LSA to Performance Max: What's Changing

TL;DR: Google is migrating Local Services Ads accounts into Google Ads as a Performance Max campaign type in phases, starting with home and storefront service businesses in August 2026, then service-area businesses and custom setups later in 2026, and everyone else in 2027. Pay-per-lead pricing, Search and Maps placements, verified badges, and lead history carry over. The LSA dashboard goes away, manual bidding is removed, and historical reports don't transfer, so download them before your account moves. A short performance dip afterward is my guess, not something Google has confirmed.

Update, October 5, 2026: Google's help page still lays out the same phases, with the first beginning in August 2026, and still words it as an ongoing rollout (Google's migration documentation). A syndicated September 16, 2026 report says the transition began in August (KION), but I haven't found a Google source confirming how many accounts have moved, so look for your 14-day notice email.

If you run Local Services Ads (LSAs) for a home service business, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, cleaning, moving, pest control, and similar, you may have already seen this land in your inbox, or you will: Google is migrating LSA accounts into Google Ads as a Performance Max campaign type, with the first phase starting in August 2026.

Home and storefront service businesses are the first wave. Service-area businesses without a storefront, and accounts with more custom setups, follow later in 2026. Everyone else moves in 2027.

What stays the same

Pay-per-lead pricing. You're still only paying for valid leads, not clicks.
Where your ads show up. Search and Google Maps placements don't change.
Verified badges. Your Google Guarantee/Screened status carries over automatically.
Lead history. Your leads themselves aren't lost.

What's changing

The LSA dashboard goes away. Everything moves into the regular Google Ads interface.
Manual bidding is being removed, along with vertical-level Target CPA.
Weekly budgets convert to daily. Google divides your current weekly budget by 7 to set the new daily average automatically.
Historical performance reports don't carry over. Whatever's in your LSA dashboard now needs to be downloaded before the migration, or it's gone.

The email you'll get

Google sends account admins a heads-up 14 days before the migration date, with a follow-up reminder closer to the day. If that email shows up, it's expected, not a mistake or a phishing attempt. You don't need to do anything with it yourself, I'm handling the account side.

What I'm doing around your migration date

For every client on LSAs, I download the full historical performance data before the migration hits, since that's exactly what won't transfer automatically. The campaign migration itself is automated by Google. Once your account rolls over, I check the new Performance Max campaign to confirm the budget, targeting, and everything else came through correctly.

One honest caveat

My guess is performance may dip slightly for a few weeks right after migration, since a new campaign type usually means a new learning phase for Google's bidding system. I want to flag that now so it's not a surprise later, but I haven't seen anything from Google confirming it either way, so treat it as a reasonable expectation, not a guarantee.

If you get the migration email and want a second pair of eyes on it, or have any questions before your date, just reach out.

Google's own documentation on the migration has the full detail if you want to read the source directly.

Handling exactly this kind of platform migration without a client having to think about it, downloading historical data before it disappears, confirming budgets and targeting came through correctly, is part of what Google Ads management means in practice.