Google Ditches Local Services Ads Dashboard

Google is retiring its stand-alone Local Services Ads (LSA) dashboard in favor of managing local leads inside its existing Google Ads platform. The change, which begins with a phased rollout this year, marks a significant shift away from pay-per-lead goals and towards automation for self-service experiences.

The transition to Performance Max campaigns will allow advertisers to manage all their Google advertising platforms in one place while keeping the pay-per-lead model. This means that advertisers will no longer need to manually bid on local placements, but rather use the automated bidding capabilities of Performance Max campaigns.

Campaigns with pay-per-lead goals currently focus strictly on local placements and serve only on Google Search and Google Maps. With the transition to Performance Max campaigns, ads will be able to appear across all Google ad networks, including YouTube, Gmail, and the Google Display Network.

Advertisers will have access to past performance reports unless they export them before the service shuts down. They will also receive an advance email 14 days before the scheduled migration date and a banner notification inside the company's current LSA dashboard.