If you run Google Local Services Ads (the ads with the green "Google Guaranteed" or "Google Screened" badge at the top of the search), the rules on missed calls changed on October 1, 2026.
What changed
Before, a missed call only cost you money if you called the person back and connected. You decided whether it became a paid lead.
Now, a call that comes in during your business hours and stays on the line more than 20 seconds without being answered can be billed as a lead. You don't have to call back. You don't have to talk to anyone. The ring is enough.
Google sent the notice by email in late August. Trade marketing sites picked it up the next day, and the change went live on the first of the month.
The details that matter
- Business hours only. The hours you set in your LSA profile are the hours you're on the hook. Calls after hours are not part of this change.
- Phone menus get a pass, sort of. If your line makes the caller press a key first ("press 1 for service"), Google says the 20-second clock starts when they press it. A caller who never presses a key isn't charged.
- Follow-up calls. If a first call didn't count as a paid lead, a later call between you and that same person can still qualify.
- What's not clear yet: exactly when the 20 seconds start on a plain line (first ring? connection?), and how voicemail is handled. Google hasn't spelled that out.
Why it hurts a one-man shop the most
A shop with a front desk answers almost every call anyway. The guy on a ladder, under a sink, or driving between jobs is the one who misses calls, and he's the one who'll now pay for some of them with no job to show for it.
Picture a $60 lead. Miss four calls in a week, and that's $240 for conversations that never happened.
What to do this week
- Check your business hours in LSA. If you're not answering the phone at 7 a.m., don't list 7 a.m. Set hours you can actually cover.
- Turn on a missed-call text-back. It doesn't stop the charge, but it gives you a shot at the job you're paying for. See AI phone help for a one-man shop.
- Write down every missed call this month. Date, time, number. You'll want it when the bill comes. The missed-call report in the LSA dashboard is harder to find than it used to be.
- Know how to dispute a lead. We'll cover the steps in the next post.
The real fix is the one Fixer School starts with: catch every call. Every call you miss now costs you twice: once for the lead, and once for the job that went to the next guy. See why customers expect an answer in 5 minutes.
