Google has renamed the Local Services platform policies document to Local Services Ads requirements. I am not sure if this was renamed and reworded because the Google Local Service Ads platform is being migrated into the main Google Ads platform but it just seems weird to do this now?
There are actually tons of changes between the old version and the new version of the document - here are soem highlights of those changes:
- The policy documentation has been officially renamed from "Local Services platform policies" to "Local Services Ads requirements".
- Terminology throughout the policy was updated to align directly with standard Google Ads policy definitions and advertiser terminology.
- The updated requirements explicitly incorporate and reflect recent structural changes made to the Local Services Ads Google Guarantee Badges system, ensuring consistent compliance standards across badged and non-badged services.
- Google removed several legacy platform policies that are no longer applicable to modern Local Services advertisers.
- The text was restructured with jump links and clearer headers, dividing requirements into explicit policy categories
- The updated documentation provides explicit examples of what constitutes a violation (e.g., changing prices upon arrival, asking for reviews on-site, ignoring customer disputes) and details tiered consequences ranging from email warnings and impression limits to temporary or permanent account suspensions.
If you manage these types of ads, it is probably worth comparing old version and the new version in some sort of diff checker.
Here is a small snippet of the top of the pages side-by-side:
Forum discussion at X.
