Local Services Ads for general contractors: project types, tire-kickers and cost per signed contract
Local Services Ads can bring a general contractor homeowners ready to talk about a remodel, but it charges per call while contracts sign months later. It pays when small-job types are off, someone off the job site answers, and each lead is matched by phone and time to a signed proposal in Buildertrend, JobTread or Houzz Pro.
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Symptoms
What LSA problems look like for general contractors
- 01
LSA shows a steady run of leads every month. Buildertrend shows almost none of them ever reached a signed proposal.
What it costs
You judge the channel on cost per lead, which in contracting rewards the calls that are cheapest to get and least likely to sign, and the budget grows on leads that never turn into a job number.
What’s happening
LSA charges when the homeowner makes contact. A remodel sells after a site walk, a design conversation, an estimate, often a revision, and a proposal the client signs weeks later. The listing sees the first call and nothing after it, so it cannot tell a kitchen gut from a caller who wanted a ballpark.
- 02
The phone rings about hanging a door, patching drywall or replacing a rotten deck board, and you want kitchens, baths and additions.
What it costs
Each small-job call costs the same lead fee as an addition enquiry, and someone still has to call back and say no. Over a season that is a steady charge for work your crews will never schedule.
What’s happening
To a homeowner, 'general contractor' means anyone who fixes things. Every project type switched on in your profile makes those calls valid leads, and Google no longer credits leads for job types you do not service. If small repair work is on, the caller with a sticking door is a charged lead.
- 03
LSA calls turn into site walks that eat your afternoons and end with 'we're getting a few more bids'.
What it costs
The real cost of an LSA lead in contracting is the fee plus an estimator's afternoon. Without the outcome on the lead record, the listing looks cheap while the estimating hours quietly pay for it.
What’s happening
Remodel shoppers often call several contractors from the same results page and collect estimates. The lead was valid when the call connected; whether the visit was worth your drive is something only your CRM can record.
- 04
A client months into a remodel calls the listing number about a change order, and it shows up as a new charged lead.
What it costs
You pay lead prices to talk to people who already signed, and those charges inflate the leads-per-month figure you use to judge the channel.
What’s happening
Google does not charge again for contact from the same number within 15 days. A remodel runs far longer than that, and clients who first found you through LSA often keep the listing number in their phone. Once the gap passes 15 days, the next call can be charged as a new lead.
The goal
What a fixed LSA account looks like for general contractors
- Every charged LSA lead has an outcome in the CRM: no site walk, site walk, proposal sent, signed, or declined with a reason.
- Cost per signed contract and average contract value by project type, for LSA and Search side by side, judged over a full sales cycle.
- Small-repair and sub-out job types switched off, so the listing stops charging for work you refer away.
- LSA calls answered off the job site during listing hours, and current clients given the office number so mid-project calls stop being charged.
Eligibility
What Google checks before general contractors can run LSA
- 1Owner and business background checks. Google lists these for the General contractor category, applied to selected advertisers.
- 2A state-level business license and an owner license where local law requires them. General contractor licensing is set state by state and sometimes by city or county, so confirm which license class your state expects for the work you list before you apply.
- 3Proof of general liability insurance, applied to selected advertisers.
- 4A business registration check and a business representative check for selected advertisers, plus a public, verified Google Business Profile, which every Local Services advertiser needs.
Screening for “General contractor” · 2026-10-24
Job types
LSA job types for general contractors: what to switch on, what quietly costs money
Switch on
Kitchen remodeling
The project most homeowners mean when they call a general contractor, and usually the largest ticket you can win from a phone call. Keep it on and judge it on signed proposals over a full sales cycle.
Bathroom remodeling
Shorter projects than kitchens with steady demand, and a good finished bath produces the photos and reviews that help the listing. Keep it on if your license covers the plumbing and tile work your state attaches to it.
Home additions and structural changes
Fewer callers and the biggest contracts. These homeowners usually need permits, drawings and an engineer, so the first call is a qualification conversation; keep it on if you run design and permitting yourself.
Whole-home and interior renovation
Buyers of older houses call before they move in and want one contractor to coordinate trades. That coordination is exactly what a general contractor sells, and it rarely suits a handyman.
Basement finishing, where you build them
A planned project with a defined scope and a homeowner who has usually already decided to spend. Worth having on in markets where basements are common.
Switch off, or check first
Small repairs and handyman-type work, unless you staff for it
Door, drywall, trim and minor carpentry calls are charged at the same lead fee as an addition, and Google does not credit job types you left switched on.
Single-trade jobs you would sub out: roofing, HVAC, electrical service, driveways
Callers who want a roofer or an electrician expect a specialist, not a markup. You pay full price to refer the work or to bid it at a disadvantage.
New custom home construction, if you are a remodeler
A custom build involves a lot, an architect, a construction loan and months of design. Homeowners at that stage call builders; if you do not build from the ground up, every one of these calls is paid and declined.
Commercial tenant build-outs, if your crews work in homes
Property managers and business owners expect bid packages, insurance certificates and schedules that a residential team is not set up to produce. LSA callers in this category are usually homeowners anyway.
Bad leads
What a bad LSA lead looks like for general contractors
Subcontractors, suppliers and material reps calling the listing to ask for work or pitch products.
A pattern almost unique to general contractors, because subs look for GCs the same way homeowners do. Rate it as low quality in the LSA inbox; Google can credit low-quality leads automatically.
A homeowner who wants a price for a kitchen over the phone and is collecting bids from every contractor on the page.
Valid to Google and not always a waste. Record whether a site walk happened and why it did not sign, so you can see whether ballpark callers cluster in one project type or one part of your area.
An insurance repair job after a fire or water loss, where the carrier's managed-repair network decides who does the work.
Ask at intake whether the insurer has already assigned a contractor. If insurance work is not your business, record the reason and do not send an estimator.
Someone who needs plans drawn or a permit pulled and nothing built yet.
Early-stage, sometimes months from a contract. Keep the contact with its LSA source, because the project may come back to you after the architect, and the match back to the lead only works if the number is on the record.
Ranking
What moves your LSA position as one of the general contractors in the auction
- 01
Answering the phone
Missed calls can lower your ranking. Most general contractors take calls on a job site with a saw running, so route LSA calls to the office, a project coordinator or an answering service during the hours the listing runs.
- 02
Reviews
Rating and number of reviews count toward profile quality. Remodel clients are happiest at the final walk-through after the punch list is closed; ask then, not when the last invoice goes out.
- 03
Project photos
Google counts high-quality images in profile quality. Finished kitchens and baths from your own jobs, shot before the client moves furniture back in, fit that far better than renderings or stock photos.
- 04
Bid and budget
Google recommends Maximize Leads. Contractor lead volume is lumpy, so size the budget to the number of site walks your estimators can actually run, not to the most leads it can buy.
- 05
Service area
The location decides which providers are eligible. Draw the area around the towns where you will run a multi-month project, which is usually tighter than where you would drive for a single visit.
Free LSA + Business Profile lead audit
What the free audit covers for general contractors
- Eligibility for “General contractor” and the Google Verified badge
- Job types: 5 to switch on, 4 to switch off or check
- Ranking: answering the phone and reviews
- 4 bad-lead patterns, and how to log them
- Whether every lead reaches Buildertrend, JobTread or Houzz Pro
- Business Profile: “General contractor” category and suspension risk
How it works
- 1Pick a 30-min slot
- 2Live session with Ariful
- 3Written audit in 24 hours
Free30 minutesNo obligation
How we work
Getting LSA leads into Buildertrend, JobTread or Houzz Pro
- 1
What to record
A lead source of Google LSA on the lead or opportunity when the site walk is booked, with the caller's phone number, kept on the record through proposal and signed contract.
- 2
How to match
Match each charged lead to a CRM lead by phone number and call time, within a window you agree in advance, using the lead list from the LSA inbox or the Google Ads API. Then follow it through the stages you already use: site walk, estimate, proposal sent, proposal accepted. In Buildertrend the accepted proposal becomes the job; in JobTread it is the approved document. Message leads arrive through proxy numbers and email aliases, so ask for the homeowner's real number when you reply.
- 3
Lead feedback
Rate unusable leads in the LSA inbox and keep the same reason on the CRM lead: small job, out of area, insurance-assigned, plans only, bid shopping. The CRM is where a remodel sale actually ends; the inbox rating is the only part Google sees.
- 4
Monthly check
Quarterly for contracts, monthly for lead quality. Count LSA leads from a quarter ago against the proposals they produced, by project type, with contract value. Keep Houzz and Angi leads on their own rows, because they arrive inside those platforms rather than through your phone and are easy to lump in with LSA.
No accuracy guarantee here: we report the share of LSA leads for general contractors matched to jobs, and the share we could not match.
Channel split
LSA, Search ads and the Business Profile for general contractors
For a general contractor, LSA catches the homeowner who has decided to do the project and wants to talk to someone now. Search ads suit the homeowner still researching a kitchen or an addition: a landing page with your portfolio, a project form that keeps the click ID, and signed contracts imported back with their value. Houzz is where many remodel clients browse portfolios first, and brand searches are where the money leaks: a homeowner who saw your work on Houzz or on a neighbor's house, then searches your company name and calls through the LSA listing, costs a lead fee for a client who was already coming to you.
- Local Services Ads
- Kitchen, bath and renovation calls in the towns you build in, judged on signed proposals per lead.
- Search ads
- Additions, whole-home renovations and other high-value project types with their own pages, with signed contracts imported as offline conversions.
- Business Profile
- Reviews and project photos every remodel client checks before a site walk. Track its calls on their own.
- Houzz, Angi and referral directories
- Only where your CRM shows signed contracts at a cost you accept. These leads have no click ID and should never be uploaded to Google as ad conversions.
Google Business Profile
The Business Profile side for general contractors
- Primary category
- General contractor
- Secondary
- Remodeler, Construction company
- Suspension risk
- Moderate, higher for home-based contractors with multi-town ambitions. Many general contractors run the business from a home office or a truck, and the temptation is to list a supply yard, a shared office or a separate profile for each town in the service area. Those are the patterns Google's address rules exclude, and a business name padded with 'Kitchen Remodeling and Additions' invites the same scrutiny.
- Address
- Most general contractors meet clients at the client's house: run a service-area profile with the address hidden and list the towns you build in. A design center or showroom with staffed hours can show its address.
Honest fit check
When LSA is not worth it for general contractors
- Your calendar is booked well into next season. LSA callers usually want to start soon, and a homeowner told to wait calls the next listing after you have paid for the lead.
- You only want architect-designed custom homes or very large additions. Those clients come through architects, designers and past clients far more than through a phone listing.
- Nobody can answer while you are on site and you will not pay for an answering service. Missed calls hurt the ranking and are still charged once the caller holds on.
- Your license does not match what your state requires for the work you would list. Sort that out first; screening checks licenses where local law requires them.
FAQ
Questions general contractors ask about Local Services Ads
Is Local Services Ads worth it for general contractors?
It is worth it when the leads it brings sign proposals at a cost per contract you would pay again, measured in your own CRM over a full sales cycle. Cost per lead tells you almost nothing in remodeling, where one signed kitchen can outweigh a season of cheap calls.
How do I stop getting handyman calls from LSA?
Switch off the small-repair and single-trade job types in your profile. Google no longer credits leads for job types you do not service, so a disputed drywall call will not come back to you; the setting is the fix.
What does Google check before a general contractor can run LSA?
For the General contractor category Google lists owner and business checks, a state-level business license and owner license where local law requires them, general liability insurance, and business registration and representative checks, applied to selected advertisers. You also need a public, verified Business Profile. Approved advertisers get the Google Verified badge.
How do I track LSA leads in Buildertrend or JobTread?
Set Google LSA as the lead source when the site walk is booked, keep the caller's number on the record, and match the LSA lead list to CRM leads by phone and call time. LSA leads have no click ID, so this is a match, not an import, and we report the matched share rather than promise an accuracy figure.
A contract signed months after the call. Which month does it count in?
Count it against the month the lead arrived. Judged by signing month, LSA looks expensive in the months you raise the budget and cheap months later, which leads to cutting it at the wrong time.
Free audit
A free LSA and Business Profile lead audit for general contractors
Job types, credits, reviews, and whether calls reach Buildertrend, JobTread or Houzz Pro. How we run Google Ads
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- 300+ clients1,000+ projects
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Sources, checked October 24, 2026
- Google: Getting started with Local Services Ads (US category list)
- Google: Business screening and verification requirements
- Google: About the Google Verified badge
- Google: How leads work (charged and uncharged leads)
- Google: About automated Local Services Ads lead credits
- Google: About Local Services Ads rankings
