Service Scalers urges contractors to export Local Services Ads history before Google migration

Google started moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads in August 2026, and Service Scalers says home service operators should export reporting now because historical performance data will not transfer. Budgets, settings and leads move automatically, but contractors risk losing the benchmarks they need to price leads and diagnose performance shifts.

Why it matters: - Home service operators can keep running ads through Google’s migration, but they may lose the historical reporting needed to measure lead costs, seasonality and account performance over time. - The missing data can make it harder for contractors to judge whether a bad month reflects market conditions, bidding changes or a campaign problem.

What happened: - Google began moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads this month, according to the platform’s help documentation and public updates from Ads Product Liaison Ginny Marvin. - Service Scalers, a Google Partner agency focused on home service businesses, is urging plumbing, HVAC, electrical and roofing operators to export Local Services Ads reporting before the standalone dashboard is retired. - The migration starts with select U.S. home and storefront service advertisers in August 2026. - The first wave includes plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and moving. - Late 2026 expands the move to service-area businesses without storefronts and to accounts using custom bidding or booking configurations. - Non-U.S. accounts and remaining categories follow in 2027.

The details: - Google is retiring the standalone Local Services Ads dashboard and folding campaigns into Google Ads as a Performance Max campaign type built for pay-per-lead goals. - Budgets, settings and leads transfer automatically. - The ads will continue to serve only on Google Search and Google Maps. - The campaigns will not extend to YouTube, Gmail or the Display Network. - The pay-per-lead model stays the same, so advertisers still pay for valid leads such as calls and messages rather than clicks. - Targeting remains keywordless and continues to use the Google Business Profile. - Locations, service types, budgets and ad schedules transfer automatically. - Google has said prior performance reports will not move into Google Ads. - Lead records transfer, but the underlying performance history does not. - Google emails the account administrator 14 days before migration, sends a second reminder seven days before, and shows a banner in the Local Services Ads dashboard. - Weekly budgets convert to daily budgets, with a monthly cap calculated at roughly the daily amount multiplied by 30.4. - Manual cost-per-lead bidding ends. - Target CPA consolidates to a single campaign-level figure, which can matter for contractors running different targets for different trades. - Google has indicated performance may take up to two weeks to stabilize after migration. - New pay-per-lead campaigns cannot yet be created inside Google Ads, so advertisers still need the existing Local Services route to launch during the transition. - Service Scalers says operators should use the 14-day notice window to export all available performance reporting and confirm the administrator email is actively monitored. - Service Scalers has published guidance at servicescalers.com and offers a free Local Services Ads audit.

Between the lines: - The migration appears designed to simplify Google’s ad products without changing the basic lead-gen experience for contractors. - The biggest risk is not a new ad format or new placement mix. It is losing the record of what has worked in a specific market over several years. - Sam Preston, Service Scalers’ CEO, said operators cannot rebuild that history after the dashboard turns off. - Preston said many businesses will ignore the warning banner and only realize the data loss after performance worsens.

What's next: - Account administrators will keep getting migration notices as their accounts move through Google’s rollout schedule. - Contractors that rely on separate bidding targets for different trades may need separate campaigns after the move. - Google says in-platform creation of pay-per-lead campaigns is still coming, which should eventually make the transition easier for new launches. - Service Scalers is continuing to push operators to back up their reporting before their accounts are migrated.

The bottom line: - Google is preserving the mechanics of Local Services Ads, but not the historical reporting, and that is the part contractors should protect now.