Local Services Ads are not available in Australia, so there is almost no Australian Reddit discussion. What exists comes from US and UK tradies, and the themes are steady.
- Pay-per-lead feels fairer than pay-per-click on principle, because you pay when someone contacts you rather than when they click.
- Lead disputes are the sore point. Google moved from manual disputes to automated credits in 2024 and tradies report far fewer refunds since.
- The green Google Guaranteed badge sits at the very top of search, and customers do trust it.
- Reviews and answer rate decide who gets shown. Miss calls and you sink, which is the same rule as every other channel.
- Do not wait on a product with no Australian launch date. Run normal Google Ads with tracking and build the review base now.
- Update: Google is folding LSA into Performance Max inside Google Ads, US migration from August 2026, non-US accounts from 2027.
Keep asking about it in
Quick answer: Google Local Services Ads are not available in Australia yet, so there is almost no Australian discussion on Reddit. What does exist comes from US and UK tradies, and the picture is consistent: pay-per-lead sounds great, the Google Guaranteed badge does win trust, but lead quality varies and getting refunds for junk leads is a grind. If you want the full plain-English rundown of how LSA works and where Australia stands, read our Local Services Ads in Australia guide.
Update, September 2026: LSA is being folded into Google Ads
The product this page discusses is being retired in its standalone form. Per Google’s help centre article Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals, LSA campaigns are being converted into Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals inside the normal Google Ads platform. The migration started in August 2026 with selected US home and storefront service categories and reaches accounts outside the US in 2027. Placements and pay-per-valid-lead billing stay; the separate LSA dashboard, manual bidding and the old performance reports do not.
The overseas Reddit threads below describe the standalone product, so read them as history of how pay-per-lead behaved rather than a preview of a product Australia will get in that form. The takeaway for Australian tradies does not change, it hardens: whatever pay-per-lead looks like if it lands here, it will live inside Google Ads, so the account, reviews and answer rate you build now are the preparation. The full plain-English rundown of the transition and what it means here is in our Local Services Ads in Australia guide.
What are tradies on Reddit actually saying about LSA?
We will not fake quotes at you. But the themes across US and UK trade subreddits are steady:
- Pay-per-lead feels fairer than pay-per-click. You pay when someone contacts you, not when someone clicks. Most tradies like that on principle.
- Lead disputes are the sore point. Wrong suburb, wrong service, tyre-kickers. Google moved from manual disputes to automated credits in 2024, and tradies report far fewer junk leads getting refunded now.
- The green badge works. Google Guaranteed sits at the very top of search and customers do trust it.
- Reviews and answer rate decide who shows up. Tradies with lots of recent reviews who answer the phone fast get shown more. Miss calls and you sink.
Why is there so little Australian discussion?
Because you cannot run LSA here yet. As of mid 2026, Australia is still not on Google’s rollout list. The only thing ranking for this search is a Google support thread asking when it is coming. So any Australian Reddit chatter is speculation, not experience.
What does this mean for Australian tradies?
When LSA does land, the overseas pattern says the winners will be tradies who already have deep review counts and answer every call. That work starts now, not at launch. It is the same story across every channel in our tradie marketing Reddit roundup.
What should you do in the meantime?
Do not wait on a product with no Australian launch date. Regular Google Ads with proper conversion tracking is the proven high-intent channel here, and the costs are knowable up front. That is exactly what our Google Ads service runs for tradies: tracked, tuned, and judged on cost per booked job.