Route Google LSA and Business Profile leads to your job software

Google is where a lot of trades leads start, and it’s also where they get stuck. Local Services Ads leads sit in Google’s own lead inbox. Business Profile messages used to sit in yet another place. If your office lives in Jobber or Housecall Pro, every Google lead means a second login and some retyping, and the lead waits while you do it. Google bills you per valid lead whether you answer fast or not. This guide sorts Google leads by type and routes each one into your job software as directly as each type allows.

What you need

A verified Google Business Profile.
A Local Services Ads account, if you run LSA. Google charges per valid lead, and prices vary by location, job type and bidding mode.
Job software with a Google connection. Jobber and Housecall Pro both connect to LSA bookings. Jobber’s integration needs online booking set up and your Jobber company address to match your Google profile. Housecall Pro’s needs the Google Guaranteed badge, booking leads enabled in LSA, and its newer online booking version.
A number that receives texts in your job software, such as a Jobber dedicated phone number (Connect plan and up) or your Housecall Pro or Workiz business line.
Optional: Zapier or Make for the email workaround, or a developer for the Google Ads API.

First, know the four kinds of Google lead

Google’s help center lists three LSA lead types: phone leads, message leads (text or email, US and Canada only) and booking leads (US and Canada only). Separately, there’s your Business Profile, which can show a text or WhatsApp button.

One thing many guides still get wrong: Google Business Profile chat is gone. Google’s help center says that as of July 31, 2024, chat and call history are no longer available in Business Profile. If an old setup tells you to “reply to Google messages in the Business Profile app”, that path doesn’t exist anymore.

Each type routes differently, so take them one at a time.

Step by step

1. Bookings: connect LSA directly to your job software

This is the only Google lead type with a direct, native path into Jobber and Housecall Pro.

Jobber: go to Apps, select Google’s Local Services Ads, then Get Started. That takes you to online booking settings. Click Connect to Google at the bottom, confirm your contact details match your Google Business Profile, and select Connect. Bookings land on your schedule as assessments or visits. New clients get Google in their Lead Source field. Jobber says it can take Google up to a week to show the Book Online button. Service-area businesses without a storefront may need Jobber Support to get the match right.

Housecall Pro: go to Settings > Booking, open the Reserve with Google tab, click Connect, and sign in with the Google account tied to LSA. Allow up to 24 hours. LSA bookings become Leads in the Google inbox in Job Inbox. Housecall Pro doesn’t split LSA bookings from Reserve with Google bookings, so check LSA if you need that split.

In both cases, make sure booking leads are switched on in your LSA account. Then set your bookable hours tightly. If you can only do two estimates a day, offer two slots.

2. Business Profile texts: point them at your job software number

Google’s replacement for chat is a text or WhatsApp option on your profile. Per Google’s help center: open your Business Profile, choose Edit profile, go to Contact, click Edit next to Chat, choose Text message, and enter the number. If you add both text and WhatsApp, Google only shows the text option. Google says this is available in select regions and needs a claimed, verified profile.

The routing trick is the number you enter. Use the texting number of your job software: your Jobber dedicated phone number, for example, or your Workiz or Housecall Pro business line. Then Google texts land in the same inbox as all your other customer texts, attached to the client record, and any auto-reply you’ve set up there covers them too. Don’t use the owner’s cell.

3. LSA message and phone leads: set notifications first

LSA message leads and calls don’t flow into Jobber or Housecall Pro through the booking integrations. What you can do inside Google is make sure the right person hears about them instantly.

Sign in to your LSA lead inbox, click the menu icon, select Notifications, open Notifications (This Account), choose your email, and set preferences for each notification type in Email settings. Google says you get both an email and an SMS for new message leads, and you can choose email, SMS or both. Each user sets their own preferences, so add your office manager as a user and have them switch notifications on.

Google also says you can reply straight to its email or SMS notification to respond to a message lead. That’s the fastest response. The office can answer from their phone in seconds, then log the lead in your job software.

Phone leads are simpler: if the call goes to your main number and your job software handles calls (Jobber’s Receptionist, Workiz Phone), the caller can be matched or created there. If not, someone types it in.

4. Automate the rest with the notification email (workaround)

I couldn’t find a native Local Services connector in Zapier’s app directory when writing this. The common workaround is to treat Google’s lead notification email as the trigger:

In Gmail, create a filter for Google’s LSA lead notification emails and label them “LSA lead”.
In Zapier or Make, trigger on new emails with that label.
Parse what’s in the email. Check a few real ones first. Notification emails may not include the customer’s full details, and may only give a link to the lead inbox.
Create a record in your job software. Jobber’s Zapier app has a Create Request action. Workiz’s Zapier app has Create Lead. Housecall Pro’s Zapier app only offers Create Customer, and lead creation needs its API on the MAX plan.
Add a note like “LSA message lead – reply in Google inbox” with the link.

Even if the email only has a link, this still puts a record in front of the office in the system they actually watch.

5. For full detail: the Google Ads API

If you want contact details and conversation history pulled in properly, Google’s documentation says the Google Ads API exposes local_services_lead, with lead type, contact details, status and whether it was charged, and local_services_lead_conversation, with calls and messages. There has to be a Local Services campaign in the account. Contact details come back empty for leads in WIPED_OUT status, and healthcare categories are excluded. This is developer work, not a settings change, and only worth it at real volume.

6. Measure the speed

For two weeks, write down when each Google lead arrived and when someone replied. Worked example: if you get 40 LSA leads a month and the median reply is 45 minutes, getting that to 5 minutes is the cheapest win available, because you’ve already paid for those leads.

Common mistakes

Chasing a Business Profile chat feature that no longer exists. Set up the text option instead.
Using a personal cell for the Business Profile text number. Those conversations never reach your job software.
Booking leads off in LSA. The integration connects but nothing arrives.
Address mismatch in Jobber. Your company address has to match your Google profile.
Only the owner gets LSA alerts. Add the office as users and turn on SMS alerts for them.

When it’s worth getting help

The booking connection and Business Profile text number are 30-minute jobs. The email-parsing Zap and the Ads API are where it gets fiddly, and where a bad setup creates duplicate clients. If you want that built properly, see the Jobber or Housecall Pro pages, or start with the trades cost calculator.