If you run Google Local Services Ads, Google charges for missed calls from October 1, 2026.
Google’s August notice to Local Services Ads advertisers says that from October 1, 2026, a call that goes unanswered during your business hours is charged as a lead once the caller has waited more than 20 seconds. Missed calls already count against how responsive Google thinks you are. So from that date a missed call costs you three times: the lead fee, the job, and a little of your ranking.
- Keep your number
- No card to start
- You set the spend limit
What changed, in plain words
- Before October 1, 2026: a call that rings out costs you nothing unless the caller leaves a voicemail, or you call them back and reach them. It is a lost customer, not a charge.
- From October 1, 2026: a missed call during your business hours is charged as a lead once the caller has stayed on the line more than 20 seconds. If Google doesn’t charge for that missed call, it can charge for the next call from the same person instead, but only once every 15 days.
- Phone menus: if callers must press a key to be routed, the 20 seconds start at the key press, and a caller who never presses one is not charged.
- Unchanged: Google’s ranking help says missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness, one of the things that decides who shows up first.
When we checked on 18 September 2026, Google’s help pages still described the old rule. The October 1, 2026 rule comes from Google’s notice to advertisers, which trade press published in full.
Where these facts come from
Checked 18 September 2026. Prices and policies change; the links are the authority, not this page.
- Search Engine Roundtable: the full text of Google's notice, and the Ads Liaison's 15-day clarification — 25 Aug 2026
- PPC Land: Google charges Local Services advertisers for missed calls over 20 seconds — 25 Aug 2026
- Google: About ad rankings — "Missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness"
- Google: How leads work — the rules before October 1, 2026; not updated when we checked
What it costs a shop like yours
Put in your own numbers. The defaults are the industry figures below, not a guess about you.
Paid to Google for callers nobody spoke to
$848
a month · 16 callers who waited and reached nobody
At about $416 of paid work per call (SearchLight’s figure, scaled to your average job), that is up to $6,656 of work going to whoever answered next.
Wakeman Front Desk, which answers the calls your team misses during business hours as well as after, is $349 a month.
Worked example with the defaults: 60 calls a month from your ad, 27% of the callers who wait more than 20 seconds still reach nobody, $53 a lead. That is 16 unanswered callers and $848 a month in lead fees for conversations that never happened.
Where the defaults come from
Lead fee, $53: SearchLight’s February 2026 Local Services Ads benchmark across 888 contractors — plumbing $57, HVAC $51, electrical $39. These are shops that track their ads closely, so your fee may differ.
Unanswered, 27%: Invoca’s 2026 home-services benchmarks. Calls that last more than 30 seconds are answered 73% of the time, and calls over 15 seconds 65%, so somewhere between 27% and 35% of callers who wait past 20 seconds reach nobody. The default takes the low end. Callers who hang up within a few rings are left out, because Google does not charge for them either.
Paid work per caller, $416: from the same SearchLight study. Each lead turned into $416 of paid work on average, at a $1,826 average job; change your average job and it scales with it. Our missed-call calculator uses the same figure. It only changes the “work” figure, not the lead fees, and it is the high end.
The press-1 menu your agency may suggest
Some agencies will tell you to put a short menu in front of your number — “press 1 for service” — because Google’s clock does not start until the caller gets through it. That is true, and it will lower the bill. Here is what it also does.
- The callers who hang up at the menu are not billed. They are also not your customers any more: somebody with water on the floor does not press buttons, they call the next number.
- The callers who do press 1 still ring a phone nobody is free to answer. After 20 seconds you are paying for them anyway.
- A menu makes your business sound bigger and slower at the exact moment a homeowner is deciding who to trust.
Our view
What happens to a Local Services Ads call with Wakeman
Your team gets first go
The call rings your phone exactly as it does today. Nothing changes on your ad or your Google profile.
Missed calls come to us
If nobody picks up, your phone forwards the call to Wakeman, which answers in your business name.
It works out what's wrong
Gas smell, water near the panel, sewage coming up: the on-call tech is alerted during the call. Routine work gets booked or written up.
You get the whole call
Who, where and what's broken, with the recording and transcript, in your dashboard. You can download the call list to see which charges are worth questioning with Google.
Which plan: these charges are for calls missed during your business hours, so the plan has to answer during the day — Front Desk ($349/month) or Dispatch. After Hours only answers when you’re closed, so it won’t stop them.
Run Local Services Ads for other contractors? The agency partner program pays you for every client you send.
Common questions
If Wakeman answers, does Google still charge me for the lead?
Yes, and it should. Google already counts a call as a lead when the caller gives an automated system their job details, asks for a callback or books. Wakeman does not make the charge go away. It makes sure the call you are paying for is answered in your business name and turns into a job, instead of a voicemail they hang up on.
Does this only matter during business hours?
Google's notice does not define business hours. Agencies read it as the hours on your Local Services profile — or on your Google Business Profile, if your account has moved into Google Ads. If you list yourself as open 24/7, which is common for emergency plumbing and HVAC, assume every missed call over 20 seconds is exposed. Missed calls at any hour still cost you the job and can count against how responsive you look.
Which Wakeman plan covers it?
Front Desk ($349 a month) answers the calls your team misses at any hour, which is what this change bills for. After Hours ($149) only answers while you are closed; during open hours it sends calls back to your own phone, so it will not catch the business-hours misses.
Do I have to change my number or my Google profile?
No. Your ad keeps sending calls to the number you already have. You set that phone to forward the calls nobody picks up to Wakeman, and you can switch that off from the phone itself. Wakeman answers as your business and never asks a caller to ring a different number — Google's rules forbid sending callers elsewhere to dodge a lead charge, and we would not want to anyway.
Can I dispute Local Services charges with what Wakeman records?
Google has replaced manual disputes with automatic lead credits in the US, plus a "Rate this lead" survey on each lead. Wakeman records, transcribes and sorts every call it answers — spam, wrong area, a real job — and you can download that list from your dashboard, so you know which charges to question. Whether Google credits one is Google's decision.
Does Google allow an AI to answer Local Services Ads calls?
Nothing in Google's Local Services rules requires a person to answer or bans automated answering, and Google already counts calls handled by an automated system as leads. What the rules do require: the call is answered as your business, the job goes to your business and not someone else's, and nobody is told to call a different number. Wakeman answers in your business name and books or alerts your own team.
Is this only in the US?
The October 1 date is for the US. At least one UK advertiser reports November 1 on the same notice. Check the date on the email in your own Local Services account.
Somebody’s always awake.
Try it on your own phone tonight. About ten minutes, no card.