Pool companies should use Local Services Ads for service and repair calls, not builds. The ads pay off only when verification, lead feedback, budget, and phone answering are managed every week. Below is the routine we run, from daily to preseason, plus a printable checklist for whoever owns the account.
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This is the operating routine for an LSA account that is already live or about to be. Still choosing channels? Service and repair lean LSA, builds lean Search Ads, and the full side by side is in LSA vs Google Ads for pool companies.
Our post Local Services Ads for pool contractors: is Google Verified worth it? answers whether LSA is worth it. This page assumes you said yes and shows what to do every week so it keeps paying.
In October 2025 Google replaced Google Guaranteed, Google Screened, and License Verified by Google with a single Google Verified badge, and discontinued the Money Back Guarantee. Existing verified advertisers got the new badge automatically.
Manual lead disputes are gone. Google credits leads its models find invalid or low quality, in most cases within 30 days. It no longer credits leads for job types or areas you do not service.
Google notified advertisers that starting October 1, 2026, a missed call during business hours can be charged as a valid lead when the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, with some exceptions.
Sources: Google’s About Google Verified badge, automated lead credits, and How leads work help pages, plus Google’s lead charge policy notice to advertisers. Google updates these often, so check the notices in your own account.
Under the lead charge policy Google sent advertisers for October 1, 2026, a missed call during business hours can be charged when the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds. Google’s notice says that if your phone system makes callers press a key to be routed, the 20 second timer starts at the key press. Google’s public How leads work page had not been updated with this rule when we checked on October 1, 2026, so read the notice in your account.
Set your LSA business hours to the hours a person actually answers, not the hours the shop is open. Route overflow to a live answering service that answers under your business name, and turn on message leads for nights and weekends. Google’s LSA requirements say customer communications should use the name shown in your ads, and they treat sending callers to a different number to avoid a lead charge as abuse.
Missed calls cost you twice. Google lists responsiveness as an ad ranking factor and says missed calls may hurt it. Track every call through to the booked job with call tracking for pool companies.
There is no dispute button anymore. Google assesses each lead at first contact, skips the charge on ones it finds invalid or low quality, and keeps reassessing charged leads. Credits usually post within 30 days, and the original charge still appears on the invoice.
What you control is feedback. Every Monday, rate each lead in the Lead Feedback Survey. Google uses those ratings to send more of the leads you want and may occasionally credit leads you report as poor quality. Then open Billing and look at the credited, charged, and in review lists so you know what last week really cost.
Wrong job type and out of area leads are no longer credited, so the fix is in settings. Tighten service areas and job types to the work you will take, knowing that narrower settings can mean fewer leads.
Google Verified depends on passing Google’s screening and verification, which varies by category and location and can include background, business registration, insurance, and license checks. Google regularly re-evaluates advertisers and may ask for a follow-up review. Skipping one can cost you the badge, pause your ads, or suspend the account.
For a pool company that means renewing insurance and any trade licenses before they lapse, adding new field techs to background checks where your category requires them, and treating any verification email from Google as same-day work. Details are in Google’s screening and verification help page.
Tape it next to the office phone or hand it to whoever owns the account. One sheet, every Monday.
Ostmen runs this checklist for pool companies every week: lead ratings, billing checks, budget pacing, verification follow-ups, and intake coaching, reported on booked jobs next to Google Ads and SEO.
We are a Google Partner agency with a money-back guarantee. That guarantee is ours, separate from the Google program that ended in 2025.
More on the product: Local Services Ads management. Builds and remodels: Google Ads for pool companies. Or contact us.
No. In October 2025 Google replaced Google Guaranteed and Google Screened with a single Google Verified badge and discontinued the Money Back Guarantee. Pool companies that complete Google’s screening and verification for their category and location can earn Google Verified. See Google’s About Google Verified badge page.
Not by hand. Google credits leads it determines are invalid or low quality automatically, and in most cases the credit lands within 30 days. You can rate each lead in the Lead Feedback Survey, and Google may occasionally credit leads you report as poor quality. Google no longer credits leads for job types or areas you do not service.
Google told advertisers that starting October 1, 2026, a missed call during business hours can be charged as a valid lead when the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, with some exceptions. Set your LSA business hours to the hours someone actually answers, and route overflow to a live answering service.
Book a strategy call. We will review your LSA hours, lead ratings, credits, and verification status, and show you what a weekly routine would change.
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