Google Transitions Local Services Ads to Performance Max: What Advertisers Need to Know

Google has begun transitioning its Local Services Ads (LSA) to Performance Max, a move that affects select U.S. advertisers in nine home and storefront trades, including plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, and pest control.

The transition brings several changes, including the migration of campaign management into Google Ads, where budgets, targeting, leads, and customer replies will be managed instead of the separate LSA dashboard.

However, this move also means that historical performance reports, including past impressions, clicks, weekly spend, and ad-level reports, will not migrate to Google Ads. Advertisers are advised to save enough historical reporting data to preserve year-over-year comparisons and cost-per-lead trends.

The transition is happening in three phases: phase one began in August 2026 for select U.S. advertisers in nine trades, phase two started late 2026 for service-area businesses without physical storefronts, and phase three will occur in 2027 for non-U.S. accounts and all remaining business categories.

One significant change is the retirement of manual bidding and vertical-level target cost per action (CPA), as well as the removal of controls such as maximum cost per lead. Advertisers may need to adjust their bidding strategies accordingly, especially if they manage separate targets for different service lines under one campaign.