Local Inventory Ads Turn On by Default August 31: The Shopping Campaign Email, Decoded
The short version
On August 31, 2026, local inventory ads switch on by default in every Standard Shopping campaign linked to a Merchant Center account with the local inventory ads add-on. At the same time, Google removes the "Local products" setting and makes the Inventory filter the only control. If you deliberately keep online and local budgets separate, that separation survives only if you set the filter before the deadline. The notice went out by email on July 16. There was no blog post.
What Google announced
Via advertiser email, and confirmed by Search Engine Land and Search Engine Roundtable: beginning August 31, local inventory ads will be enabled by default in Standard Shopping campaigns wherever the linked Merchant Center account has the local inventory ads add-on. The "Local products" toggle under Other settings is being removed. Going forward, whether a campaign serves online products, local products, or both is managed through the Inventory filter, using Channel = Online or Channel = Local. Google's framing is that it's "removing duplicate settings" and simplifying configuration.
What it actually means
Default flips are how Google ships adoption without persuasion. Nobody had to be convinced local inventory ads were worth turning on; on August 31 they become something you'd have had to remember to turn off. Every account where the add-on was enabled once, maybe by a predecessor, maybe for a test two years ago, inherits the new behavior automatically.
The removed setting matters more than the default. "Local products" was a campaign-level statement of intent: this campaign is online-only, that one is local. Plenty of retail accounts are structured around exactly that split, with separate budgets, separate targets, and separate stakeholders for e-commerce and store traffic. Google didn't delete your structure, but it deleted the setting that expressed it, and replaced it with a filter that most buyers have never opened. After August 31, an unfiltered campaign serves both channels from one budget, and store-driven clicks start competing with your online products for the same spend.
Measurement moves too. Once local inventory serves, store visits and local-intent behavior start flowing into campaign performance. Blended numbers aren't wrong, but they're different, and a tROAS target tuned to online-only conversion values is now being fed a different diet. Note the timing: this lands two weeks after the August 17 bidding change, which makes budget-limited Shopping campaigns deliver to their stated targets. Two behavior changes inside the same month is a genuinely bad window for "we'll figure out what happened later."
And it arrived by email only. That's the tell worth internalizing: the changes Google is proudest of get blog posts, and the changes it expects friction on get emails in July when half the industry is on vacation. This site exists for the second kind.
August 31 doesn't add local inventory ads to your account. It removes the setting that kept them out.
Signal or noise: High for retailers with the LIA add-on, noise for everyone else
If your Merchant Center has no local inventory ads add-on, this change cannot touch you: confirmed noise, move on. If it does, this is a dated, non-optional structural change with a five-minute fix, which is the best ratio in advertising. Do the fix before August 31, not after the September numbers look strange.
The Monday-morning playbook
- Check the add-on first. In Merchant Center, confirm whether the local inventory ads add-on is enabled. Not enabled: you're done, this brief owes you nothing further. Enabled: continue.
- List the exposed campaigns. Every Standard Shopping campaign linked to that Merchant Center is in scope. Note which ones are intentionally online-only or local-only.
- Set the Inventory filter before August 31. Channel = Online for campaigns that must stay online-only, Channel = Local for dedicated local campaigns. This is the entire defense; the old Local products setting will not be there to save you.
- Document the before state. Screenshot current settings and drop an annotation or change-history note dated August 31, so any post-change performance shift has an explanation attached to it.
- Recheck in early September. Watch for store-visit conversions appearing in campaign totals and for budget pacing shifts on campaigns that gained local traffic, and remember these same campaigns just absorbed the August 17 bidding change too. Judge September against the annotations, not against memory.
The bottom line
This is a small change with a removal inside it, and the removal is the part that bites. Defaults do the deciding in every account that isn't paying attention, which is precisely why Google ships adoption this way. The fix costs five minutes per campaign and has a six-week runway. Take the runway: check the add-on, set the filters, write the annotation, and let September's numbers be boring.
Frequently asked
When do local inventory ads turn on by default in Google Ads?
August 31, 2026. From that date, local inventory ads are enabled by default in Standard Shopping campaigns linked to a Merchant Center account that has the local inventory ads add-on. Google notified affected advertisers by email in mid-July 2026. Accounts without the add-on are not affected.
How do I keep a Shopping campaign online-only after August 31?
Set the campaign's Inventory filter to Channel = Online before August 31, 2026. The old Local products toggle under Other settings is being removed, so the Inventory filter becomes the only control for whether a Shopping campaign serves online products, local products, or both.
What replaces the Local products setting in Shopping campaigns?
The Inventory filter. Google is removing the Local products setting as part of the August 31, 2026 change and consolidating control of local inventory ads under the Inventory filter, where you can restrict a campaign to Channel = Online or Channel = Local. Google describes this as removing duplicate settings.