Ukraine's IT and digital marketing outsourcing sector has kept growing through 2026, and a meaningful share of that work is running paid search campaigns for home service and professional businesses based in the United States. If your team manages any of those accounts and they use Local Service Ads, there is a confirmed Google bug worth checking for today, not next week.
Local Service Ads itself is not available to businesses inside Ukraine - the product currently runs in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. That means the exposure here is entirely on the client-management side: a US or UK client's account can go dark, and the outsourced team handling it needs to know why and what to do about it.
What's Breaking, in Practical Terms
Google confirmed the issue directly through Ginny Marvin, its Ads Liaison: "We identified a bug and are actively working to resolve it." The bug disconnects a Local Service Ads account from its Google Business Profile, and once that link is gone, the ad stops running entirely. Reported symptoms include:
- The linked Google Business Profile disappearing from the Local Service Ads dashboard with no changes made on the account.
- Business Verification status dropping from "Complete" back to "In Progress."
- A 500 error when trying to reach the Google Business Profile from inside Local Service Ads settings.
- An email notice saying the ad "isn't live anymore."
- Accounts staying disconnected for 2.5 days or more in at least one reported case before support stepped in.
Google separately confirmed this bug has nothing to do with the ongoing migration of Local Service Ads into the standard Google Ads platform - that is a different process running in parallel.
A Specific Account Type to Prioritise
If your team manages several Local Service Ads accounts, check Service Area Business (SAB) setups first - accounts without a fixed storefront address. One documented case ties the bug to a license renewal on an SAB account, with the address field involved somehow in the fault. Any client account that recently renewed a license or updated its business details is worth checking before the rest of the portfolio.
What to Tell the Client, and What to Ask Support
For an outsourced team, managing this well is partly a communication problem, not just a technical one:
- Be direct that this is a confirmed bug on Google's side - not a policy strike, and not something the account manager did wrong.
- Since Local Service Ads bills per lead, an unlinked account that isn't generating leads should not be charged for that window - flag anything that looks off to support.
- If a first support call does not resolve it, ask explicitly for escalation to the Advanced Verification team - Google has confirmed that is where fixes are actually happening.
Resist the urge to manually unlink and relink the profile without a support agent's guidance - several advertisers who tried this said it made the situation worse, not better.
Beyond the Fix: Strengthen What You Control
While the bug itself sits with Google, this is a good moment to also review the client's broader local SEO setup for AI-driven search, since a strong, fully built-out Google Business Profile tends to recover faster once connectivity issues like this one clear up.
FAQ
Is Ukraine directly affected by this bug? Not directly - Local Service Ads is not available to businesses inside Ukraine. The bug matters to Ukraine-based teams mainly because of the outsourced client accounts they manage in countries where LSA does run, particularly the US and UK.
Does this affect the migration of LSA into Google Ads? No. Google's Ads Liaison stated clearly that this bug is separate from the ongoing migration of Local Service Ads into the Google Ads platform as a pay-per-lead campaign type.
How widespread is this issue? Google phone support has confirmed to multiple affected advertisers that it is a widespread problem, not limited to individual accounts, and cases are being escalated internally.
What account type seems most exposed? Service Area Business accounts without a listed physical address, especially those that recently went through a license renewal, based on advertiser reports so far.
Is there a fix date yet? No confirmed timeline has been published by Google as of this writing. Monitor official Google Ads channels for updates rather than assume a specific resolution date.
Bottom Line
If your team manages Local Service Ads accounts for US or UK clients, check Business Verification status and the Google Business Profile link today, prioritising Service Area Business setups. This is a known, Google-acknowledged bug - getting it fixed quickly comes down to documenting the account state and escalating directly rather than waiting it out.
