Local Services Ads: What’s Changing and How to Measure Calls That Drive Results
For many local businesses, the key customer moment is not a click—it’s the call that follows.
Google’s Local Services Ads are designed to connect businesses with people searching for relevant services in their area. The record of the resulting conversation can help reveal whether or not that inquiry is a qualified opportunity and what happens next. For example, a homeowner needing an emergency plumber may call rather than browse a website, making the record of that conversation a key indicator of intent and lead quality.
In this article, we’ll cover the migration of Local Service Ads into Performance Max, best practices for measuring ad performance, and insights from 170,000 calls generated by Local Service Ads.
The Local Service Ads migration raises the stakes for call measurement
Google is now moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads as specialized Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. Google’s Lead Manager is expected to replace the standalone dashboard, and automated bidding is expected to replace manual bidding and category-level cost-per-lead caps.
From call attribution to lead quality
Basic reporting in Performance Max shows call duration and connection status, but those don’t necessarily indicate call quality. A short call may book an appointment, while a long one may be unrelated.
A conversation analytics provider like Marchex can help link tracked calls to their Google LSA campaign source and leverage conversation intelligence to help businesses understand call quality, call outcomes, and where callers may drop off.
A practical call measurement framework
You can follow each call from source to outcome as follows:
- Capture the source. Record the campaign or source information available through the Marchex call tracking setup.
- Classify the conversation outcome. Separate service inquiries from wrong numbers, spam, sales calls, and out-of-area callers.
- Connect the result. When CRM or sales data is connected to Marchex, match tracked calls with recorded appointments and sales.
This approach can give marketing and operations a shared view: which ads attract the right prospects and where missed calls, routing problems, or stalled conversations block progress.
What 170,000 Calls Reveal About Missed Opportunities
To understand the potential impact of Google’s updates to Local Services Ads, Marchex analyzed approximately 170,000 calls attributed to Local Services Ads since October 1st.
In this analysis, 6.2% of calls failed to connect the caller with the business, among those failed calls:
- 51.1% were abandoned while the caller was on hold
- 30.1% were abandoned after reaching voicemail
- 9.5% were abandoned during a transfer
- 6.3% encountered a full voicemail box
- 3.1% were abandoned within an interactive voice response system
The largest share involved callers who disconnected while on hold. These findings show several points where callers stopped progressing through the phone system.
Businesses can use an analogous breakdown for their own LSA-driven calls to review hold queues, transfer procedures, voicemail capacity, and IVR menus. These classifications do not establish whether or not Google charged for individual leads.
Business Profile Accuracy Matters
The analysis also uncovered another important issue. An additional 2.6% of calls involved a product or service the business did not provide or came from a caller outside its service area.
Of those calls:
- 96% were for a service the business did not offer
- 4% originated outside the business service area
Google may still bill businesses for these calls, depending on its applicable billing policies. It may issue automatic credits for eligible poor-quality leads but no longer supports credits for ‘job type not serviced’ or ‘geo not serviced’ leads. Businesses should therefore make sure that their Google Business Profile and Local Services Ads settings clearly and accurately describe the services they provide and the geographic areas they serve.
Keeping this information current can help set clearer expectations, improve lead quality, and reduce calls from consumers the business cannot serve.
Key takeaways
Google’s Local Services Ads can generate valuable phone leads, but generating the call is only the beginning. Businesses also need the right phone processes and accurate profile information to turn those calls into meaningful customer conversations. Marchex conversation intelligence and call analytics can help businesses identify where callers are being lost, understand why leads may not be converting, and prioritize improvements that protect their advertising investment.
To learn more about optimizing your Local Service Ads, contact us.