The LSA dashboard is going away. What you need to know
The LSA dashboard is going away. What you need to know
The LSA dashboard is going away. What you need to know
If Local Services Ads are an important part of how your business generates leads, Google is making a pretty significant change this month.
Starting in August 2026, Google is beginning the process of moving Local Services Ads out of the separate LSA dashboard and into the main Google Ads platform.
Before anyone panics, this does not mean Local Services Ads are disappearing.
Actually, most of what businesses like about LSA is staying exactly the same. You will still be able to generate calls and messages from people searching for local services. You will still pay for valid leads rather than clicks. Your ads will still appear in the familiar Local Services positions on Google Search and Google Maps.
What is disappearing is the dashboard we have all been using to manage those campaigns, and there are a few changes that businesses should pay very close attention to.
What exactly is Google changing?
Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads and converting existing LSA campaigns into a specialized type of Performance Max campaign designed specifically around pay per lead advertising.
That sounds like a much bigger change than it really is.
When most marketers hear the words Performance Max, they immediately think about ads being distributed across Search, YouTube, Gmail, Display and other Google properties.
That is not what is happening here.
These new campaigns with pay per lead goals will continue to appear only on Google Search and Google Maps. You are also not suddenly going to start paying every time someone clicks the ad.
Google says advertisers will continue paying for valid leads such as calls, messages and bookings.
The campaigns will also remain keywordless. Google will continue using information about your services, locations and business to determine when your ads should appear.
So from the customer's perspective, the experience may look almost exactly the same.
Behind the scenes, however, things are changing quite a bit.
Why is Google getting rid of the separate LSA dashboard?
Google's stated goal is to give advertisers one place to manage their advertising. Instead of jumping between Google Ads, Local Services Ads and Google Business Profile, more of the advertising side of the business will now live inside Google Ads.
There is some logic to that. Businesses that run traditional Google Ads alongside Local Services Ads have always had two very different systems to manage. They have different reporting, different budget settings, different interfaces and different ways of looking at performance.
Moving LSA into Google Ads should make account management more centralized, but it may not be as easy to manage. Anyone who has spent enough time inside Google Ads knows that simpler is not always the direction Google moves.
Who is being moved first?
The migration is not happening to every advertiser at the same time.
Google says the first phase begins in August 2026 for selected home and storefront service advertisers in the United States.
The categories Google specifically mentions include plumbing, HVAC, electrical services, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and moving.
The migration will expand to additional advertisers later in 2026, including more service area businesses and accounts using certain custom bidding or booking configurations.
Remaining categories and non United States accounts are expected to transition during 2027. So if you log into your LSA account today and everything still looks normal, that does not mean the change is not happening. Your account simply may not have been selected yet.
You should receive a warning before your account moves
Google says account administrators will receive an email approximately 14 days before their scheduled migration. A notification will also appear inside the existing Local Services Ads dashboard. Another reminder is expected about a week later.
Once the migration happens, trying to access the old LSA dashboard will automatically redirect you into Google Ads. This is one of those emails I would strongly recommend not ignoring. There is something businesses should do before that migration date arrives.
Download your historical LSA reports
This is probably the most important part of the entire change.
Your historical performance reports are not moving with you.
Google says previous campaign performance data from the LSA dashboard will not carry over into Google Ads. That includes historical information such as impressions, spend and other campaign performance reporting.
Once your account migrates, the old dashboard will no longer be accessible. Google is specifically recommending that advertisers download or export the historical performance reports they want to keep before the migration takes place.
If you manage your marketing based on historical cost per lead, lead volume, seasonality or market performance, save that information. Do not assume you will be able to pull it later. Your historical leads are a different story.
Google says previous customer leads, including contact information, message history and older call recordings, will transfer into the new Lead Manager inside Google Ads. That is good news. But I would still rather have my own copy of important marketing data than depend entirely on a platform keeping it forever.
Your weekly budget is becoming a daily budget
Another change businesses will immediately notice is budgeting.
LSA has traditionally been managed using an average weekly budget. Google Ads operates primarily around daily budgets, so Google will automatically divide your existing weekly budget by seven and convert it into an average daily budget. Google says the change should not increase your monthly spending limit. The monthly limit will be based on the daily average multiplied by 30.4 days.
Still, this is absolutely something I would check immediately after migration. Whenever an advertising platform automatically converts settings, I want to verify the numbers myself.
Look at the daily budget.
Look at your service areas.
Look at the schedule.
Look at your business categories.
Make sure what Google moved matches what you actually intended to run.
Bidding is changing too
This part could have a bigger impact on experienced LSA advertisers.
Manual bidding is being removed. If you currently control your campaign by setting a maximum cost per lead, that bidding option will no longer be supported after the transition. Google is also removing the ability to have different Target CPA amounts at the industry level within the same campaign.
If your business operates across multiple service categories and you want separate bidding strategies for each one, Google recommends creating separate campaigns for those categories.
For a business with one primary service, this may not be a huge issue. For larger service companies with multiple divisions, it deserves attention.
A plumbing company that also does HVAC, for example, may have completely different customer values and acceptable acquisition costs for those services. Treating both categories exactly the same simply because they live inside the same campaign may not make financial sense.
Lead management is moving into Google Ads
Businesses will also manage their LSA leads differently.
Inside Google Ads, leads will be available through the Goals area under Conversions and Leads. This new Lead Manager replaces the old Local Services lead inbox.
Advertisers will still be able to see whether a lead was charged, identify the lead type, provide feedback and download lead information for use in a CRM. Message conversations can also be managed from inside Google Ads. It will probably feel strange for anyone who has used the old dashboard for years, but the basic functionality is still there.
Your Google Business Profile is becoming even more important
The relationship between Local Services Ads and Google Business Profile is also becoming tighter.
Important business information such as your business name, address and standard hours will sync from Google Business Profile into Google Ads. That means keeping your Business Profile accurate matters even more.
Google also warns that significant changes to things such as the business name, storefront address or primary category can trigger another verification review. During that review, the campaign may temporarily pause. Google says these reviews typically take between 24 and 48 hours.
That is worth remembering before somebody casually makes a major change to your Business Profile.
Is this good or bad for advertisers?
Probably a little of both.
I like the idea of having Google advertising managed in one place.
For businesses running Search campaigns, Performance Max, Local Services Ads and other Google products, constantly bouncing between different dashboards has never been particularly convenient.
Better reporting integration could eventually be useful as well.
My concern is control.
Google advertising has been moving toward more automation for years. Local Services Ads were already heavily automated, and moving them further into the Google Ads ecosystem continues that direction. Removing manual cost per lead bidding means advertisers give Google a little more control over how aggressively their money is spent.
That does not automatically make the system bad. It does mean businesses need to become better at measuring what happens after the lead arrives.
Getting 100 leads at a cheap price means very little if almost none of them turn into customers. I would much rather generate 50 good leads that produce 20 customers than generate 100 leads that produce 10.
The dashboard Google puts those leads in does not change that.
The bigger picture
The separate LSA dashboard going away feels like a major change because businesses have become very familiar with it. But the most important part of Local Services Ads is not the dashboard. It is the placement.
When someone searches for a plumber, pest control company, roofer, electrician or another local service, LSA can put a business directly in front of someone who is actively looking for help. That is why the channel has become so valuable for so many service businesses.
That part is not disappearing, but advertisers are going to have to learn where everything lives again.
As long as that remains true, LSA will continue to be an important channel for local businesses.
Just make sure you download those reports before Google takes the old dashboard away.
If Local Services Ads are an important part of how your business generates leads, Google is making a pretty significant change this month.
Starting in August 2026, Google is beginning the process of moving Local Services Ads out of the separate LSA dashboard and into the main Google Ads platform.
Before anyone panics, this does not mean Local Services Ads are disappearing.
Actually, most of what businesses like about LSA is staying exactly the same. You will still be able to generate calls and messages from people searching for local services. You will still pay for valid leads rather than clicks. Your ads will still appear in the familiar Local Services positions on Google Search and Google Maps.
What is disappearing is the dashboard we have all been using to manage those campaigns, and there are a few changes that businesses should pay very close attention to.
What exactly is Google changing?
Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads and converting existing LSA campaigns into a specialized type of Performance Max campaign designed specifically around pay per lead advertising.
That sounds like a much bigger change than it really is.
When most marketers hear the words Performance Max, they immediately think about ads being distributed across Search, YouTube, Gmail, Display and other Google properties.
That is not what is happening here.
These new campaigns with pay per lead goals will continue to appear only on Google Search and Google Maps. You are also not suddenly going to start paying every time someone clicks the ad.
Google says advertisers will continue paying for valid leads such as calls, messages and bookings.
The campaigns will also remain keywordless. Google will continue using information about your services, locations and business to determine when your ads should appear.
So from the customer's perspective, the experience may look almost exactly the same.
Behind the scenes, however, things are changing quite a bit.
Why is Google getting rid of the separate LSA dashboard?
Google's stated goal is to give advertisers one place to manage their advertising. Instead of jumping between Google Ads, Local Services Ads and Google Business Profile, more of the advertising side of the business will now live inside Google Ads.
There is some logic to that. Businesses that run traditional Google Ads alongside Local Services Ads have always had two very different systems to manage. They have different reporting, different budget settings, different interfaces and different ways of looking at performance.
Moving LSA into Google Ads should make account management more centralized, but it may not be as easy to manage. Anyone who has spent enough time inside Google Ads knows that simpler is not always the direction Google moves.
Who is being moved first?
The migration is not happening to every advertiser at the same time.
Google says the first phase begins in August 2026 for selected home and storefront service advertisers in the United States.
The categories Google specifically mentions include plumbing, HVAC, electrical services, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and moving.
The migration will expand to additional advertisers later in 2026, including more service area businesses and accounts using certain custom bidding or booking configurations.
Remaining categories and non United States accounts are expected to transition during 2027. So if you log into your LSA account today and everything still looks normal, that does not mean the change is not happening. Your account simply may not have been selected yet.
You should receive a warning before your account moves
Google says account administrators will receive an email approximately 14 days before their scheduled migration. A notification will also appear inside the existing Local Services Ads dashboard. Another reminder is expected about a week later.
Once the migration happens, trying to access the old LSA dashboard will automatically redirect you into Google Ads. This is one of those emails I would strongly recommend not ignoring. There is something businesses should do before that migration date arrives.
Download your historical LSA reports
This is probably the most important part of the entire change.
Your historical performance reports are not moving with you.
Google says previous campaign performance data from the LSA dashboard will not carry over into Google Ads. That includes historical information such as impressions, spend and other campaign performance reporting.
Once your account migrates, the old dashboard will no longer be accessible. Google is specifically recommending that advertisers download or export the historical performance reports they want to keep before the migration takes place.
If you manage your marketing based on historical cost per lead, lead volume, seasonality or market performance, save that information. Do not assume you will be able to pull it later. Your historical leads are a different story.
Google says previous customer leads, including contact information, message history and older call recordings, will transfer into the new Lead Manager inside Google Ads. That is good news. But I would still rather have my own copy of important marketing data than depend entirely on a platform keeping it forever.
Your weekly budget is becoming a daily budget
Another change businesses will immediately notice is budgeting.
LSA has traditionally been managed using an average weekly budget. Google Ads operates primarily around daily budgets, so Google will automatically divide your existing weekly budget by seven and convert it into an average daily budget. Google says the change should not increase your monthly spending limit. The monthly limit will be based on the daily average multiplied by 30.4 days.
Still, this is absolutely something I would check immediately after migration. Whenever an advertising platform automatically converts settings, I want to verify the numbers myself.
Look at the daily budget.
Look at your service areas.
Look at the schedule.
Look at your business categories.
Make sure what Google moved matches what you actually intended to run.
Bidding is changing too
This part could have a bigger impact on experienced LSA advertisers.
Manual bidding is being removed. If you currently control your campaign by setting a maximum cost per lead, that bidding option will no longer be supported after the transition. Google is also removing the ability to have different Target CPA amounts at the industry level within the same campaign.
If your business operates across multiple service categories and you want separate bidding strategies for each one, Google recommends creating separate campaigns for those categories.
For a business with one primary service, this may not be a huge issue. For larger service companies with multiple divisions, it deserves attention.
A plumbing company that also does HVAC, for example, may have completely different customer values and acceptable acquisition costs for those services. Treating both categories exactly the same simply because they live inside the same campaign may not make financial sense.
Lead management is moving into Google Ads
Businesses will also manage their LSA leads differently.
Inside Google Ads, leads will be available through the Goals area under Conversions and Leads. This new Lead Manager replaces the old Local Services lead inbox.
Advertisers will still be able to see whether a lead was charged, identify the lead type, provide feedback and download lead information for use in a CRM. Message conversations can also be managed from inside Google Ads. It will probably feel strange for anyone who has used the old dashboard for years, but the basic functionality is still there.
Your Google Business Profile is becoming even more important
The relationship between Local Services Ads and Google Business Profile is also becoming tighter.
Important business information such as your business name, address and standard hours will sync from Google Business Profile into Google Ads. That means keeping your Business Profile accurate matters even more.
Google also warns that significant changes to things such as the business name, storefront address or primary category can trigger another verification review. During that review, the campaign may temporarily pause. Google says these reviews typically take between 24 and 48 hours.
That is worth remembering before somebody casually makes a major change to your Business Profile.
Is this good or bad for advertisers?
Probably a little of both.
I like the idea of having Google advertising managed in one place.
For businesses running Search campaigns, Performance Max, Local Services Ads and other Google products, constantly bouncing between different dashboards has never been particularly convenient.
Better reporting integration could eventually be useful as well.
My concern is control.
Google advertising has been moving toward more automation for years. Local Services Ads were already heavily automated, and moving them further into the Google Ads ecosystem continues that direction. Removing manual cost per lead bidding means advertisers give Google a little more control over how aggressively their money is spent.
That does not automatically make the system bad. It does mean businesses need to become better at measuring what happens after the lead arrives.
Getting 100 leads at a cheap price means very little if almost none of them turn into customers. I would much rather generate 50 good leads that produce 20 customers than generate 100 leads that produce 10.
The dashboard Google puts those leads in does not change that.
The bigger picture
The separate LSA dashboard going away feels like a major change because businesses have become very familiar with it. But the most important part of Local Services Ads is not the dashboard. It is the placement.
When someone searches for a plumber, pest control company, roofer, electrician or another local service, LSA can put a business directly in front of someone who is actively looking for help. That is why the channel has become so valuable for so many service businesses.
That part is not disappearing, but advertisers are going to have to learn where everything lives again.
As long as that remains true, LSA will continue to be an important channel for local businesses.
Just make sure you download those reports before Google takes the old dashboard away.