one trade in our guide to Google Ads for plumbers. Organic visibility in the map pack still matters too, which is where contractor SEO and HVAC SEO come in.

Little Dragon Media sets up and manages Local Services Ads alongside search campaigns for trades in Toronto, across the GTA and in cities like Calgary and Vancouver. If you want help getting verified, choosing job types or splitting budget between LSAs and search, our Google Ads management team can help. Contact us to book a call.

Amine Rahal

Tech Entrepreneur, Author, and CEO of Little Dragon Media. Passionate about entrepreneurship, philanthropy, digital marketing, blockchain, finance, investing, health fitness & nonprofits.