If you run Local Services Ads, a missed call used to cost you one thing: the job. Since October 1, 2026, it can cost you the lead fee as well.
This is written for roofers and other home-service trades, because that's who it hits first. Here's what changed, what nobody has settled yet, and what to fix before your next invoice.
What changed
In late August, Google emailed Local Services Ads advertisers about how call leads get charged. Search Engine Roundtable published the email, and Search Engine Land covered it.
The short version: an unanswered call during business hours now counts as a valid lead if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds. Three details matter.
It's about business hours. The new charge covers calls Google treats as inside your business hours. That makes the hours on your profile more important than they used to be.
The clock is 20 seconds. Quick hang-ups don't count. If your phone system makes people press a key to reach a department, the timer starts when they press it. If they never press, you aren't charged.
Follow-up calls can count. If the first call doesn't qualify, later calls between you and that customer can be charged if they meet the lead criteria. Google's Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin, then clarified that you pay once for follow-up calls you make within 15 days of the first contact. After that, a new call or message can create a new lead.
Google also says it's adding safeguards against spam and robot calls. The email doesn't say how they work.
What's still unclear
We're reading an advertiser email and a post on X, not a detailed policy page. A few things aren't settled in what we've seen:
- How you dispute a charged call you think is invalid.
- Exactly how Google decides what counts as your business hours. We assume it uses your profile hours, but that's our assumption.
- Whether a voicemail changes anything. Don't assume it protects you.
So check Google's own help pages before you change your budget, and don't build a plan around credits you can't count on.
Why this hits the trades hard
That's the headline from Invoca's 2026 home-services benchmarks. Invoca sells call-tracking software, so read it as vendor data from its own customers, not a census.
The detail underneath is more useful. Invoca says the answer rate rises to 65% for calls longer than 15 seconds, and to 73% for calls over 30 seconds. Those are the callers who actually hung on. Even among them, roughly one in four never reach a person.
That's the kind of call Google can now bill you for.
It's easy to see how it happens. The crew is on a roof or in a crawlspace. The office is one person, and that person is on the other line. The phone isn't being ignored. There just isn't anyone free to pick it up.
What it can cost
Treat the $480 as a ceiling, not a forecast. Some of those calls may already have been billed under the old rules, and your lead price will be different. The job you never got to quote is usually the larger cost by a long way.
Five fixes, in order
1. Count your misses
Pull 30 days of call logs from your phone provider. Count the business-hours calls that weren't answered and rang for more than 20 seconds. Compare that with the charges in your Local Services account. Many owners have never seen this number. It takes an hour, and everything else depends on it.
2. Make your hours honest
If your profile says 7am to 7pm but nobody answers after 5pm, you've got two hours a day of exposure. Either shorten the hours on your profile or cover them. Shorter hours may mean fewer leads, so make that call with the numbers from step one in front of you.
3. Fix the ring path
You have 20 seconds. Most phone systems can ring the office first, then a second person, then a third. Set that up so a call isn't stuck ringing on one desk phone. If you use a phone menu, keep it short, since the timer starts once the caller presses a key.
4. Put something behind the humans
When everyone's busy, something has to answer. That can be a person, an answering service, or an AI voice intake. If you use AI, it should say it's AI, ask your qualifying questions, book the appointment, and hand emergencies to a person. Before you buy one, read the AI receptionist you shouldn't buy.
5. Call back fast, and watch the bill
Return every missed call the same day, ideally within minutes. Google's 15-day clarification means prompt follow-up shouldn't stack up charges, but check that against your own account. A text back to someone who just called you helps too, as our missed-call text-back demo shows. Keep it about their call, and get your consent setup right before you text anything that looks like marketing.
Then review your charges every month for the first quarter. If something looks wrong, raise it with Google while the details are fresh.
Where this leaves you
None of this is exciting. A second phone in the ring group won't impress anyone at a trade show. But you're now paying for some of the calls you miss, so it's the cheapest money you'll find this year. Fix the boring thing first.
If you want to know what your callers actually get, our free Leak Report calls your line and tests your web form, then sends you a video of what happened. To put a dollar figure on your own numbers, try the ROI calculator.