Altura Marketing Group
253-579-3230 Request a Quote

Services

Industries

Company

Request a Quote

Local Services Ads

Pay per lead vs. pay per click

Paying only for leads sounds safer than paying for clicks. Sometimes it is. Here’s how the two models really compare.

By Cole Mello Published 3 min read

The two models

  • Pay per click (PPC) — Google Search ads. You pay each time someone clicks, whether or not they contact you.
  • Pay per lead (PPL) — Google Local Services Ads, and third-party lead services. You pay when someone contacts you (or when a lead is delivered).

Comparison

Local Services AdsGoogle Search adsLead marketplaces
You pay forCalls/messagesClicksLeads, often shared
Exclusive?Yes — the customer contacts youYesOften sent to several businesses
ControlJob types, areas, budgetKeywords, ads, pages, bids, scheduleLimited
Builds your brand?Yes — your profile and reviewsYes — your siteMostly the platform’s

When pay per lead wins

Local Services Ads are excellent for convenient, exclusive leads in eligible categories, especially if you have strong reviews. You don’t pay for clicks that don’t contact you.

When pay per click wins

When you want specific, high-value work, want to send people to a page that sells it, or your category isn’t covered well by LSA. You trade some risk for much more control.

About lead marketplaces

Services that sell the same lead to several contractors create a race to the bottom on response time and price. See our take on Yelp, Thumbtack and Angi.

Our recommendation

For most contractors: Local Services Ads plus focused Search campaigns, both tracked, with budget moving to whichever produces cheaper booked jobs.

What a Local Services Ads account looks like

Local Services Ads dashboard, Sep 16–Oct 15, 2026: $843.91 lead spend, 19 charged phone leads, 1,506 impressions, 96.68% top impression rate
A landscaping client’s LSA account, Sep 16–Oct 15, 2026: 19 charged phone leads for $843.91 (about $44 each), shown above organic results 96.7% of the time.
Local Services Ads leads table for a Northeast Florida landscaping client: sod installation and yard cleanup calls from St. Augustine, Palm Coast and Ponte Vedra Beach (customer numbers blurred)
The leads table: each call with its job type, location and charge status. Customer numbers blurred.

Cole Mello is the founder of Altura Marketing Group. He studied marketing at Washington State University and manages Google Ads, Local Services Ads and Meta campaigns for local service businesses. About Altura

Related reading

What are Google Local Services Ads?

What Google Local Services Ads are, how they work, what the Google Guaranteed badge means, how you’re charged, how ranking works, and how to get started.

Are Angi leads worth it in 2026?

An honest look at Angi and similar lead services for contractors: how shared leads work, when they can make sense, and what to build instead for the long term.

Google Ads vs. Local Services Ads for HVAC companies

Google Search ads vs. Local Services Ads for HVAC companies: how they differ in cost, control, lead quality and setup — and how to use both.

Next step

Want a second set of eyes on your marketing?

Tell us what you offer and where you work. We will tell you honestly whether paid ads make sense for your business, and what we would do first.

Request a Quote Call 253-579-3230