FlashCrafterGuide
How Performance Max and Search campaigns differ, which one Google serves when both can run, and what changes for U.S. local service owners now that Local Services Ads are moving into a Performance Max campaign type.
Owners of independent local service businesses in the United States (plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, cleaning, pest control and similar trades) who run, or are considering, Google Ads.
If you own a local service business and you are weighing Performance Max (PMax) against Search campaigns, there is a wrinkle most comparison articles skip. Google is consolidating Local Services Ads (LSAs) into Google Ads as "Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals." That is a different animal from the standard PMax campaign the usual comparisons describe, and it may already affect your account.
So the real question has three parts. Standard PMax runs across Google's whole inventory and picks its own placements. A Search campaign runs on keywords you choose. The new pay-per-lead PMax runs only on Search and Maps, has no keywords, and charges you for valid leads such as phone calls and messages, not clicks. This guide covers each, what Google's own help pages say about which one wins when they compete, what the published data shows, and what to check in your own account.
The data here is mixed in quality. Google's help pages are cited where they exist. The performance studies come from software vendors (Adalysis, Optmyzr, SearchLight Digital) and are labeled that way. Google publishes no head-to-head PMax-versus-Search cost or conversion comparison for lead generation, so treat any article that claims a clean winner with caution.
At a glance
Despite the Performance Max name, these campaigns do not expand to Google's other channels. Standard PMax serves across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps.
Google says you pay only for valid leads such as phone calls and messages.
August 2026 for select U.S. home and storefront service categories; late 2026 for service-area businesses and custom bidding configurations; 2027 for non-U.S. accounts and remaining categories.
Historical performance reports do not transfer, so download them first. Lead history does transfer.
Google says a Search keyword that exactly matches, or is spell-corrected to, the query is preferred over PMax. Otherwise the higher Ad Rank serves.
Google may spend up to 2x your average daily budget on a given day. A $50 target CPA means roughly $150 a day.
Set after campaign creation. Bidding defaults to Maximize Conversions, and manual bidding is not supported.
Per a Google notice reported by ppc.land, missed calls where the caller stays on the line more than 20 seconds are charged as valid leads. Not yet confirmed on a Google-hosted page.
In a vendor study of more than 3,300 non-retail PMax campaigns, 67% had at least one search term overlapping existing Search keywords.
Non-retail sample, vendor-authored, published Dec 3, 2024. It does not cover cost.
Across more than 13,000 search campaigns in 23 industries, April 2025 to March 2026. Home & Home Improvement runs $8.33 CPC and $90.92 CPL.
Vendor benchmark of 888 home-service contractors. Electrical $39, HVAC $51, plumbing $57.
Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Local results rest mainly on relevance, distance and popularity.
A practical path
Check whether your Local Services Ads account is in the migration. Google emails 14 days before it moves your account to a Performance Max campaign with pay-per-lead goals. Download your historical performance reports first, because they do not transfer (lead history does).
Confirm your Google Business Profile details. After migration, business name, address and hours sync one way from your Google Business Profile to Google Ads, so errors there carry into the ads.
If you run both Search and standard PMax, pull your best-converting PMax search terms and add them to your Search campaign as exact-match keywords. Google prefers an exact-match Search keyword over PMax for the same query.
Set a PMax daily budget of at least 3 times your target cost per conversion. At a $50 target CPA, that is about $150 a day. Google may spend up to 2 times the average daily budget on a given day.
Leave any new or changed PMax campaign alone for at least 1 to 2 weeks (up to 6 weeks for more complex setups or low conversion volume) before making major changes.
For pay-per-lead PMax, make sure phone leads are turned on, since they are required to keep ads serving. Add a Target CPA only after the campaign is running and gets more than 15 leads a month.
Before October 1, 2026 charging rules bite, compare the business hours in your account with who actually answers the phone. Missed calls over 20 seconds during business hours are reported as chargeable.
Watch for lead credits. They are applied automatically, in most cases within 30 days, but are not available for health care verticals or tax specialists.
On any lead-gen PMax campaign, set location targeting to "Presence" rather than "Presence or interest," add qualifying questions, reCAPTCHA and server-side validation, and review placement reports.
Find your category in the WordStream benchmark table (and your trade in the SearchLight table) and compare those figures with your own cost per lead before deciding where to put budget.
Watch for these
Standard PMax serves across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps. The pay-per-lead PMax that replaces Local Services Ads serves only on Search and Maps, is keywordless, and charges per valid lead. Advice written about one does not automatically apply to the other.
Historical performance reports do not transfer into the new campaign. Lead history does. Google gives 14 days of email notice, so download reports as soon as you get it.
Manual bidding is no longer supported in pay-per-lead PMax, weekly budgets convert to daily averages, vertical-level target CPA is replaced by one campaign-level CPA, and BBB callouts are no longer supported.
Some agency pages attribute a 10x target CPA budget to PMax. Google's PMax budget page says at least 3x. The 10x figure belongs to Demand Gen.
Agencies repeat that figure without a Google source. Google's own thresholds are at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days for value-based bidding, at least 30 conversions over the last 30 days to evaluate Target CPA, and more than 15 leads a month before setting Target CPA on pay-per-lead PMax.
Google advises allowing at least 1 to 2 weeks, or up to 6 weeks for complex setups or low conversion volume, before major changes.
From October 1, 2026, a missed call during business hours where the caller stays on the line more than 20 seconds is reported as chargeable. If your Google Business Profile hours say open and nobody picks up, you may pay for a lead you never spoke to.
Google states there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity.
Some pages claim PMax wins in a large share of accounts or that most accounts do best running both. Those figures could not be traced to a methodology and conflict with the Adalysis and Optmyzr studies, which found Search ahead on conversion rate in most of the comparisons where a difference showed up.
Choose with context
Where ads show
How targeting works
Landing page control
What you are charged for
Budget guidance
Bidding
Lead requirements
Published performance data
| Search campaign | Standard PMax | Pay-per-lead PMax (replacing LSAs) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where ads show | Google Search results | YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps, from a single campaign | Google Search and Google Maps only, in the same ad positions as Local Services Ads |
| How targeting works | Keywords you choose; an exact-match keyword is preferred over PMax for the same query | Goal-based; search themes function similarly to phrase and broad match keywords | Keywordless; uses information from your Google Business Profile |
| Landing page control | You set the landing page (AI Max for Search adds an optional final URL expansion feature) | If Final URL expansion is on, Google may replace your Final URL with a more relevant page | Not stated in the research reviewed |
| What you are charged for | Clicks (WordStream benchmarks report cost per click) | Not stated in the research reviewed | Valid leads such as phone calls and messages, not clicks |
| Budget guidance |
Takeaway
For a local service business, the PMax versus Search decision is now three-way. Search gives you keyword control and wins the auction when an exact-match keyword fits. Standard PMax hands placement and landing-page choices to Google across its whole inventory. Pay-per-lead PMax, the new home of Local Services Ads, keeps ads on Search and Maps and charges only for valid leads. Vendor data leans toward Search on conversion rate where the two overlap, but nothing from Google settles it, so measure your own cost per lead. If you run Local Services Ads, export your reports now, check who answers the phone during listed hours before missed-call charging starts on October 1, 2026, and keep your Google Business Profile accurate.
Best fit if you want keyword control
Search campaign with exact-match keywords
Google prefers an exact-match Search keyword over PMax for the same query, and the Adalysis and Optmyzr studies show Search ahead on conversion rate where the two overlap.
Best fit if you run Local Services Ads today
Pay-per-lead PMax (migration)
It keeps ads on Search and Maps in the same positions and charges for valid leads rather than clicks. Download historical reports first and answer calls during listed business hours.
Best fit if you want Google to find placements across channels
Standard PMax with a daily budget of at least 3x CPA
It serves across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps. Google advises waiting 1 to 2 weeks (up to 6 for low volume) before major changes and using Presence targeting and spam filters for lead gen.
There is no published, Google-backed head-to-head showing that PMax beats Search or the reverse for lead generation. What exists is a mix of Google's rules for how the two interact, two large vendor studies that lean toward Search on conversion rate where the two overlap, and a major structural change: Local Services Ads are becoming a PMax campaign type with pay-per-lead goals.
For trades owners, that gives three practical paths. A Search campaign gives you keyword control and wins the auction tie-break when an exact-match keyword fits the query. Standard PMax gives Google control of where and how ads show across its whole inventory. Pay-per-lead PMax, the new home of Local Services Ads, charges per valid lead and shows only on Search and Maps.
The sections below walk through each, then the cost data, then the call-handling and billing details that matter most if you are an LSA advertiser.
Google's help page on the transition says Local Services Ads are being consolidated into Google Ads as "Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals." Ads "will continue to show exclusively on Google Search and Google Maps in the same ad positions as before," and "You only pay for valid leads (such as phone calls and messages) rather than ad clicks." The page carries no date.
Search Engine Land (July 20, 2026) adds that despite the Performance Max branding, "these campaigns do not expand to Google's other advertising channels," and that they "remain keywordless, using information from the advertiser's Google Business Profile (GBP)."
Google's stated timeline: August 2026 for select U.S. home and storefront service categories; late 2026 for service-area businesses and custom bidding configurations; 2027 for non-U.S. accounts and remaining categories. Google's page names these first-phase categories: plumbing, HVAC, electrical, appliance repair, house cleaning, lawn care, roofing, pest control and moving.
Other reports differ on who goes first. Search Engine Land describes the first group as "a small group of U.S. advertisers across pet care, home services, wellness and education in early August 2026." Invoca (Sept 15, 2026) lists HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electrical, pest control and restoration, and says it does not cite Google URLs. Where they differ, Google's own page is the reference; confirm your own category by watching for the 14-day email notice.
Advertisers get that 14-day notice by email before migration and should download historical reports first. Your business name, address and hours sync in one direction from your Google Business Profile to Google Ads. Verified status transfers, and "Insurance and license reverification are no longer required."
| Item | Before (Local Services Ads dashboard) | After (PMax with pay-per-lead goals) |
|---|---|---|
Budget | Weekly budgets | Converted to daily averages |
Bidding | Manual bidding available | Manual bidding is no longer supported |
Google's settings page for these campaigns says the budget is an average daily budget and bidding defaults to Maximize Conversions. "Phone call leads are required to keep your ads serving." Messages and bookings are optional. You edit your service area by city, county or ZIP code, and the schedule can sync to your Google Business Profile hours.
Google's best-practices page adds several rules. Set Target CPA only after the campaign is created, and only if it gets "more than 15 leads per month." Manual bidding is not supported. Maintain "consistent positive reviews (with ratings above four stars)." Limit targeted regions to "no more than two hours of driving time from your business location." You can upload up to 100 custom photos. Message goals are suggested only if you can respond within 24 hours.
Lead prices are not published as a table. Google says lead prices "may vary depending on your location, the job type, the type of lead, or your bidding mode," and that message leads are typically priced lower than the corresponding phone lead price.
Google describes PMax as "a goal-based campaign type that allows you to access all Google Ads inventory," including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps, from a single campaign. That is the main difference from a Search campaign, where you choose keywords and the ads appear in search results.
Two PMax features matter for a local business. First, search themes "function similarly to phrase and broad match keywords." Second, if you turn on Final URL expansion, "Google may replace your Final URL with a more relevant landing page based on the user's search query," so a visitor may land somewhere other than the page you picked.
When you set a budget, Google's panel shows up to three daily budget suggestions (Low, Medium and High).
If you run both campaign types, Google's rules decide which one competes for a given search. Per Google: "A Search campaign with a keyword that exactly matches or is spell-corrected to a person's query will be preferred over Performance Max." If no keyword matches exactly across match types, "the campaign with the higher Ad Rank will serve." Google's example: for the search "plumbrs," the exact keyword [plumbers] is preferred.
Search Engine Journal's prioritization guide (July 24, 2024) lays out the order as: identical exact match first, then identical phrase or broad match or search themes, then AI-based relevance (Search only), then Ad Rank.
The practical takeaway: if a search term is already converting for you inside PMax, adding it to a Search campaign as an exact-match keyword gives that campaign priority on that query. Adalysis makes the same recommendation, to add top PMax search terms as exact match.
Two vendor studies look at how PMax and Search interact. Both are from companies that sell Google Ads software, and neither is from Google.
Adalysis (published in Search Engine Land, Dec 3, 2024, by Brad Geddes, who discloses he co-founded Adalysis) analyzed more than 3,300 non-retail PMax campaigns and about 1.2 million search terms, excluding terms under 10 impressions. Optmyzr analyzed 503 to 511 accounts and 5,768 Search campaigns using data from Feb 1 to 28, 2025.
Both studies point the same way: where the campaign types overlap, Search tends to convert better when a difference appears, though many comparisons showed no significant difference. Adalysis's conclusion for lead generation: "For lead generation, PMax often functions as a cross-channel backfill."
Limits to keep in mind: the Adalysis sample is non-retail and vendor-authored, and it predates the 2026 Local Services Ads change. It does not cover cost, because Google does not publish cost data for PMax search terms. Optmyzr defined a "significant" difference as a gap above 10%.
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
PMax search terms that overlapped existing Search keywords |
For standard PMax, Google says: "Set an average daily budget of at least 3 times your CPA or cost/conv." Google may spend "up to 2 times your average daily budget" on a given day. With a $50 target CPA, that works out to about $150 a day. Some agency pages say 10x target CPA for PMax, but that figure belongs to Demand Gen.
Google's lead-gen best practices for PMax say to allow "at least 1-2 weeks (or up to 6 weeks for more complex setups or low conversion volume)" before major changes. Value-based bidding needs goals with "at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days." Google's Target CPA page recommends measuring "the last 30 days, including at least 30 conversions." Advertisers reaching "Excellent" Ad Strength "see 6% more conversions on average," according to Google.
For pay-per-lead PMax, the bar is different: set a Target CPA only after creation and only above 15 leads a month.
Lead-gen PMax can attract junk. Google's best practices say to add qualifying questions, reCAPTCHA and server-side validation to reduce spam, and to use location targeting "Presence" rather than "Presence or interest," so you reach people who are actually in your area.
Brand exclusions work in both Search and PMax. In PMax they apply to Search, Shopping and YouTube search inventory. Google warns that "Brand settings inherently limit traffic," so using them cuts volume as well as, potentially, wasted spend.
Google also offers AI Max inside Search campaigns. Google says "Advertisers that activate AI Max in Search campaigns will typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS." The page's own qualifier: "Source: Google internal data, 2025; for non-Retail advertisers."
AI Max has three features: improved search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion. An independent Search Engine Land study reportedly found about 13% more revenue with a higher CPA, but that study could not be opened, so only the search-result summary is available. Treat the 14% figure as Google's own claim.
WordStream/LocaliQ (last updated May 19, 2026) analyzed more than 13,000 search campaigns across 23 industries from April 2025 to March 2026, covering Google and Microsoft Ads. Overall, CTR was 6.64%, CPC $5.42, conversion rate 8.18% and cost per lead $66.69. In 2016, CPC was $2.32 and cost per lead $59.18.
WordStream reports no PMax-specific benchmarks, so these figures describe Search campaigns only. The categories below are the ones closest to local service work.
| Category | CPC | CTR | CVR | CPL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Home & Home Improvement | $8.33 |
SearchLight Digital (Feb 2026) published a vendor benchmark of 888 home-service contractors and 1,774 LSA campaigns, covering $6.72M in spend and 126,650 leads from Feb 1 to 28, 2026. Blended cost per lead was $53, with a 43.9% book rate and an $1,826 average ticket.
Use caution: the vendor's own closed-ROAS figures (blended 7.84x) are unaudited. Other pages cite $45 to $80 per lead for major-metro HVAC, but that range comes from search-result summaries and could not be traced to a source, so do not budget off it. Google itself does not publish a price-per-lead table.
| Trade | CPL | Book rate | Average ticket |
|---|---|---|---|
Electrical | $39 | 43.4% |
ppc.land reports that Google's notice, "Upcoming changes to lead charge policy," reached advertisers on Aug 24, 2026. The quoted rule: "Missed calls during business hours will now be charged as valid leads if a user stays on the line for more than 20 seconds."
ppc.land also reports that qualifying follow-up calls to the same person within 15 days are charged once, and that callers who must press a key at a phone menu start the 20-second timer only after the key press. Google's notice gave no details on voicemail handling, disputes, or pricing parity with answered calls.
This wording has not been confirmed on a Google-hosted page, so verify it in your own account notices. The practical check is simple: compare the business hours listed in your account with who actually answers the phone during those hours.
Google's Local Services help says lead credits are applied automatically: "In most cases, credits will be applied to your account balance within 30 days." Google discontinued credits for "job type not serviced" and "geo not serviced" leads. Lead credits are not available for health care verticals, tax specialists, or advertisers in EMEA.
To run a Local Services ad, "Businesses must pass a series of business checks." The person completing the checks "must also be a profile owner or manager." Screening may include license, insurance and background checks. Search-result summaries cite minimum review counts (five reviews for some categories, from a 2022 change), but Google's eligibility page did not state a minimum, so check your category's requirements directly.
Your Google Business Profile matters twice: pay-per-lead PMax is keywordless and draws on it, and name, address and hours sync one way from the profile into Google Ads.
Ads do not buy organic Maps position. Google says: "Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity," and "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." Running either campaign type does not change that.
Management fees are published by agencies, not independently surveyed. ALM Corp (April 12, 2026) cites a flat $500 to $5,000+ a month, or "often 10% to 20% of ad spend." By ad-spend tier: under $2,500 a month, $300 to $1,000+; $2,500 to $10,000, $750 to $2,500+. Setup runs $500 to $2,500. ALM states no methodology beyond "market research." Other agency pages give similar ranges. Use these as rough context for quotes, not as a standard.
Several statistics circulate without a traceable source. Google Marketing Live 2026 claims, such as PMax driving "45% of Google Ads conversions" and AI Max or PMax users getting "fifteen percent more conversions at the same ROAS," appear only in agency write-ups and were not found on a Google page.
A claim that PMax wins 58% of 247 accounts (4.7% conversion rate against Search at 3.9%, combined 5.9%), and that 73% of accounts do best using both, appeared only in a search snippet from groas.com. Its methodology is unconfirmed and it conflicts with the Adalysis and Optmyzr results above.
Several popular comparison pages (Blueprint Digital, Stackmatix, groas.com, nexapmg.com) say little or nothing about local service specifics: Local Services Ads, Google Business Profile, call tracking, or cost per lead. Sierra Exclusive covers LSAs but gives unsourced figures such as $10 to $60 per click and $1,000 to $4,000 a month in typical spend. Budget thresholds such as "under $3,000/month favors Search; $10,000+/month supports combined" are unsourced.
Google publishes no PMax-versus-Search conversion or cost comparison for lead generation. Its AI Max claim (14%) is internal 2025 data for non-retail advertisers. Google does not publish Local Services Ads price-per-lead tables on the pages reviewed, and PMax search-term cost data is not available, according to Adalysis. The missed-call rule starting October 1, 2026 is reported by secondary sources only, and the first-wave category list for the LSA migration differs between Google and Search Engine Land.
Questions
Keep reading
Vendor pages change. Figures are as published on the capture date; confirm before deciding.
| Average daily budget of at least 3x your CPA; Google may spend up to 2x on a given day |
| Average daily budget; weekly LSA budgets convert to daily averages |
| Bidding | Not stated in the research reviewed | Google: value-based bidding needs goals with at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days; Target CPA page recommends measuring the last 30 days, including at least 30 conversions | Defaults to Maximize Conversions; Target CPA only after creation and only above 15 leads a month; manual bidding not supported |
|---|
| Lead requirements | Not stated in the research reviewed | Google's lead-gen best practices: add qualifying questions, reCAPTCHA and server-side validation to reduce spam | Phone call leads are required to keep ads serving; messages and bookings are optional |
|---|
| Published performance data | Higher conversion rate than PMax in 84.18% of Adalysis comparisons (non-retail, vendor study) | More impressions in 43% of Adalysis comparisons (61% excluding campaigns with no overlap) | SearchLight Digital: blended $53 cost per lead across 888 home-service contractors, Feb 2026 |
|---|
Target CPA | Set at the vertical level | One campaign-level CPA |
BBB callouts | Supported | No longer supported |
Historical performance reports | In the LSA dashboard | Do not transfer; download first |
Lead history | In the LSA dashboard | Transfers |
Business name, address, hours | Managed in the LSA setup | Sync one way from Google Business Profile to Google Ads |
Insurance and license reverification | Required | No longer required; verified status transfers |
Where ads show | Google Search and Google Maps | Same: Google Search and Google Maps, same ad positions |
What you pay for | Valid leads | Valid leads |
Source: Google Ads Help, Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max with pay-per-lead goals (https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/17213585?hl=en). The page shows no date. The before and after columns reflect only the changes the page lists.
2.8%
PMax campaigns with at least one overlapping term | 67% |
PMax search terms that could show ads from either campaign type | 45% |
PMax had more impressions | 43% of the time (61% when campaigns with no overlap are excluded) |
Search had higher CTR | 65% of the time |
Search had higher conversion rate | 84.18% of the time |
Search had higher conversion value | 84.62% of the time |
Source: Adalysis, via Search Engine Land (https://searchengineland.com/performance-max-vs-search-campaigns-overlap-data-448788). Sample: more than 3,300 non-retail PMax campaigns and about 1.2 million search terms; terms under 10 impressions excluded. Vendor study; no cost data.
| Measure | Search won | PMax won | No difference |
|---|---|---|---|
CTR (where PMax cannibalized Search keywords) | 28.37% | 15.98% | 55.65% |
Conversion rate | 18.91% | 6.17% | 74.92% |
Source: Optmyzr (https://www.optmyzr.com/blog/is-pmax-cannibalizing-search/). 503 to 511 accounts, 5,768 Search campaigns. 91.45% of accounts had keyword overlap and 97.26% had search-term overlap. "Significant" was defined as a gap above 10%.
6.47%
8.05% |
$90.92 |
Attorneys & Legal | $9.87 | 5.87% | 5.55% | $131.63 |
Dentists & Dental | $8.00 | 5.66% | 10.67% | $72.97 |
Automotive Repair, Service & Parts | $4.35 | 5.56% | 15.51% | $29.96 |
Personal Services | $7.17 | 7.16% | 12.34% | $54.60 |
Physicians & Surgeons | $4.76 | 6.61% | 12.43% | $40.04 |
Beauty & Personal Care | $4.62 | 6.75% | 10.35% | $39.25 |
Business Services | $5.87 | 6.10% | 4.85% | $93.69 |
Source: WordStream/LocaliQ, Google Ads Benchmarks 2026, last updated May 19, 2026 (https://www.wordstream.com/blog/2026-google-ads-benchmarks). More than 13,000 search campaigns across 23 industries, April 2025 to March 2026, Google and Microsoft Ads. CPC = cost per click, CTR = click-through rate, CVR = conversion rate, CPL = cost per lead. No PMax-specific benchmarks.
$1,434 |
HVAC | $51 | 44.0% | $2,110 |
Plumbing | $57 | 44.5% | $1,714 |
Drain/Sewer | $59 | 39.5% | $1,521 |
Water Heater | $71 (only 2 accounts) | 35.0% | $2,484 |
Blended | $53 | 43.9% | $1,826 |
Source: SearchLight Digital (https://searchlightdigital.io/google-local-service-ads-cost-per-lead/). 888 home-service contractors, 1,774 LSA campaigns, $6.72M spend, 126,650 leads, Feb 1–28, 2026. Vendor benchmark; the water heater figure rests on only 2 accounts.