By Michael Delpierre, Conversion Pipeline Published October 2026. Last updated October 11, 2026.
Yes, Google now bills you for some calls you never pick up. Since October 1, 2026, a Local Services Ads call that rings during your business hours and goes unanswered becomes a charged lead if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds. That comes straight from Google’s updated How leads work help page. Voicemail greetings count, and a missed call can still hurt where your ad ranks. Here’s how the rule works and what we check first in a home-services account.
What changed on October 1
Google emailed LSA advertisers in late August with the subject line “Upcoming changes to lead charge policy,” and the trade press picked it up within a day (Search Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Land). Two things changed:
- Missed calls. A business-hours call that goes unanswered is a valid, billable lead once the caller has been on the line more than 20 seconds.
- Follow-up calls. If a first call didn’t qualify as a charged lead, a later call between you and that same customer can be charged if it meets Google’s valid-lead criteria.
Before this, a missed call with no voicemail generally became a charged lead only if you called the customer back and either spoke with them or left a message, as AdGenius documented from Google’s earlier help text. Now the miss itself is the lead. Callback or not.
The fine print most owners miss
Google’s help page answers several questions the email left open:
- “Business hours” means your Google Business Profile hours. Not the hours you keep in your head. If you run an ad schedule that’s different from those hours, unanswered calls are only charged when they land inside both your active ad schedule and your business hours.
- Voicemail counts as a connected call. If a business-hours call rolls to voicemail or an automated greeting and the caller stays on more than 20 seconds, you’re charged whether or not they leave a message.
- Phone menus get a partial pass. If your system asks callers to press a key and they hang up without pressing anything, there’s no charge, even if the menu played longer than 20 seconds. Once they press a key, the 20-second timer starts over.
- Answered calls are judged on the conversation, not ring time. Pick up after 25 seconds of ringing and the ring time doesn’t trigger anything. The call is evaluated like any other answered lead.
- One charge per customer per 15 days. Once a lead is charged, follow-up calls or messages from the same number or email aren’t charged again as long as there’s been interaction within 15 days.
Google also promised new safeguards against robocalls and spam, but PPC Land noted the email gave no mechanism or appeal route for them. Don’t count on them yet.
Why a missed call now costs you twice
The charge is the obvious hit. Ranking is the quieter one. Google’s Local Services ad rankings page lists your responsiveness to customer inquiries as part of how likely your ad is to produce a lead, and it says plainly that missed calls may hurt your responsiveness.
So one missed call can cost you a lead fee and push you down for the next homeowner who searches. We covered the other ranking factors in how Google ranks Local Services Ads. And it lands right as the LSA move into Google Ads retires manual max cost-per-lead bidding.
What we check first in a home-services LSA account
When we review an LSA setup, we check these before touching bids or budgets.
1. Do your Google Business Profile hours match the hours someone answers?
This is the big one. If your profile says 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. but the office line is covered 8 to 5, you have three hours a day where every missed call over 20 seconds is billable. Staff those hours or change the profile.
2. Should your ad schedule be tighter than your hours?
If your crews work until 6 but nobody answers the office line after 4:30, an ad schedule that stops at 4:30 limits the exposure. Google only charges unanswered calls that fall inside both windows.
3. Where does the call actually ring?
Walk the call path. Office line, ring group, the owner’s cell, a dispatcher who’s also on the radio? The old habit of “let it go to voicemail and call them back” now costs the same as a lead you talk to. Call your own number at 10 a.m. on a Monday and listen to what a customer hears.
4. Can you see your missed calls by hour?
We set up CallRail call tracking so missed calls show up by source, day and hour. After migration, Google Ads lets you edit the number your leads route to in real time, so routing changes are easy to test. Once the misses are on a chart, the pattern usually jumps out: lunch hour, Monday mornings, the first hot week of summer.
5. Are message and booking leads turned on?
Google says message and booking leads give customers more ways to reach you, especially on nights and weekends, and message leads are typically priced lower than phone leads. If someone can reply to a text within a few minutes, this moves demand off the phone line.
Should you add a phone menu or an answering service?
A “press 1 for new service” menu filters hang-ups, since there’s no charge if nobody presses a key. It also adds friction for a homeowner with water on the basement floor. We’d only add one if your data shows lots of short hang-ups you’re now paying for.
An answering service or AI voice agent will cut missed calls, but an answered call was already a billable lead. As PPC Land pointed out when Invoca launched AI agents pitched around this rule, answering more calls reduces missed-call charges without reducing the number of leads you pay for. Google also hasn’t said how it classifies a call an AI agent answers. The service pays for itself only if it books jobs.
For most owner-run companies, the cheapest fix is boring: honest profile hours and one more person on the phones during the few hours a week when calls stack up.
How to dispute a charged LSA lead
Google reassesses charged leads over 30 days and automatically credits ones it decides were low quality, duplicates or invalid. You can also rate leads in the feedback survey on the Leads page, and Google may occasionally credit ones you report. Lead credits aren’t available for health care verticals or tax specialists. For the first month under the new rule, check the Charge Status column every week.
Frequently asked questions
Does Google Local Services Ads charge for missed calls?
Yes, since October 1, 2026. A missed call during your business hours becomes a charged lead if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds. Google lists the details on its How leads work help page.
Am I charged if the call goes to voicemail?
Yes, during business hours. Google treats voicemail or an automated greeting as a connected call and charges it if the caller stays on more than 20 seconds, whether or not they leave a message.
Do missed calls after hours cost money?
Not under the missed-call rule. Business hours are the hours set in your Google Business Profile. If your ad schedule differs, unanswered calls are only charged when they fall inside both your ad schedule and your business hours.
Will I be charged twice if the same customer calls back?
No, as long as there’s been interaction within 15 days and the contact comes from the same phone number or email address. After 15 days with no activity, a new contact can create a new charged lead.
How do I lower my LSA missed-call charges?
Match your Google Business Profile hours to the hours your phones are covered, tighten your ad schedule if needed, and track missed calls by hour so you can staff the busy windows.
Find out what your missed calls are costing you
If you run Local Services Ads for an HVAC, plumbing, lawn, sprinkler or basement company, we’ll do a free lead-source mini-audit. We’ll look at where your calls come from, how many go unanswered and when, and whether your profile hours and ad schedule are setting you up to pay for misses. Then we’ll walk you through what we found on a 15-minute call. No cost, no obligation, and if your setup is already solid we’ll tell you that.
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