Google Search ads and Local Services Ads are different products that share a results page. With Search ads you bid in an auction on the words people type, and you pay when someone clicks. With Local Services Ads you don't pick keywords. You pick the jobs you want and the area you cover, Google verifies your business, and you pay for a lead — a call, a message or a booking request — instead of a click.
They aren't rivals, and for a lot of service businesses the answer is both. Local Services Ads put you at the very top of the page, in front of someone ready to hire. Search ads cover what those listings can't: the searches they don't show for, the services they don't list, and the control you give up when Google does the matching.
How Search ads work
You choose keywords, write the ads, set bids, and send people to a page you control. That control is the point. You can exclude searches you don't want (negative keywords are a list of searches you tell Google never to show up for), split each service into its own campaign, and test what the ad says.
Control costs work. A Search account is only as good as its structure and its tracking. Bid too broadly and you pay for clicks from people who were never going to hire you. Skip conversion tracking (the code that tells you which ad produced a real lead, not just a click) and you can't tell the good clicks from the bad ones.
How Local Services Ads work
Local Services Ads are built on verification. Google checks the business before the ads run, and approved businesses get a badge on the listing. The ad shows your name, your reviews and a button to call or message you. There's no website click in the middle.
You don't write keywords. You tell Google which services you offer and where, and it matches your listing to searches on its own. Because you pay per lead, a click that goes nowhere costs you nothing. Google lists the categories and areas the program covers on its own page, and not every type of business qualifies.
The trade is less to steer with. You don't control the wording, the landing page or the exact searches. What you do control is how fast you answer, how many reviews you have, and how complete your profile is — and those shape how often you show up.
A paid lead still has to be answered
Local Services Ads send people who are calling now, and the business that picks up first usually wins. If your front desk lets the phone ring through lunch, you paid for a call you didn't take.
Check what you're paying for, too. Calls from the wrong city, for the wrong service, or from someone hunting for a job all count as leads unless you flag them. Listen to the actual calls instead of trusting the count.
When to run both
Run both if you're a service business with real local demand and an area you can serve. Start with whichever your category supports. If Local Services Ads are open to you, they're often the quickest way onto the top of the page. Add Search when you want to reach searches the local listing doesn't, push one specific service, or send people to a page built for that job.
Measure them separately. A phone lead from a Local Services Ad and a form fill from a Search ad are different things, and blending them hides which one is earning its budget. Tracking and analytics is what lets you see both side by side.
If you're not sure what your account is buying today, a Google Ads audit will show you, and the Google Ads page explains how we set up Search.