Google Announces End of Local Services Ads Dashboard

Google has officially announced that they are folding the popular Local Services Ads (LSA) product into Google Ads. As a result, the standalone LSA dashboard is going away, and existing pay-per-lead campaigns are migrating into a specialized Performance Max campaign type built specifically for pay-per-lead goals. This is a platform change, not a change to how the product works for your business, but there are real mechanics shifting underneath it that are worth understanding before your account’s migration date arrives.

Here’s What’s Changing

The core of Local Services Ads carries over as-is. Pay-per-lead billing, Search and Maps-only placement, and keyword-less targeting all remain the same. Despite the Performance Max name, these campaigns won’t expand into Display, YouTube, Gmail, or other Google properties the way a standard Performance Max campaign would. They keep the same reach LSA always had. What does change is where you manage everything. Campaign management, leads, and calls move out of the separate LSA dashboard and into Google Ads. On your account’s migration day, logging into the old LSA dashboard will simply redirect you into Google Ads. A few mechanics change with the move:

• Manual bidding and vertical-level cost targets are being retired in favor of a single campaign-level target.
• Weekly budgets convert to a daily average, which is worth watching if your account runs on a limited schedule.
• Historical performance reports do not carry over automatically. Google is encouraging advertisers to export and archive this data before their migration date.
• Better Business Bureau callouts are being removed as part of the transition.
• Business updates now sync in real time. Changes to your Google Business Profile, including details and photos, will automatically update your campaign.

Your Google Guarantee or Google Screened badge, lead history, and pay-per-lead pricing all carry forward without any action needed on your part.

Rollout Timeline & Implications for Your Business

The migration is phased. It begins in August 2026 with a limited group of US home and storefront service categories, including pest control and appliance repair, and expands to broader groups through late 2026, reaching remaining categories and non-US accounts in 2027. Google notifies account admins by email 14 days before migration, with a banner in the LSA dashboard and a follow-up reminder 7 days out. The automated settings transfer covers locations, service types, budget, and ad schedule. Expect up to two weeks after migration for performance to fully stabilize. For most advertisers, this is a low-effort transition, but a few things are worth doing ahead of your migration date rather than after it:

• Export your historical Local Services Ads performance data before migration. It won’t carry over automatically, and you’ll want it intact for year-over-year and seasonal comparisons.
• If your account runs on a restricted schedule, such as certain days or hours only, review your budget setup ahead of time. The way weekly budgets convert to daily averages can affect pacing for accounts that aren’t running every day of the week.
• Give performance a couple of weeks to stabilize after migration before drawing conclusions from early data.

The Bigger Picture

This migration continues a pattern Google has followed for the past two years, folding standalone local advertising tools into its central platforms rather than maintaining them separately. At the same time, paid placement is taking up a larger share of local search results than it did even a year ago, so how well local paid visibility is managed matters more, not less, even as the tools consolidate.

In Summary

This is Google consolidating its local advertising tools, not a change to what Local Services Ads does for your business. The pay-per-lead model, placement, and targeting you rely on stay the same. The parts worth your attention are operational: export your historical data before your migration date, check your budget setup if you run on a limited schedule, and give performance time to settle once the move happens. If you have questions or concerns, reach out directly to your strategy team if you’re a Location3 partner. If you’d like to learn how we can ensure your Local Services Ads deliver better ROI going forward, contact us here.