If you run a plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, pest control, or similar home service business and you’ve been advertising through Local Services Ads (LSAs), a change is already underway.
Google has begun migrating LSA accounts out of the standalone Local Services dashboard and into Google Ads, using a new Performance Max campaign type built specifically for pay-per-lead advertisers. The first wave started this month, targeting home and storefront service businesses in the U.S. Broader advertiser groups follow later this year, and the rest of the world catches up in 2027.
This isn’t a minor cosmetic update. It’s a full platform migration, and if you don’t know what’s changing, it’s easy to get caught off guard. Here’s the breakdown, and how EMSC is handling it for the clients already affected.
What’s Actually Changing
The old LSA dashboard is going away. Once your account migrates, logging into your original Local Services dashboard will simply redirect you to Google Ads. If you already access your account through Google Ads, this changes very little for your day-to-day.
Weekly budgets become daily budgets. Google will automatically divide your historical weekly average by 7 to set your new daily budget. Your monthly spend cap doesn’t change, but the way it’s paced does. In most cases, that means smoother, more predictable spending instead of the swings a weekly model can produce.
Manual bidding and vertical-specific cost targets are being phased out. If you’ve historically set different cost-per-lead targets for different service categories under one campaign, Google will collapse those into a single unified target. Businesses that want to keep separate bidding strategies per category will need separate campaigns going forward.
BBB callouts are being retired. In their place, Google recommends adding at least six other structured callouts. Things like business hours, specialties, or accepted payment methods to keep your listing competitive.
There’s a learning period. Like any new campaign, the newly migrated Performance Max campaign needs time to recalibrate. Expect up to two weeks where performance is stabilizing, and possibly a temporary dip in lead volume during that window. This is normal, and reactive changes during this period tend to do more harm than good.
What’s Staying the Same
Some things won’t be changing during this migration. A few core fundamentals carry over untouched:
- You still only pay for valid leads. Calls, messages, bookings, but never for clicks. The pay-per-lead model that made LSA appealing in the first place isn’t going anywhere.
- Your ads keep their placement. Migrated campaigns still show exclusively on Google Search and Google Maps, in the same positions LSA occupied.
- Targeting stays keywordless. Your visibility is still driven by the service categories and areas you select, not a keyword list.
- Verification carries over. If your business already holds a Google Guaranteed or Google Screened badge, that status transfers automatically. There is no re-verification required.
Where Things Get Complicated
A few details are easy to miss until they cause a problem:
Historical performance reports don’t carry over. Once your account migrates, past weekly spend data and ad-level performance history from the old dashboard become inaccessible. If you want that data, it needs to be backed up before migration day.
ServiceTitan’s instant booking integration may be disrupted. Businesses using ServiceTitan’s direct booking feature tied to Local Services Ads should expect that integration to break temporarily during the transition. Leads themselves keep coming through without interruption. The instant scheduling link is what may need reconfiguring afterward.
Google Business Profile accuracy now matters more than ever. After migration, your business name, address, and standard hours sync automatically and directly from your Google Business Profile. You’ll no longer be able to edit those details inside the ad platform itself. Significant changes to your name or address will trigger a standard verification review, which can temporarily pause your campaign for 24-48 hours. Getting your profile accurate before migration day avoids unnecessary disruption after.
How EMSC Is Handling the Migration
We don’t wait for a platform change to become a client’s problem. We take an account by account proactive approach to support our clients through this change, and any others. For this migration process, we are:
- Archiving historical performance data.
- Auditing Google Business Profiles.
- Holding steady during the learning period.
- Flagging integration issues in advance.
This is exactly the kind of large-scale platform shift EMSC exists to manage. We’re coordinating this transition across every affected client account, staying closely tied to Google’s rollout guidance as it evolves, and translating a technical migration into a plan our clients don’t have to think twice about.
If you’re a home service business currently running LSAs and want to know exactly where your account stands in this migration, reach out to the EMSC team today.
