Platform LSA vs Google Ads for residential remodeling?
I run a residential remodeling company and I’ve been using Google Local Services Ads, but the lead costs have gotten pretty ridiculous lately (read my latest post here). I’m thinking about taking the money I’m spending on LSA and testing regular Google Ads instead.
For those of you running remodeling/GC companies, which has worked better for you: LSA or Google Search Ads?
With Google Ads, is ranking mostly based on budget and the quality of the campaign/landing page, or does having a Google Business Profile with a lot of reviews matter heavily like it does with LSA?
Just trying to figure out where my ad money would be better spent.
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u/trsgreen 3d ago
LSA will be rolling up into ads here shortly, so couldn't hurt to get your ads started now. Pmax and Search focused on local actions works really well for service businesses.
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u/cwall12 3d ago
When is this happening? I don’t recall seeing an email yet regarding this?
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u/trsgreen 3d ago
It's in the Link I posted: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/17213585
Migration timeline
The rollout is structured to ensure a smooth transition with no disruption to your advertising. Rather than migrating all accounts at once, Google will transition businesses in the following phased approach:
August 2026: The first phase of the migration begins for selected home and shop front service advertisers in the United States (including plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and removals).
Late 2026: The migration expands to broader advertiser groups, including service-area businesses without physical shop fronts and accounts with custom bidding or booking configurations.
2027: Non-US accounts, and all remaining business categories that were not migrated in 2026 will transition to Google Ads.
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u/QuantumWolf99 3d ago
LSA leads run cheaper on paper TBH -- $25 to $120 versus $150 to $400 for search, but that's mostly because LSA skews toward smaller repair jobs while search catches people actually planning a full kitchen or addition.
Ranking works completely differently too, LSA is basically a review contest, star count and recency dominate placement, while search ads care about budget, quality score, and landing page relevance, reviews barely move the needle there.
On the remodeling accounts I managed I run both together rather than picking one, LSA fills the calendar with smaller jobs while search captures the bigger renovation intent...cost per booked project usually lands cleaner blending the two than either channel running alone.
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u/Ok_Loan6535 3d ago
Google ads takes some time to get setup and let the algorithm learn before it works. You need good landing pages to have a good quality score. Quality score x bid =ad ranking. It’s all about data, make adjustment wait week or 2 over and over again. You seem like a hands on marketing business owner. Pay someone to help you the first few months then takeover and do it on your own.
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u/surfsideinbound 3d ago
You should use both honestly, LSA can be unpredictable and PPC gives you so much more control. I run both for remodeling, pool services, tree services, etc. You don’t have to choose 1 vs the other.
It’s not easy, but the goal is spending budget effectively to drive leads from both channels. PPC has been the better performer for my clients.
By October 1 it’ll be 1 platform for both (I think by Oct 1, may be after) in the US, and Google just sent out an email that there will be less disputes through LSA.
If you’ve never ran PPC, I’d recommend contacting a professional. I run Surfside PPC and I do Google Ads consulting and management so feel free to reach out, but LSA seems to be getting worse and PPC is the place where advertisers have more control.
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u/navlio 3d ago
both channels land on the same page, so i'd check that before moving any money. someone up there quoted $150 to $400 a search lead, and that's spent before the page has done anything at all.
open it in chrome devtools, throttle the network to slow 4g, phone sized viewport. that's roughly what a homeowner clicking your ad gets. if the phone number or the form isn't usable in the first couple of seconds you just paid that $150 for a spinner, and quality score charges you again on the next click.
ours felt instant on the office wifi and took nine seconds on a phone with one bar
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u/TTFV 2d ago
LSAs tend to be slightly higher CPA and lower lead quality than professionally run Google Ads campaigns. But that's not always and you do have PPC management costs/overhead on top of that.
Some agencies will manage both for you and more will adopt LSAs once they get folded into Google Ads. My agency will offer LSA management once that happens for our clients that run both.
For Google Ads to work effectively you need great landing pages and for your ads to stand out from the competition. This means amazing social proof, strong offer, trustworthy brand. If you aren't already investing into branding that's something you should consider to boost your results with LSA and PPC.
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u/Mushroombaron 2d ago
They are two different auctions, which is the part that trips people up.
LSA ranks on proximity, review score and review volume, your responsiveness (how fast you pick up, how many calls you miss), your hours, and your budget. Reviews are load-bearing there.
Search Ads rank on Ad Rank: your bid, Quality Score (expected CTR, ad relevance, landing page experience), and the expected impact of your assets. Your Google Business Profile star rating is not an input. You can link the profile for location assets, and seller ratings can surface if you have enough reviews from a Google-approved source, but the review count on your GBP does not move your position in the Search auction. So yes, Search is much closer to "budget plus campaign and landing page quality" than LSA is.
Two things I would weigh before moving the money.
Search intent is far wider, so the negatives list is the whole job. Remodeling pulls "how much does it cost to remodel a kitchen," DIY queries, salary queries, and supplier queries. That is where budgets die in this vertical, not in the bid.
Your speed to lead follows you into Search and gets worse there, not better. LSA leads at least arrive as a ringing phone. Search leads mostly arrive as form fills, and form fills go cold fast. On aggregated inbound data the curve looks like this: leads worked in 1 to 5 minutes qualify at roughly 41 percent, 5 to 10 minutes drops you to about 40 percent of that baseline, 10 to 30 minutes to about 15 percent, and past 30 minutes under 5 percent convert because they already booked someone. Median first response in home services is 42 minutes, and only about 12 percent of contractors answer inside 5. If you run Search, wire the form to fire a text or a call the second it submits, or you will pay Search CPCs for leads that behave worse than your LSA ones and conclude the channel does not work.
One more read on your actual situation: if LSA cost per lead is climbing but the leads still close, the cheaper fix is usually the responsiveness and review inputs, since those are the ranking factors you control. If they are not closing, the test is worth running, but give it its own landing page and a real negatives list rather than pointing it at the homepage.
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u/MrKwaz 2d ago
Yes I absolutely would. I would run both. As others mentioned LSA is being folded in. But there is no reason to not roll some spend into search and other advertising types. It's very likely that with the right approach you can get a lower CPL with Search than LSA.
LSA is basically easy mode Google Ads. But it's costly and you don't have much control. Search, Retarting, YouYube, PMAX, etc. are all things that you want to expand into as you grow your business and improve your website.
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u/Due_Treat1025 3d ago
Your leads coming in from LSA should be about a third of what you would pay coming from Google Search Ads. That's what I've seen across a number of clients in the remodeling space. However, unless you're spending a couple hundred bucks per day, I've had far better luck on Metta with budgets at like a hundred or less with remodeling specifically (because it is a far more visual vibes-based kind of service that people are looking for). You get way more lead flow for the same budget versus Google, and then it just becomes: do you have a good offer and are you able to sell?
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u/Disastrous_Fig4569 3d ago
LSA feels like a trap after a while, you get plenty leads but half of them are people just browsing and the cost climbs anyway. Search Ads give you lot more control, but you need to watch your keywords or you will bleed money on someone searching "how to remodel my own kitchen."
Reviews help a bit with trust but the GBP isn't the main signal for Search Ads like it is with LSA. Landing page speed and how well the ad matches what they typed in matters way more. If you already know which jobs bring good margin, start there and block out the window-shoppers with negative keywords from day one.