Google will switch Local Inventory Ads (LIAs) to default-on inside Standard Shopping campaigns starting Aug. 31, and it is removing the toggle advertisers currently use to keep them off. Retailers who split budget between web and brick-and-mortar inventory could see that split disappear if they do not act first. Google calls this a cleanup of overlapping controls, but the practical effect moves a live budget decision from an opt-in checkbox to an opt-out filter.
The mechanics are simple. Any Shopping campaign whose linked Merchant Center account has switched on the LIA add-on will begin serving local ads automatically once the deadline passes. The checkbox labeled Local products, found under Other settings today, goes away entirely, leaving no fallback to the old opt-in.
Management moves to a single field: the Inventory filter. An advertiser sets that filter’s Channel value to Local for store inventory or to Online for e-commerce inventory, and that becomes the only lever for keeping the two budgets apart once the old checkbox is gone.
The reporting risk is concrete. A retailer running one campaign for online orders and a second for curbside pickup, without touching the new filter, will likely watch local and web conversions blend into a single aggregate figure after Aug. 31, right as many teams lock in budgets for the fall shopping season. The fix has one deadline: before Aug. 31, open every Shopping campaign tied to a Merchant Center account with LIAs enabled and choose Local or Online in the Inventory filter wherever the two budgets need to stay apart.
Google frames the move as clearing out overlapping settings that once controlled the same local ads feature from two places. That explanation covers the mechanism, not the disruption it creates. Advertisers who never touched the old Local products checkbox because their account defaults left it off are the ones most exposed, since the new default assumes participation instead of requiring it.
Search Engine Land reported the change on July 16, citing PPC specialist Arpan Banerjee, who first surfaced Google’s notification email in a LinkedIn post before the outlet confirmed the policy shift.
Retailers whose Shopping setup includes the Merchant Center’s Local Inventory Ads add-on should treat this as a campaign audit deadline, not a routine settings update. Anyone who wants online and local spend to keep reporting separately needs the Inventory filter configured before Aug. 31, or Google’s new default will make that decision instead.
Search Engine Land reporter Anu Adegbola first reported this change on July 16, 2026.
