From October 1, Local Services Ads charges you for missed calls. Someone calls during your listed business hours, stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, and Google counts it as a lead. Nobody answered, and there was no voicemail, but you still pay.
There is a second change, and most people did not notice it. If the first call is not charged, the next call with the same customer will be charged as soon as it meets the valid lead rules. You do not avoid the cost. It moves to the next call.
20s is very short. A phone menu takes part of it. A receptionist who puts the customer on hold and goes to find the right person takes the rest. An AI receptionist does not help you here, because Google counts the bot answering the same as a person answering.
The bigger problem is the 24/7 opening hours. Many accounts set their hours to always open, because LSA ranking prefers businesses that look available, and ignoring the night calls was free. Now every hour you say you are open is an hour you can be charged for. Reduce your hours to the hours you really work.
Before October, check your call logs and see how long your phone rings before someone answers. Ask your answering service where the 20s point sits in their process. Most of them measure how many calls they answer. They do not measure the speed.
LSA is not really pay-per-lead anymore. Your cost now depends on your answer rate, and most companies never measured it. We do this at SmartMetrics. Let's talk!
