If your law firm runs Local Services Ads (LSA), you've likely seen the announcements: Google is consolidating LSA management directly into the Google Ads platform. This is a significant operational change, but the good news is that the fundamentals of how LSA works — and why it's valuable — aren't going away.
Here's everything you need to know, in plain language.
The Shorter Version
You'll manage your LSA campaigns inside Google Ads instead of the separate LSA dashboard. You'll still pay per qualified lead, your ads will still appear at the top of Google Search and Maps, and your Google Screened badge carries over automatically. The main things to act on: download your historical reports before you migrate, and understand how your bidding will change.
What's Actually Changing vs. Staying the Same
The Migration Timeline
Google is rolling this out in phases rather than all at once. Here's when to expect it:
You'll manage your LSA campaigns inside Google Ads instead of the separate LSA dashboard. You'll still pay per qualified lead, your ads will still appear at the top of Google Search and Maps, and your Google Screened badge carries over automatically. The main things to act on: download your historical reports before you migrate, and understand how your bidding will change.
The One Thing You Must Do Before Migration
Your past performance data — impressions, clicks, weekly spend, ad-level reports — will not transfer to Google Ads. Your lead history (contact details, message history, call recordings) will carry over, but your campaign-level analytics will not.
Before your migration date, download your reports from the LSA dashboard. Go to your dashboard, navigate to the reporting section, and export everything you want to keep. Once migration happens, that data is gone from the platform permanently.
What Does Transfer Automatically Your targeted locations, service types, business categories, budget limits, ad schedule, and business photos all move over seamlessly. Your Google Verified badge transfers if you've already completed verification. Insurance and license re-verification are not required.
How Bidding Is Changing
This is the area that requires the most attention for firms that have dialed in their LSA bidding strategy.
Weekly Budgets Become Daily Budgets
Your current weekly budget will be divided by 7 to set a daily average. Your monthly spending cap stays the same — daily average × 30.4 — so your overall spend won't change. Daily spend may fluctuate on high-demand days, but billing won't exceed the monthly limit.
Manual Bidding Is Gone
The ability to set a maximum cost-per-lead manually is being removed. Google Ads doesn't support this bidding model. If you've been managing CPL tightly, you'll need to adapt to the automated bidding options available in Google Ads.
Vertical-Level Target CPA Is Gone
If you previously ran different Target CPA amounts for separate practice areas under one campaign (say, different targets for family law vs. criminal defense), Google will calculate a single unified campaign-level CPA and apply it across all categories. If you want to maintain separate bidding for different practice areas, you'll need to set up separate campaigns for each one after migration.
How the New Platform Works
Once you're in Google Ads, here's where to find everything:
- Campaign performance: Your Google Ads dashboard. Look at "Conversions" (total charged leads), "Cost" (total spend), and "Cost / conv." (average cost-per-lead) as your primary metrics.
- Budget and bidding: Settings tab → Campaigns menu → select your pay-per-lead campaign.
- Your lead inbox: Goals → Conversions → Leads. This replaces the LSA lead inbox and has all the same functionality — lead status, call/message type, feedback, and CRM export.
- Message leads: Click into an individual lead to open the communication panel and reply directly from Google Ads.
- Pausing your ads: Settings → Campaigns → toggle status to Paused. Toggle back to Enabled to resume.
- Business details: Your business name, address, and hours sync automatically from your Google Business Profile. Edit them at the source — changes propagate to Google Ads within 24 hours. Note: significant changes to your business name or address will trigger a 24–48 hour verification pause.
Allow Up to Two Weeks for Ramp-Up Google notes that while many ads will start running immediately after migration, it can take up to two weeks for campaign performance to return to stable levels. Don't panic if you see a dip in leads right after your migration date — this is expected and temporary.
Frequently Asked Questions
How will I know when my account is being migrated?
You'll receive an email 14 days before your migration date, a reminder 7 days before, and a confirmation once migration is complete. A banner will also appear in your LSA dashboard. On migration day, logging into the LSA dashboard will automatically redirect you to Google Ads.
Can I set up a new LSA campaign after migration?
Not directly inside Google Ads — not yet. To create new campaigns or local accounts, visit g.co/localservices. Google says campaign creation will become available inside Google Ads at a later date.
Is this the same as a standard Performance Max campaign?
No — and this distinction matters. While it lives inside the Performance Max campaign type, pay-per-lead campaigns are fundamentally different. You pay per lead, not per click. Ads only appear on Google Search and Google Maps, not YouTube or Gmail or the Display Network. Targeting remains keywordless. And you can still earn the Google Verified badge. Think of it as LSA with a new interface, not as a traditional PMax campaign.
Will my Google Screened / Google Verified badge carry over?
Yes. If you've already completed verification, your status and badge transfer automatically. Insurance and license re-verification are not required during migration.
What happens to my historical lead data?
Your lead history — contact details, message threads, and call recordings — carries over to the new Lead Manager in Google Ads. Your campaign-level performance reports (impressions, clicks, spend history) do not carry over and must be downloaded before migration.
Bottom Line for Law Firms
The core value proposition of Local Services Ads — pay per qualified lead, appear at the top of search results, build trust with the Google Screened badge — is unchanged. What's changing is the management interface and some bidding mechanics.
For most firms, the practical day-to-day impact will be minimal once you're set up in Google Ads. The two things that deserve your immediate attention are: downloading your historical reports before migration, and planning for the end of manual cost-per-lead bidding if you've been relying on that control.
If you manage campaigns for multiple practice areas with different performance targets, now is the time to think about whether you want to split those into separate campaigns to maintain bidding flexibility after the migration.
Questions about how this affects your campaigns?
Reach out to your EverSpark Interactive account manager — we'll walk you through exactly what to expect for your account and help you prepare before your migration date.