Google Local Service Ads: a location bug - and Google has not confirmed it

Search Engine Roundtable reported it on October 1, 2026, in a post by executive editor Barry Schwartz: Google Local Service Ads seem to be showing ads from advertisers who do not serve the locations being searched. That sounds like a technical footnote. It matters if you pay Google to appear only where you actually work. It also matters if you compete with those advertisers in your own city.

Google's local ads appear to be ignoring advertisers' chosen areas

Local Service Ads let an advertiser tell Google which city or location they serve, Search Engine Roundtable explained. The idea is simple: you only show up where you can actually do the job. According to the report, Google seems to be showing ads from advertisers who do not serve in those locations.

The first warning came from Len Raleigh, who flagged it to Schwartz on X the night before the story ran. Raleigh wrote: "Something is wrong here.. California LSAs are showing advertisers from Illinois, New Jersey, Florida and Texas." Schwartz then checked for himself. He posted on X that he was "getting NJ and Arizona listings," asked whether that was normal, and tagged the @adsliaison account.

A New Jersey firm turning up in a California search is not a close call, because it is an ad showing in a place the advertiser never asked to be. Think of it like giving a delivery company a list of the streets you cover, then finding your business card handed out three states away. The card is still yours, but you did not choose where it went.

Two practitioners found the proof inside the ad profiles

Schwartz asked Anthony Higman, whom Search Engine Roundtable describes as an LSA expert, to take a closer look. Higman explained on X that each profile shows which geographic areas the advertiser has selected. His conclusion: "These NJ firms DO NOT have Fresno or Arizona selected. So yeah, Len is right and there is a bug here right now. These should NOT be serving in Fresno." He also shared screenshots showing where in a profile those selected areas appear.

This is a finding by Raleigh and Higman. It is not an announcement from Google. Google has not confirmed the bug, according to Search Engine Roundtable, and the report says the story will be updated if Google replies. Schwartz wrote that if both men think there is a bug, there probably is.

He also floated a second possibility that should make advertisers more uneasy, not less. Google may be auto-expanding how these advertisers target, without their permission. Search Engine Roundtable offered that as a question, not a finding, and nothing in the report shows which explanation is right.

What this could mean if you pay for these ads

If you advertise this way, the obvious risk is attention spent in places you cannot serve. If your ad is being shown to people in cities you never selected, any calls or messages it produces from those cities are leads you cannot take. Whether advertisers are being charged for them is a question the report does not answer.

If you compete locally, the risk runs the other way. The reports describe out-of-state firms appearing in California searches. If the same thing is happening in your market, some of the businesses showing up next to you may not work in your area at all. A customer who calls one of them first could come away with nothing and go back to searching.

The other side: a lot is missing. Google has not confirmed anything. Search Engine Roundtable did not report how widespread the problem is, when it started or how long it will last. Every example named is American: California, Fresno, Arizona, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida and Texas. The report does not say whether searches in Canada are affected. Google has not said whether advertisers are billed for leads from areas they did not select, or whether any credit will follow. And if the auto-expansion theory turned out to be true, this would be a question about Google's policy rather than a glitch. Until Google responds, nobody outside the company can say whether this is a bug, a deliberate change, or something limited to a handful of profiles.

The same morning brought more reasons to check what Google shows

The ad bug was not the only report this week about Google showing something a business might not expect. On September 30, 2026, Search Engine Roundtable reported that Google is showing AI Overviews, its AI-generated answers, for many large brand names. Chris Long wrote on X that 93% of the brands he tested had AI Overviews appearing, and Schwartz noted that his test covered only about 100 brands. DemandSphere posted that AI Overviews on branded queries tripled in September. In most of the examples, the AI Overview appeared lower on the page, not at the top.

Search Engine Roundtable also reported that Glenn Gabe spotted an AI Overview listing the Raiders' entire roster when he searched during their game. Schwartz described this as Google's AI answer taking over content that websites used to provide.

There was news on the measurement side too. Search Engine Journal reported that Google quietly added UTM parameters, small tracking tags, to links leaving Gemini. Until now, visits from AI chatbots like Gemini could show up as "direct" traffic in analytics tools like GA4, which hides where those visitors came from. When the discovery was posted on Reddit, Google's Mueller replied, "Nice. I see it too." Search Engine Journal notes the behaviour is undocumented, so it is not known when the tags appear. Google said in August that more than 1 billion people use the Gemini app every month, so knowing what it sends you is starting to matter.

The common thread is that what you set up and what Google actually shows are not always the same, so the only reliable check is to look for yourself.

What to do this week while Google stays quiet

• Open your Local Service Ads profile and confirm the areas you selected are still the ones you serve. Higman's screenshots show that the profile lists them.
• Search for your service in your own city, the way a customer would, and note who appears. If firms from far away show up, take a screenshot and write down the date.
• Watch this week's leads for inquiries from places you never selected, and write down the date and location of each one.
• Do not overhaul your budget based on one report. Wait for Google's reply, which Search Engine Roundtable says it will add to the story.
• Search your business name and see whether an AI Overview appears, and what it says about you.

None of this costs money, and a record of dates and locations is exactly what you will want if Google confirms the problem.

Bottom line

Search Engine Roundtable reported on October 1, 2026 that Google Local Service Ads appear to be showing advertisers outside the areas they selected, based on findings by Len Raleigh and Anthony Higman. Google has not confirmed it, and the scale, the cause and any billing impact are unknown. If you pay for these ads, a short check of your settings and your leads is worth doing now. If you do not, a quick search of your own city will show you whether the businesses you are up against are even local. When did you last search for your own service the way a customer does?