The short answer
Local Services Ads (LSAs) appear at the very top of many local searches, show your reviews and a Google verification badge, and you generally pay when a customer contacts you. Regular Google Ads let you choose keywords, write your own ads and send people to your own pages, and you pay per click. They do different jobs, so many HVAC and plumbing companies run both.
What Local Services Ads are good at
Trust at a glance. The badge and review count help homeowners choose quickly, especially for urgent jobs.
Simple setup once you're verified. You choose job types and your service area, and Google handles most of the rest.
The catch is limited control. You can't write ad text or choose exact keywords, and you need to mark poor leads and dispute bad ones so the system learns.
What Google Ads are good at
Control. You pick the searches you want, such as 'tankless water heater installation' or 'heat pump replacement', and send each one to a page built for it.
Targeting high-value work. Google Ads are often the better tool for replacements and bigger projects, where you want to explain options before the homeowner calls.
The catch is that they take more skill to manage. Without careful keyword choices and negative keywords, budget can leak on searches that never become jobs.
How to run them together
Use LSAs to capture urgent, ready-to-book calls, and Google Ads to go after the higher-value work you want more of.
Set budgets and schedules that match when you can actually send a truck, and adjust them for heat waves, cold snaps and storms.
Record every call and connect it to your CRM so you judge each channel by booked jobs, not by leads or clicks alone.
Common mistakes
Leaving LSA leads unanswered or slow to answer. Responsiveness matters, and a missed LSA call is money spent on nothing.
Sending every Google Ads click to your home page instead of a page about the specific service.
Judging success by cost per lead instead of cost per booked job.
When each works best
Local Services Ads tend to work well for urgent, high-intent calls like AC repair, no heat, emergency plumbing and water heaters, because they appear at the top with your reviews and a Google screening badge.
Search ads give more control over keywords, locations and landing pages, which helps for specific services like heat pump installs, sewer line repair or water treatment.
Many owners use both, with clear rules for which services each should cover.
Common mistakes
Running ads before calls are answered reliably. Paid calls that go to voicemail are the most expensive calls you'll ever get.
Not disputing invalid Local Services leads when they don't qualify under Google's rules.
Keeping spend flat when your crews are full. Paid demand should flex with your capacity.
Judging ads on leads alone. A lead isn't a job until it's booked and completed.
How to measure paid demand honestly
Track each platform's leads, then follow them through to qualified calls, bookings and completed jobs in your field software.
Compare cost per completed job by channel, not cost per lead. Report visibility, leads and jobs separately so you can see where things break.
Build AEO and SEO alongside ads, so you're not dependent on paid demand forever.
How Techeo helps
Techeo manages both, answers every ad call in under 2 rings with our AI receptionist and ties every call to the job it booked in your field software. That way budget moves toward what actually fills your board.