Google Is Moving Local Services Ads Into Google Ads | What Changes and What to Do

Google is migrating Local Services Ads into the Google Ads interface, restructuring them as Performance Max campaigns optimised for pay-per-lead goals. The transition begins with a limited group of US advertisers in August 2026 and will extend to remaining US accounts later in 2026 and to international accounts through 2027.

The move consolidates campaign management, lead handling, and reporting into a single platform. It also changes several workflows that Local Services advertisers have managed separately for years, including bidding structure, budget intervals, and how Target CPA is configured.

What Stays the Same

Despite the Performance Max campaign label, the core mechanics of Local Services Ads remain in place after migration.

The campaigns will keep the same reach as Local Services Ads. They will remain keywordless and appear exclusively on Search and Maps. The billing model continues on a pay-per-lead basis, covering calls, messages, and bookings rather than clicks.

For advertisers whose primary concern is whether the migration changes how and where their ads appear, the answer is that it does not. The reach and billing remain consistent with what Local Services Ads have always provided.

What Changes After Migration

The management layer changes significantly. Advertisers will handle everything through Google Ads rather than the separate Local Services Ads dashboard, which will be retired for each account once migration completes.

Budget intervals. Local Services Ads currently use an average weekly budget. After migration, advertisers will manage an average daily budget, consistent with how all other Google Ads campaigns operate.

Bidding. Manual bidding, which some Local Services advertisers have used to set a maximum cost per lead, will no longer be supported. All campaigns will operate on automated bidding following migration.

Target CPA structure. Currently, advertisers can set different Target CPA amounts by service category. After migration, Google calculates one campaign-level Target CPA across all categories. Vertical-level Target CPA will be deprecated. Advertisers whose services carry very different lead costs will need to evaluate whether a single campaign-level target is workable or whether creating separate campaigns per service category is the more appropriate structure.

Business Profile syncing. Business names, physical addresses, and standard hours will sync automatically from Google Business Profile after migration. Significant changes to those details may trigger a verification review and temporarily pause the campaign for 24 to 48 hours.

Lead management. The existing Local Services Ads inbox is replaced by Lead Manager within Google Ads. Advertisers will review, respond to, and dispute leads from within the Google Ads interface.

BBB callouts. Google no longer supports BBB callouts and recommends that advertisers prepare at least six alternative callouts ahead of migration.

Historical reporting. Historical performance reports do not transfer to Google Ads. Lead histories will transfer, but dashboard access to historical reports ends after migration. This is the most time-sensitive action item ahead of the transition.

The Migration Timeline

Google will begin moving a small group of US advertisers in August 2026. The initial group includes businesses across pet care, home services, wellness, and education. Google’s help documentation lists several home and storefront categories scheduled for the first phase.

The rollout will expand to more US advertisers later in 2026. Non-US accounts and remaining business categories will follow in 2027.

Account administrators will receive notice 14 days before migration, followed by a second reminder seven days later, and a confirmation when migration completes.

What to Do Before Migration

Download historical reports immediately. This is the action that cannot be undone after migration. Historical performance data in the Local Services Ads dashboard will become inaccessible once an account moves. Reports needed for year-over-year comparisons, client reporting, or internal benchmarking must be exported before migration begins. Agencies managing multiple Local Services accounts should treat this as a standing task to complete before the first migration notices arrive.

Review your Target CPA structure. For advertisers running campaigns that cover services with meaningfully different lead costs, the shift to a single campaign-level Target CPA requires a decision. Compare lead volume, cost per lead, close rate, and customer value across service categories before migration. Where the difference is significant enough to warrant separate bidding, creating individual campaigns per service category is the appropriate response, though each campaign will need sufficient lead volume for the algorithm to optimise effectively.

Prepare alternative callouts. BBB callouts will no longer be available after migration. Preparing at least six alternative callouts before migration ensures that ad content remains complete when the account moves over.

Verify Business Profile accuracy. Since business name, address, and standard hours will sync from Google Business Profile after migration, confirming that information is accurate and current ahead of the transition reduces the risk of triggering a verification review at a commercially sensitive time.

What to Review After Migration

Google will transfer campaign settings automatically, but the settings should be verified after the move completes. Daily budget, campaign-level Target CPA, service categories and locations, ad schedule, lead-routing phone number, photos, and callouts all warrant a check against the intended configuration.

Google says some ads may begin running immediately after migration. Advertisers should allow up to two weeks for migration and performance to stabilise before drawing conclusions about how the new structure is performing.

The Open Questions

The unified Target CPA is the element of this migration that carries the most uncertainty for multi-service advertisers. How a single campaign-level target performs across service categories with different underlying economics will vary considerably by account, and the first migration cohort will provide the initial data on how Google’s algorithm navigates that complexity.

Google has indicated it will monitor the first group of migrated accounts before expanding the rollout further. As more advertisers move through the transition and performance data accumulates, the picture of how to structure Local Services campaigns within Google Ads will become clearer. The official support documentation at support.google.com is the most reliable reference for the latest guidance as the migration progresses.