Why Are My Google Local Services Ads Getting Fewer Calls? A Practical Audit for Service Businesses

In the space of a few weeks, Google hid the phone number behind a button, routed calls to the wrong number, and served ads outside service areas. If your LSA calls dipped, here’s how to find out why and what to fix this week.

If you run Local Services Ads for a plumber, an HVAC shop or a personal injury firm, the last month has probably felt off. Calls dipped. The lead report in Google didn’t match the phone system. A few leads came from towns the business doesn’t even serve.

You’re not imagining it. Google has stacked up several LSA changes and bugs since early September, and every one of them touches the two things service businesses care about most: whether the phone rings, and whether you can prove which ad made it ring.

Here’s what changed, plus an audit you can run this week.

Why This Hits Service Businesses Hard

LSA is a pay-per-lead product. For a plumber or a family law firm, one booked job can be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars, so a small change in how the phone number displays can swing a month’s revenue far more than it would for an ecommerce brand.

Then there’s attribution. Most service businesses judge LSA by call logs and CRM entries, not only by Google’s lead report. When the number in the ad changes, or calls start landing on a different line, tracking breaks quietly. You see fewer LSA calls and cut budget, when the calls may simply be arriving somewhere else.

On top of that, Google has been moving LSA management into the Google Ads interface. More accounts now run LSA next to search campaigns, call assets and location assets. That overlap is exactly where September’s routing problem lived.

What Changed in September and October?

The phone number is now hidden

According to Search Engine Roundtable, as of October 2, 2026, Local Services Ads show a “Get phone number” button instead of the number itself. On desktop, the number appears once the user moves the mouse near the ad. Barry Schwartz said he wasn’t sure whether this behavior is new, and Google hasn’t commented officially.

Either way, an extra step is friction. Some people will message you instead. Others will call the next listing.

Calls routed to the profile number

Search Engine Roundtable also reported that through September, some LSAs displayed the Google Business Profile phone number instead of the call asset or tracking number configured in Google Ads. Anthony Higman raised it on X on September 1. On September 9, Google Ads confirmed that when an advertiser uses both location assets and call assets, ads featuring a specific location may route calls to that location’s number rather than the call asset number. Partial fixes were reported around September 23 and the issue looked resolved by late September, but there’s no guarantee it stays fixed.

In plain terms: for part of September, your tracking numbers may have been bypassed. The calls happened. Your tracking just didn’t see them.

Ads showing outside service areas

Search Engine Roundtable’s daily recaps on September 29 and October 1 also mentioned a bug that served LSA advertisers in locations outside their designated service areas. If you paid for leads from towns you don’t cover, you have a reason to dispute them.

All of this sits on top of Google’s ongoing migration of LSA into Google Ads and earlier 2026 changes to how missed calls are charged. Reread the current billing terms in your own account rather than relying on what you knew last year.

How to Audit Your LSA Calls

Check which number is showing

Search your main services logged out, in an incognito window, on a desktop and a phone. Ask a teammate elsewhere in the service area to do the same. Screenshot everything. For each check, note whether the number is visible or hidden behind the button, and which number appears when it does show: your tracking number, your Business Profile main line, or something else.

Don’t tap to call your own ads. You’ll create a lead you then have to dispute.

Separate desktop from mobile

The hover reveal Search Engine Roundtable described is a desktop interaction, since phones don’t have a cursor. Our expectation is that mobile still works as tap to call, but confirm that in your own checks instead of assuming it. Then split your lead data by device if your reporting allows. If desktop calls dropped in early October while mobile held steady, you’ve likely found your answer.

In our experience most home services calls come from phones, so a desktop-only change may be a modest dip. Law firms, where more research happens on desktop during work hours, could feel it more.

Reconcile three sources of truth

Pull the last 60 days from three places: the LSA lead report, your call tracking or phone system logs, and your CRM or job management software. Line them up by date and caller number.

You’re looking for three patterns. Calls in the LSA report that never hit your tracking line point to the profile number routing issue. Leads from outside your area point to the service area bug. A week-over-week drop that starts on a specific date points to a display change. Each pattern has a different fix.

Fix call and location asset conflicts

If your account runs search campaigns with both location assets and call assets, review that setup now. Google’s own explanation of the September issue was that ads featuring a location can send calls to the location’s number. So make sure the number on your Business Profile is one your tracking can attribute. A common setup is a tracking number as the primary profile number with your main business line listed as the additional number. That way, even if Google routes to the profile number, the call still gets counted. Untangling asset conflicts like this is a routine part of good Google Ads management.

Dispute out-of-area leads

Go through every lead from late September and flag anything outside your service area. Use the lead dispute option inside the account, note the date and location, and mention the known service area bug. Disputes have a time window, so check the current limit in your account and don’t sit on them.

Tighten service areas and job types

Review service areas zip by zip, drop fringe areas you only half serve, and switch off job types you don’t want. An HVAC company that doesn’t do duct cleaning shouldn’t pay for duct cleaning leads. Fewer, better leads beat a full report of junk.

Turn on backup lead paths

If the number now takes an extra step to see, make the other paths easy. Turn on messaging and booking where your category supports them, and make sure a real person watches those inboxes. A message answered four hours later is usually a job lost to whoever replied in ten minutes.

Set a weekly monitoring cadence

Block 15 minutes every Monday. Check the live ad on desktop and mobile, compare lead counts week over week, scan new leads for out-of-area locations and file disputes. Agencies should run one shared checklist so a change spotted in one client account gets checked in all of them the same day.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Raising budget to fix a routing problem

When calls drop, the reflex is to raise the budget or the bid. If the real issue is that calls are going to a different number, more spend just buys more calls you can’t track.

Trusting only the LSA lead report

Google’s report is one view. Your phone system and CRM are the others. Skip the comparison and you’ll miss routing issues entirely.

Letting disputes pile up

Out-of-area leads cost real money. Plenty of owners plan to dispute later and miss the window. Make disputes part of the weekly routine.

Assuming a fix is permanent

The profile number issue appeared resolved by late September. That doesn’t mean it won’t come back, or that a related change won’t cause the same symptom. Keep checking which number shows, even when things look normal.

What This Means Going Forward

LSA is turning into part of Google Ads, which means more moving parts, more settings that can conflict, and more changes shipped with little notice. The hidden number may be a test or the new standard. What you control is how fast you notice and respond.

The businesses that come out ahead treat LSA like any other paid channel: they audit it, reconcile it against real calls and jobs, dispute bad leads and keep backup lead paths open. If you’d rather not do that alone, our team runs Google Ads and LSA for service businesses and agencies that want problems like these caught in days, not months.

Frequently Asked Questions