A booked job in Google Local Services Ads is a lead that your business marks as booked for tracking. It is not a special lead type that determines whether Google charges you.
Google charges for valid leads. The amount can vary by location, job type, lead type, and bidding mode. Separately, businesses in the United States and Canada can mark a lead as booked and add details such as the job type, customer name, and appointment date. Google explains both workflows in its documentation for how LSA leads are charged and how to mark a lead as booked.
That distinction matters. A call can be billable but never book. A lead can book and later cancel. And a completed job can generate revenue very different from the amount originally quoted.
The four events teams often confuse
| Event | What it means | Does it determine the initial LSA charge? |
|---|---|---|
| Lead received | A person calls, messages, or books through the ad | Yes, if Google considers the lead valid |
| Qualified lead | Your team confirms the request fits your service, area, and customer criteria | No; this is your operational definition |
| Booked job | A concrete next step is placed on the calendar | No; marking it booked is for tracking |
| Completed job | The appointment happened and the work or consultation was completed | No; track this in your CRM or operating system |
The LSA report should not be treated as a revenue ledger. It tells you about leads, spend, credits, and bookings; your CRM or job-management system should remain the source of truth for attendance, sales, and revenue.
What should count as booked?
Use a definition a new employee can apply without guessing:
A lead is booked when the prospect has agreed to a specific next step, the business has accepted it, and a date or defined service window is recorded.
That next step depends on the business:
| Business model | Count as booked | Do not count as booked |
|---|---|---|
| Home services | Confirmed service visit or estimate window | “Call me next week” with no date |
| Law firm | Scheduled consultation with an intake-qualified prospect | Voicemail, callback request, or conflict-check pending |
| Dental or health service | Confirmed appointment | Insurance question with no appointment |
| Multi-location operator | Accepted appointment assigned to the correct location | Appointment outside the service area or capacity |
Do not require payment or completed work to call something booked unless that is how your business genuinely operates. The goal is not to create the strictest definition; it is to create a consistent one.
A status model that prevents inflated reporting
A single “good lead” checkbox hides too much. Use statuses that describe what actually happened:
- New: received but not yet reviewed.
- Valid, unqualified: a real inquiry that does not meet your service, location, or customer criteria.
- Qualified: a viable opportunity, but no time has been accepted.
- Booked: a specific next step is confirmed.
- Completed: the appointment or service occurred.
- Won: the job produced revenue or the case was accepted.
- Canceled or no-show: booked, but did not happen.
Keep invalid traffic—spam, duplicates, or clearly unrelated contacts—in separate reason codes. “Not booked” is an outcome; it is not automatically proof that a lead was invalid.
Five common booked-job mistakes
Counting a callback request as booked
“Please call me tomorrow” shows intent, but neither side has committed to an appointment. Keep it qualified or pending.
Using call duration as a proxy
A ten-minute call may be a detailed wrong-service inquiry. A 90-second call can book an emergency appointment. The outcome, not the duration, decides the status.
Leaving canceled appointments booked
Preserve the original booked timestamp, then add a canceled or no-show outcome. Overwriting it as “never booked” destroys the data you need to measure show rate.
Treating every unbooked lead as poor quality
The lead may have been qualified while the call went unanswered, the salesperson failed to offer a time, or the requested slot was unavailable. That is a conversion problem, not necessarily a traffic problem.
Letting every location invent its own definition
One location may count estimates while another counts only paid jobs. The combined booking rate then becomes meaningless. Put the definition and examples in a one-page data dictionary.
Calculate the metrics in the right order
Suppose an account produced the following in one month:
- 40 charged leads
- $4,000 in net LSA spend after credits
- 24 qualified leads
- 15 booked appointments
- 12 completed appointments
- 8 closed jobs
- $16,000 in revenue
The useful calculations are:
| Metric | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Qualified rate | 24 / 40 | 60% |
| Booking rate from qualified leads | 15 / 24 | 62.5% |
| Cost per booked job | $4,000 / 15 | $266.67 |
| Show or completion rate | 12 / 15 | 80% |
| Cost per won job | $4,000 / 8 | $500 |
| Revenue-to-spend ratio | $16,000 / $4,000 | 4.0x |
If you calculate booking rate as bookings divided by every charged lead, you blend media quality and sales execution into one number. Track both stages so you can see where the loss occurs.
The minimum fields to record
For each lead, keep:
- Google lead ID
- Account and location
- Lead type: call, message, or direct booking
- Received timestamp and first-response timestamp
- Validity and qualification result
- Disqualification reason, if applicable
- Booked timestamp and appointment date
- Final outcome: completed, won, canceled, or no-show
- Revenue, when known
Audit a sample of “booked” and “not booked” leads each month. If reviewers disagree, improve the definition before using the metric to compare staff, clients, or locations.
How LeadUp fits the workflow
LeadUp’s Google LSA integration brings call transcripts, summaries, qualification results, lead ratings, and reporting into one workflow. It applies the same built-in qualification framework across every client and can either let the team review and submit eligible ratings or handle rating submission automatically when complete automation is enabled. That makes it easier to apply the same booked-job definition across accounts and send useful lead context into the CRM where completed-job and revenue outcomes belong.
The software does not change what Google bills as a valid lead, and it cannot turn a vague callback into a booking. Its value is making the evidence and outcome labels consistent enough to manage.
Bottom line
A booked job is a confirmed next step you track after receiving an LSA lead. Google charges for valid leads—not only for leads that become booked jobs.
Define qualified, booked, completed, and won separately. Then use cost per booked job alongside show rate and cost per won job to see whether the real constraint is traffic quality, intake, capacity, or sales.