Disputing bad Local Services Ads leads

How the process works today

Many contractors remember a manual dispute button for each bad lead. Google has since moved Local Services Ads to automated lead credits. Its help pages say that Google's automated systems proactively filter out invalid activity such as spam or duplicate contacts, that Google continuously assesses lead quality over a 30-day period, and that charged leads may be issued credits automatically if determined to be low quality^[2].

Credits are applied to your account balance within 30 days, and the original lead charge still appears on your invoice^[1]. That last detail confuses many owners: an invoice that shows a charge for a spam call does not mean the call was not credited. You have to check the credits separately.

Which bad leads get credited, and which do not

The two rows that matter most are the ones Google no longer credits. Google states that it no longer supports credits for 'job type not serviced' and 'geo not serviced' leads^[1]. If your settings allow a job type or area, Google treats those leads as yours to pay for. Most of the money contractors lose on LSA leads is now lost in the settings, not in disputes.

Set up your account so fewer bad leads arrive

1. 01

   Audit job types

   Open your job type settings and turn off every service you do not want, including small jobs you would rather refer out.

2. 02

   Tighten service areas

   Limit areas to ZIP codes your trucks reach profitably. A wider area adds leads you cannot serve and cannot get credited.

3. 03

   Match ad hours to answering

   Run ads only when calls are answered. Unanswered calls rarely book, and calling back is harder than it sounds: eight in ten Americans say they don't generally answer their cellphone when an unknown number calls^[3].

4. 04

   Write a clear business bio

   State the services and areas you cover in plain words so customers can see quickly whether you fit.

5. 05

   Review weekly at first

   In the first month, check every lead each week and adjust settings as soon as a pattern appears.

Giving feedback on a poor lead

For leads that slip through, Google's help page says you can let it know in the Feedback Survey for that lead, and that it may occasionally credit leads you report as poor quality through this survey^[2]. Treat feedback as a record, not a guaranteed refund. Keep it short and factual.

• Spam or robocall: say it was an automated or sales call with no service request.
• Solicitation: say the caller was selling a product or service to the business.
• Wrong business: say the caller was looking for a different company by name.
• Job seeker: say the caller asked about employment, not a service.
• Duplicate: say it was the same customer and issue as an earlier lead, with the date.

For billing errors, rather than lead quality, Google's credit help page links to a separate article on disputing charges. Use that route for invoice mistakes, and keep your lead log ready as evidence.

Track every lead yourself

You cannot reconcile what you do not record. A simple log, kept by whoever answers the phone, lets you match leads to invoices and credits and see which job types are worth the money. It also shows how quickly you respond, which matters. Firms that tried to contact web leads within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify them as firms that waited even an hour longer^[4], yet in the same audit of US companies' web-lead handling, 37% responded within an hour, 24% took more than 24 hours and 23% never responded^[5].

• Date and time of the lead, and whether it was a call or a message.
• Caller name and number, as shown in the LSA inbox.
• Job type requested and address or ZIP code.
• Outcome: booked, quoted, not booked, spam, out of area, job type not offered, duplicate.
• Feedback left in the survey, if any.
• Credit seen on the account, with the date.

A monthly reconciliation routine

1. Export the month's charged leads from the account.
2. Match each one against your log by date, time and phone number.
3. Flag leads your log marks as spam, duplicate or solicitation, and check whether a credit appears within 30 days.
4. Count leads marked out of area or job type not offered, and fix the settings that allowed them.
5. Calculate cost per booked job by job type, using charges minus credits.
6. Decide one change for next month: a job type to drop, an area to trim, or more budget where bookings are strong.

Train whoever answers the phone

Lead quality records are only as good as the person filling them in. Give your office staff, or whoever covers the phones, a short routine for every LSA call:

• Identify the call source. If you use a dedicated number or the LSA inbox, staff should know which calls came from the ads.
• Qualify in the first minute: what service, what address, how urgent. That is enough to classify the lead.
• End spam and sales calls politely and quickly, and mark them straight away in the log.
• For out-of-area callers, say so kindly and, if you have one, give the number of a trusted partner.
• Never mark a real customer as spam because they did not book. Honest records are what make your reconciliation credible.

A two-minute review at the end of each day, checking that every lead has an outcome, keeps the log complete without becoming a chore.

Signs your lead quality is under control

• Out-of-area and wrong-job-type leads are rare, because settings match where you work and what you do.
• Spam and duplicates are mostly credited within the month.
• Your missed-call count during ad hours is close to zero.
• Cost per booked job is stable or falling by job type.
• You can explain every charge on the invoice from your own log.

If two or more of these are not true, fix settings and answering before raising the budget.

Example: a garage door company's reconciliation

Example (fictional): a garage door company reviews a month with 70 charged leads. Its log marks 6 as spam or solicitation, 3 as duplicates, 5 as gate repairs it does not do and 4 as outside its area. Credits appear for the spam and duplicates within the month. The gate repair and out-of-area leads are not credited.

Example: the owner removes the gate repair job type and trims two ZIP codes on the edge of the area. The next month, charged leads fall to 61 but booked jobs stay the same, so cost per booked job drops. The office keeps logging every lead and checks credits at the end of each month.

When LSA leads keep disappointing

Before you give up on the channel, check three things in order. First, settings: are job types and service areas as narrow as your real business? Second, answering: are calls picked up live during every ad hour, including lunch and late afternoon, when office staff are often stretched? Third, the booking conversation: are callers offered a specific appointment, or told someone will call them back? Most disappointing LSA accounts fail on one of these, not on the leads themselves.

If settings are tight, calls are answered and leads still do not book, compare LSA with other channels before adding budget. Our comparison with Google Search Ads and the Search Ads setup checklist cover the main alternatives, and the LSA guide covers ranking and screening.