Google to fold Local Services Ads into Google Ads and auto‑enable Local Inventory Ads

Google announced that its standalone Local Services Ads dashboard will be retired. Beginning in August 2026, all existing Local Services Ads campaigns in the United States will be automatically converted into a specialized Performance Max campaign type that uses a pay‑per‑lead billing model. The migration will preserve ad placement on Google Search and Google Maps, end manual bidding, and require advertisers to export historical reports before the transition.

In a separate change, Google confirmed that Local Inventory Ads will be enabled by default for every Shopping campaign on August 31. The “enable_local” field in the Google Ads API will be forced to true, preventing advertisers from disabling the feature via the API. Developers must adjust code or use inventory filters to control local product serving.

Both changes affect advertisers using Google Ads in the United States, shifting how service‑based and retail inventory ads are managed and billed.