Google has confirmed a major change to how Shopping campaigns handle local inventory. As of August 31, 2026, Local Inventory Ads will become the default setting for all Shopping campaigns; it will no longer be possible for advertisers to disable this setting via the Google Ads API. This news has come straight from the Google Ads Developer Blog, preceded by a notification Google sent to advertisers just last week.
This is more than just a minor update for retailers who have both online and in-store inventories. It means a shift in what kind of product listings are allowed in search results, and advertisers lose a setting that they have used for quite some time now.
What Local Inventory Ads Actually Do
LIA, an abbreviation of Local Inventory Ads, allows retailers to promote goods that are sold in nearby physical stores through Google searches. Rather than offering online ads for goods shipped from a warehouse, the retailer can inform consumers that there is a product at a particular store a couple of miles away which is available for immediate pickup. This has become a useful feature for brands with physical stores, allowing them to marry online search activity with offline shopping traffic.
Previously, the feature demanded an opt-in process. Marketers had to set the enable_local field within their campaign’s ShoppingSetting to true in order to use a Local Inventory Ads feed and show local inventory. If the field was not enabled, the ad was meant to showcase products available for shipping.
This difference no longer exists for standard Shopping campaigns.
What Changes on August 31
Starting August 31, Google will automatically turn on the Local products setting for all Shopping campaigns, regardless of the current value of the enable_local field. Here are the three immediate changes this will produce for advertisers and the developers managing their accounts.
First, all Shopping campaigns will have Local Inventory Ads turned on by default. Second, the enable_local field will be completely ignored by the Google Ads API. Finally, Google will interpret this field as true regardless of its value, so setting it to false will simply have no effect.
With this move, standard Shopping campaigns get the same default behavior as Performance Max for Retail, where local inventory ads are a given. It seems that Google is standardizing local inventory visibility across all its retail ad formats, rather than leaving it optional.
Why This Matters for Advertisers
Advertisers who intentionally turned off Local Inventory Ads will feel the impact of this update the most. There are several possible reasons for that decision:
- To separate budgets and bidding strategy between local and online demands;
- Not wanting to promote certain products as available for in-store pickup due to stock or fulfillment issues;
- Or just because their account setup relied on the fact that local and online products are separated until otherwise specified.
With this update, this assumption becomes invalid, as any campaign with the enable_local field set to false will suddenly become able to surface local inventory.
This becomes a particularly significant issue for development teams maintaining large Google Ads campaigns via API, since a change like this could happen without anyone touching the account settings manually. Suddenly noticing new local pickup options appearing in ads you were not expecting is a dead giveaway that this update took place.
What Developers Need to Do
Google drew the line here depending on the API version. All developers using Google Ads API v25.1 or higher will start seeing ContextError.OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CONTEXT whenever trying to set enable_local to false in their code. This setting that previously simply did nothing will now start failing with an error.
For advertisers using older API versions, existing code will continue to run without throwing any errors, but will ignore any attempts to set enable_local to false, since Google is treating this field as true internally anyway. Technically, this is the more dangerous scenario, since developers using older API might not be aware that their setting has stopped working.
In either case, the point is the same: developers need to stop using their code to set enable_local to false for Shopping campaigns, since it will be useless going forward.
How to Keep Local Products From Showing
Google has not removed the ability to control product appearances. Instead, Google is moving this control from a campaign-level setting to product inventory filtering tools. Advertisers who still want to prevent local products from serving in a particular campaign have two options left.
The first one is to create a listing scope via CampaignCriterionService with the product_channel parameter set to ONLINE. That way, this tells the campaign to pull products only from the online product feed, despite Local Inventory Ads being turned on at the campaign level.
The other way is to apply the Inventory filter inside the Google Ads campaign settings interface. It allows advertisers to exclude local products directly and keep budgets separate between local and online products, without even using the API to do that.
In short, Google is not taking away the capability to manage local and online inventory separation. Google is simply moving the responsibility from a single toggle to more precise filters that are applied closer to the product feed.
What Is Not Changing
This change applies to standard Shopping campaigns only. Advertisers running Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns will not see any change in the behavior of the enable_local field. The campaigns of these types will continue functioning exactly as before, since Performance Max for Retail already has a default of enabling local inventory ads and Demand Gen campaigns are unaffected by this update.
It becomes important for advertisers running mixed campaign portfolios to understand the distinction, since it affects the way they have to consider the update in their account setup.
Getting Ready Before the Rollout
As the update becomes effective starting August 31, advertisers whose Shopping campaigns have the enable_local field set to false have a fixed period to prepare for this change. First, audit these campaigns and understand their reasons for disabling the Local Inventory Ads. Then choose how listing scope restrictions or inventory filters could help you replace that behavior in your account setup.
Accounts with Google Ads API v25.1 or higher should see this change as a required code update, since they will start receiving an error when trying to disable local inventory in their campaigns. Accounts with older API versions have some time buffer, since their code will not break, but they still need to make changes to avoid local products appearing in ads accidentally.
The Bigger Picture
This change continues the trend of Google reducing the gap between local and online retail advertising. Performance Max for Retail already has local inventory ads enabled by default, and this change expands this principle to standard Shopping campaigns.
Now the responsibility is shifted to advertisers to manage their inventories more precisely, instead of relying on a single setting to keep local and online products separate. Advertisers blending local and online promotions might not see any changes at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q 1: What is changing with Local Inventory Ads on August 31?
Google will automatically enable Local Inventory Ads for every Shopping campaign starting that date. Advertisers will no longer be able to disable this setting through the standard campaign configuration.
Q 2: Can advertisers still turn off Local Inventory Ads after this update?
Not through the enable_local field. Advertisers who want to exclude local products need to use a listing scope with product_channel set to ONLINE or apply the Inventory filter in campaign settings.
Q 3: Does this affect Performance Max campaigns?
No. Performance Max for Retail already has Local Inventory Ads enabled by default, so this update does not change how those campaigns behave.
Q 4: Does this affect Demand Gen campaigns?
No. The enable_local field will continue to work normally for Demand Gen campaigns, since this update applies specifically to Shopping campaigns.
Q 5: What happens if I try to set enable_local to false after August 31?
It depends on your API version. On Google Ads API v25.1 or later, the request will return an error called ContextError.OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CONTEXT. On earlier versions, the request will simply be ignored and Local Inventory Ads will remain enabled.
Q 6: Why did Google make this change?
Google has not published a detailed explanation of its reasoning, but the update aligns standard Shopping campaigns with Performance Max for Retail, where local inventory has already been part of the default experience.
Q 7: Do I need to update my Google Ads API integration before August 31?
If your integration currently sets enable_local to false and you are running API v25.1 or later, yes. That code will start returning errors once the change takes effect, so it needs to be updated to use inventory filtering instead.
Q 8: What is the difference between the two ways to exclude local inventory?
Using CampaignCriterionService with product_channel set to ONLINE creates a listing scope at the API level. Using the Inventory filter in campaign settings achieves a similar result directly through the Google Ads interface, without needing custom API code.
Q 9: Will this change affect my ad spend?
It could, since campaigns that were not previously showing local inventory may begin surfacing more products and reaching more potential local shoppers. Advertisers should monitor budgets and performance closely after the rollout.
Q 10: Where can I find Google’s official announcement about this update?
Google published the confirmation on the Google Ads Developer Blog, following an earlier notice sent directly to advertisers about the upcoming change.
