Behind the Bark
Before the news this week, open your Google Ads account and look at who has access: click Admin, then Access and Security, then the Users tab. Every name on that list can see your campaigns. The ones with admin rights can change them. Most tree services have never read that list, and it's usually longer than they think: an agency from 2021, a website guy from two contracts ago, whoever set the thing up in the first place.
The reason that list matters right now: Google is folding Local Services Ads (LSA), the lead ads at the top of Search and Maps, into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. The first wave started this month, and tree care wasn't in it, so your migration date is coming soon. Last week I covered Google's side of the move: what changes, what locks, what carries over. This week is the other half: the Google Ads account all of it lands in. Whatever shape that account is in on migration day is the shape your best lead source inherits.
It's like moving your shop across town on a date the landlord picks. Last week was the packing list. This week is walking the new building before the trucks show up.
Limb of the Week
Google's half, in one breath: on your migration day, the old LSA dashboard locks and your reports stop being downloadable, hand-set bids collapse into one campaign-level target, your weekly budget becomes a daily budget, and performance takes up to two weeks to settle. That part is documented; it happens to everyone, and the prep is in last week's issue if you missed it. Write down your cost per lead by service type while your dashboard still shows it, then move on to the half nobody documents.
Your Google Ads account. For most tree services, it's one of two things: an account some agency built years ago that nobody has opened since the contract ended, or a DIY account you touch when the season slows down. Either way, it's about to become the building your best lead source lives in. Walk it before move-in day:
Who holds admin: that access list from the top of this email. Actually read it. Anybody you stopped paying should stop having keys, and cleaning that up takes ten minutes today.
What's already running: old campaigns from an old agency don't clean themselves up. Some are paused. Some are still spending. You want to know what's in the building before your biggest lead source moves in next to it.
Auto-apply recommendations (turn off): Google Ads has a setting that lets Google make changes to your campaigns on its own, and plenty of accounts have it switched on without anyone deciding that. Find the toggle. Make it a decision instead of a default.
Conversion tracking: what does this account count as a lead right now? Calls? Forms? Nothing? If the answer is nothing, nobody is keeping score on any dollar in that account, and you'll have no way to compare the migrated campaign against the rest of your marketing.
A watcher with a login: last week I said somebody should have eyes on your account when your wave hits. This week's version: does that somebody have a login today? Access requests are a ten-minute chore now and an emergency during a migration.
None of those five are migration mechanics, which is the point. They're the condition of the building. Google decides when the trucks roll. You decide what they roll into.
Sawdust
Timing: select US home and storefront services started this month, broader groups go late 2026, everyone else in 2027. You don't pick your date. The 14-day email and the 7-day reminder behind it are the only heads up you get.
Your Google Verified badge transfers on its own, license and insurance checks included. If anyone offers to handle your re-verification for a fee, there is nothing to handle. Hang up.
Missed last week? The Google-side prep (download your reports, find the admin inbox, assign a watcher) is all in Issue #77.
Kickback
Google's page calls the two soft weeks a ramp back to stable. Fair enough from their side of the glass. From your side, two weeks is a payroll cycle. If LSA feeds your removal pipeline, a soft stretch during your wave becomes a hole in next month's schedule, because the jobs you don't book in week one were the work your crews needed in week five.
Somewhere on Google's rollout calendar there is a date with your account on it. You don't get a vote on the date. You get 14 days' notice, and then your best lead source gets rebuilt while you're out running the business.
The five checks above you can do yourself tonight. Then put a number on the whole building: go to adgradr.com and hit Grade My Google Ads. It connects read-only, meaning it can look and it can't touch, runs dozens of checks against your live account, and hands you a score and a detailed report in about a minute. Free.
If you want to know what your report means for your migration, reply with your score, and I'll tell you what I see. A messy account you've seen is a punch list. A messy account nobody's opened rides into the migration as-is. Find the mess before Google does.
Heat is parked over the Southeast and the southern Plains this week, and monsoon storms keep rolling through the Southwest. Wherever your market sits, keep water on the trucks and eyes on your climbers.
See you next week!
- Jacob Hastings
The Backcut
