Google Local Services Ads Now Charges for Missed Calls: What Contractors Should Do

Does Google charge for missed calls on Local Services Ads?

Yes. Google's Local Services Ads help page now lists a missed call as a valid, chargeable lead when it comes in during your business hours and the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds. Trade press reported that the change took effect on October 1, 2026, after Google notified advertisers in August. A call that rings out to voicemail or a recorded greeting counts too, whether or not the caller leaves a message.

For restoration and HVAC companies, that changes the math on every unanswered call from the ad. Before, a missed call cost you the job. Now it can cost you the job and the lead fee. This guide sets out exactly what Google charges for, using the wording on Google's own help page as checked on October 23, 2026, and the practical ways to stop paying for calls nobody picked up.

We build Botcadence, which sells an AI answering service for restoration and HVAC companies, so we have an interest in you answering more calls. The rules below are Google's, and every one links to the source.

The rule, case by case

Google's page, "How leads work," lists what counts as a valid lead and answers the edge cases in its FAQ. Here is each case in plain terms.

Two definitions decide most of this:

• "Business hours" are the hours in your Google Business Profile. Not the hours your office is staffed, and not the hours in your head. If your profile says 7 am to 7 pm, a missed call at 6:45 pm is chargeable.
• Leads are reviewed after the fact. Google says charged leads are reassessed by its models over 30 days, and low-quality ones get automatic credits (except in health care, tax and EMEA). You can also flag a poor lead in the feedback survey on the Leads page.

Why restoration and HVAC companies feel this more

Local Services Ads are built for trades, and trades are bad at answering phones during the day for a simple reason: the people who know the work are doing the work.

• The owner is on a roof or in a crawlspace. In a small shop, the business line often rings the owner's cell. On a job, it goes to voicemail.
• Lunch and the 4 pm rush. The office manager steps away, the line rolls to voicemail, and the caller holds through the greeting for 20 seconds.
• Storm days and heat waves. The days with the most ad calls are the days the team is busiest. Restoration companies get the surge after a freeze or a storm; HVAC companies get it in the first heat wave and the first cold snap.
• One line, one call at a time. While one call is being handled, the next caller from the ad hears a busy signal or voicemail.

None of these are new problems. What's new is that the voicemail now costs the lead fee as well as the job, because a homeowner with water coming through the ceiling or no heat at 6 pm rarely waits for a callback. They tap the next listing.

What missed calls could cost you

Your lead prices vary by market, job type and bidding mode, so use your own numbers from the LSA billing page. The arithmetic is simple:

Missed-call lead charges a month = missed business-hours calls that held more than 20 seconds × your average phone lead price.

As an illustration only: a shop that misses 15 such calls a month at a $100 average lead price pays $1,500 a month for calls it never spoke to. Some may be credited later as low quality, but a real homeowner who hung up after hearing voicemail is a valid lead by Google's definition.

To find your real number:

1. Open the Leads page in Google Ads and filter phone leads by "Charged."
2. Match them against your phone system's call log for missed and voicemail calls.
3. Count how many charged leads never reached a person.

To put a dollar figure on the jobs behind those calls, use the formula in what a missed call costs a restoration company.

Seven ways to stop paying for calls nobody answered

1. Make your profile hours match the hours someone actually answers

Google uses your Business Profile hours. If nobody answers after 4:30 pm but your profile says 6 pm, the last 90 minutes of every day are chargeable missed calls. Fixing the hours is the fastest change, but it's a trade-off: shorter listed hours can change when you appear as open. The better fix is to answer the hours you list.

2. Line up your ad schedule

If you run an ad schedule, unanswered calls are only charged when the schedule is active and it's within business hours. Make sure the ad isn't running in hours you can't cover.

3. Send unanswered calls to someone who answers

Most carriers and phone systems can forward a call that isn't picked up after a set number of rings to another number: an answering service, an AI receptionist or a second phone. An answered call is still a lead, but it's one you actually spoke to. Our call forwarding guide has the codes for T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T, landlines, RingCentral, Google Voice and the other common systems.

4. Don't let business-hours calls roll to voicemail

Under the new rule, voicemail during business hours is the worst outcome: you're charged if the caller holds for 20 seconds, and most homeowners with an emergency won't leave a message. If voicemail is your overflow, shorten the ring time and put an answering layer before it.

5. Think twice before adding a phone menu just for billing

A "press 1" menu means you aren't charged if the caller hangs up before pressing a key. But a menu also adds a step for a homeowner standing in water or sweating in a 90-degree house, and some of them will hang up. Use a menu only if it routes calls better, not to dodge the timer.

6. Answer the second call

Check whether your line can take a second call while the first one is in progress. If it can't, every busy moment sends ad callers to voicemail or a busy signal. Forwarding on busy to an answering layer closes that gap; ask any service how many calls it answers at once, and get the number in writing.

7. Review leads every week

Flag poor-quality leads in the feedback survey, and watch the "Credited" status on the Leads page. Google's automated credits catch spam and duplicates; your feedback helps with the rest. Put the count of charged-but-unanswered leads on your weekly scorecard; our restoration phone KPIs guide shows how, and the restoration response time guide covers how fast to call back.

What the person or AI answering should do with an LSA call

Answering is only half of it. The call should end with a booked inspection, a booked service call, or your on-call tech awake and calling back. Our free call scripts set out the questions in order, with Spanish versions:

• Restoration: the water damage intake call script and the storm damage intake call script
• HVAC: the HVAC emergency triage call script and the HVAC CSR booking call script

How Botcadence handles overflow and after-hours ad calls

Botcadence answers the calls your team doesn't, when you forward them on no-answer, on busy, after hours or 24/7:

• It answers on the first ring, up to your account's concurrent-call limit, instead of letting the call roll to voicemail.
• It runs your intake. Safety first, then the address, the problem and who can approve work, in English or Spanish.
• It ends with a next step. It books the inspection or service call into Google Calendar, or starts your on-call escalation, which texts and calls your team until someone replies.
• Price. It runs on the Voice AI plan, $299 a month with 1,500 minutes; see pricing.

See the AI receptionist for restoration and the AI receptionist for HVAC pages for what the agent asks and what it writes into your systems.