Missed calls and Local Services Ads: the 1 October 2026 change

Here is the change that matters most to anyone running Local Services Ads this year: from 1 October 2026, some missed calls during your own stated opening hours can become chargeable if the caller stays on the line long enough. Miss the call, still pay for the lead.

Why Google is doing it

Because the alternative was worse. Advertisers were able to let calls ring out and treat every unanswered one as free, which made the system unfair to the customer who rang and to the businesses who did answer. Charging for a genuine connection shifts responsibility onto the advertiser — and the advertiser who answers now wins twice.

What to do before the date

Fix the hours first. The cheapest change available is to tell the truth about when you can answer. Narrow hours with a fast pick-up beat wide hours and a voicemail.

Add a second pair of hands. A diverted mobile, a family member, a shared phone rota — or a call answering service, which for most trades costs a fraction of one lost job a week.

Turn on message and booking requests. If somebody can reach you without a ringing phone, you convert the enquiries you’d otherwise be charged for and miss.

Check your call routing. I have seen accounts routing to a number that rings in a van at a motorway junction with no signal. Ring it yourself, at the times you claim to be open.

The bit nobody mentions

Answering fast doesn’t just avoid a charge — responsiveness is one of the signals in the auction, so the same fix pushes you up the pack. It is the rare case where the compliant thing and the profitable thing are identical.

If your account is already quiet, work through the six usual causes before the date, not after it.