To dispute a Local Services Ads lead today, you rate it: open the lead in your Local Services Ads lead inbox, select Rate this lead, and submit the survey with the reason it was bad (spam, solicitation, duplicate, wrong service, outside your area, not ready to book), because Google removed the manual Dispute button and now credits invalid leads automatically over a 30-day review, paying a capped bonus credit for feedback on top. The leads that still qualify for a credit are spam and silent calls, solicitations, duplicates, and other invalid or low-quality contacts. Wrong job type and outside service area leads no longer earn credits at all. Listen to the call recording before you rate anything, because each lead gets one rating and what you say also trains Google on which leads to send you.
A Local Services Ads lead is a call, message or booking request that a customer sends through your ad, using a Google forwarding number that rings your real business line after a short "Call from Google" announcement. You pay per lead, not per click (if you need the basics first, start with what LSA is in marketing). A lead credit is Google reversing that charge to your account balance. A dispute, in the old sense, was an advertiser asking for that reversal. Today the reversal is Google's decision, made by its models, and your rating is an input to it.
Can you still dispute a Local Services Ads lead?
No, not in the old way: as of October 2026, Google credits invalid Local Services Ads leads automatically and the only advertiser action is the Rate this lead feedback survey. Google moved Local Services Ads to automated lead crediting in 2024 and retired the manual dispute flow. Google's help center now says charged leads are reassessed by its models over time and may be credited automatically if later found to be low quality, and that credited leads are reversed either through autocrediting or as a bonus credit for leaving feedback. Lead credits are not available for health care verticals, tax specialists, or advertisers in EEA countries.
We run Local Services Ads for home-service companies. The practical change: you cannot argue a lead back anymore. You describe it accurately, once, and Google decides.
Which leads qualify for a credit?
Google credits leads it determines to be invalid, duplicate or low quality, and it no longer credits leads for job type not serviced or geo not serviced. Some contacts are never charged at all. The rest are charged, then judged.
- Spam, bots and silent calls: the clearest credit case and an explicit survey reason (the API defines spam as a bot, silent call or scam)
- Solicitation: someone selling you something or asking for a job, also an explicit survey reason
- Duplicate contact: a repeat call or message from the same phone number or email within 15 days of a charged lead is not charged again, so a second charge inside that window is a duplicate
- Short missed calls: an unanswered call under 20 seconds is not charged, and neither is a caller who drops out of your phone menu
- Wrong job type: no longer creditable, so the fix is your job type settings
- Outside your service area: no longer creditable either, and many of these were never out of area (see below)
- Not ready to book: a real local shopper is a valid lead; say so in the survey, but expect it to count
How long do you have to dispute a lead?
Google assesses each lead's quality over a 30-day period, and in most cases credits land on your account balance within 30 days. The old fixed dispute deadline went away with the Dispute button. What matters now is rating while the lead is fresh, so your feedback reaches Google inside that assessment period and while you still remember the call. Google also notes that some poor-quality leads may still appear in your inbox in the first 24 hours before automatic credits process them, so do not panic over a junk call that shows as charged on day one.
In the inbox, a lead marked in review is one Google is still evaluating; if it is not a good match for your business, a credit is applied. The original charge stays visible on your invoice even after the credit is issued, which confuses bookkeeping more than anything else in the program.
How to dispute a lead, step by step.
This is the order we use on every charged lead. The rating comes last.
Is an out-of-area lead really out of area?
Often not: the location you see on a lead is not proof of where the job is, so confirm the property address on the recording before you call it out of area. This is our observation, not a documented Google rule. On the home-service accounts we run, a block of leads looked like out-of-area charges in reporting. When we listened to the calls, many were local homeowners with a local property who were simply calling from somewhere else, from work, from a cell number with an old area code, or while traveling. Rating those as geo mismatch would have been wrong, and it would have taught Google to send fewer of the leads that actually book.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Silent call or robot voice, charged | Spam or bot traffic | Rate as spam; expect an automatic or bonus credit |
| Caller selling marketing or asking for work | Solicitation | Rate with the solicitation reason |
| Same customer charged twice in a week | Repeat contact inside the 15-day window | Rate as duplicate; check the phone number and email match |
| Request for a service you do not offer | Job type still enabled in your settings | Turn off the job type; no longer creditable |
| Lead flagged as outside your area | Caller location differs from the property, or area set too wide | Confirm the address on the recording; tighten the area only if the job was truly outside it |
| Junk lead shows charged on day one | Auto credits not processed yet | Wait; Google may credit within the first 24 hours or the 30-day review |
| Credit approved but charge still on invoice | Invoices keep the original charge | Reconcile against lead credits in reports |
| No credits ever, even on spam | Health care, tax specialist or EEA account, or bonus cap reached | Credits are unavailable or capped; rely on settings and call handling |
Does rating a lead change what Google sends you?
Yes: Google uses lead feedback to judge lead quality, so ratings shape both credits and future lead matching. The Google Ads API's ProvideLeadFeedback method takes a five-point answer from very satisfied to very dissatisfied plus a reason, and returns whether a bonus credit was issued, which Google says is available to use in about two months. That is why we rate good leads as carefully as bad ones. Booked customer and high value service ratings tell Google what to find more of.
For agencies pulling leads through the API, two details save trouble. First, the lead's credit details show a pending or credited state with a last-updated time, so you can report credits without logging in. Second, budget: Local Services Ads uses an average weekly budget in its own interface, but the Google Ads API stores it as a daily amount equal to the weekly budget divided by seven, so a script that reads the budget and treats it as weekly will be off by a factor of seven. If your tooling hits quota errors while pulling leads, see Google Ads API resource exhausted errors.
What is normal and what is a red flag?
Some junk leads are normal; a steady share of spam that never gets credited is a red flag worth escalating to Google support. Normal: a few charged leads that turn into credits within 30 days, price shoppers that count as valid, repeat callers inside 15 days that are not charged, and short missed calls under 20 seconds that never charge at all. Red flags: missed calls during business hours that ring past 20 seconds and go unanswered (those are charged, and they are your problem, not Google's), the same spam number charged repeatedly, or a run of wrong job types that means a setting is wrong.
Missed calls are the largest avoidable cost we see. Voicemails during business hours are charged, and a lead nobody calls back is money spent twice. Tighten your speed to lead, set up missed call text back on the line Google forwards to, and track which LSA leads become jobs the same way you would push offline conversions from your CRM for search campaigns. Law firms have a different screening layer on top of all this, covered in Local Services Ads for lawyers.
How do I dispute a lead on Google Local Services Ads?
You cannot file a manual dispute anymore. Open the lead in your Local Services Ads inbox, select Rate this lead in the top right, and submit the survey with the reason the lead was bad. Google reviews charged leads automatically over a 30-day period, credits invalid ones, and may issue a bonus credit for your feedback.
How long does it take to get a Local Services Ads lead credit?
Google says that in most cases credits are applied to your account balance within 30 days. Some poor-quality leads are credited within the first 24 hours. Bonus credits issued for feedback through the API are available in about two months.
Can I get credit for a lead outside my service area?
No. Google no longer credits geo not serviced or job type not serviced leads. Before treating a lead as out of area, listen to the recording and confirm where the job actually is, because callers are often local homeowners calling from elsewhere.
Am I charged when the same customer calls twice?
Not if the follow-up comes from the same phone number or email within 15 days of the charged lead. After 15 days with no interaction, a new contact from that customer can be charged as a new lead.
Am I charged for missed calls on Local Services Ads?
Only some. An unanswered call during business hours is charged if the caller stays on the line more than 20 seconds, and voicemails during business hours are charged. Calls under 20 seconds and callers who hang up in your phone menu are not charged.
Can I listen to Local Services Ads call recordings?
Yes. Calls through the Google forwarding number are recorded in the US and Canada, and you can play them from the lead inbox or the Local Services Ads app. Recordings are not available for health care verticals or tax specialists.