Look for four things before signing with a Local Services Ads (LSA) agency: ownership of your accounts and data stays with you, the agency can explain LSA-specific verification, the scope and reporting are defined in writing, and the exit terms are reasonable. Use the sections below to check each one, along with the warning signs.
Start with how LSAs work
Ask the agency to describe, step by step, how it would set up and manage your campaign. Write down the answers and compare them across providers before you choose one.
Questions that test LSA knowledge
- Ask: Who handles verification paperwork, such as license and insurance uploads, and who responds if something lapses?
- Ask: How are invalid or unwanted leads disputed, and who files the disputes?
- Ask: How many LSA accounts do you manage right now, in my trade or a similar one?
- Ask: Which named people will work on my account, and what training do they personally hold?
- Check: Does the answer mention reviews, call handling, and service area, or only bids and budgets?
Confirm billing rules directly in your own LSA account and in Google's official notices before relying on an agency's description of them.
Listen for operational dependencies
Listen for specifics about what the agency needs from your team. Ask what call-answering expectations they set, how they plan to help you request reviews after jobs, and how they would handle a change in your service area. Write down the answers and compare them across the agencies you interview.
- Ask: What would you need from my office staff in the first weeks?
- Ask: What do you do when a lead is a wrong number, a vendor, or outside my area?
- Ask: What would make you recommend pausing the account?
Contract terms that protect you
Ownership and access
Stackmatix puts commingled ad accounts first among its red flags, saying that if the agency owns your Google or Meta account, leaving means losing your history and optimization, in its marketing agency red flags article.
Be Seen Contractors, which writes for home-service businesses, similarly lists an agency owning your website and refusing to hand over access as a red flag, in its contractor guide.
- Write into the contract that your business owns the LSA profile and has administrator access.
- Ask for the same treatment of tracking numbers, call recordings, and lead data, and have a lawyer check recording consent rules in your state.
- Confirm the agency will not mix your account or data with other clients.
Term length and exit
RG Digital Marketing flags agency contracts requiring 12 or more months with early-exit penalties for paid search or social management, describing them as a lock-in structure rather than a service structure, in its questions-to-ask guide.
Stackmatix recommends a contract that allows 30-day termination notice and spells out deliverables and a performance review clause, in the same red flags article.
Ask what happens to your account, data, and creative assets on the day you leave, and get the answer in writing. Compare the notice period, the penalty language, and the handover steps across the proposals you receive.
Scope, reporting, and guarantees
Reporting you can verify
Decide up front which records count as the source of truth, such as your LSA account, your phone system, and your CRM. Ask the agency to show a sample report and explain how each number ties back to those records.
RG Digital Marketing advises agreeing on which KPIs you will be measured on, such as cost per qualified lead, rather than generic traffic promises, in its hiring guide. Practical reporting asks:
- Request a report showing leads received, leads billed, and leads disputed with outcomes.
- Request cost per booked job, combining platform billing with your own booking data.
- Agree on how calls get labeled as booked, canceled, or unqualified.
- Agree on how often reports arrive and when strategy reviews happen.
Guaranteed results
Ask what the agency controls and what your team controls. Treat a flat promise of a set number of leads skeptically, and ask how it would be met. If an agency offers performance-based pricing, define what counts as a qualified lead in the contract and prohibit counting clearly unqualified contacts as wins.
Reviews, compliance, and when to get legal help
Ask the agency to describe how it would request reviews from your customers. Record its answer and compare it across providers before you sign.
Read the contract for clauses that limit your ability to post honest reviews or comment publicly about the agency. Ask a business attorney to review the contract if any wording is unclear. Ask your lawyer about call-recording consent, data deletion on exit, and early-termination penalties.
How to compare proposals side by side
- List the same questions for every agency and record the answers in one document.
- Mark which answers are specific to your trade and area and which are generic.
- Compare the contract drafts for ownership, notice period, and penalty language.
- Ask for references from businesses with a similar service profile, and ask those references about reporting and communication.
- Review the proposals again after a pause, and drop any agency that avoided a direct question.
A short pre-signing checklist
- Check that the contract says your business owns the LSA profile, data, and numbers where possible.
- Ask the agency to name the staff who will work on your account. Ask how verification support and dispute handling would be handled, and get the answer in writing.
- Check whether the statement of work lists specific deliverables rather than only activities. Write down each deliverable you expect and compare it with the draft contract before you sign.
- Check whether the exit terms are short and free of heavy penalties. Measure the cost of leaving early against what you would pay to stay under the contract.
- Check that the contract makes no promise of guaranteed lead volumes. Ask the agency to define in writing what counts as a qualified lead for your business.
- Check: Review-request methods are clear and the contract does not gag honest feedback.