After migration, manual bidding such as a maximum cost per lead is no longer supported, and if you ran different targets by category, Google says one campaign-level target cost per action (the average you're willing to pay per lead) is calculated and applied to all of them.
Facts on this page were checked against Google's pages on 2026-09-30.
Two pieces of Google's wording carry most of this. On manual bidding: "Manual bidding (such as setting a maximum cost-per-lead) is no longer supported in Google Ads." On targets: "Google Ads doesn't support vertical-level Target CPA bidding." The campaign itself "defaults to MaximizeConversions, an automated bidding strategy that uses Google AI to set bids dynamically, helping you get the most leads possible within your daily budget."
What replaces your old bidding?
Automation, with a target. Before migration, Local Services Ads let you choose among maximizing leads, a target cost per lead, or a manual maximum per lead. The manual option is the one that's gone. Google's transition page tells you to review your budget and adjust your bidding targets from the Settings tab on your first login, but the campaign-settings page we read doesn't describe a target CPA control, so look at what your account offers and write it down.
If you used to run different targets for different verticals inside one campaign, Google says "a unified campaign-level Target CPA will be calculated and applied to all vertical categories." You don't pick that number. Note what it is on day one.
Will your cost per lead change?
Google's transition page doesn't announce a price change and doesn't rule one out. It changes how bids get set. So don't assume a rise or a fall. Measure it.
Here's the comparison sheet. The two-week gap is there because Google says to allow up to two weeks for performance to ramp back to stable levels.
BEFORE / AFTER (by category)
BEFORE (last 90 days AFTER (weeks 3-6
on the old dashboard) on Google Ads)
Charged leads ___ ___
Lead spend $___ $___
Cost per charged spend / leads Cost / Conversions
lead
Jobs won from leads ___ ___
Cost per job won spend / jobs spend / jobs
Skip weeks 1-2 after migration. Write down the campaign-level
target Google applied and the date.
If you didn't save the "before" column, our guide to saving your reports comes first. The cost per job won row matters most, and the method is in our cost article.
When does splitting by category make sense?
One target for every category averages different economics. The category whose leads cost more gets starved, or the cheap one gets overpaid. Separate campaigns would give each its own target. Here's our rule of thumb for when that's worth it, labeled as ours:
SPLIT TEST (by category, last 90 days)
(highest cost per charged lead - lowest) / lowest
Above 30% AND at least 10 charged leads in each category
compared = plan separate campaigns.
Example, made-up numbers:
Category A $40, Category B $65: (65 - 40) / 40 = 62.5%
With 80 and 40 charged leads, the test says split.
The 30% line is a judgment call, and you can set a stricter one. The 10-lead minimum exists because a category with 4 leads in 90 days can show any cost per lead by luck.
Can you build the split?
Not necessarily. Google says you can't create new campaigns with pay-per-lead goals directly within Google Ads "at this time," points to g.co/localservices for additional campaigns or local accounts, and says campaign creation will become available later. Google's transition page also says you can keep separate bidding rules by "setting up separate campaigns for each vertical," so the intent is there. The mechanism, today, is unclear from its pages.
So before you plan a split, find out whether g.co/localservices will let you add a campaign to an account that has already migrated. We don't know, and we haven't tried it. Google's migration support line, +1-844-205-0011 (Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST), is one place to ask.
Each campaign also takes a subset of your categories: Google's limit is a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 10, with at least one service type on for each active category.
What if you have few leads?
Then skip the split, and skip the clever targets. Under about 10 charged leads in the trailing 90 days, the average is too unstable to set a target from. We won't hand you a "typical" starting figure for your trade, because we don't have a sourced, dated one. Start from your own numbers as they accumulate, and keep the before-and-after sheet going.
Who shouldn't bother with any of this? Accounts with one category. There's nothing to split.
What do we make of Google taking manual bidding away?
It removes a safety rail some owners relied on, and it moves the control into a system you can't see inside. That's a fair thing to dislike. Automation may also find leads you'd have missed, and we can't tell you which will happen in your account. Nobody outside Google can yet. What you can control is whether you'll know: a baseline, a two-week wait, and a cost per job won.
For everything else that changes at migration, see our overview. The same habit, measure before you change, is how we start a Google Ads account audit.