Your Local Services Ads Are Moving to Google Ads. Here's What to Do

If you run Local Services Ads, Google is moving your account into Google Ads. You are not being pushed into a normal pay-per-click Performance Max campaign. Google says the migrated campaign keeps the pay-per-lead model and continues to appear on Google Search and Maps. The important part is simpler: save the reports you care about, watch for the migration email, then learn where your budget, leads, and settings live in the new dashboard.

What Google is changing

Google calls the new setup a Performance Max campaign with pay-per-lead goals. The name is a mouthful, but it is not the same as the usual Performance Max campaign that can run across YouTube, Gmail, and the Display Network.

For a migrated Local Services Ads account, Google says ads will keep showing only on Search and Maps, in the same places they did before. You still pay for valid leads such as calls, messages, and bookings, not for every click. Google's migration guide is clear on both points.

What changes is where you manage it. The separate Local Services Ads dashboard goes away after your account migrates. Google Ads becomes the place to check the campaign, respond to leads, change service areas, adjust schedules, and review your budget.

When will your account move?

Google began moving selected U.S. home and storefront service advertisers in August 2026. That first group includes plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control, and moving. Google says broader U.S. groups follow later in 2026, with remaining categories and non-U.S. accounts moving in 2027.

You do not need to guess at your day. Google says the account administrator gets an email 14 days before migration, a final reminder seven days later, and a dashboard banner. Make sure the person who can act on that email is still an account administrator.

Save your old performance reports first

This is the part I would not put off. Google says old Local Services Ads performance reports will not transfer into Google Ads. It plans to offer downloads from the redirect page, but says to take screenshots if you need the reports right away.

Before your migration date, save the information you use to judge the account:

• Lead count and charged-lead count
• Cost per lead and budget history
• Service categories and service areas
• Any notes on which lead types actually turn into jobs

The first three are easy to export or capture. The last one often lives in your CRM, call notes, or somebody's memory. Pull it together now. A dashboard can tell you a lead was charged. It cannot tell you whether that lead turned into a good customer unless you track that separately.

Expect a few controls to work differently

Google says your locations, service types, business categories, budget limits, schedule, and business photos transfer automatically. That is good news, but it does not mean there is nothing to review.

Manual bidding, including a maximum cost per lead, will no longer be supported. Google also removes separate Target CPA amounts for different business categories inside one campaign. Its guidance is to use separate campaigns if you need different bidding rules for different verticals.

That is worth a real conversation if, for example, you offer both plumbing and HVAC and treat them as different businesses from an advertising point of view. Do not assume the new default target fits both just because the settings arrived automatically.

Where your leads and settings go

After migration, Google says the old dashboard redirects to the campaign overview in Google Ads. The Leads view is where you will find calls, messages, and lead feedback. You can review budgets and bidding targets in the campaign settings, and service areas, schedules, and categories there as well.

One detail matters for owners who rely on their Business Profile. Google says the targeting settings for the new campaign operate independently after migration. Changing a campaign service area should not require changing the organic information on your Business Profile. Still, check both carefully before making changes. They serve different jobs, and it is easy to fix one thing while accidentally changing another.

Do not confuse this with regular Performance Max

The word "Performance Max" makes plenty of owners nervous, and fairly so. Standard Performance Max campaigns can spread across Google's wider ad network and charge by click. Google's Local Services migration is narrower: pay-per-lead goals, Search and Maps placement, and no keyword management.

That does not make it hands-off. You still need to watch lead quality, budget, service areas, and whether someone answers the phone. It just means the migration itself is not a reason to throw away an account that was producing good leads.

If your ads are already hard to understand, start with the basics in my guide to Google Ads for contractors. If you are deciding whether to keep paying marketplaces while you sort this out, the math on buying leads from Angi and HomeAdvisor is also worth a look.

A short migration checklist

1. Confirm the right person is the account administrator and will see Google's email.
2. Save the Local Services Ads reports you need before the migration date.
3. Write down your current budget, service areas, categories, and the lead types that matter.
4. After the move, check the budget, schedule, service areas, and lead inbox in Google Ads.
5. Give the campaign time to settle, but do not ignore a sudden change in lead quality or cost.

Google says some ads will begin running right away, while the migration process and campaign performance can take up to two weeks to fully settle. That is a reason to pay attention, not a reason to panic.

Need another set of eyes on the move?

If you run Local Services Ads and want to make sure the new Google Ads setup still matches how your business sells, I can review the account, the landing page, and the lead path with you. Get in touch and tell me which trade you are in and what has changed in the dashboard.