Local Services Ads to Performance Max: What Changes.

Local Services Ads are moving into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals, and Google is migrating existing accounts automatically in waves, starting with select US home and storefront service advertisers in August 2026. You still pay per valid lead, ads still show only on Search and Maps, and a completed Google Verified badge carries over. What changes is where you manage everything, how bidding works (manual max per lead is gone), how your budget is expressed (weekly becomes a daily average), and what history you keep (performance reports do not migrate, so save them first).

Everything below comes from Google's own help pages for the transition, at the time of writing. Google is rolling this out over several months and will likely refine details, so check the Google Ads help center for Performance Max campaigns using pay-per-lead goals before you act on any single point. If you are new to the product itself, start with what Local Services Ads are and how they work.

What is changing and when.

Google publishes a three-step timeline. Your account administrator gets an email 14 days before your migration, a final reminder 7 days before, and a confirmation afterward. Banners also appear in the dashboard. Once you are moved, the old Local Services Ads dashboard is no longer accessible and logging in redirects you to Google Ads.

• August 2026: phase one, select US home and storefront service advertisers. Google names plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and moving among them.
• Late 2026: broader groups, including service-area businesses without a storefront and accounts with custom bidding or booking configurations.
• 2027: accounts outside the US and all remaining categories.

You cannot opt in early by building one yourself. At the time of writing, Google says pay-per-lead campaigns cannot yet be created in Google Ads, and new Local Services campaigns or accounts still start at the Local Services site.

What stays the same.

The core model does not change. Google lists four things that carry over.

• Pay per lead: you pay for valid leads such as calls and messages, not for ad clicks.
• Placements: ads appear on Google Search and Google Maps only, in the same positions, not across the wider Google network the way standard Performance Max does.
• Keywordless targeting: serving is still driven by your service categories, service types and service areas, using Business Profile data, not keywords.
• Verification: if you already completed verification, your status and the Google Verified badge carry over, and Google says you will not need to reverify insurance or licenses as part of the move.

Lead history also comes with you. Google states that past leads, including contact details, messages and call recordings, transfer to the Leads page in Google Ads.

Before vs after.

Bidding after the move.

Manual bidding, including a manual max cost per lead, is deprecated. So is the industry level (vertical level) Target CPA. Google says campaigns with pay-per-lead goals use automated bidding exclusively. Maximize conversions is the default and aims to get the most leads within your daily budget. The alternative is a Target CPA, which here means a target cost per lead. Google warns that if the target is set too low for your local market, your ads may not serve.

The change that catches multi trade businesses is scope. Your old per vertical targets are replaced by a single campaign level Target CPA. If you run, say, plumbing and HVAC under one account and need different cost per lead targets for each, Google's instruction is to create separate campaigns in Local Services for each vertical. Plan that before migration day, because on that day everything lands under one target.

How the budget converts.

On transition day Google converts your weekly budget to an average daily budget by dividing it by 7. Monthly spend is then capped at that daily average multiplied by 30.4. A weekly budget of 700 dollars becomes a 100 dollar average daily budget with a monthly ceiling of 3,040 dollars. Google's lead article adds that once you reach the monthly max, your ad stops showing for the rest of the month unless you adjust the budget.

Check the number after your first login. A weekly figure that made sense for your call capacity can read very differently as a daily average, and a busy season may need the budget raised before the cap shuts you off late in the month. Google also says to allow up to two weeks for performance to stabilize after the move, so judge lead volume and cost on a two week view, not day by day.

Where settings and leads live in Google Ads.

Google maps each old function to a spot in Google Ads.

• Budgets, bidding, locations, service types and ad schedule: Campaigns, then Settings. Locations can be cities, counties or ZIP codes inside your country, and at least one service type must stay selected to keep a business category active.
• Photos and custom callouts: Campaigns, then Assets. Headlines, videos and sitelinks do not apply to these campaigns.
• Lead inbox, message replies and call recordings: Goals, then Conversions, then Leads. Each lead shows a charge status of Charged, Not charged, In review or Credited.
• Pausing: switch the campaign status between Paused and Enabled under Settings.
• Notifications: Admin, then Notifications. All users are opted in by default, and at least one user must stay opted in.
• Business name, address and hours: Google Business Profile, which syncs one way into Google Ads.
• The phone number that receives call and message leads can be edited in Google Ads.

Reporting uses standard Google Ads columns: Conversions means leads charged, Cost is spend, and Cost / conv. is your average cost per lead. Lead quality works on automatic credits. Google assesses leads over 30 days and applies a credit automatically for leads it finds poor quality, duplicate or invalid, and you can give feedback on individual leads through the survey on the Leads page. Our guide to disputing a Local Services Ads lead covers the current product.

What to do before, during and after migration.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Skipping the export: once you migrate, historical performance data stays behind and the old dashboard redirects.
• Letting a multi trade account collapse into one Target CPA when trades have very different lead values.
• Setting a Target CPA below what your market supports, which Google says can stop ads from serving.
• Editing business name or address in your first days on Google Ads, which can trigger a verification review and a pause.
• Reading the converted daily budget as a cap per day without checking the 30.4 times monthly ceiling against peak season demand.
• Opting everyone out of notifications, or leaving alerts going to a former employee, so leads sit unanswered.
• Changing bids in week one before the two week stabilization period Google describes is over.