Local Services Ads are worth it when your cost per job won sits comfortably below your gross profit per job, and five checks tell you whether that's true for you.
Facts on this page were checked against Google's pages on 2026-09-30. The checks themselves are ours.
I'll state the interest up front: we don't run Local Services Ads for clients, so neither answer pays us. That makes this one of the few places you'll see "it depends" followed by the work to find out.
The migration is a natural time to ask. Google says your performance reports won't move to Google Ads, so the new campaign starts without that history. Whatever you decide, you'll want a baseline first, and the checks below produce one.
Check 1: does a job pay for its leads?
Start here, because every other check is moot if this one fails. Compute your cost per job won: lead spend divided by jobs won from those leads, over the trailing 90 days. Compare it with your gross profit per job, which is revenue minus the direct cost of doing the work. Our cost article has the formulas and a break-even calculation.
If your cost per job won is above your gross profit per job, you lose money on every customer the channel brings you, however busy the phone is. If it's only just below, overhead will eat the difference.
Check 2: how many leads do you reach and convert?
You pay for charged leads whether or not they become jobs, so the gap between leads charged and leads reached is money. Log every charged lead for a month: did you reach the customer, how fast, and did it become a job. A spreadsheet is enough.
This check is the one owners most often fail without knowing. A cost per lead that looks fine can hide a low reach rate, and the cost per job won check will expose it. If you aren't reaching most leads, the fix is a phone process.
Check 3: do you have capacity for more?
If your crew is booked three weeks out, more leads don't raise revenue. They raise cost. A channel that's worth it at your current volume can be a bad deal at double. Pausing is an option: Google says you can set the campaign to Paused on the Settings tab to "temporarily stop your ads and stop receiving leads," and to Enabled to resume.
Check 4: how many charged leads are real jobs?
Some charged leads will be wrong-service, wrong-area or not a buyer. Google's reports show "lead credits received," and its account features list lead credits for the US and Canada, so credits exist. Don't assume they cover your problem. Count the charged leads that fit a service you offer in an area you serve, and compare with the ones that became jobs.
If a large share of charged leads don't fit, check your categories and service areas before judging the channel. Google says your settings transfer automatically at migration, and a wrong category or area can follow you across. Our first-login checklist covers the settings to confirm.
Check 5: how much of your new business rests on this one channel?
If Local Services Ads bring most of your new customers, ask what happens if they stop, change or get more expensive, as well as whether they pay. Google is changing how these campaigns are built and managed, and the pay-per-lead model itself isn't going away. But a platform change can still cost you a month.
The hedge is a second source you own. A strong Google Business Profile shows you in Google Maps without an ad. We'd be misleading you if we said that replaces paid leads quickly: organic local visibility typically builds over months 3-6. That's a reason to start early.
How do you score it?
FIVE CHECKS (last 90 days)
1. Cost per job won < gross profit per job, with room [ ]
2. You reach and convert most charged leads [ ]
3. You have capacity for more jobs [ ]
4. Most charged leads fit your services and area [ ]
5. Another source could carry you for a month [ ]
Check 1 fails: stop. Fix the economics or drop the channel.
Check 2 or 4 fails: fix that first. The channel isn't the problem yet.
Check 3 fails: don't add spend.
Check 5 fails: not a reason to quit, but a reason to build a second source.
These are our judgment calls. No Google page publishes a pass mark, and we won't invent one.
Who shouldn't run this test?
A business with only a handful of Local Services leads a month. Ten leads can't separate a good channel from a lucky month, and a simple look at total spend against jobs won is enough.
If your answer comes out as yes, keep the campaign and save your reports before migration. If it comes out as no, the same reports show you what to stop paying for. For the wider channel question, our nine checks for Google Ads apply to click-based ads, and the migration overview covers what changes either way.