Local Services Ads for home security companies: monitoring shoppers, existing customers and cost per funded account
Local Services Ads can bring home security companies homeowners asking about alarms and cameras, but only if the job types fit the systems you install, existing subscribers stop finding you through the paid listing, and every lead is followed to a funded, monitored account in SecurityTrax, AlarmBiller or SedonaOffice, matched by phone number and time.
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Symptoms
What LSA problems look like for home security companies
- 01
LSA says you bought plenty of leads. Your sales manager says most of them asked what monitoring costs a month, then went with a DIY kit or a national brand.
What it costs
You tune the listing toward the cheapest contacts, which in this trade are the monthly-price shoppers, while the households that sign a monitoring agreement come from somewhere you are not measuring.
What’s happening
Google charges for the contact, and in home security the first contact is very often a price check on the monthly fee. LSA has no idea whether a rep ever sat at the kitchen table, whether the credit check passed, or whether a system was installed.
- 02
A big share of the 'new leads' are your own subscribers calling about a false alarm, a beeping keypad or a camera that went offline.
What it costs
You pay lead prices for service calls you would have taken anyway, and the lead count makes LSA look busier than it is at finding new households.
What’s happening
Subscribers search your company name or 'alarm company' when something goes wrong, see the LSA listing first and tap call. Google does not charge again for the same number within 15 days of the last contact, but a subscriber whose last call was months ago is a new charged lead.
- 03
The account funded weeks after the install, and in SecurityTrax its source is blank or says 'phone'.
What it costs
LSA and your Search campaigns both claim the same subscriber, or neither does, and recurring monthly revenue never shows up next to the cost that produced it.
What’s happening
In this trade the sale happens in stages: lead, appointment, signed agreement, install, account created at the central station, funded. LSA leads carry no click ID, and SecurityTrax has no native web form that stores a source, so unless someone sets Google LSA on the lead and keeps it through to funding, the account belongs to no channel.
- 04
You keep paying for calls from businesses that want access control or a multi-camera system for a warehouse.
What it costs
A residential dealer pays full price for commercial calls it refers to an integrator, every month, with no credit path.
What’s happening
Google's LSA category is Home security; commercial security is not a separate listed category. If a job type that commercial callers match is switched on, the call is valid, and Google no longer credits leads for job types you do not service.
The goal
What a fixed LSA account looks like for home security companies
- Every LSA lead followed to an outcome: no appointment, appointment, signed, installed, funded, or a recorded reason.
- Cost per funded account and new monthly monitoring revenue from LSA, next to Search, from the dealer software rather than Google's lead count.
- Subscriber service calls flagged and kept out of new-lead figures, with the service number printed where subscribers actually look.
- Commercial and locked-panel job types switched off when you refer that work out.
- Dealer-program, locator and door-to-door leads on their own sources, so LSA is never credited with accounts it did not bring.
Eligibility
What Google checks before home security companies can run LSA
- 1Owner and business background checks, which Google applies to selected businesses in the Home security category.
- 2A state-level business license and an owner license for selected businesses. Many states license alarm companies and the people who install them, and some cities add their own permits, so check the rule for every place your techs install.
- 3Proof of general liability insurance for selected businesses, plus a business registration check and a business representative check.
- 4Make the legal name match everywhere. A dealer selling under a national brand still applies under its own legal entity, so the license, insurance certificate and Business Profile should all show the same name.
Screening for “Home security” · 2026-10-24
Job types
LSA job types for home security companies: what to switch on, what quietly costs money
Switch on
Home alarm system installation
The core sale: a new system with a monitoring agreement behind it. Keep it on, and judge it on funded accounts over a full month or two, never on one week of leads.
Security camera installation
Homeowners who want cameras installed and wired properly are usually past the DIY stage. Keep it on if your techs install cameras and you can offer video monitoring or cloud plans alongside them.
Video doorbell and smart lock installation
A smaller ticket that often becomes a full system once a rep is in the house. Keep it on if your platform supports these devices and the visit includes a security walk-through.
Monitoring takeover of an existing system
People who move into a house with a panel already on the wall, or who want to leave their current provider, need a dealer who can take over the equipment. Keep it on if your techs can reprogram common panels; these callers already have hardware and only need you.
Switch off, or check first
Commercial access control and multi-site video, if you are a residential dealer
A different buyer, a bid process and often a low-voltage integrator's licensing. Each call costs the same as a homeowner enquiry and Google does not credit job types you left on.
Fire alarm systems for commercial buildings, unless you are licensed and set up for them
Commercial fire alarm work carries inspection and code requirements a home security crew may not hold. A lead you cannot legally take is still a charged lead.
Repair of equipment you cannot take over
Some panels stay locked to the previous dealer's installer code. If your techs routinely leave these jobs without a takeover, those repair calls cost full price and rarely turn into a monitored account.
Bad leads
What a bad LSA lead looks like for home security companies
A subscriber of a national monitoring company looking for their own provider's support line.
Valid to Google, useless to you unless they want to switch. Ask in the first minute whether they are under contract, record the outcome, and offer a takeover only if they can leave.
A homeowner who wants the monthly price and nothing else.
A valid lead with a low close rate. Record it as price only so you can see whether it clusters in one job type or one time of day, and whether a booked in-home visit changes the result.
A lead seller, a dealer program recruiter or a door-to-door sales company offering accounts.
Rate it as low quality in the LSA inbox. Google can credit low-quality leads automatically after review.
Your own subscriber calling about a false alarm or a low battery months after the last contact.
A new charged lead once 15 days have passed since the last contact from that number. Put the customer service number on the keypad sticker, the app and every invoice, and flag subscriber calls in the monthly report so they never count as new business.
Ranking
What moves your LSA position as one of the home security companies in the auction
- 01
Responsiveness
Missed calls can hurt your ranking. Security demand jumps after a break-in on the street or a package-theft story on the neighborhood app, and the households calling that evening want an answer before the weekend.
- 02
Message and booking leads
Google says turning these on can help, especially outside business hours. Many security buyers prefer to message and compare quietly before talking to a rep; switch messages on only if someone replies the same evening.
- 03
Reviews
Rating and number of reviews count toward profile quality. Ask after the tech has armed the system with the homeowner and set up the app, when the household feels safer, not when the first bill arrives.
- 04
Profile completeness and photos
Google counts completed verification checks and high-quality images in profile quality. Show clean panel and camera installs without house numbers, faces or anything that reveals a customer's home.
- 05
Bid and budget
Google recommends Maximize Leads. Size the budget to the in-home appointments your reps can run, so the listing stays live into the evening, when most households have time to talk about security.
Free LSA + Business Profile lead audit
What the free audit covers for home security companies
- Eligibility for “Home security” and the Google Verified badge
- Job types: 4 to switch on, 3 to switch off or check
- Ranking: responsiveness and message and booking leads
- 4 bad-lead patterns, and how to log them
- Whether every lead reaches SecurityTrax, AlarmBiller or SedonaOffice
- Business Profile: “Security system installation service” category and suspension risk
How it works
- 1Pick a 30-min slot
- 2Live session with Ariful
- 3Written audit in 24 hours
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How we work
Getting LSA leads into SecurityTrax, AlarmBiller or SedonaOffice
- 1
What to record
A lead source of Google LSA on the lead record with the caller's phone number, kept through appointment, signed agreement, install and funding. SecurityTrax has no native web form, and SedonaOffice treats source as a picklist at best, so the source has to be entered on purpose at intake.
- 2
How to match
Match each charged lead to a lead record by phone number and call time, using the LSA inbox export or the Google Ads API. Then follow it through the stages the dealer software already tracks. Judge on the funded account, not the signed agreement, because credit declines and chargebacks mean some signed sales never fund.
- 3
Lead feedback
Rate unusable leads in the LSA inbox and keep the reason on the lead record: price only, existing subscriber, under contract elsewhere, commercial, lead seller. Keep leads from national dealer programs, the Alarm.com dealer locator and door-to-door reps on their own sources, so they never get counted as LSA.
- 4
Monthly check
Monthly for lead quality, and again once the accounts fund: compare LSA leads from a month or two back with the accounts they produced, and report cost per funded account and new monthly monitoring revenue by job type, next to the same figures for Search.
No accuracy guarantee here: we report the share of LSA leads for home security companies matched to jobs, and the share we could not match.
Channel split
LSA, Search ads and the Business Profile for home security companies
Home security splits between the household that calls the day after a break-in nearby and the one that researches for weeks. LSA catches the first kind well. Search lets you build pages for what researchers compare: camera systems, monitoring plans with and without a long contract, takeovers of an existing panel, and switching from another provider. Brand searches are where you lose money most quietly: subscribers and referrals who search your company name may call through the LSA listing, and you pay a lead fee for a household that was already yours. If you sell as an authorized dealer of a national brand, check your dealer agreement before you put the brand name in any ad.
- Local Services Ads
- New-household calls about alarms and cameras in the areas your installers cover, judged on funded accounts.
- Search ads
- Takeovers, camera systems and switch-from-a-competitor offers, each with its own landing page, plus brand-support negatives so you stop paying for other companies' customers.
- Business Profile
- Reviews and the number most subscribers look up. Track its calls separately, and keep service calls out of the lead count.
- Lead marketplaces and dealer locators
- Only where funded accounts justify the cost. A marketplace lead can be sold to several dealers, and locator referrals never touch your site or carry a click of yours.
Google Business Profile
The Business Profile side for home security companies
- Primary category
- Security system installation service
- Secondary
- Closed circuit television
- Suspension risk
- Moderate, higher for dealers using a national brand in the name. Authorized dealers often build the national brand into the profile name ('Brand Authorized Dealer of Springfield') or add 'Home Security Cameras' after the real name. Google's guidelines limit the name to the business's real-world name, and extra keywords or another company's brand are the edits that get profiles flagged. A second profile at a virtual office to reach another metro is the other common trigger.
- Address
- Most alarm dealers install from a warehouse or office customers never visit: hide the address and set the service area by city or ZIP code. A staffed showroom where customers can see equipment can show its address.
Honest fit check
When LSA is not worth it for home security companies
- Most of your growth comes from door-to-door teams or a national dealer program and you have no one to work inbound leads quickly. LSA buyers compare fast and go cold within days.
- You mainly sell commercial access control and video. LSA callers are homeowners.
- You cannot follow a lead past the appointment to funding. Without the funded account in the report, you will tune LSA toward the cheapest price-check calls.
FAQ
Questions home security companies ask about Local Services Ads
Is Local Services Ads worth it for home security companies?
It is worth it when cost per funded account, measured in your dealer software, beats your other sources once subscriber calls and price checks are taken out. Cost per lead looks good in this trade because so many leads are people asking about the monthly fee.
How do I check my LSA leads myself in ten minutes?
Export last month's charged leads and search ten of the phone numbers in SecurityTrax or your billing system. Count how many are existing subscribers, how many became appointments, and how many reached a funded account with an LSA source on the record.
How do I stop paying for my own subscribers calling the listing?
Make the service number easier to find than the listing: on the keypad, in the app, on invoices and on your website's support page. Google does not charge again for the same number within 15 days, but after that a subscriber's call is a new charged lead, so flag them monthly.
What does Google check before a home security company can run LSA?
For selected businesses, owner and business background checks, a business registration and representative check, general liability insurance, and state-level business and owner licenses where required. Every approved advertiser gets the Google Verified badge; the old money-back guarantee is discontinued.
Can LSA leads count as conversions for our Search campaigns?
No. LSA leads have no click ID, so they cannot be imported against Search clicks. Measure LSA by matching leads to funded accounts by phone and time, which we report as a matched share rather than an accuracy guarantee. Search leads, captured with the click on your own site, can send funded accounts back as offline conversions.
Free audit
A free LSA and Business Profile lead audit for home security companies
Job types, credits, reviews, and whether calls reach SecurityTrax, AlarmBiller or SedonaOffice. How we run Google Ads
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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
