Key takeaways
- From 31 August, Local Inventory Ads switch on by default for every Shopping campaign and the enable_local opt-out field is ignored.
- Opt-out control moves from a single setting to inventory filtering: use a listing scope with product_channel ONLINE, or the Inventory filter.
- Stale store availability data becomes paid wasted spend the moment local products start serving automatically.
- Reported Shopping ROAS will soften because store visits and offline sales sit outside standard online conversion tracking.
- Manual online and local budget separation breaks unless you rebuild it with inventory filters before the rollout.
- Developers on Google Ads API v25.1 or later must stop setting enable_local to false or their calls will error out.
Local Inventory Ads by default means Google will automatically make local store inventory eligible to serve in Shopping campaigns from 31 August, even where advertisers previously relied on enable_local to keep it off. For UK retailers with shops and ecommerce stock, the practical job is simple: check the local feed, rebuild any online-only exclusions with inventory filters, and fix offline measurement before judging ROAS.
Google has framed this as a settings change. In live accounts, it is more than that. It changes which products can enter the auction, which budget they can use, and which conversions you can actually see. If your store feed says a line is available in Manchester when the shelf is empty, you may soon pay for that mistake.
The retailers who feel this most will be those with tightly separated online and store structures. If you deliberately kept local inventory out of standard Shopping campaigns, the old control no longer protects you. This is the same feed-hygiene issue we flag in our Merchant Center product feed guide, but with a sharper edge because the setting now decides itself.
Local Inventory Ads by default: what Google changed
The Google Ads Developer Blog announcement confirms that from 31 August, the Local products setting is enabled automatically for all Shopping campaigns. Previously, advertisers could use the Campaign.ShoppingSetting.enable_local field to decide whether Local Inventory Ads were allowed to serve. After the change, Google treats the setting as true.
If you use Google Ads API v25.1 or later and still try to set enable_local to false, Google says the request returns an OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CONTEXT error. The Google Ads API release notes are the place to check version-specific behaviour before your developers update scripts or integrations.
The commercial point is not the API field. The point is that control moves from a simple campaign switch to product eligibility. To keep local products out of a campaign, you now need to use listing scopes or inventory filters, for example by restricting products to the online channel. Google documents the underlying mechanics in its Shopping listing group filters guidance.
A small settings change can become a budget change when it alters which inventory is allowed into the auction.
Why UK retailers should care before the switch
The first risk is availability. Local Inventory Ads are only as good as the local inventory data behind them. If your feed overstates stock, advertises the wrong price, or carries products that store teams cannot find, paid clicks turn into wasted journeys. That is a customer-service problem and a media-efficiency problem at the same time.
We see a common split in retail accounts: the main online product feed is maintained daily because ecommerce revenue depends on it, whilst the local feed is treated as a side project. That habit becomes expensive when local inventory becomes eligible by default. The local product inventory specification is worth checking line by line, especially availability, store codes, price and product identifiers.
The second risk is attribution. Local Inventory Ads can drive shop visits and offline sales that do not appear in standard online revenue columns. If the campaign starts serving local inventory and your reporting only counts website sales, the visible ROAS may soften even where total business value improves. That is how good campaigns get cut for the wrong reason.
The third risk is budget muddiness. Plenty of retailers have built separate Shopping campaigns for online and local demand, often with different targets and different trading priorities. That split made sense because an online order and a store visit are not the same commercial event. Once the old opt-out is ignored, any separation that relied on enable_local has to be rebuilt deliberately.
If your board reviews Shopping on online revenue alone, this update can make performance look worse without the business actually getting worse.
Online-only Shopping campaigns need a new boundary
The fix is not complicated, but it does need doing. For campaigns that must remain online-only, use a listing scope with product_channel set to ONLINE, or apply an inventory filter in campaign settings to exclude local inventory. Do not assume a campaign name, label or historic setting will keep store stock out of the auction.
This also affects how you compare Shopping with Performance Max. Performance Max for Retail has already normalised a blended view of ecommerce and store demand, which can be useful, but it can also hide where value is really coming from. If you are using this change as a reason to move more budget into automation, read our view on Shopping versus Performance Max for ecommerce first. Headline ROAS is not a channel strategy.
Our Q2 2026 UK Google Ads spend analysis also shows why this matters operationally: more spend is flowing into automated campaign types, which makes clean feeds and clean conversion signals harder to treat as optional. Automation magnifies whatever data you give it.
PPC Geeks’ View
The specific problem most retailers will hit is not the code. It is stale local availability meeting an auto-enabled feed. In our accounts, the online feed normally gets the attention because it is tied directly to ecommerce revenue. The local feed is more likely to have gaps, late stock updates or store-level quirks nobody has checked for months.
From 31 August, that neglected feed can start influencing paid traffic. Every mismatch between what the feed claims and what is actually on the shelf becomes a media cost, a store complaint, or both.
Google keeps replacing simple switches with settings that decide themselves. The advertisers who win are the ones who treat every default as a decision they still have to make, not one made for them.
— Dan Trotter, PPC Director, PPC Geeks
This is exactly the kind of issue we look for in a free Google Ads audit, especially where automation, feed accuracy or campaign structure may be quietly reshaping where budget goes. If you would rather have the whole account managed with this level of control, our Google Ads agency team handles feed and structure changes like this as routine.
Local Inventory Ads action plan for this week
Do this before the rollout, not after the first odd report. Each step removes a specific failure point.
- Audit the local inventory feed. In Merchant Center, check local availability, store codes, prices, product identifiers and out-of-stock items. Compare the feed against actual shop stock, not just ecommerce availability.
- Decide where local inventory should serve. Some campaigns should welcome store demand. Others should remain online-only. Make that decision campaign by campaign.
- Rebuild exclusions with inventory filters. For online-only Shopping activity, use product channel filtering or listing scopes instead of relying on enable_local.
- Protect budget separation. If you previously split online and local campaigns, rebuild the split through product eligibility so pacing and reporting stay clean.
- Update scripts and API integrations. Tell developers not to set enable_local to false on API v25.1 or later. That call can now fail.
- Segment reporting by product channel. Add a simple view so the team can see when local starts serving, how much it spends, and whether it changes conversion mix.
- Fix offline measurement before judging performance. Review store visit and store sales tracking, or upload offline conversions where appropriate. Google outlines eligibility and setup in its store visits conversion requirements.
If store visits matter to your business, our guide to local ads and retail customer retention explains how to think about footfall as a retention signal, not just a traffic metric. For broader account hygiene, the PPC management checklist is a useful way to catch the neighbouring issues this update tends to expose.
What this means for your Shopping campaigns
Local Inventory Ads by default is a quiet change with a wide blast radius. It rewards retailers who keep accurate store feeds and measure offline return. It punishes those who assumed an old opt-out would keep local traffic away forever.
The retailers who lose money here will not necessarily see a clean before-and-after moment. They may see Shopping ROAS soften, store teams complain about advertised products that are not on the shelf, or budgets drift into inventory they never meant to promote. Then everyone spends two weeks looking in the wrong place.
The better response is boring and profitable: reconcile the feed, decide which campaigns should serve local inventory, rebuild boundaries with inventory filters, and make sure offline value has somewhere to show up in reporting. Done properly, this can capture in-store demand you were missing. Done lazily, it becomes a quiet leak.
Want a no-nonsense view of what to change first? Start with a free Google Ads audit from our team.
Frequently asked questions
When do Local Inventory Ads become enabled by default?
Google turns on the Local products setting automatically for all Shopping campaigns from 31 August. After that date the enable_local field is ignored and treated as true regardless of what you submit.
How do I stop local products from serving after the change?
You can no longer disable local with a campaign setting. Instead, create a listing scope using CampaignCriterionService with product_channel set to ONLINE, or apply the Inventory filter in campaign settings to exclude local inventory and split budgets between online and local products.
Does this affect Performance Max campaigns?
No. The default change applies only to Shopping campaigns. Performance Max and Demand Gen keep using the enable_local field normally, and Performance Max for Retail already had local enabled by default.
Why might my Shopping ROAS look worse after 31 August?
Local Inventory Ads drive store visits and offline sales that standard online conversion tracking does not capture. Unless you enable store visit or store sales conversions, part of the return happens off the pixel, making reported ROAS look softer than the true result.
What is the single most important thing to fix before the rollout?
Reconcile your local product inventory feed against actual shop stock. Any line marked available that is not on the shelf becomes paid clicks that end in a wasted store trip, so feed accuracy directly controls wasted spend.
Will my developer scripts break?
On Google Ads API v25.1 or later, attempting to set enable_local to false now returns an OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CONTEXT error. Update integrations to stop sending that value before 31 August.
