Two Google ads. Two completely different jobs.
Local Services Ads charge you per lead. Search Ads charge you per click. Confuse the two and you'll either cap your growth or torch your budget — especially in Florida, where demand arrives in spikes. Here's how each one actually works for a home-service business, and when to run which.
- 1LSA: pay only when you accept the leadThe green "Google Guaranteed" badge, above everything else on the page. You're charged per call or message — and you can dispute spam so you don't pay for it. Rank is driven by reviews, response speed and proximity, not bids alone.
- 2Search: pay per click, control everythingYou choose the exact searches ("roof leak repair miami"), write the ad, and send the click to a landing page built to convert. Costlier per lead at first — then it compounds as the account learns what books jobs.
- 3Florida runs on demand spikesStorm season, heat waves, hurricane prep. LSA can't surge with demand — Search can. The right setup uses LSA as the floor and Search as the throttle.
Where each one wins.
LSA wins on risk
No accepted lead, no charge. Google screens your license and insurance for the badge — which itself converts, because homeowners recognize the checkmark. For emergency intents ("AC not cooling", "water heater leaking") LSA is often the first thing tapped, straight from the top of the page. The catch: volume is capped by your reviews, your response speed, and how many competitors share your area.
Search wins on control & scale
Every high-value project search — "impact windows cost", "tile roof replacement", "panel upgrade" — is biddable. You control the message, the offer, and the landing page that turns the click into a quote request. Negative keywords cut waste week over week. When you want more jobs, you raise the budget; there's no review-count ceiling.
Florida timing decides the mix
After a named storm, roofing searches in the tri-county can 10x in a week. LSA budgets evaporate by 9am and rank still favors whoever answers fastest. A pre-built Search campaign you can surge — with a storm-specific landing page — is how you own those weeks instead of watching them happen. In slow season, LSA's pay-per-lead floor keeps cost from idling away.
Same $2,000. Two ways to spend it.
Typical tri-county ranges for an established home-service company:
The napkin math
Illustrative mid-ranges, not quotes:
LSA's number depends on your review count — which is why the Google Business Profile work comes first. Search's number depends on the landing page — a tuned page can halve cost per lead with the same spend.
Questions Florida home-service owners ask.
What's the main difference between Local Services Ads and Search Ads?
LSA charges you per lead — a real call or message you can accept or dispute — and ranks you mostly on reviews and responsiveness. Search Ads charge per click, whether or not that click ever contacts you, but give you full control over keywords, ad copy and the landing page. LSA is a lead faucet; Search is a traffic engine you have to convert.
Which is cheaper in Florida for home services?
Per booked job, LSA usually wins early: you only pay for accepted leads, and Florida's dispute process filters spam. But LSA volume is capped by your review count and area. Search Ads cost more per lead at first, then get cheaper as landing pages and negative keywords are tuned — and they can scale far past what LSA will give you.
Why does Florida make this decision different?
Demand here spikes — storm season for roofers, summer heat for HVAC, king tides for waterproofing. LSA budgets get consumed instantly during spikes and Google favors profiles that answer fast. Search Ads let you bid up exactly when a storm hits and bid down in slow weeks. The combo covers both behaviors.
Should a home-service company run both at once?
Once you can handle the volume, yes. LSA is your floor — cheap, screened, pay-per-lead. Search is your scale — targeted, controllable, unlimited. We typically start clients on LSA plus one tightly-built Search campaign for their highest-value service, then expand what the numbers justify.
Not sure which one your business needs first?
The free audit looks at your reviews, your service area, your season and your current spend — and tells you LSA, Search, or the split, with the math. In writing, within 24 hours.
No card. No contract. Takes one phone call.