Search for a fence company and the very top of Google often shows two or three businesses with a green checkmark: Local Services Ads, or LSAs. Below them, the regular search ads. Both are Google, both cost money, and fence company owners constantly ask which one they should run. Here is the honest breakdown.

What Local Services Ads are

LSAs sit above everything else on the page. You pay per lead rather than per click, Google screens your business for its "Google Guaranteed" badge, and you can dispute junk leads. Ranking depends heavily on your review score, your responsiveness, and proximity, not on a bid you control.

Strengths: premium placement, pay-per-lead pricing, and the trust badge. Limits: only a few spots exist, volume can be inconsistent, targeting is blunt, and you cannot control which searches trigger you or where the click goes. There is no landing page, no website visit, no brand impression. The homeowner sees a name, a rating, and a call button.

What search ads do differently

Google Search Ads give you the controls: which keywords, which cities, which landing page, what budget. A click lands on your website, where your photos, reviews, and offer close the lead. Volume scales with budget instead of waiting for Google to assign you a lead. And the account compounds: search history, negative keywords, and conversion data make it better every month.

Head to head

  • Placement. LSAs sit highest. Search ads sit right below, with far more slots available.
  • Pricing. LSAs charge per lead. Search ads charge per click, which becomes a cost per lead you optimize down.
  • Volume. LSA volume is capped by spots and Google's pacing. Search ad volume scales with budget.
  • Control. LSAs: minimal. Search ads: full control of keywords, geography, message, and landing experience.
  • Ranking lever. LSAs run on reviews and responsiveness, which is one more reason our review engine matters. Search ads run on account quality and bids.
  • Brand. LSAs show a listing. Search ads bring homeowners to your website, where your brand does the selling.

So which should a fence company run?

They stack rather than compete. If LSAs are available and producing in your category and market, there is little reason to turn off leads at the top of the page. But we build campaigns around search ads, because control and scale are what let us push cost per lead down week after week and grow volume on demand. LSAs are a faucet Google controls. Search ads are a machine you own.

Strong reviews raise your LSA rank, lower your ad resistance, and win the map pack. Whatever mix you run, the review engine underneath it pays three times.

The bottom line

Take LSA leads when Google offers them. Build your growth on search ads you control. And put your reviews on autopilot either way. Want to know what the mix should look like in your market? Book a strategy call.