Google Local Services Becomes a PMax Campaign in Standard Ads

Google Local Services Ads (LSA’s) are about to undergo their biggest structural change since the advertising format was introduced.

Google has announced that Local Services Ads will move from their separate management platform into the main Google Ads interface. Existing LSA campaigns will be migrated into a specialised type of Performance Max campaign designed specifically around pay-per-lead objectives.

At first glance, this sounds as though Local Services Ads are being absorbed into conventional Performance Max. That description is only partly correct.

The campaigns will use the Performance Max name and operate within the standard Google Ads, but they will not behave like ordinary Performance Max campaigns. Advertisers will continue paying for valid leads rather than clicks. Targeting will remain keywordless, and adverts will continue serving exclusively through the established Local Services positions on Google Search and Google Maps.

They will not suddenly expand across YouTube, Gmail, Discover or the Google Display Network.

Nevertheless, this is far more than an interface redesign. Manual bidding is being removed, weekly budgets are becoming daily budgets, category-level Target CPA settings are being replaced by campaign-level targets, and Google Business Profile will become more deeply integrated with campaign setup and business information.

This article explains what is changing, what is staying the same and what local service advertisers should do before their accounts migrate.

What Has Google Announced?

Google is transitioning Local Services Ads into what it calls Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals.

The existing Local Services Ads campaign setup will move into Google Ads automatically. Businesses will then manage budgets, bidding targets, service categories, geographical targeting, leads and messages from the same platform used for their other Google advertising.

Google’s current migration timetable is:

• August 2026: The first selected US home-service and storefront advertisers begin migrating.

• Late 2026: Migration expands across additional US advertisers, including service-area businesses and more complex account configurations.

• 2027: UK advertisers, other non-US accounts and the remaining business categories migrate.

This means the migration will not be completed globally by the end of 2026. UK businesses should currently expect their accounts to move during 2027, although Google has not yet provided a more precise UK timetable. Google has published the migration timetable in its official announcement.

Is LSA Becoming an Ordinary Performance Max Campaign?

No. This is a specialised Performance Max campaign, not the standard version familiar to most Google Ads advertisers.

An ordinary Performance Max campaign can serve across:

• Google Search

• Shopping

• YouTube

• Display

• Discover

• Gmail

• Google Maps

A Performance Max campaign with pay-per-lead goals will remain focused on the existing Local Services Ads experience.

The fundamental differences include:

The Performance Max description relates more to Google’s automation and campaign infrastructure than to an expansion across every Google advertising network.

This distinction is critical. A plumber migrating from LSA to the new campaign type will not suddenly find their adverts appearing as automatically generated videos on YouTube.
 

Why the Move to Performance Max Makes Sense

Local Services Ads have always shared much of the underlying philosophy associated with Performance Max.

They are:

• Highly automated

• Keywordless

• Objective-based

• Dependent on machine learning

• Driven by business and service information

• Designed to match demand rather than exact advertiser-selected queries

• Optimised towards a specific customer action

• Built around limited manual control

In that respect, LSA can be seen as an early example of the direction in which Google Ads has subsequently moved.

The advertiser supplies the commercial parameters: the services provided, locations covered, operating hours, budget and acceptable lead cost. Google’s system then determines when the business should appear and how much it should bid for each opportunity.

Bringing LSA into Google Ads creates a more consistent management environment for this automation. It also allows Google to retire bidding and budget controls that do not align with the wider Google Ads system.

From Google’s perspective, the transition is logical. From the advertiser’s perspective, it offers greater convenience but also increases dependence on automated bidding.

What Is Not Changing?

Despite the move into Performance Max, several defining characteristics of Local Services Ads will remain.

The Pay-Per-Lead Model Remains

Advertisers will continue paying for valid leads rather than ordinary advert clicks.

Eligible lead types can include:

• Telephone calls

• Messages

• Emails

• Eligible booking requests

This remains fundamentally different from ordinary Search or Performance Max campaigns, where an advertiser can be charged when someone clicks without making an enquiry.

Pay per lead does not mean pay per customer. A charged lead can still be unqualified, uncontactable or ultimately choose another provider.

Adverts Will Remain on Search and Maps

The migrated campaigns will continue appearing in the existing Local Services Ads positions across Google Search and Google Maps.

They will not expand across the full Performance Max inventory.

This also means that many conventional Performance Max creative requirements will not apply. Google states that assets such as headlines, videos and sitelinks are not used in the same way for campaigns with pay-per-lead goals.

Targeting Will Remain Keywordless

Advertisers will not receive conventional keyword management.

Google will continue matching providers with customers using information such as:

• Selected services

• Business categories

• Service areas

• Customer location

• Search context

• Operating schedule

• Google Business Profile information

• Profile quality

Businesses will not gain exact-match keywords, negative-keyword lists or conventional search-term control simply because the campaign moves into Google Ads.

Google Verified Will Continue

Eligible advertisers that have completed the relevant checks will retain their verification status and Google Verified badge.

Google says existing verification should transfer automatically during migration. Businesses should not need to repeat licence or insurance verification purely because their campaign has moved into Google Ads.

What Is Changing?

Although the customer-facing advert remains broadly the same, campaign management will change considerably.

The most important changes are:

• Campaigns move into the main Google Ads interface

• Leads move into Google Ads Lead Manager

• Weekly budgets become average daily budgets

• Manual maximum-CPL bidding is removed

• Category-level Target CPA settings are removed

• Google Business Profile provides core business data

• Previous campaign reports do not migrate

• Lead-routing telephone numbers become easier to change

• BBB callouts are removed

• More campaign changes become self-service

These changes affect reporting, campaign structure and the amount of control advertisers retain over bidding.

A New Home Inside Google Ads

Once an account migrates, advertisers will no longer manage it through the old Local Services Ads dashboard.

Attempting to access the previous dashboard will redirect the advertiser to the migrated campaign inside Google Ads.

From there, the advertiser will be able to:

• Review campaign performance

• Change budgets

• Adjust bidding targets

• Edit service areas

• Review service categories

• Change advertising schedules

• Pause or resume campaigns

• Manage photographs and callouts

• Review charged leads

• Respond to message enquiries

• Download leads for CRM use

This should make account administration easier for businesses already running Search, Performance Max, Display or other Google Ads campaigns.

Agencies will also have a more familiar environment for reporting and account management.

However, it remains important to recognise that the migrated campaign is not simply another conventional Google Ads campaign. Its charging model, placements, targeting and reporting remain specialised.

Leads Will Move Into Google Ads Lead Manager

The existing Local Services Ads lead inbox will be replaced by Lead Manager within Google Ads.

Advertisers will access it through:

Goals → Conversions → Leads

The new lead table will include information such as:

• Charged status

• Lead type

• Customer information

• Call or message details

• Lead feedback

• Download options

Where message leads are enabled, businesses will be able to read and respond to customers from inside Google Ads.

Historical customer leads will transfer, including available contact information, message histories and older call recordings. Historical campaign-performance reports will not receive the same treatment.

Previous Performance Reports Will Not Transfer

This is one of the most important migration risks.

Google says previous campaign-level performance reports will not carry over into Google Ads. After migration, the former dashboard will no longer remain available as a historical reporting archive.

Before migration, advertisers should download information covering:

• Total expenditure

• Charged leads

• Average CPL

• Lead types

• Service categories

• Weekly performance

• Location performance

• Direct-business-search performance

• Call, message and booking breakdowns

Businesses should also retain their own CRM records covering qualified leads, quotations, bookings, completed jobs and revenue.

Customer lead histories will transfer, but this does not replace the need to preserve campaign-level reports.

Google Will Provide Advance Warning

The account administrator should receive an email approximately 14 days before the scheduled migration date.

Google will also display a warning inside the Local Services Ads dashboard. A further reminder should be sent seven days after the initial notification, followed by confirmation when migration is complete.

Businesses should check now that:

• The listed administrator still works for the company

• The administrator’s email address is active

• The business can access its Local Services Ads account

• The correct Google Ads account is available

• The relevant Google Business Profile is accessible

• Agency and internal-user permissions are current

A migration email is of little value if it is sent to a former employee or an unmonitored mailbox.

Weekly Budgets Will Become Daily Budgets

Local Services Ads have traditionally presented budgets as average weekly amounts. Google Ads primarily manages campaign spending through average daily budgets.

During migration, Google will divide the existing weekly budget by seven.

The plain-text calculation is:

New average daily budget = Existing average weekly budget ÷ 7

For example:

£700 weekly budget ÷ 7 = £100 average daily budget

The monthly charging limit is then calculated using:

Monthly charging limit = Average daily budget × 30.4

Using the same example:

£100 × 30.4 = £3,040 monthly charging limit

Daily spending can fluctuate. Google may spend more than the average on days when suitable customer demand is higher and less on quieter days.

The important control becomes the monthly charging limit rather than an identical amount being spent every day.

Advertisers should check their converted daily budget immediately after migration. The calculation may be straightforward, but the resulting daily figure still needs to reflect the company’s actual capacity and commercial objectives.

Manual Max Per Lead Bidding Is Being Removed

The current LSA system supports Max Per Lead bidding, allowing an advertiser to set a maximum amount it is prepared to pay for an individual lead.

That manual bidding option will no longer be supported after migration.

Advertisers will increasingly rely on automated bidding through Maximise Leads, with an optional campaign-level Target CPA.

This is one of the most significant strategic changes.

A business will no longer be able to use a manual maximum CPL as a hard limit in the same way. Instead, Google will automatically adjust bids to generate leads within the available budget and target.

This can provide better access to fluctuating demand, but it also reduces direct advertiser control.

Maximise Leads Becomes Increasingly Important

Google already recommends Maximise Leads for current Local Services Ads campaigns.

The strategy allows Google to set bids automatically with the aim of generating as many leads as possible within the available budget.

Google recommends setting a budget capable of supporting approximately ten leads per week for optimal performance. It also advises allowing around two weeks for the model to adjust and produce more representative results. Google explains these recommendations in its LSA bidding guidance.

This does not mean that a campaign cannot work with fewer than ten weekly leads. It means that automated bidding generally benefits from greater conversion volume.

A new or newly migrated campaign should ideally be given:

• A commercially realistic budget

• A sufficiently flexible initial bidding target

• Approximately two weeks to stabilise

• Enough lead volume to establish a meaningful average

• Reliable CRM feedback on lead quality and revenue

Beginning with an excessively low Target CPA could restrict lead volume before the campaign has accumulated enough evidence.

Category-Level Target CPA Is Being Removed

Some Local Services Ads campaigns cover multiple service verticals with different lead-cost targets.

For example, one campaign might advertise both plumbing and HVAC services. The business may be willing to pay considerably more for an HVAC installation lead than for a minor plumbing repair.

After migration, Google Ads will not support separate vertical-level Target CPAs within the same campaign.

Google will calculate and apply a unified campaign-level target across the included categories.

Businesses that need different bidding rules will be able to create separate campaigns—for example:

• Plumbing campaign

• HVAC campaign

• Electrical campaign

This provides greater control, but it introduces an important account-structure decision.

Separate Campaigns Can Divide Lead Volume

Creating a separate campaign for every service is not automatically the best approach.

Suppose one combined campaign generates:

• Six plumbing leads per week

• Three HVAC leads per week

• Three electrical leads per week

• Twelve total leads per week

The combined campaign has enough overall volume to provide Google with useful conversion data.

If it is separated into three campaigns, none of the individual campaigns reaches ten weekly leads. Each one has its own budget and target, but each also has less campaign-specific evidence.

Google’s wider AI can use auction context and broader historical signals. However, separate Performance Max campaigns do not operate as one conventional shared portfolio bid strategy.

Each campaign should therefore have enough potential volume to support its own automated bidding.

When Should Categories Be Separated?

Separate campaigns make sense when service categories have materially different:

• Lead values

• Gross-profit margins

• Target CPAs

• Service areas

• Schedules

• Sales processes

• Call-routing requirements

• Operational teams

• Customer-conversion rates

Categories should generally remain together when their economics and operational requirements are broadly similar.

A useful practical assessment is:

These are practical guidelines rather than formal Google thresholds.

A specialist service generating only three leads per week may still justify a separate campaign if each customer is worth several thousand pounds. Campaign structure should reflect both conversion volume and commercial value.

The Google Business Profile Becomes More Important

Google Ads will use the linked Google Business Profile to pre-populate campaign information.

Core details will synchronise in one direction from the Business Profile into Google Ads, including:

• Business name

• Physical address

• Telephone number

• Standard business hours

• Primary business category

These core details should be updated from Google Business Profile rather than independently inside the advertising campaign.

Other campaign settings can remain independent. Advertisers will still be able to customise:

• Service areas

• Advertising schedules

• Business photographs

• Service categories

• Campaign targeting

This distinction matters.

The Google Business Profile represents the organic business identity. Google Ads controls how, where and when the business advertises.

Significant Business Profile Changes Can Pause Campaigns

Minor Business Profile updates should normally synchronise automatically.

However, significant changes to the business name, storefront address or primary category may trigger a verification review.

Google says these reviews normally take around 24–48 hours. The advertising campaign may temporarily pause while the changes are checked.

Businesses should therefore avoid making unnecessary structural changes immediately before or during migration.

Before the migration notice arrives, review:

• Business name

• Address

• Main telephone number

• Opening hours

• Primary category

• Website

• Ownership and management access

Correcting established inaccuracies is necessary. Rebranding or restructuring the profile during migration may create avoidable disruption.

Telephone Routing Becomes More Flexible

The migrated campaign will provide more direct control over the telephone number receiving call and message leads.

Google says advertisers will be able to edit the routing number in real time from Google Ads.

This can help businesses:

• Route calls to a dedicated sales team

• Change numbers when staffing arrangements change

• Use appropriate regional or departmental routing

• Direct enquiries to an answering service

• Correct outdated contact information more quickly

Changing a number should still be handled carefully. Tracking and CRM attribution need to remain intact, and the destination must be actively monitored.

Advert Assets Will Change

Migrated campaigns will provide an assets area where businesses can manage photographs and callouts.

Google says advertisers can upload up to 100 additional business photographs.

Suitable images may include:

• Employees performing work

• Branded vehicles

• Equipment

• Business premises

• Completed projects

• Before-and-after examples

Conventional Performance Max assets such as headlines, videos and sitelinks will not apply in the same way to these pay-per-lead campaigns.

The new campaign remains profile-led rather than creative-asset-led.

BBB Callouts Are Being Removed

Better Business Bureau callouts will no longer be supported.

This change is most relevant to US advertisers because BBB accreditation is primarily a North American trust signal.

Google recommends using other structured callouts covering areas such as:

• Opening hours

• Specialities

• Accepted payment methods

• Emergency availability

• Service characteristics

The removal of BBB callouts does not mean BBB information will disappear from organic Search. It means the specific third-party accreditation will no longer be presented as a supported LSA campaign callout.

Strategically, this places more emphasis on Google’s own verification system, business information and advertising assets.

Google Verified Remains the Main Badge

Google has consolidated its LSA badging around Google Verified.

Eligible businesses can display the badge after completing the required business registration and representative checks.

This should not be confused with the former Google Guarantee and its associated Money Back Guarantee. The newer Google Verified badge remains a trust and verification signal, but businesses should avoid making outdated claims about customers receiving a Google-backed financial guarantee.

Existing eligible verification status should transfer during migration.

Historical Leads and Reporting Must Be Treated Differently

The migration treats customer leads and campaign reports differently.

Historical customer lead information should transfer, including:

• Contact information

• Previous messages

• Available call recordings

• Lead communication histories

Historical campaign reports will not transfer.

This means advertisers should preserve both:

1. The advertising-performance data exported from LSA.

2. The commercial-outcome data stored in the CRM.

These two datasets answer different questions.

Google’s reports show what the campaign generated and charged. The CRM shows what those enquiries became.

The New Conversions Column Still Means Charged Leads

After migration, Google Ads will report metrics such as:

• Conversions

• Cost

• Cost per conversion

For these specialised campaigns, Conversions represents the number of charged leads.

It does not necessarily mean:

• Qualified leads

• Quotations

• Bookings

• Completed jobs

• Paying customers

This is an important semantic difference from a well-configured conventional Google Ads account, where advertisers may define multiple conversion stages.

Businesses should not allow the familiar Google Ads terminology to obscure the actual measurement.

A charged lead is an advertising conversion. It is not automatically a commercial conversion.

CRM Measurement Becomes Even More Important

As Google automates more bidding decisions, advertisers need better commercial reporting outside the campaign.

Each LSA lead should ideally be tracked through:

• Lead received

• Contacted

• Qualified

• Quotation or appointment

• Booking

• Completed work

• Revenue

• Gross profit

• Repeat customer value

Suppose a campaign spends £2,000 and generates 50 charged leads.

The reported CPL is:

£2,000 ÷ 50 leads = £40 per charged lead

If only 20 leads are qualified:

£2,000 ÷ 20 qualified leads = £100 per qualified lead

If eight become customers:

£2,000 ÷ 8 customers = £250 customer acquisition cost

The £40 reported CPL may look excellent or expensive depending on what those eight customers are worth.

Automated bidding should be judged against completed commercial outcomes, not only the number displayed in Google Ads.

What Will Happen on Migration Day?

Google says the campaign’s principal settings will transfer automatically, including:

• Target locations

• Service types

• Business categories

• Budget limits

• Advertising schedule

• Business photographs

• Verification status

Many adverts should resume quickly, but Google advises allowing up to two weeks for migration to complete fully and performance to stabilise.

On migration day, check:

• Campaign status

• Daily budget

• Campaign-level Target CPA

• Service categories

• Service areas

• Advertising schedule

• Telephone number

• Message settings

• Photographs

• Verification status

• Lead Manager access

Correct obvious migration errors immediately, but avoid interpreting every early fluctuation as a long-term performance change.

Can New Campaigns Be Created Directly in Google Ads?

At the time of Google’s announcement, advertisers cannot create a new campaign with pay-per-lead goals directly inside Google Ads.

New Local Services campaigns and additional accounts must still be created through the existing Local Services Ads onboarding route.

Google says direct creation inside Google Ads will become available later.

This creates a transitional period in which existing campaigns may be managed in different interfaces depending on whether they have migrated.

Agencies managing several clients will need to track each account’s individual migration status rather than assuming all accounts change simultaneously.

What Should Advertisers Do Now?

Businesses do not need to rebuild their campaigns manually, but they should prepare.

Confirm Administrative Access

Check the account administrator, email address and permissions.

Make sure the correct people can access:

• Local Services Ads

• Google Ads

• Google Business Profile

• The CRM

• The administrative email account

Export Historical Reports

Download existing campaign reports before migration.

Do not wait until the old dashboard begins redirecting to Google Ads.

Record Current Bidding Settings

Document:

• Bidding mode

• Maximum CPL

• Target CPL

• Category-level targets

• Weekly budget

• Weekly lead estimate

This provides a reference for checking the migrated configuration.

Review Campaign Structure

Identify categories that may require separate campaign-level Target CPAs.

Then assess whether each proposed campaign can generate enough leads to support automated bidding.

Audit Google Business Profile

Check business details, ownership, telephone numbers, hours and primary category.

Avoid unnecessary major changes near the migration date.

Review CRM Tracking

Make sure LSA leads can be distinguished from other Google Ads leads.

Track qualified leads, bookings, customers, revenue and gross profit.

Review Lead Handling

Check:

• Call-answer rates

• Missed-call recovery

• Message-response times

• Staff availability

• Lead qualification

• Booking processes

The move into Google Ads does not reduce the importance of responsiveness.

Is This Change Good for Advertisers?

The migration has clear benefits.

Advertisers gain:

• One platform for Google advertising

• More familiar campaign management

• Easier access to leads

• Greater self-service control

• Better integration with Google Business Profile

• More flexible contact routing

• Simpler multi-campaign oversight

However, there are also disadvantages and risks:

• Manual bidding disappears

• Category-level targets disappear

• Historical reports do not transfer

• Google Business Profile changes can affect campaigns

• Campaign splitting may dilute lead volume

• Advertisers become more dependent on automation

• The Performance Max name may cause confusion

• Charged leads may be mistaken for completed conversions

For well-managed accounts, the unified interface should make administration easier. For advertisers who rely heavily on manual bid caps or category-level targets, the change represents a meaningful loss of control.

Is LSA Really Becoming Performance Max?

Technically, yes. Strategically, it is better described as LSA moving onto the Performance Max infrastructure.

The migrated campaign retains the defining characteristics of Local Services Ads:

• Local Search and Maps placements

• Pay-per-lead charging

• Keywordless service matching

• Profile-led advertising

• Google verification

• Direct customer enquiries

The term Performance Max describes the automation and campaign framework. It does not mean the campaign becomes a standard cross-channel PMax campaign.

The danger is that advertisers see the PMax label and assume the campaign has expanded across Google’s full inventory. Google’s documentation specifically says that it has not.

Final Thoughts

The migration of Local Services Ads into Google Ads is a significant change, but it is not the end of Local Services Ads as a distinct advertising format.

The pay-per-lead model remains. Search and Maps placements remain. Keywordless targeting remains. Google Verified remains.

What changes is the management and bidding infrastructure around them.

Weekly budgets become daily budgets. Manual bidding disappears. Category-level targets become campaign-level targets. Leads move into Google Ads Lead Manager. Google Business Profile supplies core business information, and historical campaign reports must be exported before the old dashboard becomes unavailable.

The move also confirms Google’s broader direction.

Advertising products are becoming increasingly automated, objective-led and dependent on business data rather than manual campaign controls. LSA was already built around that philosophy, which makes its transition into the Performance Max family unsurprising.

For advertisers, the best response is not to resist the new interface. It is to improve the information and commercial controls surrounding the campaign.

That means:

• Accurate service categories

• Realistic budgets

• Sufficient lead volume

• Sensible campaign consolidation

• Strong reviews

• Fast lead handling

• Reliable CRM attribution

• Measurement through to completed jobs and revenue

The interface may be changing, but the commercial objective is not.

The strongest campaign will still be the one that turns high-intent local demand into the greatest sustainable volume of profitable customers.