Google has never made it easier to spend money.
Google Ads. Local Services Ads. Performance Max. “Smart” campaigns. AI suggestions telling you to raise your budget “to get more clicks.” Meanwhile your cost per click keeps creeping up and you’re wondering if you’re the crazy one or if the platform actually got more expensive.
You’re not crazy. It did.
Across all industries, average Google Ads CPC is now sitting in the mid-$4 to mid-$5 range, and
home services are up closer to the $7–$8 per click mark in 2025. Local Services Ads leads for trades routinely land in the
$30–$80+ per lead range depending on category and market.
For junk removal and dumpster rental owners, that reality creates a brutal question:
Where should my next advertising dollar go — Google Ads or Local Services Ads — and should I even be running both?
Short answer:
most haulers are better off mastering one intent-based channel first instead of scattering budget across both.
Let’s break down why.
Setup
When I first wrote about Google Ads vs Local Services Ads about a year ago, costs were already climbing. Since then, CPCs for home services have gone up again, and I’ve watched more junk removal and dumpster rental owners get burned by campaigns they barely understand.
I run a hauling company and a marketing agency. I’ve spent years testing Google Ads, LSAs, Meta, and “shiny object” platforms across thousands of jobs and tens of thousands of dollars a month in ad spend.
So everything here is coming from that lens:
- 10+ years running a junk removal and dumpster rental business
- Working directly with
haulers and roll-off companies across the country through HaulingHubb and Adimize
- Seeing the backend data on what actually books trucks versus what just eats budget
Here’s how I look at Google Ads and Local Services Ads in 2025 if you’re in junk removal or dumpster rental.
Google Ads for Junk Removal and Dumpster Rental
Google Ads (I’m talking about
Search campaigns, not Display or YouTube) is still the cleanest, most controllable way to capture
high-intent “junk removal near me” and “dumpster rental near me” searches.
You:
- Bid on specific junk removal and dumpster rental keywords
- Pay
per click, not per call
- Send people to a landing page you control
- Track calls, forms, and booked jobs in your own system
Across industries, average search CPC is around
$5–$5.50, and
home service keywords are often around $7–$8 per click in 2025.
For a hauler, that often looks like:
- 60–100 clicks in a month
- $400–$800 spent
- A handful of strong leads if your landing page and follow-up don’t suck
Zero-click summary: Google Ads charges you for the door opening (the click). If your “front door” (landing page + follow-up) is good, it still works extremely well in 2025.
The part most haulers miss: landing page + lead form
If you send Google Ads traffic to:
- A slow homepage
- A generic “here’s everything we do” site
- No form above the fold
- No clear call button
…you will burn money and think “Google Ads doesn’t work.”
For junk removal and dumpster rental, a solid landing experience is simple:
- Headline that matches the keyword: “Junk Removal in [City]” or “10–20 Yard Dumpster Rentals in [City]”
- Clear list of services: estate cleanouts, construction debris, garage cleanouts, single-item pickups, roll-off dumpsters, etc.
- Lead form above the fold with name, phone, ZIP, brief description
- Click-to-call button obvious on mobile
- Proof: reviews, photos of your trucks and dumpsters, job counts
If you fix nothing else, fix this. It’s often the difference between “Google Ads eats my budget” and “Google Ads is how I keep three trucks and four cans booked solid.”
Local Services Ads (LSA) for Junk Removal and Dumpster Rental
Local Services Ads sit at the very top of Google with the little
“Google Guaranteed” or “Screened” badge. LSAs are built for service businesses and run on a
pay-per-lead model, not pay-per-click.
You:
- Go through Google’s onboarding
- Submit paperwork, licenses, and insurance
- Pass background checks
- Get verified
- Then pay
for each valid lead (calls or messages) that comes in through the LSA unit
In 2025, published LSA benchmarks show lead costs like:
- $30–$40+ for lower-value trades
- $60–$100+ for higher-value ones like roofing or HVAC in busy markets
Junk removal and dumpster rental usually land on the
lower to middle end of that spectrum, but it can still sting if the lead mix is full of:
- Single mattress pickups
- “Can you haul one couch for $50?”
- Free scrap metal requests
- People shopping five companies and ghosting you
Zero-click summary: Local Services Ads charge you when the phone actually rings or a message comes in. Great in theory — but profit depends 100% on how good those jobs are and how sharp your intake is.
Getting into LSA (2025 snapshot)
To get into LSAs, you still need to:
- Sign up through Google’s Local Services Ads portal
- Complete background checks for the business and sometimes key employees
- Upload licenses and certificates where required
- Provide proof of insurance
- Build out a profile with services, service areas, and photos
Once approved, you:
- Set a weekly budget
- Choose bidding mode (max per lead or automated)
- Get charged for each “valid” lead that meets Google’s criteria
For haulers and dumpster companies, LSAs
can work — especially in markets where there aren’t many competitors yet. But once the category fills up, lead quality can get weird fast.
Why Intent-Based Search Still Beats “Distraction Ads”
This part hasn’t changed at all — if anything, it’s more true today. If someone types
“junk removal near me,” “garage cleanout service,” “dumpster rental for roof tear-off,” you want to be in front of that person. They have a clear problem and they’re looking for someone to solve it.
That is
intent.
Compare that to:
- A random Facebook ad while they’re scrolling
- A display ad on a news site
- A YouTube pre-roll in front of a music video
Those people might be homeowners, might be local, might need you one day, but
they are not actively searching for “get this pile out of my driveway this week.”
For small junk removal and dumpster rental companies with limited budget:
Every dollar you spend away from intent-based search is a dollar you aren’t putting in front of someone who’s ready to book.
Short version:
focus your firepower where people are already raising their hand.
Why I Usually Don’t Recommend Running Google Ads and LSA at the Same Time
There’s a popular line you’ll hear: “Run both and own the whole page.”
Sounds good. For a national franchise with big budgets, staff, and serious systems, that can work.
But for most junk removal and dumpster rental owners, running Google Ads and LSAs simultaneously creates three big problems.
1. Double charging
A real-world flow looks like this:
- Customer searches “junk removal near me”
- Sees your LSA card at the top, notices your name and reviews
- Scrolls down
- Sees your Google Ad using similar wording
- Clicks the ad and later calls
You just:
- Paid for the
click on Google Ads
- Paid for the
lead through LSAs
Same customer. Two charges.
2. Budget dilution
Most haulers are not dropping $5k–$10k a month on advertising. You might be working with $500, $1500, maybe $2500 if you’re aggressive.
If you split that between:
- Google Ads search
- Local Services Ads
…neither channel gets enough volume to really optimize.
- Fewer clicks per keyword
- Fewer leads per week
- Not enough data to know what’s actually working
Small budgets have to hit critical mass on ONE channel first before they earn the right to split.
3. Complexity you don’t need
You’re already:
- Quoting jobs
- Handling dispatch
- Dealing with dumping fees
- Managing crews
- Maintaining trucks and containers
Now add:
- Two Google dashboards
- Two billing models
- Two lead sources to track
Most of the broken setups I audit are not failing because “Google doesn’t work.” They’re failing because the owner’s attention is split across too many tools and nothing gets the focus it needs.
Zero-click summary: Until one of these channels is clearly profitable and stable, most junk removal and dumpster rental companies are better off choosing
one primary search channel and mastering it.
Google Ads vs LSA Costs in 2025 (Junk + Dumpster Perspective)
Let’s talk money the way a hauler actually thinks about it.
Google Ads (Search)
- Average cost per click across industries: around
$5–$5.50
- Average CPC for home services: around
$7.85LocaliQ
- Realistic range I see for junk/dumpster keywords:
$5–$10 per click depending on market and competition
If you:
- Spend $750 in a month
- Pay $7.50 per click
- Get ~100 clicks
- Convert 10–20 of those into real leads (10–20% conversion, with a strong page)
- Close 30–50% of those into jobs
You’re looking at:
- 3–10 booked jobs from that $750
- Effective cost per booked job:
$75–$250
If your average profit per job is
$250–$600 (full-load junk jobs, decent dumpster rentals), those numbers can still work extremely well.
Local Services Ads
Published data across trades shows LSA leads hitting:
- $30–$40 on the low end
- $60–$100+ for higher-value or more competitive categories
For junk removal and dumpster rental, a lot of markets land around:
- $30–$60 per lead (your mileage may vary)
If you:
- Spend $900 in a month
- Pay $45 per lead on average
- Get 20 leads
- Close 30–50% of them into jobs
You’re looking at:
- 6–10 booked jobs from that $900
- Effective cost per booked job:
$90–$150
On paper, that’s fine. But here’s the catch that burns a lot of haulers:
- If too many of those leads are
low-ticket jobs (single item, long drive, super small load)
- Or
time-wasters (no-shows, “free pickup?” people, serial shoppers)
…your effective profit per job gets crushed.
Zero-click summary: Neither platform is “cheap” anymore. Profit comes from matching the right channel to your margins, your close rate, and your ability to filter and follow up.
How I’d Decide as a Junk Removal or Dumpster Rental Owner
If I were starting over today with a truck, a few dumpsters, and a limited budget, here’s exactly how I’d think about it.
Dial in Google Ads Search first
- Tight keyword list: “junk removal + city,” “dumpster rental + city,” “roll off dumpster,” “construction debris removal,” “estate cleanout,” etc.
- Aggressive negatives: “trash pickup,” “city dump,” “free dump day,” “garbage collection,” etc.
- Solid mobile landing page with form above the fold
- Tracking: calls, forms, booked jobs
Watch three numbers religiously
- Cost per lead
- Close rate
- Cost per booked job
Once you’re profitable and steady on search
- Consider testing LSAs in your market
- Start with a modest budget
- Track lead type: load size, distance, profit, repeat potential
- Keep both only if the
profit supports it, not just the “lead volume”
If you can’t confidently tell me your cost per booked job by channel, you’re not ready to run both Google Ads and LSAs at the same time.
Reflection
After more than a decade in the hauling world and now working directly with junk removal and dumpster rental owners across the country, my opinion has only gotten simpler:
- Small service businesses don’t have the budget to play the brand game.
- We can’t afford to fund “awareness” campaigns and hope it turns into work.
- Our ads have to be seen by people who are ready to book now or in the near future.
For most haulers, that means:
Pick one high-intent search channel. Learn it. Track it. Make it profitable. Then consider adding the second.
Google Ads vs Local Services Ads isn’t about which one is “better in general.” It’s about which one is better for
your margins, your market, and your current level of operational discipline.
If this hits close to home and you’re tired of guessing whether your Google Ads or LSAs are actually working, you’re not alone. Most of the accounts I see inside HaulingHubb and through Adimize are a mess before we simplify them.
You don’t need a fancy funnel. You need:
- Clear intent-based campaigns
- A landing experience that doesn’t leak leads
- A follow-up system that respects your time and your customers
If you want help untangling your junk removal or dumpster rental campaigns, this is exactly what I do every week.
P.S.
When I wrote the first version of this breakdown a year ago, I knew costs were rising. I didn’t expect them to climb this quickly.
What hasn’t changed is the pattern:
The haulers who win are the ones who stay disciplined.
They ignore the noise, commit to intent-based search, build real systems around it, and refuse to let Google’s “suggested changes” jerk their strategy around every month.
If this gives you the nudge to tighten up your ads instead of turning them off and saying “advertising doesn’t work,” it did its job.
FAQ Section
Is Google Ads or Local Services Ads better for a junk removal company?
If you’re working with a limited budget and don’t have a full-time marketing person,
Google Ads Search is usually the better starting point. You get more control over keywords, see what people are actually searching, and can improve your landing page and follow-up over time. LSAs can be a great add-on later once you’ve got a profitable, trackable system in place.
Can I run Google Ads and Local Services Ads at the same time for dumpster rentals?
You can — and some bigger outfits do it successfully. The problem for most smaller dumpster rental companies is
budget dilution and double charging. If you’re under a few thousand a month in ad spend, it’s usually smarter to get one channel clearly profitable before splitting that budget between two.
Are Local Services Ads worth it for junk removal in 2025?
They can be. In markets where LSAs aren’t overcrowded and your average job size is solid, LSAs can bring in high-intent calls at a cost per booked job that makes sense. In crowded markets, or when your lead mix is full of low-ticket jobs, LSAs often feel expensive and frustrating. The only way to know is to track
profit per booked job, not just “cost per lead.”
What’s a good cost per booked job for junk removal or dumpster rental from Google Ads?
Work backward from your numbers. If your average profit per job is $300 and you’re willing to spend up to $100 to get that job, that’s your ceiling. In many markets, a well-run Google Ads campaign can land booked jobs in the $75–$150 range. The key is knowing your own close rate and tightening your landing page and follow-up so you’re not wasting the clicks you’re already paying for.
