Google made changes to its Local Services Ads (LSA) this week. One feature will automatically select profile photos to display in advertisements, and the other aims to improve ad budgets by setting monthly maximums ad spend limit for certain account.

The update for profile photos could potentially improve ad engagement rates and ad rankings for local service providers.

The feature, based on the likelihood to boost engagement, automates the choice of photos from an advertiser’s LSA profile.

Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin announced the feature on X, and noted some points with the update.

“We recommend uploading at least 3 to 5 images to your LSA profile on the Profile and budget page,” she wrote. “Photos must be high quality, relevant to your work, original, and not copied or stolen.”

She also explained that ads will not always include a photo, depending on the user query and other factors.

In June, Google announced it would continue to automate features for LSA and stepped up changes including replacing its manual lead credit methods, and use machine learning to process them in the future.

It was at that point that Nate Louis, founder and CEO of Water Bear Marketing, noticed changes to the budget controls feature. He pointed to an update that gives marketers more control of their spending to potentially prevent unexpected budget overruns.

Some of the features include stopping campaigns automatically when budgets are reached, a monthly reset on the first of each month, and flexible management for budgets that can be updated at any time. The account spend limit can be turned off and on at any time.

Google made changes to its Local Services Ads this week. One feature will automatically select profile photos to display in ads and the other aims to improve ad budgets by setting the monthly maximum ad-spend limit for certain accounts.