The call you miss is costing you twice
By Jared Ohman · Updated August 2026
You already know a missed call is a lost job. What most Alberta contractors don't know is that Google is watching too — and it says so in writing.
The short version
If you run Local Services Ads, you are paying Google per lead to put your shop at the very top of the page. Where you sit inside that block is not random. Google publishes the things that affect it, and one of them is how responsive you are.
Its own documentation puts it plainly: “Your responsiveness to customer inquiries and requests: Missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness.”
So the 4:40pm call you couldn't take from a crawlspace costs you the job, and it feeds a signal on the channel you are spending money on. That is the part nobody mentions.
What we are not going to tell you
We are not going to tell you that answering every call moves you up two positions. Nobody outside Google can measure that. Google names the factors; it does not publish their weights, and anyone selling you a number is guessing with confidence.
What is fair to say is narrower and more useful: responsiveness is a factor Google names, missed calls are the thing it names as hurting responsiveness, and answering the phone is one of the few inputs on that list you can change this week.
The three you can actually control
Google's list mixes things you can move with things you can't. Proximity to the searcher is fixed — you cannot pick up the shop and carry it to Sherwood Park. Your service categories are what they are. That leaves three worth your attention.
Responsiveness. Answer the phone, and answer it when the ad is running. If your ads run evenings and weekends because that is when furnaces quit, but your phone is only answered 8 to 5, you are paying for leads at exactly the hours you cannot take them.
Reviews. Both the score and how many, and steady beats bursts. The best moment to ask is right after a job goes well, which means someone has to remember to ask.
Your hours as declared. If you list 24/7 and then don't answer at 9pm, you get the leads and the missed calls both. Either cover the hours or narrow them.
Who can run Local Services Ads in Canada
LSA is limited to a published list of service categories, and in Canada that list is trades and home services: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, locksmiths, water damage and restoration, appliance repair, roofing, cleaning, and a handful of others. If you are one of those, you are eligible. You also have to clear Google's screening — licence, insurance, and a background check — before the Google Guaranteed badge appears next to your name.
Worth knowing: HeyDiane itself is not eligible. We are a software company, and software companies are not on that list. We are telling you about a channel we cannot buy, because the shops we build for can.
Where a receptionist fits
Diane answers the calls you can't — after hours, mid-job, two at once — tells the caller she is an AI, works out whether a no-heat call in January is an emergency or a Tuesday appointment, books the routine ones into your calendar, and texts your cell when it is genuinely urgent. On a lead you already paid Google for, the difference between that and a voicemail box is the whole return.
If you want to put numbers on your own situation before deciding anything, the missed-call calculator runs the arithmetic on your call volume, and the HVAC page walks through what she does on a real no-heat call.
Common questions
Do missed calls actually affect Local Services Ads ranking?
Google names responsiveness as one of the things that affects where your Local Services Ad shows, and its documentation says missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness. Google does not publish how much weight it carries relative to reviews, proximity, or business hours, so nobody outside Google can tell you what a given number of missed calls is worth in position. What is public is that answering is a signal it looks at, and ignoring the phone is not neutral.
What actually decides where my Local Services Ad shows?
Google lists several factors: your review score and the number of reviews, your proximity to the person searching, your business hours, whether you are responsive to inquiries, and whether there are serious complaints against your business. Some of those you cannot change — you cannot move your shop closer to a caller. Responsiveness and reviews are the two you control day to day.
Is Local Services Ads worth running for an Alberta trades business?
It depends on your trade and your city. LSA charges per lead rather than per click, the ads sit above the regular search ads, and the Google Guaranteed badge carries real weight with homeowners. The catch is that you pay for leads that were never a fit, and you have to dispute those to get credited — which is admin. If you already spend on Google Ads and your close rate is decent, it is usually worth testing. If you cannot answer the phone reliably, fix that first, because you will be paying for leads you then miss.
Can HeyDiane run my Local Services Ads?
No. HeyDiane is software for answering your phone, not an agency, and we are not eligible for Local Services Ads ourselves — Google's Canadian LSA categories are service providers like HVAC, plumbing, and electrical, not software companies. What Diane does is answer the calls those ads generate, including the ones that come in after hours, so a lead you paid for reaches a person instead of a voicemail box.
What does it cost to have every call answered?
HeyDiane is $0 setup, 7-day free trial, then from $199/mo CAD. Compare that to what a single LSA lead costs in a trades category and the arithmetic is usually straightforward — though that is arithmetic you should run on your own numbers, not a promise about your results.
Google's ranking factors and eligible categories are quoted from its own documentation, linked above, and can change without notice. Check them against your account before making a spending decision.