The short answer: Google announced it is shutting down the standalone Local Services Ads platform and folding LSA campaigns into Google Ads as a new Performance Max campaign type built for pay-per-lead goals. The migration starts in August 2026 for US home service categories like plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, lawn care, house cleaning, appliance repair, pest control, and moving. You still pay per lead, your ads still show only on Search and Maps, but your dashboard, your bidding options, and your reporting history are all changing. Here is what to do before your migration email arrives.
What is actually changing
Google published the details in its official migration announcement, and the trade press picked it up quickly, including a good breakdown at Search Engine Roundtable. The moving parts that matter to a home service business:
- The LSA dashboard goes away. Budgets, targeting, and lead inbox all move into Google Ads.
- Your reporting history does not come with you. Google says previous performance reports will not carry over. Export your lead and cost history before you are migrated.
- Weekly budgets become daily budgets. Google divides your average weekly budget by 7. Monthly spend stays capped at your daily budget times 30.4, but daily spend can swing on high-demand days.
- Manual bidding is gone. Setting a maximum cost per lead is no longer supported.
- Vertical-level target cost per lead is gone. If you ran different targets for, say, plumbing and HVAC under one campaign, Google will blend them into a single campaign-level target. If you want separate control per trade, you will need separate campaigns.
- Your Google Business Profile becomes the source of truth. Business name, address, and hours sync one way from your profile into Google Ads. Significant changes to name or address trigger a verification review that can pause your campaign for 24 to 48 hours.
- Better Business Bureau callouts are being dropped. Google recommends selecting at least 6 other structured callouts, such as hours, specialties, or payment methods.
What is not changing
Pay per lead stays. Placement stays: these campaigns will continue to show only on Google Search and Google Maps, in the same ad positions LSAs held. Targeting stays keywordless, driven by your service categories and service areas.
Five things to do before your migration email
Google will email you 14 days before your account moves. Do these now rather than during a busy season:
- Export your LSA history. Lead volume, cost per lead by month, and seasonal patterns. Once migrated, the old reports are gone, and that history is your only baseline for judging whether the new campaigns perform.
- Clean up your Google Business Profile. It will feed your campaign directly. Wrong hours, an old address, or a stale business name now carries ad consequences, including verification pauses. This matters double because profile quality already drives the map pack; if your profile needs work, our note on choosing HVAC marketing help covers what a healthy local presence looks like.
- Write down your current bidding logic. If you use a max cost per lead or different targets per trade, record them. You will need those numbers to sanity-check what the automated bidding does, and to decide whether to split trades into separate campaigns.
- Recheck your budget math. Daily budgets with a 30.4 multiplier cap behave differently from weekly caps. Know your monthly ceiling before the switch, and see our guide on how much a contractor should spend on marketing for where LSA spend should sit inside the bigger budget.
- Pick your callouts. If BBB accreditation was part of your ad, choose replacement callouts now so your ad does not thin out on migration day.
What this means strategically
Two reads. First, Google is consolidating local lead generation inside its automated bidding machinery, which usually means less manual control and more dependence on feeding the system good conversion data. Second, the one-way sync makes your Business Profile the foundation of your paid presence, not just your organic one. The businesses that come through this smoothly will be the ones with clean profiles, documented baselines, and someone actually watching cost per lead in the weeks after the switch. No agency, including us, can promise what the new campaign type will do to your cost per lead; anyone who guarantees results before the migration has even happened is guessing.
If you run HVAC, plumbing, painting, or another trade in North Jersey and want a second set of eyes on your setup before Google moves your account, ask us for a straight answer or call (831) 274-4480. We work with local businesses from our Dumont, NJ office.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google getting rid of Local Services Ads?
Google is retiring the separate Local Services Ads platform and dashboard, not the ads themselves. Campaigns are moving into Google Ads as a specialized Performance Max campaign type built for pay-per-lead goals. Your ads will still appear on Google Search and Google Maps in the same positions.
When will my Local Services Ads account move to Google Ads?
Google says the first phase begins in August 2026 for select US home and storefront service categories, including plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control, and moving. Broader groups follow in late 2026, and remaining categories plus non-US accounts move in 2027. Google emails each business 14 days before its migration.
Will I still pay per lead after the migration?
Yes. Google states the pay-per-lead model is not changing: you pay for valid leads such as calls and messages, not for clicks. What does change is bidding. Manual bidding and industry-level target cost per lead are being deprecated, so budgets shift to a daily model managed inside Google Ads.