Most local business owners are happy just getting "more leads." That is a rookie mistake. In early 2026, Google has shifted the goalposts from volume to Value. If you are still bidding for "any phone call," you are paying a "finance-blindness tax" that lets your competitors scoop up the $10,000 jobs while you’re stuck with the $99 service calls. Join Ryan today at 2:00 PM EST to see the 2026 Google Ads Reset in action. If you want to own the highest-margin jobs in your city, you cannot afford to miss this. 📚 3 Fresh Topics for Today: 1️⃣ The Call-Only Funeral: The February 2026 Deadline - The Meat: Google is officially deprecating traditional "Call-Only" ads this month. You can no longer create new call-only ads. All lead generation must transition to Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) with Call Assets. - The Result: This isn't just a name change. RSAs allow Google's AI to test thousands of headline variations to find which ones trigger a "High-Intent" call versus a "Price-Shopper" click. Early migrators are seeing a 15–25% increase in lead quality. 2️⃣ Value-Based Bidding (VBB): Bidding on Profit - The Meat: Stop treating a $100 service call the same as a $10,000 installation. Use "Conversion Value Rules" to tell Google: "Bid 3x higher for new customers" or "Bid 4x more for high-margin categories." - The Result: This forces the algorithm to hunt for profit, not just volume. Businesses using VBB report a 20% increase in total revenue while simultaneously lowering their cost-per-qualified-lead (CPQL). 3️⃣ The "Shadowban" Reply Trap: AI Moderation 2026 - The Meat: Google's 2026 review moderation is now fully AI-driven. Your review responses are no longer instant; they are held for review for anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 days. - The Trap: If a reply is rejected for a policy violation (like using personal names or aggressive language), it can silently tank your "Responsiveness Score" and drop your ranking while the reply sits in "Pending" limbo.

Welcome! Local Lead Labs is a free community where local business owners get ongoing help from me & my team to help you generate an extra $20K+/month using Google Local Service Ads Optimization, Google Business Profile Optimization and Ai 🤖 Marketing Here's what to do first: Step 1: Introduce yourself IN A NEW POST with this copy/paste template: What's your nickname? What city is your business located in? Biggest strength? Biggest weakness? What do you do? What’s your business name? (so we can run a quick audit using Loom and we will tag you) What's your goal inside this community? What triggered you to sign up? (Was it an email, IG post, Skool post?) Step 2: Go through this introduction module: click here https://www.skool.com/localleadlabs/classroom/b04ff53b Best practices: 1) Have a profile photo. 2) Space out all your writings into single sentence paragraphs (like I'm doing here). 3) Welcome new members, make helpful posts, share your wins, and engage in the community to level up! Group Rules: 1) No Self Promotion 2) No Selling in the DM's 3) No Spamming the Community Feed