How to get credit for bad Local Service Ads leads

A lot of advice online still tells you to open the lead, hit “Dispute,” pick a reason and wait a week. That was the process for years. It isn’t anymore, and following old instructions wastes time looking for a screen that changed. This guide covers how lead credits work now, the steps you can still take, and how to stop paying for the same junk every month.

Google can change this process again at any time. Before you act on anything below, check Google’s current help article, About automated Local Services Ads lead credits (opens in new tab), which is the source for most of what follows.

What changed: from manual disputes to automatic credits

Under the old system, Google’s help center said you could dispute a charged lead within 30 days of receiving it. You opened the lead in your lead inbox, chose Dispute, picked a reason (spam, wrong job type, outside your area and so on), and Google decided within about a week. Approved credits landed on your balance later.

In June 2024 Google announced it was replacing that with automated crediting, rolling out in July 2024 (reported by Search Engine Roundtable and Search Engine Land). Google’s Ads Liaison gave the reason plainly: a small number of advertisers disputed a large share of their leads, while most advertisers never disputed any. Automating it was meant to spread credits more evenly. Google said it expected most advertisers to see the same or more credits on average.

Sources: Google Local Services Help, “About automated Local Services Ads lead credits” and its invalid leads troubleshooter; Search Engine Roundtable, June 25, 2024.

How automatic lead credits work now

According to Google’s help article, its machine learning models look at a lead when the customer first makes contact. If the lead looks invalid or low quality, you aren’t charged for it at all. Leads that were charged keep getting reassessed, and Google may credit them later if it decides they were low quality. Google says it aims to screen leads up front, but a bad lead can still be processed in the first 24 hours.

In your account, leads fall into a few statuses: not charged, charged, in review, and credited. Google’s article says credits come from automatic crediting or from bonus feedback credits tied to your lead ratings. When a credit is applied, it usually shows up within 30 days, and the original charge still appears on your invoice. So don’t read the invoice alone and assume nothing was credited. Check the lead statuses.

What Google no longer credits

This is the part that catches contractors out. Google’s help article says it no longer supports credits for “job type not serviced” and “geo not serviced” leads. A homeowner in Waxahachie when your crews stop at Lancaster, or a call for sewer line work when you only do repairs, used to be easy disputes. Now those leads are on you, because Google treats them as a settings problem. That’s why the settings section below matters more than it used to.

Where credits aren’t available

Google says automated lead credits aren’t available for health care categories, tax specialists or advertisers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. For a home service business in Dallas, that generally won’t apply, but it’s worth knowing if you also run other businesses.

Step by step: what to do with a bad lead today

1. Open the lead in your Local Service Ads account. Use the dashboard or the LSA app and find the lead in your leads list. Listen to the call recording or read the message so you know exactly what happened.
2. Check its status first. If it says not charged, in review or credited, Google has already handled it. You don’t need to do anything else for that lead.
3. Rate the lead. Choose “Rate this lead” in the top right corner of the lead details, as Google’s troubleshooter describes, and answer the feedback survey honestly. Say clearly if it was spam, a robocall, a wrong number or a job you’d never take. This is the only direct input you have now. Google says it uses the feedback to improve lead matching, and its help article lists bonus feedback credits among the ways a lead can end up credited.
4. Rate the good leads too. Marking booked jobs helps Google learn what a good lead looks like for your business, not only what a bad one looks like.
5. Wait about 30 days, then check credits. Look at lead statuses in the account rather than the invoice line, since the original charge stays on the invoice even after a credit.
6. Fix the cause. If the bad lead came from a job type you don’t do or a ZIP code you don’t serve, change the setting the same day. Google won’t credit those anymore.

Fix the settings that create bad leads

Google’s own advice in its help article is to refine your service areas, job types and categories so you attract the customers you want, with the warning that this may lower your lead volume. That trade is usually worth it. A lead you can’t take is a cost with no chance of revenue.

• Job types. Turn off every job type you don’t actually do or don’t want. If you’re an HVAC company that won’t touch commercial rooftop units, switch that off.
• Service area. Set it to the ZIP codes your trucks will really drive to. Across DFW, a service area drawn too wide can pull in calls from towns an hour or more down I-35E or US-75 that you’ll turn down anyway.
• Business hours. If nobody answers at 2 a.m., don’t run 24/7 hours. Missed calls can still be charged leads, and Google weighs responsiveness.
• Categories. Make sure your business is only in the categories that match your work.

Keep your own lead log

Since you can’t argue a lead case by case anymore, your own records are what tell you whether LSA is working. A simple spreadsheet or your CRM is enough. For each lead, note the date, job type, ZIP code, outcome (booked, quoted, lost or junk), the rating you gave and whether Google credited it. After a month or two, patterns are easy to see: one job type that only brings price shoppers, one area that never books. Those patterns drive your settings changes, and they give you the real number that matters, your cost per booked job. Our guide to LSA cost per lead by trade explains what pushes lead prices up or down.

Which bad leads Google is likely to credit

Google doesn’t publish a full list for the automated system, so treat this as a guide, not a rule. Leads that are plainly not a customer looking for your service, like spam, robocalls, solicitations and wrong numbers, are the kind of invalid lead the system is built to catch. Real homeowners who asked for a price and went with someone else are real leads, and Google generally doesn’t credit those. Leads for jobs you don’t offer or places you don’t serve are, by Google’s own statement, no longer credited. If you’re unsure about a specific lead, rate it accurately and let the system decide. Exaggerating in feedback doesn’t help you.

When it makes sense to get help

Plenty of owners handle this themselves in ten minutes a week. It gets harder when lead volume is high, when nobody has time to listen to recordings, or when the account keeps drawing junk from settings no one has looked at in a year. That routine, weekly lead review, honest ratings and settings fixes, is what our LSA lead quality service does for Dallas home service businesses. If you’d like a second opinion on your account, get in touch.