Your Google Local Services Ads (LSA) lead report is the single most useful document in the whole platform — and most home-service owners glance at the total charge and close it. That is a missed opportunity. Read properly, the report tells you which leads are worth money, which zip codes and hours are working, and where you are quietly paying for junk. This guide walks field by field, then turns it into a short weekly routine.
Where to find it
The lead report lives in your LSA account under the Leads view (web only — the standalone LSA mobile app was retired in January 2025). Each entry represents a lead Google billed you for: a qualifying phone call, a message, or a booking request. You can open any lead to see its details and give feedback.
The fields that matter, one by one
Lead type
Phone call, message, or booking. Phone leads are the majority for most trades. Message and booking leads often convert differently, so it is worth watching them separately rather than lumping everything together.
Job type / service
The category Google matched the search to. This is your first quality check: if you keep seeing job types you do not want, your service settings are too broad and you are paying for mismatched work.
Location
The lead's area, usually down to a zip or city. Over a few weeks this reveals which parts of your service area produce bookable jobs and which produce distance-heavy, low-margin, or no-show leads.
Time and date
When the lead came in. Cross-referenced with your booking outcomes, this shows whether after-hours leads convert for you or just pile up unanswered until morning.
Status and your feedback
You can mark a lead as booked, or flag it as invalid (wrong number, spam, not serviceable, wrong job type). Your feedback feeds Google's systems and, importantly, is how you flag leads for possible credit.
Charge
What that lead cost. Average cost per lead is often cited around $53 but ranges roughly $12–$180 by trade and metro, and it varies within your own account by job type — high-value emergency work costs more per lead than routine calls.
The three questions to answer every week
1. What share of leads were bookable?
Count how many leads were the right job type, in your area, and reachable, then divide by total leads. Industry estimates suggest roughly 45% of raw leads are unbookable, so do not be alarmed by a rate near half — be alarmed if it is trending down. A falling bookable rate is your earliest warning that targeting has drifted.
2. Which leads deserve a credit request?
Flag genuinely invalid leads — wrong service, outside your area, spam, duplicates. Since manual disputes ended in 2024, Google now assesses invalid-lead credits automatically (typically within about 72 hours, credited within roughly 30 days) and also runs a "Rate this lead" survey. Not everything qualifies — certain job-type and geo mismatches are not creditable, and healthcare and tax verticals are excluded — but recoverable spend is commonly estimated around 6–7%, so flagging accurately is real money back.
3. Where is the money actually working?
Tag booked leads and, ideally, the revenue they produced in your CRM or scheduling software. Then sort by zip code, job type, and time of day. You are looking for the pockets where spend turns into paying jobs so you can lean into them, and the pockets where it does not so you can cut back.
A simple weekly scorecard
| Metric | How to get it | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Leads billed | Report total | Sudden spikes with no revenue |
| Bookable rate | Bookable ÷ total | A downward trend |
| Leads flagged invalid | Your feedback | Recurring same-cause junk |
| Booked jobs | CRM tags | Rate slipping vs. prior weeks |
| Best / worst zips | Sort by location | Spend concentrated in weak areas |
Turning the read into action
- Bookable rate dropping? Tighten service types and check for a new mismatched job type showing up.
- Same junk repeating? Flag it consistently and, where it qualifies, let the credit system recover the spend.
- A weak zip eating budget? De-emphasize or exclude it and redirect toward the areas that book.
- After-hours leads dying? Add an instant auto-response so they do not go cold before you open.
The report is not homework — it is your steering wheel. Fifteen focused minutes a week is enough to keep spend pointed at bookable work instead of drifting toward noise.
Frequently asked questions
What should I look for in my Local Services Ads lead report?
Read it field by field: lead type, job type, location, time, your feedback status, and charge. Then answer three weekly questions: what share of leads were bookable, which leads deserve a credit request, and where the spend is actually turning into booked jobs.
What is a normal bookable rate for LSA leads?
Industry estimates suggest roughly 45 percent of raw leads are unbookable, so a rate near half is not alarming on its own. What matters is the trend; a falling bookable rate is an early warning that targeting has drifted.
How much does an LSA lead cost?
Average cost per lead is often cited around 53 dollars but ranges roughly 12 to 180 dollars by trade and metro, and it varies within your own account by job type, with high-value emergency work costing more per lead than routine calls.