The short version: starting August 2026, Google is folding Local Services Ads into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. You still pay per lead, the ads still show only on Search and Maps, and your old leads move with you. Your reports don't — the old dashboard gets retired, its history doesn't migrate, and Google emails you just 14 days before your turn. The checklist below is the whole job.
What's actually happening
LSA has always lived in its own dashboard, separate from Google Ads. That's ending. Google is moving every LSA account onto the Google Ads platform, wave by wave, under the name "Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals." Don't let the name spook you — despite what "Performance Max" means everywhere else, these campaigns keep LSA's reach: Search and Maps only, no YouTube, no banner ads.
| Wave | When | Who gets moved |
|---|---|---|
| First | August 2026 | US home and storefront service accounts: plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control, moving |
| Second | Late 2026 | Service-area businesses without storefronts; accounts with custom bidding or booking setups |
| Third | 2027 | Everyone else — remaining categories and accounts outside the US |
You don't pick your date — Google does. Your account admin gets an email 14 days before, a warning banner shows inside the dashboard, and a final reminder lands 7 days out. If the admin email on the account is one nobody reads, fix that today.
What stays, what changes
Most of what made LSA worth running survives the move. The billing model isn't changing — the furniture around it is.
Stays the same
- — You pay per valid lead — phone calls and messages — never per click.
- — Ads show at the top of Google Search and Google Maps, nowhere else.
- — No keywords: targeting still runs off your Business Profile and job types.
- — Bad leads still become automated credits, reviewed within about 72 hours.
- — Past leads move with you: contact details, message history, older call recordings.
Changes
- — The separate dashboard is retired. You'll manage everything inside Google Ads.
- — Your reports don't migrate. Past impressions, clicks, weekly spend, ad-level performance — gone unless you export them first.
- — Weekly budgets become daily budgets. Google divides your average weekly budget by 7, automatically.
- — Manual bidding is dead. Setting your own maximum cost per lead is no longer supported — the system decides.
- — BBB callouts on ads are dropped.
- — License and insurance re-verification checks are dropped too. One less chore.
Do these five things before the email lands
- Export every report out of the old dashboard. Weekly spend, impressions, clicks, ad-level performance — Google says plainly this history will not move to Google Ads. Open your reports screen, download each view, keep the files somewhere you'll find them. Ten minutes now, or years of numbers gone.
- Screenshot the account basics. Review count, the Google Verified badge status, your service area, your job-type list. Not because Google says they vanish — because if something looks different after the move, you'll want the before picture.
- Write down your budget and bidding settings. Your weekly budget is about to be converted to a daily one, and any manual max cost-per-lead you set is about to stop existing. Know your own numbers before Google converts them.
- Make sure the admin email is read by a human. The 14-day notice goes to the account admin. If that's an old bookkeeper's inbox or a dead Gmail, you'll be migrated with zero warning.
- Recheck the account the first week after. Confirm the converted daily budget adds up to a monthly spend you're fine with, confirm lead credits are still flowing, and watch lead quality for a couple of weeks before you trust it unattended.
When does my trade move?
If you're a plumber, an electrician, in HVAC, in house cleaning, in pest control or running lawn-care routes as a landscaper — you're in the first wave. Assume your 14-day email can land any week now.
Painters aren't on the first-wave list — late 2026 or 2027 is the realistic window. Same for drywall contractors, with a wrinkle most marketers won't tell you: drywall has no LSA category at all. Drywall accounts run under Handyman with only drywall job types switched on — the account I run is set up exactly that way, and handyman isn't in wave one. Waiting longer is not a reason to skip the export. Pull your reports while the old dashboard still exists.
What I'd watch after the switch
Budget drift. A weekly budget divided by 7, spent by a system that no longer lets you cap cost per lead, is a recipe for invoices that creep. Nothing dramatic on day one — just watch the first two billing cycles the way you'd watch a new hire with a company card.
Lead quality through the transition. Credits are automated, and automation runs on your behavior: answer fast, mark every lead in the app, and the junk keeps turning into credits instead of charges.
The scare pitch. Someone will call you this fall and say "Performance Max" means your ads are about to run all over YouTube unless you hire them. Not this campaign type. Pay-per-lead Performance Max keeps LSA's reach — Search and Maps, period. Don't buy a rescue from a problem you don't have.
And the honest part: you don't need to hire anyone — me included — to survive this migration. The checklist above is the whole job. Where a pro earns a fee is after the move: reading the new reports, catching budget drift, and keeping cost per charged lead honest now that the bidding is automated.
Got the migration email — or want your account checked before it comes? The audit is one phone call and it's free. Get your lead-flow audit or see how I run LSA accounts.
Questions owners keep asking
Is LSA going away?
No. Your ads keep showing in the same spots — the top of Google Search and Google Maps — and you keep paying per lead, not per click. What goes away is the separate LSA dashboard: campaigns move into the Google Ads platform as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals.
Will I still pay per lead?
Yes. Google says the pay-per-lead model stays: you are charged for valid leads like phone calls and messages, and bad leads still run through the automated credit review, resolved within about 72 hours. What ends is manual bidding — you can no longer set your own maximum cost per lead.
When does my trade migrate?
The first wave starts August 2026 for US plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control, and moving companies with home or storefront service accounts. Service-area businesses without storefronts, and accounts with custom bidding or booking setups, follow in late 2026. Everything else — including accounts outside the US — migrates in 2027. Google emails your account admin 14 days before your date.
Do my leads and reviews carry over?
Google says past leads transfer automatically — customer contact details, message history, and older call recordings included. Reviews live with your Business Profile rather than inside the old dashboard, and the migration notice lists nothing changing about verification — license and insurance re-verification checks are being dropped, not added. What does NOT carry over: campaign-level performance reports. Export those before your date or lose them.
What happens if my trade has no LSA category, like drywall?
Nothing yet. Drywall has no named LSA category — accounts like the one I run operate under Handyman with only drywall job types switched on — and handyman is not in the first wave. Late 2026 or 2027 is the realistic window. The export checklist still applies: pull your reports now while it is easy.
Do I need to do anything to keep my ads running?
The migration itself is automatic — Google moves the account whether anyone is watching it or not, and the ads keep serving. The one task that cannot wait is exporting your old reports, because they do not move with you. After migration, check two things in the first week: that your new daily budget — your old weekly budget divided by 7 — matches what you actually mean to spend, and that lead credits still look right.
Where these facts come from
- — Google Ads Help: "Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals" — checked August 3, 2026.
- — Search Engine Land: "Local Services Ads come to Google Ads via Performance Max".
When Google changes the details — and mid-migration, it will — this page gets updated and re-dated. That's the playbook standard.