What a Google Local Services lead actually costs — trade by trade.
Local Services Ads are the listings at the very top of Google with the green Google Guaranteed checkmark — and unlike regular ads, you pay per lead, not per click. Here are the real per-lead ranges we see across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, what moves your number inside that range, and how to budget so the math works before you spend a dollar.
- 1You pay per phone call, not per clickA click that doesn't call you costs nothing. A lead that turns out to be spam, a solicitor, or outside your service area can be disputed for credit. That's why LSA is usually the first channel we turn on for a contractor.
- 2The range is wide — and your profile decides where you landTwo roofers in the same city can pay $95 and $170 for the same kind of lead. Reviews, answer speed, and profile completeness decide who gets shown more and pays less. We covered the mechanics in our Guides GBP case study.
- 3Budget for leads per month, not dollars per dayWork backwards: how many booked jobs do you want, what's your close rate, and what does a lead cost in your trade? That gives you a budget that's built on math instead of a guess.
Typical cost per LSA lead in the tri-county market.
These are the same ranges we publish on our trade pages — typical Miami-Dade / Broward / Palm Beach numbers, not promises. Where you land inside the range depends on your profile strength and how fast you answer.
| Trade | Typical cost per lead | Leads from a $3,000/mo budget |
|---|---|---|
| Roofing | $90–$180 | ~17–33 |
| HVAC | $50–$120 | ~25–60 |
| Plumbing | $40–$100 | ~30–75 |
| Electrical | $30–$80 | ~37–100 |
What actually moves your cost per lead.
LSA has no keywords to bid on and no ad copy to write. Google ranks you on signals about your business — which means the levers are yours, not your agency's secret sauce.
Reviews decide how often you're shown
Review count and rating are explicit LSA ranking inputs. A contractor at 12 reviews gets served less than one at 100+, which means fewer leads from the same budget — the same money buys less. Building review flow into your job process is the single cheapest way to lower your effective cost per lead.
Answer speed is a ranking signal
Google tracks whether you pick up. Missed calls and slow responses push your ranking down — and every missed call is a lead you paid for and threw away. If nobody can answer during work hours, fix that before you fund the ads; it's why we wire missed-call text-back into every LSA client.
Your profile is the campaign
Service list, service area, business hours, photos, license and insurance verification — completeness feeds how many search types Google matches you to. This is the same profile work that powers the map pack, so it pays twice. It's included in our Google Ads management because LSA doesn't perform without it.
Budgeting backwards from booked jobs.
A worked example for a South Florida roofer who wants 4 extra booked jobs a month:
The napkin math
Using mid-range numbers:
Worked example from the published ranges above, not a client's books. If an average roofing job is worth $8,000+, four booked jobs against a $2,700 spend is the whole argument. Your free audit runs this math with your close rate and your ticket sizes.
Questions contractors ask about this.
How much does a Google Local Services Ads lead cost in South Florida?
Typical per-lead ranges in the Miami-Dade/Broward/Palm Beach market: roofing $90–$180, HVAC $50–$120, plumbing $40–$100, electrical $30–$80. You only pay when a real customer calls or messages — not per click — and leads that turn out to be spam or the wrong service can be disputed for credit.
What's the minimum budget to run Local Services Ads?
Google lets you set a weekly budget as low as a few leads' worth, but in practice a contractor needs enough budget for roughly 15–25 leads a month to get reliable data and keep Google serving the ad consistently. For a South Florida roofer that's usually $2,000–$3,500/month; for an electrician it can be under $1,500.
What makes my cost per lead go up or down on LSA?
Three things you control: your review count and rating (weak profiles are shown less), how fast you answer the phone (missed and slow-answered calls lower your ranking), and how complete your profile and service list are. The ads themselves have no keywords or ad copy to tune — the profile is the campaign.
Are Local Services Ads better than regular Google Search ads?
They do different jobs. LSA is pay-per-lead, sits at the very top, and carries the Google Guaranteed badge — best for direct 'need it now' calls. Search ads are pay-per-click and can capture searches LSA doesn't serve, like specific services and neighborhoods. Most of our clients run LSA first, then add Search once LSA is full.
Find out what your leads should cost.
The free audit benchmarks your trade's lead costs in your city, reviews your profile against the three competitors outranking you, and gives you the budget math in writing — within 24 hours.
No card. No contract. Takes one phone call.