Paid media is changing quickly—and Google isn’t exactly slowing things down.
Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen major changes across Local Services Ads, Performance Max, AI Max, YouTube, and Google Ads itself, while ChatGPT continues building out an increasingly sophisticated advertising platform of its own.
Some of these updates are genuinely useful. Some give advertisers more control and transparency. And some continue a trend we’re less enthusiastic about: Google increasingly deciding how campaigns should run while taking away some of the controls advertisers have historically relied on.
At the same time, AI is becoming impossible to separate from digital marketing. Google is moving more advertising into AI-powered search experiences, ChatGPT is building out its own ad ecosystem, and even LinkedIn is experimenting with ways to push back against low-quality AI-generated content.
For law firms, all of this creates a Search environment that looks very different from the one we were managing even a few years ago.
Here are the biggest developments we’re watching right now.
Google Is Getting Rid of the LSA Platform and Moving Local Services Ads Into P-Max
Google is making a major change to Local Services Ads, moving the product out of its standalone platform and into Google Ads through a specialized Performance Max campaign type optimized for Pay Per Lead goals.
The transition is rolling out in phases, beginning with some of Google’s most popular LSA categories, with additional categories expected to migrate through late 2026 and early 2027.
According to Google, the core LSA experience isn’t going away. Ads will continue appearing across Google Search and Google Maps, and advertisers will continue paying for leads rather than clicks.
The biggest change is what’s happening behind the scenes.
What This Means for Law Firms
The obvious benefit is that the standalone LSA platform is finally going away.
LSA has always felt somewhat disconnected from the rest of Google Ads. The interface can be cumbersome, geographic targeting has historically been tedious, and managing calls, messages, verification, and campaign settings through another platform isn’t particularly convenient.
Moving everything into Google Ads should create a more unified experience.
But there’s another reason this migration matters: LSAs are increasingly taking over premium local Search real estate.
We’re consistently seeing Google use LSAs in the map placement where traditional PPC map ads previously appeared. From the user’s perspective, the distinction can be difficult to see.
That makes the migration much more significant. Google isn’t simply moving an inconvenient advertising interface. It’s increasingly making LSA participation important for firms that want visibility in premium local Search placements.
There are tradeoffs, too. The new structure removes some controls, including manual bidding and Target CPA, continuing Google’s broader movement toward automation.
Our Take
Getting rid of the standalone LSA platform makes sense.
The bigger question is whether consolidation also means less control.
LSA’s underlying lead-quality problem also isn’t going away. In legal, particularly personal injury, we’ve continued to see property damage and other lower-quality inquiries make up a meaningful portion of LSA calls.
Moving LSAs into Performance Max doesn’t solve that.
Our biggest request would be simple: give advertisers more tools to control what doesn’t qualify as a relevant lead. Negative keywords would be an obvious place to start.
We’re cautiously optimistic about the platform consolidation, but we’ll be watching the loss of controls and the quality of leads very closely.
What ADSQUIRE Is Doing
We’re monitoring migration timing, auditing campaigns before and after migration, tracking lead quality and cost per qualified lead, and comparing LSA performance against traditional Search.
Most importantly, we’re evaluating LSA based on qualified case acquisition, not simply the number of leads Google reports.
Google Is Testing a Much Larger LSA Experience on Mobile
Google is also testing a new Local Services Ads configuration on mobile that could dramatically increase the amount of Search real estate dedicated to individual LSA profiles.
In some versions of the test, the LSA experience can take up most—or potentially the entire—above-the-fold experience on a mobile device.
For a search like:
“Philadelphia personal injury lawyer”
users could encounter a significantly larger LSA section before reaching traditional PPC ads, organic results, or other listings.
Why This Matters for Law Firms
Legal searches are often extremely high intent.
Someone searching for “car accident lawyer near me” or “Philadelphia divorce attorney” may be actively looking for representation right now.
If LSAs occupy more of the screen, firms appearing in those placements could capture an even larger share of that initial attention.
But bigger doesn’t automatically mean better.
Users may have to scroll farther to compare firms or reach organic and traditional PPC results. The larger Google makes one section of the SERP, the more important it becomes for firms to understand exactly what is happening within that section.
Reviews Could Become Even More Important
When an LSA profile gets more screen space, the information inside that profile matters more.
That includes:
- Review rating
- Number of reviews
- Business information
- Photos
- Profile completeness
- Service categories
A firm with hundreds of strong reviews is going to make a very different first impression than one with a handful of reviews when both profiles are given significant screen real estate.
LSA optimization and reputation management are becoming increasingly connected.
Our Take
This is still a test, so we’re not assuming this exact layout will become permanent.
But it fits into a broader trend: Google is continually experimenting with how much of the SERP it gives to LSAs, AI features, PPC ads, and other search experiences.
For law firms, the takeaway is simple:
Don’t just focus on ranking. Focus on owning the search results.
What ADSQUIRE Is Doing
We’re monitoring mobile LSA visibility, competitor placement, review profiles, lead quality, and the relationship between LSA performance and the rest of the Search results.
ChatGPT Ads Are Becoming a More Established Advertising Platform
ChatGPT advertising is moving quickly.
Over the past several weeks, OpenAI has introduced updates covering everything from targeting and exclusions to tracking, budgets, bidding, placements, ad management, and promotional credits.
That matters because ChatGPT Ads is starting to look much less like an experimental advertising product and much more like a legitimate paid media platform.
11 Updates We’re Watching
- Duplicate Ad Feature
Advertisers can now duplicate existing ads, making it easier to test different messaging without rebuilding everything from scratch.
For law firms, that could make testing variations around practice areas much easier.
- Audiences and Advanced Bid Adjustments
Audience targeting and advanced bid adjustments are beginning to roll out.
For legal, search intent is still likely to be more important than traditional demographic targeting, but additional audience controls could become more useful as the platform matures.
- Geo and Audience Exclusions
This is immediately useful for law firms.
Attorneys operate within specific jurisdictions, making the ability to exclude locations particularly important for preventing wasted spend.
- UTM Tracking at All Levels
UTM parameters are now available throughout ChatGPT Ads.
That’s a major development for serious advertisers because it allows ChatGPT traffic to be connected to analytics, CRM, call tracking, and lead-management systems.
- Updated Health and Financial Advertising Policies
OpenAI is continuing to refine its policies around regulated and high-stakes industries.
The important takeaway is that ChatGPT Ads policies are still evolving.
- Weekly Budgeting
ChatGPT Ads has moved toward a seven-day average for daily budgets.
That means advertisers shouldn’t necessarily expect the exact same amount to be spent every day.
- Up to 2X Daily Budget
The platform can spend up to twice the stated daily budget on a given day while balancing spending across the seven-day period.
For firms with tightly controlled budgets, that’s something to account for.
- ChatGPT Ads Manager
OpenAI has introduced an Ads Manager plugin, giving advertisers another way to manage advertising activity through ChatGPT.
- Maximize Results
Automated “Maximize Results” bidding is beginning to appear.
For law firms, we’ll want to see how much data the platform needs before that automation becomes genuinely useful.
- Placement Controls
Advertisers can now select whether ads appear on iOS, Android, or the web.
That gives advertisers another lever as performance data accumulates.
- Free Ad Credits
OpenAI has also introduced promotional ad credits, giving advertisers an inexpensive way to begin testing the platform.
What This Means for Law Firms
The bigger story isn’t any individual feature.
It’s that ChatGPT Ads is rapidly building the infrastructure advertisers expect from a mature paid media platform.
Targeting. Exclusions. Tracking. Bidding. Budgets. Placements. Creative management.
And the potential advantage for legal advertising is obvious: conversational intent.
A person asking:
“I was injured in a car accident and the insurance company is refusing to pay. What are my options?”
is providing substantially more context than someone typing three or four keywords into a traditional search engine.
That doesn’t mean every ChatGPT legal question is a ready-to-hire client.
But it does mean the platform has the potential to become a very interesting environment for high-intent discovery.
Our Take
We don’t think law firms should move their entire Google budget to ChatGPT.
We also don’t think they should ignore it.
Test it. Track it. Learn how it works.
The firms that understand conversational advertising before the platform becomes crowded may have an advantage over firms that wait until ChatGPT Ads is already an established, expensive channel.
Google Is Putting Local Services Ads Into AI Mode
Google is now testing Local Services Ads directly inside AI Mode.
Instead of showing LSAs in a traditional search-results layout, Google is experimenting with incorporating attorney profiles into its AI-generated search experience.
For law firms, this is another indication that LSAs aren’t disappearing. They’re expanding into more parts of Google’s ecosystem.
Why This Matters
Consider someone asking:
“What should I do if I was injured in a car accident in Philadelphia?”
Historically, that could lead to organic results, traditional PPC, and potentially LSAs.
Now, Google is experimenting with putting LSAs directly into the AI conversation.
Legal is particularly interesting because so many searches are simultaneously local and high-intent.
Someone asking AI about a divorce, criminal charge, car accident, or workers’ compensation issue may eventually need an attorney.
Our Take
The current experience isn’t necessarily perfect.
There’s a legitimate question about whether inserting multiple LSA profiles into an AI conversation improves the user experience or simply adds another layer of advertising to an already changing SERP.
But the direction is clear.
If people are using AI to find businesses, Google is going to find ways to put advertisers into that experience.
And with LSAs already becoming more prominent in traditional local Search, AI Mode could become another important battleground for legal visibility.
What ADSQUIRE Is Doing
We’re continuing to monitor how LSAs appear across traditional Search, Maps, mobile, and AI Mode—and how those placements translate into qualified leads.
Google Is Upgrading Legacy Video Campaigns to Multi-Format Ads
Google is also changing how certain YouTube campaigns operate.
Starting in September, eligible legacy Video Reach and TrueView campaigns will be upgraded to newer campaign types supporting multiple formats.
That includes:
- In-stream ads
- YouTube Shorts
- In-feed ads
What This Means for Law Firms
The biggest takeaway is that existing video ads may begin reaching users in more places without advertisers manually rebuilding their campaigns.
For law firms, this creates an opportunity to think beyond the traditional attorney commercial.
A personal injury firm could use short-form videos answering questions like:
- What should I do immediately after a car accident?
- What mistakes should I avoid after an injury?
- When should I contact an attorney?
- How does an insurance company handle an injury claim?
Those videos can build familiarity with potential clients before they’re ready to make a call.
Our Take
YouTube isn’t just traditional long-form video anymore.
It’s long-form video → Shorts → in-feed content.
Google’s move toward multi-format campaigns reflects that reality.
Law firms should be thinking about creative that works across those environments rather than simply repurposing television-style commercials.
What ADSQUIRE Is Doing
We’re auditing affected video campaigns, reviewing creative for Shorts and in-feed placements, and monitoring performance by placement after migration.
Google Is Automatically Upgrading More Search Campaigns to AI Max
Google is continuing its push toward AI Max—and this time, the transition is automatic.
Starting September 1, 2026, campaigns using Automatically Created Assets (ACA) and/or the campaign-level broad match setting will automatically be upgraded to AI Max.
For campaigns using ACA, Search Term Matching and Text Customization will be enabled by default.
Campaigns using the campaign-level broad match setting will have Search Term Matching enabled by default.
Google recommends advertisers transition to AI Max themselves to “maintain full control.”
That’s a somewhat difficult message to reconcile with automatically moving eligible campaigns into AI Max.
What This Means for Law Firms
Legal Search campaigns often require a high degree of control.
Not every semantically related search is a valuable search.
A search can be related to personal injury without being a search a personal injury firm actually wants to pay for.
That’s why keyword structure, match types, negative keywords, ad messaging, landing pages, and search-term monitoring remain so important.
AI Max gives Google’s systems more authority over how those decisions are made.
Our Take
This is another example of Google steadily narrowing the gap between “AI-powered option” and “AI-powered default.”
We’re not opposed to testing AI Max where it makes sense.
The issue is what happens when advertisers don’t want that level of automation.
Give advertisers more options and let performance determine which ones win.
Google’s ability to understand semantic meaning can be useful, but semantic relevance isn’t the same thing as commercial intent.
For law firms, that’s a distinction worth protecting.
What ADSQUIRE Is Doing
We’re identifying campaigns subject to the upgrade, evaluating AI Max on an account-by-account basis, monitoring new search terms, maintaining negative keyword controls, and comparing performance against pre-AI Max benchmarks.
The objective isn’t to give Google more opportunities to spend the budget.
It’s to make sure the budget is being spent on searches that can actually produce cases.
Google Ads Is Offering Current Advertisers Free Credits to Increase Their Budgets
Google Ads is apparently willing to pay advertisers to spend more money with Google.
The platform is currently offering some existing advertisers up to $3,250 in ad credits if they increase their advertising budgets.
The message is pretty direct:
“Your clients are currently missing out on their busiest hours due to budget limits.”
Google’s recommendation? Increase the budget to capture that missed demand—and Google will help “invest in their growth” with up to $3,250 in free ad credit.
What This Means for Law Firms
Being limited by budget can absolutely be a legitimate problem.
If a law firm’s campaigns are consistently hitting their daily budgets, losing impression share because of budget, and generating qualified leads at a profitable cost, there may be a strong case for spending more.
But:
“Limited by budget” does not automatically mean “increase the budget.”
Google will naturally identify additional opportunities to spend.
The question is whether those opportunities are actually worth buying.
Our Take
We have to give Google credit for the creativity here:
“You’re running out of budget, so spend more. And we’ll give you some money to help you spend more.”
It’s not exactly surprising from a company that makes money when advertisers increase their spending.
That doesn’t mean the credit is bad.
If the data supports increasing spend, $3,250 in free ad credits is $3,250 in free ad credits.
We’ll take it.
But the promotion shouldn’t determine the budget.
Google’s definition of growth can mean more impressions, clicks, and advertising spend.
For a law firm, growth means more qualified cases at a cost that makes economic sense.
Those aren’t always the same thing.
What ADSQUIRE Is Doing
We’re looking at impression share, search-term quality, cost per qualified lead, conversion quality, and incremental case potential before recommending additional spend.
Take the credit when the opportunity is there. Just make sure the opportunity is actually worth paying for.
New AI Disclosure Settings in YouTube Ads
Now for an update we’re genuinely happy to see.
Google is adding new AI disclosure settings to its advertising products, giving advertisers more control over how AI-generated and AI-edited assets are labeled.
Advertisers can designate assets as “created or edited with AI.”
Google may also apply labels in certain situations, including when it is legally required to do so or when it receives signals indicating that an asset should be labeled from other platforms.
That last part is probably the most interesting piece of the announcement.
What This Means for Advertisers
AI is becoming increasingly embedded in advertising.
Images, videos, copy, modifications, and automatically generated assets can all involve AI.
If platforms are going to automate more of the creative process, advertisers and consumers should have more transparency into what was actually generated.
Google is also adding AI disclosures to autogenerated companion banners on YouTube.
Those banners will be labeled as created or edited with AI when shown in the European Union, India, and New York State in the U.S.
Our Take
YES. MORE. MORE. MORE.
As much as we criticize Google for pushing advertisers toward more automation, this is a part of the AI transition we want to see more of.
AI is rapidly becoming part of advertising infrastructure. Transparency needs to become part of that infrastructure, too.
We also like that advertisers can label their own assets rather than relying entirely on Google’s systems.
The language about receiving “signals” from other platforms is still a little strange, and we’d like to understand exactly how that works.
But broadly:
More disclosure is better than less disclosure.
If Google is going to give advertisers more AI, we want more transparency right alongside it.
New LinkedIn “Seems Like AI Slop” Button
LinkedIn is testing a new way for users to flag low-quality content directly from their feed: a “Seems Like AI Slop” option.
The feature gives users a way to signal that a post feels generic, low-effort, or overly reliant on AI-generated content.
And the timing makes sense.
AI has made it incredibly easy to produce LinkedIn content at scale.
The result is a feed increasingly filled with:
- Generic business lessons
- Manufactured personal stories
- Vague leadership advice
- Identical formatting
- Posts that say a lot without really saying anything
What This Means for Marketers
The issue isn’t necessarily that AI was involved.
AI can be a useful tool for brainstorming, editing, research, and content development.
The problem is when AI becomes the content strategy.
LinkedIn’s new feedback mechanism suggests the platform is paying attention to the difference between using AI as a tool and filling the feed with generic machine-generated content.
Our Take
We like seeing platforms try to re-prioritize real human content in the AI era.
The “Seems Like AI Slop” button obviously isn’t going to solve the problem by itself.
But more content doesn’t necessarily mean better content.
The marketers who stand out will be the ones using AI to work faster while still bringing something AI can’t manufacture on its own:
A real point of view, real experience, and something worth saying.
What ADSQUIRE Is Doing
We’re continuing to use AI as a tool—not a replacement for strategy or human judgment.
That means using it where it can make content development more efficient while keeping the actual ideas, perspective, and voice behind our content human.
Because in a feed increasingly filled with AI-generated content, sounding like an actual person is becoming a competitive advantage.
The Bigger Picture
Taken together, these updates tell a pretty clear story.
Search and digital advertising are becoming increasingly automated, increasingly fragmented, and increasingly AI-driven.
Google is moving LSAs into Performance Max while expanding their presence across Search and AI Mode.
Google is automatically moving certain Search campaigns into AI Max.
YouTube is moving toward multi-format campaigns.
Google is using AI to generate and modify advertising assets—and now introducing more disclosure around that process.
ChatGPT is rapidly building the infrastructure necessary to become a legitimate competitor in paid advertising.
And even LinkedIn is beginning to address the downside of AI: a massive increase in content that is easy to produce but difficult to care about.
For law firms, the response shouldn’t be to resist every new technology.
It should be to stay in control of what actually matters.
That means tracking qualified leads rather than surface-level conversions. Watching search intent rather than simply chasing volume. Testing automation rather than blindly adopting it. And making sure that AI is helping improve marketing rather than replacing the human judgment that makes marketing effective in the first place.
The platforms are going to continue automating.
They’re going to continue expanding AI.
They’re going to continue changing where and how people discover businesses.
Our job is to make sure those changes actually produce better outcomes for law firms—not just better numbers inside the advertising platforms.
