Edition 32: The Best Spots in Local Search Are Now For Rent

Epic Insights

Edition 32  ·  Aug 11, 2026

The Big Story

The top of Google's local map is turning into paid space. That spot used to be earned: you did the work, you collected the reviews, and Google put you in the top three for free. It's been renting those places out instead, and this year the pace jumped.

Joy Hawkins, a local search expert whose team tracks this closely, found that ads inside the local pack went from under 1% of results last November to about 22% by early this year. That's a 733% jump in three months. Where a customer used to see three earned listings, they now often hit paid ones first.

The ads are only half of it. Starting this month, Google is folding its Local Services Ads, the "Google Screened" listings home and service businesses use, into its main ads platform as pay-per-lead campaigns, and shutting down the separate dashboard many businesses relied on to manage them. Search Engine Land and Google's own help pages confirm the rollout began in August with U.S. home and storefront services first.

Think of the local pack like the shelf at eye level in a grocery store. The best product used to earn that spot. Now the store rents part of it out, so you either pay for placement or win one of the fewer free spaces by being the obvious choice.

So here's where it nets out. The free spots didn't disappear, they just got harder to win, and that makes the ones you can still earn worth more. The businesses landing them have current reviews, accurate hours, and a profile that answers what customers actually ask. None of that is new advice from us. It just matters more now than it did a year ago.

Quick Hits

Ask Epic

Both, and the order matters. Yes, Google has crammed more ads into the top of local results, so the free spots are harder to win than they were a year ago. No, they're still winnable, and plenty of businesses land them without paying a cent.

Here's the trap to avoid. Buying ads to make up for a thin Google profile is like paying for a front-window display when the shelves inside are half empty. You'll pull people in, then lose them. Ads work best sitting on top of a profile that already earns trust: steady recent reviews, correct hours and services, photos that actually look like this year.

So before you open the wallet, get your unpaid profile in shape. Then, if the math works and you honestly know what a new customer is worth to you, ads can be a smart addition instead of a crutch. Happy to look at your numbers with you before you spend anything.

What Epic's doing for you this week

This week the team is going through managed clients' Google profiles the way a customer sees them, checking reviews, hours, and photos, and noting which local searches now show ads stacked above the free results. For the service businesses affected by Google's Local Services Ads change, we're tracking how the move into the main ads platform settles before anything needs a decision from you. We're also finishing security patching on the handful of WordPress sites we maintain. Anything that needs you, we'll bring to you directly. Everything else is waiting in your Client Center.