TL;DR Summary:
Cross-State Ad Bug: Google Local Service Ads may be showing businesses in states and cities they never selected, potentially misleading searchers.Wasted Ad Spend: Advertisers could pay for clicks from areas they do not serve, sending budgets toward unqualified leads and missed opportunities.Check Your Targeting: Compare your selected service areas with actual ad appearances, document mismatches, and monitor for Google’s official response.Why is Google showing you Local Service Ads from businesses outside your state? Advertisers and industry watchers spotted a Google Local Service Ads bug this week that serves ads from companies in locations they never selected. This matters right now because it could send you to a provider who does not actually work in your area, and it could waste money for advertisers who never asked to show up there.
What the Google Local Service Ads Bug Looks Like in Practice
Len Raleigh first flagged the problem late Tuesday night on X. He said searchers in California saw Local Service Ads from companies based in Illinois, New Jersey, Florida and Texas. Local Service Ads let a business pick the exact cities or regions where it wants to appear. Raleigh’s report suggests that targeting setting is not being respected right now.
How an LSA Expert Confirmed the Targeting Problem
Anthony Higman, who works as a Local Service Ads expert, checked the advertiser profiles Raleigh pointed to. He found that New Jersey firms did not have Fresno or Arizona selected as service areas, yet their ads showed up there anyway. Higman posted screenshots on X showing exactly where to look inside an advertiser profile to see which areas a business has chosen to serve. His review backs up Raleigh’s claim and points to a real bug rather than a one-off mistake.
Why This Google Local Service Ads Issue Matters for Your Search Results
If you search for a local service right now, such as a plumber or an electrician, you may see a company that does not serve your city at all. That wastes your time if you call a business that cannot help you. For advertisers, it means their ad budget might get spent showing up in places they never targeted, with no guarantee those clicks turn into real customers. Incidents like this highlight why advertisers and local businesses need a reliable way to monitor whether their targeting and visibility settings are actually working as intended, since a silent misconfiguration like this one can drain ad spend and mislead searchers before anyone notices. Platforms such as Nuwtonic SEO are built for exactly this kind of monitoring, helping businesses catch targeting mismatches across search channels before they quietly cost money.
What Remains Unconfirmed About the Bug
Google has not confirmed this bug as of this writing. It is not clear yet whether this is a technical glitch or an unannounced change to how Google expands ad targeting by geography. Higman himself noted it took him a moment to confirm the pattern, showing this is not obvious at first glance. Until Google responds, treat this as a reported issue rather than a confirmed, explained bug.
How to Check Your Own Local Service Ads Targeting
If you run Local Service Ads for your business, open your advertiser profile and check your selected service areas, the same way Higman demonstrated in his screenshots. Compare that list against where your ads actually appear. If you see your ad showing in a city or state you never selected, you are likely seeing this same bug.
Watch your Local Service Ads profile closely over the next few days and compare your selected areas against where your ads actually show up. If you spot a mismatch, document it with a screenshot, since that kind of evidence is what helped confirm this bug in the first place. Check back for updates once Google issues an official statement on the cause and the fix. If you’re already auditing your local visibility settings, tools like Nuwtonic can help flag unexpected visibility gaps and misconfigurations across search channels before they quietly drain your ad spend.
