Google is migrating Local Services Ads into Google Ads as a Performance Max pay-per-lead campaign type starting August 2026. Here is what changes, what survives, and what you must do before your migration date.
Ido Cohen · Published 2026-07-27 · Paid Advertising
Google announced on July 20, 2026 that it is shutting down the standalone Local Services Ads dashboard and moving every LSA campaign into the main Google Ads platform as a specialized Performance Max campaign type built for pay-per-lead goals. The first wave of US home-service businesses — plumbers, HVAC technicians, electricians, roofers, pest control operators, appliance repair shops, lawn care companies, and movers — hits in August 2026. If that describes your business, you have one job this week: export your historical LSA data before Google migrates your account and that data disappears permanently.
Google is folding a product that has always lived in its own silo into the main Google Ads platform. For the past several years, Local Services Ads operated completely separately from Google Ads — a different dashboard, different login flow, different budget cadence, different bidding controls. The simplicity was the point. A plumber could set a weekly budget, pick a max cost-per-lead, and largely ignore everything else.
That simplicity is going away. According to Google's official announcement and confirmed by Search Engine Land, the standalone LSA dashboard is being replaced by a specialized Performance Max campaign type optimized for pay-per-lead goals, living inside the same Google Ads interface where you might already run Search or Display campaigns.
Why is Google doing this? The honest read: Google wants every local advertiser operating inside its unified auction, where its AI-driven bidding automation — Smart Bidding — has full control. The separate LSA dashboard was an island. Consolidating everything into Google Ads means Google's automation gets more signals, more budget to optimize, and tighter integration with Google Business Profile data. Whether that benefits you or Google more depends on how well you manage the transition.
This is the most important section to read carefully. There is a meaningful gap between what Google's PR materials emphasize and what the fine print actually removes.
What carries over intact:
What gets removed or changed:
According to PPC Land and confirmed by Google's own help documentation:
The rollout is phased. According to Google's help documentation and coverage by Search Engine Journal:
Google will notify account administrators by email 14 days before their specific migration date. A second reminder arrives 7 days out. A third confirmation email lands once migration completes. The migration itself is automated — Google transfers your campaign settings, including locations, service types, budget, and ad schedule. You will not have to rebuild your campaign from scratch. On your migration day, logging into the old LSA dashboard simply redirects you into Google Ads.
The catch: Automated migration does not mean painless migration. The two-week warning window is not a lot of time to audit your bidding strategy, verify your Target CPA settings, and pull historical reports. Do not wait for that email.
Here is the issue most coverage underplays. Your historical LSA data is not just a record of the past — it is the baseline you need to evaluate whether Performance Max is actually delivering comparable results after the migration.
If you do not export your data before migration, you will have no way to answer these questions six months from now:
That context is how you hold Google's automation accountable. Without it, you are flying blind on whether PMax is performing better, worse, or the same as what you had.
According to Location3, Google is actively encouraging advertisers to export and archive performance data before their migration date — which is an unusually explicit signal that the company knows this data gap is a real problem.
What to export before your migration date:
1. Campaign-level performance report — total spend, total leads, cost-per-lead by week and month for the last 12–24 months
2. Lead-type breakdown — calls vs. messages, dispute history, lead dispute win rate
3. Category-level data — if you offer multiple service types, get each category's lead volume and cost separately
4. Budget and pacing history — document your current weekly budget and what it actually spent week-over-week so you can compare against daily pacing post-migration
Save everything to a spreadsheet or Google Sheet. Store it somewhere that is not inside the LSA dashboard.
The name "Performance Max" carries some baggage, and it is worth unpacking because this is not a standard Performance Max campaign.
Standard Performance Max campaigns run ads across Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Maps — Google's entire inventory. Advertisers have learned to be cautious about PMax because the automation can push spend toward Display impressions that generate vanity metrics but not real leads.
This version is different. According to Google's help documentation and multiple agency analyses, Performance Max for pay-per-lead goals is deliberately narrower:
The PMax label describes the campaign infrastructure and bidding engine, not an expansion into new inventory channels. So if your biggest fear is that Google will suddenly start spending your plumbing budget on YouTube pre-rolls, that concern does not apply here.
The real change is bidding control. Smart Bidding replaces manual controls, and campaign-level Target CPA replaces vertical-level controls. If your account has run well under manual bidding with tight per-lead caps, the first 2–4 weeks after migration may see some volatility as Google's automation builds its signal on your new campaign structure. Budget for that learning period and resist the urge to make aggressive changes during it.
The August migration wave is approximately one week away. Here is the specific action list, in order of urgency:
1. Log into your LSA dashboard today and export everything. Go to the reporting section, pull a full campaign performance report for the last 24 months, and download it in CSV format. Do this before anything else.
2. Document your current Target CPA by service type. Write down your actual average cost-per-lead for each service category you run. This is your benchmark. You will need it when you set up campaign-level Target CPA in Performance Max.
3. Calculate your daily budget equivalent. Divide your weekly budget by 7. Confirm the number makes sense for your monthly spend cap (daily budget × 30.4 = monthly ceiling). Adjust if the math produces a number you are not comfortable with.
4. Log into Google Ads and make sure your Google Business Profile is connected. Post-migration, your GBP syncs automatically to your campaign, including business details and photos. If your profile has outdated hours, service areas, or photos, fix them now — they will populate your ads.
5. If you run multiple high-value service types (e.g., plumbing and water heater installation at very different ticket sizes), flag them now. When vertical-level Target CPA disappears, you may want to ask Google to split those into separate campaigns. Contact Google Ads support before migration if this applies to you.
6. Check your account administrator email address. Google sends the 14-day and 7-day warnings to the account admin listed on your LSA profile. If that email is outdated or going to a former employee, update it now so you do not miss the notification.
7. Block 30 minutes after migration to do a sanity check. Once your account transitions, verify that your budget, service areas, and service types transferred correctly. Expect up to two weeks for performance to fully stabilize according to Location3.
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Will my Google Guarantee or Google Screened badge be affected by the migration?
No. Your Google Guarantee or Google Screened badge carries forward automatically and will continue to appear on your ads after the transition to Performance Max. Verification status, badge type, and lead history all transfer without any action needed on your part. The badge itself is tied to your account and your background-check status, not the campaign format.
What happens if I do nothing and just wait for Google to migrate my account automatically?
Google will migrate your account on your assigned date regardless of whether you prepare. The campaign settings, service types, and budget will transfer automatically. What will not transfer is your historical performance data — reports, cost-per-lead history, and campaign analytics will be permanently inaccessible once the old dashboard closes. If you do nothing else, at minimum export your historical reports before your migration date.
I use manual cost-per-lead bidding to control my budget tightly. What replaces it?
Manual bidding is being deprecated as part of this migration. In Performance Max for pay-per-lead goals, you will set a campaign-level Target CPA (your target cost per lead) and Google's Smart Bidding will optimize toward it automatically. Set your Target CPA based on your actual historical average cost-per-lead from the LSA data you export. Start conservative — setting a Target CPA close to your historical average gives the system a realistic target and reduces the risk of the learning period going sideways.
My business runs in multiple categories with very different lead values — for example, HVAC tune-ups at $80 and HVAC system replacements at $500. How should I handle this?
This is one of the trickier edge cases in this migration. Vertical-level Target CPA (which let you set different cost-per-lead targets for different service types) is being deprecated. Google will apply a single campaign-level Target CPA across your services, or may automatically split high-value divergent service types into separate campaigns. If your service types have significantly different lead values, contact Google Ads support before your migration date to discuss campaign structure. You may be better off proactively splitting into separate campaigns with distinct Target CPA targets.
If I already use Google Ads for Search campaigns, does this change anything about how those campaigns run?
Your existing Search campaigns are completely unaffected. The LSA migration creates a new, separate Performance Max pay-per-lead campaign within your Google Ads account — it does not merge with or modify any existing Search, Display, or standard Performance Max campaigns you already run. The benefit for Google Ads users is that everything is now in one dashboard, which simplifies reporting and budget management across your full Google advertising footprint.
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