Your Local Services Ads dashboard shows two lead counts, and confusing them will make every cost calculation you do wrong. Charged vs uncharged LSA leads is the distinction between the leads you were billed for and the leads that showed up but never hit your invoice. Understanding the gap between them — and how it moves — is one of the most useful things you can learn to read in the whole account.
The two counts and what they mean
Every interaction that meets Google's definition of a lead lands in your total lead count. Only a subset of those are charged — the ones Google actually bills, because Local Services Ads runs on a pay-per-lead model. The rest are uncharged: they happened, they are counted, but they cost you nothing. So the same account produces two legitimate lead numbers that answer different questions. Total leads answers "how much demand did the ad capture?" Charged leads answers "how much did I pay for?"
Why a lead comes out uncharged
Leads end up uncharged for a few distinct reasons, and it helps to keep them straight:
- Not a billable interaction. Certain contacts, such as repeat outreach from an existing customer within a window, are not charged.
- Credited after review. Google's automated model reviews leads and credits ones it judges invalid — clear job-type or geographic mismatches are the classic examples. Job-type and geo mismatches are among the categories Google will credit.
- Duplicates. The same customer contacting more than once in short order is typically not double-billed.
Note that manual disputes ended around mid-2024; today the crediting is Google's automated call plus a "Rate this lead" survey, not a case you file for each one.
The timing trap: charged today, credited later
This is the single most important thing to internalize about the charged count: it is not final in real time. Google's automated review typically assesses a lead within about 72 hours and posts any credit within roughly 30 days. So a lead that reads as charged the day it comes in can flip to uncharged weeks later when a credit lands. If you compute cost per lead on today's live numbers, you will overstate spend, because credits you have earned haven't posted yet. Always reconcile against a closed billing period.
Reading the ratio over time
The share of leads that are uncharged is a signal worth trending. It moves for reasons you should want to understand:
| What you observe | Likely meaning |
|---|---|
| Uncharged share rising | Credits working in your favor — invalid leads being caught |
| Uncharged share falling | More leads billable; check whether genuine junk is slipping through as charged |
| Sudden spike in charged, no volume change | Possible credit lag or a mix shift worth inspecting |
Third-party estimates put recoverable spend — the portion credited back — around 6–7% of spend. That is real money, and the charged-versus-uncharged gap is where you can actually see it accruing.
Don't confuse uncharged with bookable
A crucial subtlety: uncharged does not mean unbookable, and charged does not mean good. These are different axes. A charged lead can be a worthless price-shopper; an uncharged lead can be a legitimate customer contacting a second time. The charged count tells you about billing, not about quality. To judge quality you need the booking outcome, which Google does not track. Keep the two ideas separate, or you will draw the wrong conclusion from a clean-looking charged number.
What to actually do with this
- Always use charged leads for cost per lead, and reconcile against a closed period so credits are counted.
- Track recovered spend — the value of credits — as its own KPI, so you can see whether invalid leads are being caught.
- Investigate a falling uncharged share to make sure clearly invalid leads (wrong geo, wrong service) are actually being credited and not quietly billed.
The charged-versus-uncharged split is quiet, but it is where your true LSA cost — and the money Google gives back — actually lives.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a charged and an uncharged LSA lead?
A charged lead is one Google billed you for. An uncharged lead is one that met the lead definition but was not billed, because it was a free interaction, a duplicate, or was credited after review. Both appear in your lead count, but only charged leads hit your invoice, so the two numbers answer different questions.
Why do some LSA leads not get charged?
Google does not charge for certain interactions, such as repeat contacts from an existing customer within a window, and it credits leads its automated review finds invalid, like clear job-type or geographic mismatches. Those credits post on a delay, so a lead can start as charged and become uncharged weeks later.
What is a healthy charged-lead ratio in LSA?
There is no single target because it depends on your trade and how many invalid leads Google credits, but you want to watch the trend. A rising uncharged share can mean credits are working in your favor, while a falling one may mean genuine junk is slipping through as billable. Track the ratio over time rather than aiming at a fixed number.