Local Services Ads move to Google Ads: an owner's checklist

Your old leads move into Google Ads; your reports do not. Contact details, message threads and older call recordings transfer to the new Leads page. Past impressions, clicks, weekly spend and ad-level reports stay behind, and once your account moves, the old Local Services dashboard no longer opens.

The move started in August 2026: each Local Services campaign becomes a special kind of Performance Max campaign that still charges by the lead. Selected advertisers in home and storefront trades went first, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, pest control and moving among them, so being in one of those trades does not mean your date has passed. Service-area businesses without a storefront, as many plumbers and roofers are, and accounts with custom bidding or a booking setup follow late this year; everyone else next year.

Google gives no date for any wave. Yours arrives by email, and that email is the only reliable one. The account administrator on your profile gets a notice 14 days ahead, a reminder 7 days later and a confirmation once the move is done, and banners appear in the old dashboard for anyone who logs in. Google runs a support line for advertisers being moved: +1-844-205-0011, weekdays, 9 AM to 8 PM Eastern. The facts below come from Google’s help pages; the advice is ours.

Save the reports Google will not move

Google says your old reports will be downloadable “soon”, and gives no date. Until then it suggests screenshots, the only copy you can count on.

Screenshot each month of the last twelve: impressions, clicks, weekly spend, cost per lead and the ad-level reports. The lead list can wait; it moves to the new Leads page, which has a download. The screenshots answer the question someone will ask in a few months: does the new campaign cost more per lead than the old one? Without them nobody can answer, and the person asking is usually you, holding a bigger invoice. In Google Ads, “Cost / conv.” on a pay-per-lead campaign is your average cost per lead, the number to set beside them.

Check who holds the keys

The migration emails go to the account administrator on your profile. If that is a former office manager or an agency you dropped two years ago, you may learn of the move from the banners, if anyone still logs in.

On the Google Ads side, Admin is the access level that matters. Only Admin can give people more than email-only access, change their levels, and accept or unlink a manager account, which is how an agency connects. Look down the account’s user list for an email at your own business with Admin beside it. If an agency set the account up, ask for Admin access in writing before your migration date, not after.

Billing deserves a look too. Google’s advertiser verification help says a payments profile can sometimes be switched between individual and business under Billing Settings; otherwise support sets up a new one, which forfeits any promotional credits. If an agency or a relative set up billing in their own name, decide before the move whether to change that.

Settle the Business Profile first

After the move, your business name, address and hours flow one way, from your Google Business Profile into Google Ads, and cannot be edited on the Ads side. The sync runs daily, and changes to hours, phone number and small name edits show up within 24 hours.

Bigger changes are where timing bites. A significant change to your business name, storefront address or primary category sends the account into a verification review, during which the campaign may pause; Google puts the usual review at 24 to 48 hours. So keep a rebrand, a new shop or a category switch out of your migration week and your busiest week.

The first two weeks after the switch

Google asks you to allow up to two weeks for the move to finish and performance to settle. Use them to check:

• The budget, which is now daily. Your average weekly budget is divided by 7, and monthly spend is capped at that daily figure times 30.4. A $700 weekly budget becomes a $100 daily average with a monthly ceiling of $3,040.
• Your bidding. If one campaign carried different targets for different business categories (plumbing and HVAC, say), they become one blended campaign-level target. To keep separate targets, set up a separate campaign for each category at g.co/localservices, since Google Ads cannot create one yet.
• The lead inbox. It lives under Goals, then Conversions, then Leads, with charge status, lead type, feedback and a CRM download.
• Who gets lead emails. Every user and direct manager is opted in by default. Each person opts out under Admin, then Notifications; keep at least one in, the person who calls leads back.
• Where leads ring. The profile’s phone still syncs from the Business Profile, but the number that call and message leads ring is set in Google Ads and can be changed at any time. Point it at whoever answers fastest; if nobody can while the crew is on a job, an AI receptionist can.
• The callouts. Better Business Bureau callouts are gone; on the Assets page, pick at least six structured callouts, such as hours, specialties or payments accepted.

One limit to know: headlines, videos and sitelinks do not apply, so if someone offers to write ad copy for the new campaign, there is nowhere to put it.

Google’s emails as your calendar

• Before any email: take the screenshots, and confirm the administrator on your profile still works for you and someone at your business holds Admin in Google Ads.
• When the 14-day notice arrives: hold any name, address or category change until the campaign settles.
• At the 7-day reminder: check that billing is in your business’s control and that someone can watch the account on the day.
• On migration day: open the new Leads page and confirm the old leads arrived.

A roofer migrated in storm season has little room for a paused campaign; our roofing companies page shows which months to protect. Send us the account before your 14-day email arrives and the free plan starts with it as it stands: who holds Admin and who pays the bill, what a lead cost you over the last twelve months, and which week a profile change can land safely. Seeing an account through this move is part of our Google Ads management.