What Google announced on July 20
Google posted a notice to the Ads Developer Blog on July 20, 2026: starting August 31, Local Inventory Ads will be switched on by default for every Shopping campaign linked to a Merchant Center account that has the LIA add-on enabled. The per-campaign setting that let you keep local inventory out of specific campaigns is going away.
This is not a soft default. According to the Google Ads Developer Blog, the API backend will force enable_local to true for all Shopping campaigns regardless of what an advertiser or their tooling has set. On older API versions, setting it to false will be silently ignored. On v25.1 and above, it will return an error.
How the old control worked — and why this matters
Until now, you could run Shopping campaigns in two modes. Some campaigns served both local and online inventory; others were designated online-only by setting enable_local to false. A multi-location retailer with a mix of direct-to-consumer and in-store SKUs could keep those traffic streams and conversion signals separate at the campaign level. That separation is what's disappearing.
For accounts where the LIA add-on is already on in Merchant Center, this is the practical effect: campaigns you've been running as online-only will start surfacing local inventory ads once August 31 passes. If your in-store conversion values, product availability, or pricing differ from your online catalog, those signals will blend into campaigns that weren't designed around them.
The change also doesn't touch Performance Max or Demand Gen campaigns. For those, enable_local continues to work as before.
The inventory filter is the new control mechanism
Google's answer is the Inventory Filter, specifically the Channel attribute set to either Local or Online at the campaign level. It's already available in the platform and functionally replaces what enable_local was doing.
The practical difference: instead of a binary toggle per campaign, you're now filtering by inventory channel. A campaign set to Channel = Online will only serve products from your online inventory feed. Channel = Local serves local-only. If you leave it unset, both pools are eligible — which is the new default state.
For most accounts this means a setup change, not a strategic pivot. But "setup change" is the kind of thing that gets missed until you notice ROAS shifting and can't explain why.
Who actually needs to pay attention
The only accounts this change touches are Shopping campaigns connected to Merchant Center accounts with the LIA add-on enabled. If you're a purely e-commerce brand with no physical retail presence and no local inventory feeds submitted, nothing changes for you. The LIA add-on won't be in your Merchant Center setup, so August 31 is irrelevant.
If you do have retail locations, LIA enabled in Merchant Center, and Shopping campaigns currently running with local inventory off — that's exactly who this is aimed at. The platform is removing your passive opt-out and asking you to make the channel choice explicitly.
Search Engine Land reports the change also affects accounts using third-party bid management tools or scripts that set enable_local via the API, which is a common pattern in larger accounts. Those integrations will need updating.
What to do in the next five weeks
Pull your Merchant Center account settings and check whether the Local Inventory Ads add-on is enabled. If it is, identify which Shopping campaigns you've been running with local inventory disabled. Those are the campaigns at risk.
For campaigns you want to keep online-only, add an Inventory Filter with Channel = Online. For campaigns where you do want local inventory, you can either leave the filter unset or explicitly set Channel = Local if you want to isolate that inventory segment.
If you've been running a blended approach with no intent to separate local from online, you still need to check that your conversion tracking can handle the merged signal. In-store conversions feed into Smart Bidding alongside online conversions. If the values differ significantly, your target ROAS or CPA settings may need adjustment after August 31.
Accounts running via the API or a third-party platform should also test against v25.1 before the deadline, since setting enable_local to false will start returning errors.
The free Gromerce audit shows campaign structure and conversion tracking gaps together — useful for catching this before the deadline rather than in the performance data afterward.
The opt-out is disappearing. The replacement control exists and works — the only question is whether your account is set up to use it before the deadline hits.
Sources: Search Engine Land, Google Ads Developer Blog, July 2026
