If you run a local business, check this before your next ad campaign.
Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads.
The first migration started in August for selected U.S. home-service businesses, including plumbers, HVAC companies, electricians, roofers, cleaners, pest control and movers. The rest of the rollout will happen in phases through 2027.
The interesting part isn't the new dashboard.
It's what Google is taking away.
Manual bidding is going away.
Vertical-level Target CPA is going away.
And your old Local Services Ads performance reports won't automatically move into Google Ads. Google is explicitly telling advertisers to export their historical data before migration.
That creates a useful growth opportunity.
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Before the migration, build your own lead benchmark.
Download your historical data and calculate three numbers:
Cost per lead
Cost per qualified lead
Cost per booked job
Most businesses only know the first one.
That's dangerous.
Suppose a roofing company pays $35 per lead.
Sounds great.
But if only 1 in 8 leads becomes a real opportunity, the qualified-lead cost is $280.
Now imagine another company paying $55 per lead but converting 1 in 3.
Its qualified-lead cost is about $165.
The "cheaper" campaign is actually 70% more expensive.
Once Google gives you less manual control over bidding, your own business data becomes more important.
So build the benchmark now.
Export the last 6–12 months.
Put every lead into four buckets:
Lead → Qualified → Appointment → Customer
Then calculate the conversion rate between each stage.
That gives you something most competitors won't have:
A definition of what a good Google lead actually looks like for your business.
When the new campaign starts learning, don't judge it only by Google's cost-per-lead number.
Judge it against your own numbers.
And there's a second opportunity hiding here.
Google says the new pay-per-lead campaigns remain keywordless and use your service categories, locations and other business information for targeting.
That makes the information around your Google Business Profile more important.
Your service categories.
Your service areas.
Your business description.
Your photos.
Your callouts.
Your lead feedback.
These aren't just profile details anymore.
They're inputs into an increasingly automated acquisition system.
That's the part I'd pay attention to.
The old local advertising game was:
Pick keywords → set bids → buy clicks.
The new game is increasingly:
Give Google better business signals → let the system find the demand.
If you're running a local business, don't wait for the migration email.
Export your data.
Calculate your real lead economics.
Clean up your business information.
Then you'll have something much more valuable than a new Google Ads dashboard:
A baseline you can use to tell whether Google's automation is actually making you money.
