increasing sales
Google’s changing how they bill Local Services Ads calls starting October 1, 2026. If a caller stays connected for more than 20 seconds—even if you miss the call—it can count as billable.
Right now you’ve got eighteen months. That sounds like forever until it’s September 2026 and you’re scrambling to figure out why your LSA bill jumped.
The fix isn’t complicated. But it requires actually testing your phone system instead of assuming it works.
The new rule focuses on connection time, not whether you answered.
If someone calls your LSA number, gets your voicemail or hold music, and stays on the line past 20 seconds, Google may bill you. The logic: the caller engaged enough to wait, so the lead has value.
For plumbers, HVAC techs, roofers, electricians—anyone running LSA—this matters because your phone behavior during business hours directly affects your advertising cost.
Missed calls you used to dispute? Some of those disputes might not fly anymore.
You don’t need a consultant for this. You need twenty minutes and a second phone.
Test during business hours:
Test after hours:
Test your routing:
Write down what you find. Most service businesses haven’t called their own number in months.
I’ve watched this pattern enough times to see it coming.
You’ll dispute a missed call. Google will show the caller stayed connected for 40 seconds. You’ll say “but we didn’t answer!” They’ll say “your voicemail system kept them engaged.”
You’ll lose that dispute.
The businesses that win are the ones who fixed their systems before the rule changed, not after.
Most phone issues aren’t technical. They’re operational.
The voicemail that’s too long. Callers hang up before the beep because your outgoing message is a 45-second story about your company history. Keep it under ten seconds.
The hours that don’t match reality. Your Google Business Profile says you’re open until 5pm. Your voicemail says you stop taking calls at 4:30. Your actual last truck heads home at 4pm. Pick one truth and make everything match it.
The forwarding number nobody checks. Calls route to a cell phone that’s in a truck, in a basement, or turned off. Test the actual destination, not just the forwarding rule.
The system you inherited and never questioned. The previous owner set up call routing in a way that made sense in different circumstances. You’ve never audited whether it still makes sense now.
None of these require new software. They require twenty minutes and honesty about what’s actually happening.
Here’s where most service businesses get stuck: you can’t fix what you don’t measure.
If you don’t know how many LSA calls you’re missing, you can’t know if this rule change will cost you money or if your current setup already handles it fine.
You need baseline data. How many calls come in during business hours? How many go to voicemail? How long do callers typically stay connected when they hit voicemail?
Without that, you’re guessing. And guessing makes for bad October 2026 surprises.
Some call tracking systems capture this. Some LSA dashboards show it. If yours doesn’t, start logging it manually for two weeks. You’ll learn enough to know whether you have a problem.
Month one: Test your current setup and document what you find.
Month two: Fix the obvious stuff—update hours, shorten voicemail greetings, verify forwarding numbers actually work.
Month three through launch: Track your missed-call rate and connection times. If you see patterns (every Tuesday afternoon, every time the senior tech is on a job), adjust routing or staffing.
Two months before launch: Test everything again. Systems drift. Numbers change. People leave. What worked in early testing might be broken by summer 2026.
The businesses that treat this like a compliance deadline will scramble at the end. The ones that treat it like operational improvement will have better phone systems and lower LSA costs.
This rule change is really about one thing: does your phone system actually serve the people calling you?
If someone takes the time to call, stays on the line, leaves a message, and you never call back—that’s not a Google problem. That’s a business problem.
The twenty-second threshold just makes the cost of that problem more visible.
Fix it now while you have time to test, adjust, and verify. October 2026 will be here faster than you think.
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