How to link Google Business Profile to Google Ads: what to check

1. How to connect your Business Profile to Google Ads
2. What linking won't do, and where it gets confusing
3. What our recorded answers show about ads, listings and lead pages
4. How to set it up so ads and listings help each other
5. Questions owners ask
6. How we got these numbers
7. Sources
8. See it on your own website

How to connect your Business Profile to Google Ads

You link the two from inside Google Ads, not from your Business Profile. Google Ads sends a request, and whoever owns or manages the profile approves it. Here are the steps as Google describes them ¹.

1. In Google Ads, open the Campaigns menu and go to Assets.
2. Select the plus button, then Location, then Our locations.
3. If you manage the profile with the same Google account, choose the option to link a Business Profile you manage and pick it from the list.
4. If someone else manages it, search for your business by its web address and pick the matching profile. Google sends the request to the email address on that profile.
5. Once the request is approved, your locations can show with your ads.

If you own the profile and an agency runs your ads, the request reaches you. In Business Profile Manager, open Requests to approve or decline it. Linked ad accounts can't edit your business information, and you can unlink them at any time ². Google Ads can take a day or two to pick up the link, or a later edit to your hours or address ³.

What the link actually does

Linking turns on what Google calls location assets. Your ads can then show your address, a map or the distance to your business ¹. Google takes that information, including your phone number and hours, straight from your Business Profile and Google Maps ⁴. The link is also what makes your ads eligible for Google Maps ad formats, such as promoted pins and ads at the top of a map search ⁵. Google's local ads can also pull your star rating and photos from the profile ⁶.

The link doesn't create a new listing. Your ads reuse the facts on the one you have, mistakes included.

Local Services Ads are a separate product

Many contractors also hear about Local Services Ads, which Google shows prominently in some searches for trades such as HVAC and electrical work. You pay for leads, such as calls and messages, rather than for clicks ⁷. To run them you need a public, verified Business Profile, and Google matches your ad account to it ⁸. The person completing the sign-up checks must be an owner or manager of that profile. Google also screens the business, which can include license, insurance and background checks ⁹.

The Google Maps app route may not apply to you

Google also offers a quick way to start an ad campaign from the Business tab in the Google Maps app. Google says service-area businesses aren't eligible for that route ¹⁰. A contractor who travels to customers and hides its address is usually set up as a service-area business. If that is you, use Google Ads directly.

What linking won't do, and where it gets confusing

Ads don't raise your unpaid ranking

Many owners hope otherwise, but Google says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking ¹¹. Its Google Ads help says the same about regular search results: investment in paid search has no impact on your organic ranking, and Google keeps its search and advertising businesses separate ¹². An ad can put you at the top of the page while it runs. It doesn't move your listing in the free results underneath.

Your profile's numbers mix paid and unpaid

Your Business Profile performance report counts views, searches and actions from both unpaid results and Google Ads ¹³. So when calls from your profile rise during a campaign, the report alone can't tell you whether the ads or something else did it. Google Ads has a report that shows paid and unpaid search side by side. It needs your Search Console account linked, and it covers text ads only ¹².

Phone numbers can work against you

Google Ads can show a Google forwarding number in your ads, so it can count the calls. That number belongs to Google and can change. Google says not to copy it or promote it outside your ads. When no local number is available, the forwarding number may be toll-free ¹⁴.

Your Business Profile has its own rules. Google asks for a phone number under your direct control, a local number rather than a call center line where possible, and no numbers that redirect to anyone other than your business ¹⁵. You can add up to two extra numbers beside your main one ¹⁶. As our research below shows, a toll-free number on your website can make Claude wonder whether you're a local company at all.

Ads are moving into AI answers, with a label

Google already shows ads above, below and inside AI Overviews. Advertisers can't opt out of the placement inside them, and Google Ads doesn't report it separately ¹⁷. In May 2026 Google said it was testing new ad formats in AI Mode. One places a relevant ad inside a list of recommendations, labeled as sponsored ¹⁸.

In January 2026 OpenAI said it would start testing ads in ChatGPT for logged-in U.S. adults on its free and Go plans. It says ads are separate, clearly labeled and don't influence ChatGPT's answers ¹⁹. Anthropic says Claude will stay ad-free and that advertisers won't influence its answers ²⁰. So a paid spot next to an AI answer is one thing. Being named in the answer is another, and only ads can be bought.

A hidden address can block location assets

Google asks a service-area business run from a home address to hide that address on its profile ¹⁵. Google's troubleshooting page for location assets lists the street address line as required ³. We couldn't find a Google page that says how a hidden address affects location assets. If your locations don't appear in Google Ads after a couple of days, ask Google Ads support before you change your profile.

Local Services Ads lean on your profile too

Reviews for Local Services Ads are managed through your Business Profile, not the ad account ²¹. If you sign up from your profile, your name, address and location type come from the profile. Changes you make in the ad account don't flow back to it ²². Where you rank among those ads depends on your bid and profile quality: your rating, review count, how fast you respond and the checks you've passed ²³.

What our recorded answers show about ads, listings and lead pages

Between September 2 and October 14, 2026, we asked ChatGPT, Claude and Google AI Mode to recommend a local contractor 47,209 times: ChatGPT 19,577, Claude 16,358 and Google AI Mode 11,274. The questions covered HVAC, plumbing, electrical and roofing jobs in towns around Tampa Bay, Florida. We didn't run any ads ourselves. These answers show what assistants said and linked, not what an ad campaign would change.

When assistants say “advertises,” they mean your pages

In 13,834 of 35,935 ChatGPT and Claude answers (38%), the assistant said a business “advertises” something, such as a specific job, 24-hour service or a town served. We read a random sample of those sentences by hand. In 25 of 25, the word meant what the business says on its own website or listing. Not one meant a paid ad.

I didn't find anyone who advertises faucet installation specifically, so ask each one about it when you call.

For an assistant, advertising a job means writing it down where the assistant can read it. A paid campaign doesn't do that for you.

Claude warned about pages that looked like lead generation

A lead-generation site collects a customer's call or request and passes it to whichever contractor pays. Claude warned that a result looked like one of these, or like a call center, in 2,047 of its answers (13%). ChatGPT did so in 0.6% of its answers and Google AI Mode in 0.3%. As with other gaps, Claude says what worried it, and the others mostly don't. We read a random sample of the matching sentences by hand: 25 of 25 were real warnings.

I found no company with a verified booking, and most of the phone numbers come from lead-generation pages that may route you to a call center rather than a local crew.

I couldn't confirm that, and sites like this are sometimes lead-generation pages that pass your request to whoever pays.

Of Claude's warnings, 22% pointed to a toll-free number and 40% to a generic or templated page, such as one page per city on a generic web address. In 533 answers (26%), Claude said it left such results out or would skip them. In others it told the customer to ask who would actually do the work.

Some of these numbers may go to a call center that dispatches to a partner plumber, so ask for the company name and a license number.

Why this matters for advertisers: a landing page built only for ads can share these traits. It may have a toll-free tracking number, no address or license and a template copied for each town. Google's search spam policy also names pages targeted at specific cities that funnel visitors to one page as doorway abuse ²⁴. We can't say that any real contractor was left out for its ad page. We can say what Claude treated as a warning sign.

Paid placements in directories

Claude also warned in 165 answers that a directory ranking or listing it used was paid or sponsored, so it shouldn't be trusted on its own. Our word rules found 0 such warnings in ChatGPT's answers. Claude usually told the customer to check reviews on Google or the BBB instead.

Ad badges were rarely mentioned

Only 25 of 47,209 answers mentioned Google's Local Services badge. All 25 used the name Google Guaranteed. Google's help pages now call it the Google Verified badge ⁷. The badge may matter to customers in Google Search. In these answers it was almost never a reason given.

Where the answers sent people

In 74% of Google AI Mode's 9,819 job answers, the links opened Google's own business listing. That listing is your Business Profile, the same one your ads draw on. ChatGPT and Claude worked differently: 98% of their 31,742 job answers linked to at least one contractor's own website. Your profile and your website both need to say the same things.

What our earlier study found

From late July to August 2026, we recorded the reasons assistants gave for naming or leaving out each business they considered, 1,251 different reasons in all. Several bear on ads and listings:

• A direct local phone number that a person answers came up in 290 conversations and cost a business its place in 147 of them.
• The same name, phone and address across independent listings came up in 79 conversations and cost a business its place in 37.
• 105 different reasons were about telling a company that does the work apart from a lead-generation, referral, marketplace or directory page.
• Only 4 reasons mentioned sponsored listings or advertising, and none came up in more than 1 conversation.

One conversation can involve several reasons, so these counts overlap and should never be added together. They show what assistants said they weighed. They don't prove that changing one thing would change who gets named.

How to set it up so ads and listings help each other

1. Decide who owns what before you link anything

Keep the Business Profile owned by a Google account the business controls. Give an agency manager access, not ownership. Write down who can change the ad budget and who approves it. If the relationship ends, you can unlink their ad account from Business Profile Manager ².

2. Fix the profile first

Your ads will repeat whatever your profile says ⁴. Check your name, main phone number, hours, categories, services and service area before linking. Google also asks businesses to keep Business Profile information up to date for its AI features ²⁵. Mark nothing as closed unless it is. Google won't show location assets for a location marked closed ⁴.

3. Link the accounts and confirm it worked

Follow the steps at the top of this guide. Approve the request in Business Profile Manager if it comes to you. After a day or two, open Assets in Google Ads, choose Location and check that your business appears ³. If it doesn't, check that the profile is verified before you try unlinking and relinking.

4. Choose one phone plan and stick to it

• Make a local number your business controls the main number on your profile, your website and your directory listings.
• Let Google Ads use its forwarding numbers inside the ads only, and don't print them anywhere else ¹⁴.
• If you use other tracking numbers, add them as extra numbers rather than replacing your main one ¹⁶.
• Avoid toll-free numbers on your own pages where you can. Claude often treated them as a sign of a lead-generation site.

5. Send ads to a real page about the job

Point each ad at the page on your own site that covers that job. It should carry your business name, license number, the towns you serve and your local phone number. Google's ad policy says a destination should be functional, useful and easy to navigate ²⁶. A page like that also gives assistants the facts they look for. A thin page per town does neither.

6. Keep paid and unpaid results apart

• Add campaign tags (utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign) to your ad links and to the website link on your profile, so Google Analytics can tell them apart ²⁷.
• Link Search Console to Google Ads and use the paid and organic report for search ads ¹².
• Remember that your profile's performance report includes ad activity ¹³.
• Ask every caller how they found you, and write down the dates a campaign starts and stops.

A rise in calls during a campaign doesn't prove your website changes worked, and a fall afterwards doesn't prove they failed. Compare like with like: the same weeks, with and without ads.

7. If you try Local Services Ads, treat the profile as part of the ad

Verify your profile first, and make sure the person signing up is an owner or manager ⁹. Ask for reviews through your profile, since that is where these ads' reviews live ²¹. Answer calls and messages quickly, because missed calls can hurt where your ad ranks ²³.

8. Judge ads by booked jobs, not by AI mentions

Measure an ad campaign by what it costs per booked job. Judge your unpaid presence separately: how often assistants name you across the same questions, asked on several days. Ads may put you beside an AI answer. We found nothing from these companies saying an ad changes which businesses the answer names. OpenAI says ads don't influence ChatGPT's answers, Anthropic says Claude has no ads, and Google labels its AI ads as sponsored ¹⁹²⁰¹⁸.

Questions owners ask

How do I link my Google Business Profile to Google Ads?

In Google Ads, open the Campaigns menu, go to Assets, select the plus button, then Location, then Our locations. Pick your Business Profile, or search for it by your web address. The profile's owner gets a request to approve in Business Profile Manager. Once approved, your ads can show your address, hours and phone number from the profile.

Does paying for Google Ads improve my Google Maps ranking?

No. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and that paid search has no impact on organic ranking. Ads can appear at the top of a map or search while the campaign runs, but your listing in the free results below is ranked separately.

Will Google Ads get my business recommended by ChatGPT or other AI?

Not directly. OpenAI says ads don't influence ChatGPT's answers, and Anthropic says Claude is ad-free. Google labels ads in its AI features as sponsored. Assistants name businesses from what they can read on websites and listings, so clear pages and an accurate Business Profile matter more than ad spend.

What is the difference between Local Services Ads and Google Ads?

Local Services Ads charge per lead, such as a call or message, and Google shows them prominently in some local searches. They require a verified Business Profile and Google's screening, which can include license and insurance checks. Regular Google Ads usually charge per click and use your linked profile for location details.

Should I put a call tracking number on my Google Business Profile?

Keep a local number you control as the main number. Google asks for a number under your direct control and warns against numbers that redirect elsewhere. You can add up to two extra numbers. Google's own forwarding numbers from Google Ads should stay inside the ads, because they belong to Google and can change.

Can my ad agency change my Business Profile if I link it?

Not through the link. Google says linked advertising accounts can't edit your business information, though Google Ads can use it in your ads. You approve or decline link requests in Business Profile Manager and can unlink an account at any time. Keep ownership of the profile in the business's own account.

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