Google Is Retiring Local Services Ads As You Know Them
Most of you have never touched Local Services Ads. Some of you already run them on your own. Either way, you need to know what’s coming, because Google just announced they’re tearing the whole thing down and rebuilding it inside regular Google Ads.
Let me back up and explain what these even are, because I think most owners have no idea this exists.
What a Local Services Ad actually is
You know that “Google Guaranteed” badge you sometimes see at the very top of a Google search, above the normal ads, with a green checkmark? That’s a Local Services Ad, or LSA. It’s a completely different animal from the Google Ads campaigns we run for you.
A few things make it different:
You pay per lead, not per click. Someone calls you or messages you through the ad, and THAT’S what you get charged for. Not clicks, not impressions.
There are no keywords. You don’t bid on “dog trainer near me.” Google just decides when to show you based on the services listed in your Google Business Profile and location.
You have to pass a background check to run one, which is exactly why the badge means something. Homeowners trust it because Google vetted you. It’s not as intimidating as it sounds…. Google runs it through a third-party background check company, verifies your business license and insurance are active, and checks for criminal history on the business and its owners. Most owners get cleared within a week or two.
It shows above everything else on the search results page, including the regular ads.
For a business like dog training, where trust matters before someone will hand over their dog and their money, this thing can be really effective. I’ll show you why in a minute.
What Google is actually changing
I watched a good breakdown of this from a Google Ads specialist in the roofing world (roofers are already in the first wave), and read through Google’s own documentation. Here’s the plain-English version, not the panic version.
LSA is folding into a new, specialized version of Performance Max, Google’s automated campaign type, built specifically for pay-per-lead businesses like us.
What stays the same:
You still pay per lead, not per click. Ads still only show on Google Search and Google Maps…. none of that Performance Max nonsense where you end up on YouTube or Gmail. Your Google Guaranteed badge carries over automatically. Your past leads, including contact info and call recordings, transfer over too.
What’s actually changing, and what to watch:
Manual bidding is going away. Right now, if you run your own LSA, you can set a hard ceiling…. “never charge me more than $X per lead.” That hard ceiling is gone. It gets replaced with a target, which is just an average Google aims for. Individual leads can come in well above that number.
Your weekly budget converts into a daily average (weekly divided by 7, capped monthly at that number times 30.4). On paper it should land in the same place, but it’s worth double checking after the switch instead of assuming it did.
The old manual dispute process for bad leads is gone. There’s still a feedback form, but Google hasn’t published what happens after you submit it.
Google says to expect up to 2 weeks of weird, unstable numbers right after migration. That’s normal. Don’t panic in week one.
If you run your own LSA: don’t touch your Google Business Profile right around your migration date. Your business name, address, and hours sync into the ad, and a big change can trigger a review that pauses your ads for a day or two.
When does this hit dog trainers?
Here’s where it gets interesting, and I want to be straight with you about what I actually know versus what I’m guessing at.
Google’s own help page lists exactly 8 categories for the very first phase in early August 2026: plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, and pest control. No pet care listed.
But Search Engine Land, a trade publication I trust, reported in late July that the first small pilot group actually includes “pet care, home services, wellness and education.” I can’t confirm that against Google’s own documentation…. it’s not there. But if SEL’s reporting is right, and pet training does fall under the pet care umbrella (it does, confirmed that with Google’s own AI help widget), we could be looking at a MUCH sooner timeline than I originally thought. Possibly as soon as 30-45 days from now, not “sometime next year.”
I don’t have a confirmed date. Nobody outside Google does yet. But given the conflicting signals, I’d rather you be ready early than caught off guard.
Does this actually work? Here’s proof.
Here’s a real lead log from one of our Spokane locations:
That’s 446 leads logged through this one location’s LSA account, the large majority marked “Charged,” meaning Google itself validated them as real. Obedience training, puppy training, aggressive dog work, behavior modification, even therapy dog inquiries, mostly coming in as phone calls. That’s the kind of volume a well-run LSA can produce, on top of whatever your regular Google Ads campaign is already doing.
What we’re doing about it
Right now, LSAs are outside our normal scope of management. They’re a completely separate system from regular Google Ads, they’re keywordless, and up until now they honestly haven’t needed much hands-on management to work. That’s changing, both because Performance Max requires more active oversight than the old LSA dashboard did, and because there’s real money to be made or lost in how the migration is handled.
So we’re building Local Services Ads management into what we offer, as an add-on to your existing campaign management. It’s not officially live yet, but it’s coming, and I wanted you to understand what LSAs are and why this transition matters before we roll it out.
Get started now, don’t wait for the migration
If you don’t have an LSA yet and you’ve been on the fence, don’t wait until after the migration to look into it. Right now, new pay-per-lead campaigns still have to be set up the old way, through g.co/localservices…. Google hasn’t turned on the ability to create them inside regular Google Ads yet, and it’s not clear when, or how cleanly, that changes once your category migrates.
The background check alone can take a little time to clear, so starting that process now means you’re already verified and eligible before things get busy, instead of trying to get one stood up in the middle of a platform transition. Worst case, you’re sitting on a Google Guaranteed badge, ready to go the moment we roll out LSA management on our end. Best case, you’re already generating leads from it today.
What to do right now
If you already run your own LSA:
Export your historical reports now. They will NOT carry over. If you run multiple services under one account, know that Google is about to average your cost targets together across all of them. Don’t touch your Google Business Profile near your migration date. Make sure whoever gets Google’s notification emails still actually works for you.
If you don’t have one at all, see above…. don’t wait. Given the pet care signal, this could hit faster than I expected.
Got questions about whether an LSA makes sense for your location? Just reply, I’m happy to talk it through.
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