Google Ads, LSA and local search, explained for small businesses.

What changed with Google Local Services Ads?

Short answer: Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads as a Performance Max campaign with pay-per-lead goals. You still pay per lead and still show on Search and Maps, but the old LSA dashboard goes away, and past performance reports don’t carry over.

The rollout started in August 2026 with U.S. plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, pest control and similar trades, and runs into 2027. Budgets become daily, manual maximum cost per lead disappears, and a significant Business Profile edit can pause a campaign for 24 to 48 hours.

• Is Google Local Services Ads going away?What changes, the rollout phases, and a 60-second readiness check.
• LSA dashboard gone? Here’s what happenedAlready migrated? Tell a normal move from a real problem.
• Google Ads and LSA managementHave us run LSA, Search and Performance Max together.

How does my Google Business Profile affect my leads?

Short answer: It decides whether you appear in the map pack, it’s where most reviews live, and it now feeds your Local Services Ads campaign too. Get the details wrong, or change them at a bad moment, and both your map ranking and your ads can suffer.

For a service business in Round Rock, Pflugerville or Cedar Park, the map pack is often the first thing a customer sees. Accurate categories, service areas, hours and a steady run of real reviews do more there than almost anything on your website.

• Local SEO and Google Business ProfileHow we get and keep local businesses in the map pack.
• How to get more Google reviewsYour review link, a free QR code, messages you can copy and Google’s rules.
• How to remove bad Google reviewsWhich reviews Google takes down, how to report and appeal, and what to do with the rest.
• Central Texas local search study34 real searches in 11 towns: how many reviews it takes to get into the map.
• How your profile connects to LSAWhy a big profile edit can pause your ads.
• How local businesses get found in Austin and Round RockThe data, Google’s ranking factors and a Business Profile checklist.
• Digital marketing in Round RockWhat local search looks like for businesses here.

What should I do if my calls or leads suddenly drop?

Short answer: Work out which of three things changed first: your ads, your Business Profile or your website. Compare against the same weeks last year, not last week, and don’t change several settings at once while you’re guessing.

Around Austin, demand for home services swings hard with the weather, so a quiet week in October isn’t the same signal as a quiet week in August. A real drop usually has one cause: ads that stopped, a profile that needs reverifying, or a website change that broke a phone number or a booking form.

• Why LSA leads drop after migrationBidding, budget and settings that changed without you noticing.
• Website recoveryWhen traffic or enquiries fall after a redesign, hack or hosting change.
• Paid search that is tracked to real callsSo a drop shows up in a report before it shows up in the bank.

How do businesses get recommended in AI answers?

Short answer: AI tools like Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT lean on sources they can trust and cross-check: consistent business details across the web, genuine reviews, and pages that answer a question clearly. There’s no switch to flip, but the same foundations help.

That’s also why the articles here open every section with a direct answer. It’s the format that gets lifted into AI summaries, and it’s the format a busy owner actually wants.

• How to get ChatGPT and Google’s AI to recommend your businessHow AI tools choose who to name, a free 10-minute test, and the seven fixes that matter.
• GEO vs AEO vs SEO, explained for small businessesWhat each term means, where the work overlaps, and what it should cost.
• AI SEO for small businessesGetting named inside ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI answers.
• Websites built to be foundFast, clear pages that search engines and AI tools can read.

How do I know if my marketing is actually working?

Short answer: Track the things that pay the bills: calls, form enquiries, booked jobs and cost per lead. Traffic and rankings are useful clues, but they aren’t the result.

A good report tells you what you spent, how many real leads came from each channel, what each one cost, and how that compares with the same period last year. If your current reports can’t answer those four things, that’s the first fix.

• How to run Google Ads yourselfSetup, real cost benchmarks, common mistakes and what to ask an agency.
• Results from real local accountsEvery figure names where it came from.
• Who does the workMeet the team behind these articles.
• Ask us about your numbersA free review of what your reporting is and isn’t telling you.

What have we learned running Google Ads for Texas local businesses?

Short answer: That most gains come from the basics: running ads when someone can answer, counting people rather than calls, tracking calls from the website, targeting an area you can really serve, and planning budgets around Texas heat, freezes and hail.

Our lessons article shares what we watch for in the accounts we manage, without publishing any client’s data, and backs each Texas point with public sources like the SBA, the Census Bureau, ERCOT and the Texas Comptroller.

• Google Ads lessons for Texas home service and local businessesCall timing, missed calls, lead counting, service areas and seasonal budgets.
• How Texas weather should change your ad budgetPlanning for heat waves, hard freezes and hail season.
• SEO for roofers in TexasGoogle Business Profile rules, storm-season pages and Texas advertising rules.
• HVAC SEO in TexasAustin search data by season, TDLR license-number rules and the pages that rank.
• Google Ads tracked to real callsHow we manage accounts for local businesses.

How much does SEO cost, and what should it get you?

Short answer: Real SEO from an agency usually costs $1,500 to $5,000 a month for a local business. Done well, it pays for itself: one of our dental clients went from 6 visits a day from Google to 143, and made back 11 times what it spent.

• How much does SEO cost in 2026?Real prices, what the money buys, and this month’s deals.
• How much does a website cost?Building it yourself, a freelancer or an agency, and the bills that come after.
• What does an SEO company do?The work behind real results, shown with our client numbers.
• SEO for dentistsHow dental practices went from invisible to up 3,860% for “dentist near me.”
• SEO in Round Rock and AustinOur SEO plans, prices and terms.

What do these Google Ads and local search terms mean?

Short answer: A quick glossary of the terms you’ll see in our articles and inside your Google accounts.