Local Services Ads are moving into Google Ads
Starting August 2026, Google is folding Local Services Ads into Google Ads as a pay-per-lead Performance Max campaign. The separate dashboard goes away, the history does not come with it, and the settings that were set once and forgotten are about to matter again. We handle the move — for agencies under your brand, or for the business directly.
The leads stay pay-per-lead. Almost everything around them changes
Local Services Ads were the one Google product a plumber or a roofer could run alone: a checklist, a weekly budget, a phone that rang, and a bill only for the leads that counted. That model is staying. What is going is the standalone dashboard it lived in. Each account is being migrated into Google Ads as a new Performance Max campaign type with a pay-per-lead goal, sitting alongside Search and everything else.
Three things make that more than a change of address. Manual bidding and the vertical-level target cost per lead are being retired, so the bid setting most accounts have never touched gets replaced. Weekly budgets become daily averages, divided by seven, which changes how spend pacing feels from the first month. And historical performance reports do not transfer: if nobody downloads them before the account moves, the record of what the ads did for the last three years is gone.
The rollout began in August 2026 with US home and storefront services — plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and moving — then service-area businesses later in 2026, and the remaining categories and countries through 2027. Google emails fourteen days before an account moves, and again at seven. That is the whole warning period.
- 14 daysNotice before an account migrates. A second reminder at seven. Miss both emails and the first sign is a login redirect to Google Ads.
- ÷7What happens to the weekly budget. It becomes a daily average, and the monthly cap becomes daily × 30.4, so pacing changes even when the total does not.
- 0Historical performance reports carried across. Lead history moves; the reporting that shows what the money bought does not.
- 6+Structured callouts Google suggests adding, because the Better Business Bureau callout is no longer supported after the move.
Source: Google Ads Help, Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max. Timeline and details as published August 2026.
The migration checklist, dated and versioned
Seven pages, four stages: before any email arrives, when the fourteen-day notice lands, first login after the move, and the first thirty days. Every item is built on Google’s own transition notes, with a what-transfers table and a per-account tracker for agencies running more than one.
It carries a version number and a verification date on the cover. When Google changes the schedule or the mechanics, a new version replaces it here, so check this page before relying on an older copy.
If you want the mechanics behind the list, read what the pay-per-lead Performance Max campaign actually does differently.
Who moves when
Phased, US first, category by category. An account can move any time inside its window once the fourteen-day email arrives.
August 2026
Select US home and storefront services: plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control, moving. Standard bidding configurations first.
Late 2026
Service-area businesses and accounts with custom bidding setups. This is where most multi-location trades and franchise units land.
2027
The remaining categories — legal, real estate, financial and the professional verticals — and accounts outside the United States.
After each move
The LSA dashboard redirects to Google Ads. Verification carries over, insurance and license checks are not repeated, and Business Profile details sync into the campaign automatically.
What we do for each account
The same sequence whether it is one plumber or a portfolio of forty trade accounts. Each step is written down so it can be handed to a client, or presented as yours.
Export first, before anything moves
Every performance report the old dashboard will show, downloaded and filed per account, with lead history reconciled against it. Done the day we get access, not the day the email arrives.
Settings review on first login
Google asks advertisers to review campaign settings when they first open the migrated account. We do that review line by line: service categories, service areas, hours, job types, callouts, and whatever the old dashboard was quietly defaulting.
Budgets and bids re-done for the new model
The weekly budget becomes a daily average and the old manual or vertical target-CPL bid disappears. We set the pay-per-lead goal and the daily figure on purpose, then watch the first month’s pacing rather than assuming the conversion held.
Lead quality, disputes and the Business Profile
Pay-per-lead only works if bad leads are disputed inside the window and the profile that now feeds the campaign is accurate. We run both on a schedule, and the profile work is the same discipline we bring to local SEO for the trades.
Your trade clients are about to ask you about this
If you serve home-service businesses — a marketing agency with roofers and HVAC companies on the books, a consultant to a trade association, a franchise support office — the migration lands on your desk whether or not Google Ads is something you sell. The client gets an email with fourteen days on it and calls the person they already pay.
We run the migration and the ongoing pay-per-lead management under your brand. You keep the client, the contract and the margin; we keep out of sight. Reporting comes to you unbranded or in your template, and nothing is ever held in an account of ours. The full terms — NDA with non-solicit, month to month, one account minimum — are on our white label page.
The offer to start with is simple: send us one account and we will come back with the export done and a written review of what the move will change for that business, free, within two business days. Take it to your client in your own words.
- ClearResults are counted in leads that were charged for, not in clicks or positions. The client can read the report without you translating it.
- UrgentA dated email from Google does the selling. The conversation is about who handles it, not whether it matters.
- VolumeNine trade categories in the first US wave alone. An agency with a home-services list has a portfolio, not a one-off.
- YoursInvoiced to you, presented by you, in your reporting. See the white label terms.
Quoted per account once we have seen it. A single-location plumber and a twelve-truck HVAC operation are not the same job.
The migration, answered plainly
Will we still only pay for leads?
Yes. The pay-per-lead model, the Search-and-Maps-only placement and the keywordless targeting by service category and area all carry across. What changes is where the campaign lives, how it is bid and budgeted, and what history you can see.
Does our Google Guaranteed or Screened badge survive the move?
Verification status carries over automatically, and Google has said insurance and license checks will not need to be repeated for the migration. The badge is tied to the business, not the dashboard.
What happens to the budget we set years ago?
The weekly amount is divided by seven and becomes a daily average. Daily spend can then fluctuate, with the monthly cap at the daily figure times 30.4. The total is broadly the same; the pacing is not, which is why we watch the first month rather than assume.
Can we keep running it ourselves after the migration?
Of course. The honest difference is that Google Ads is a larger interface than the LSA dashboard, and the new campaign type sits beside every other Google Ads feature. Some owners are fine with that; many are not, and that is usually the moment their agency gets the call.
We already have Search campaigns in the same Google Ads account. Do they conflict?
They can compete for the same searcher, and after the migration both are visible in one place for the first time, which is useful. Part of the settings review is deciding what each campaign is for so the pay-per-lead and pay-per-click sides are not bidding against each other for the same emergency call.
What if our account has not been migrated yet?
Then this is the cheap moment: export the history, tidy the categories and areas, and set expectations for the budget change before the email arrives. An account that goes in clean needs far less fixing on the other side. The checklist below is the list to run.
Send us one account before it moves
A free written review of what the migration changes for that business, with the history export done, back within two business days — and yours to keep, or to present, either way.
Get the free migration reviewRequest your free Local Services Ads review
Four quick fields — and written findings within two business days, yours to keep either way. Agencies: mention it is for a client and we will reply accordingly.