Imagine you pay for an advertisement, someone then clicks on that ad and is then able to see local competitors. Is that ad worth buying? Well, Google Local Service Ads that bring up your Google Business Profile can show nearby competitors in your Business Profile listing.

Okay, you’ve seen it before with Google local listings and branded knowledge panels and LSA messaging. But here is another form of that.

Anthony Higman spotted it and posted about it on X, he said, “Google is now running Local Services Ads for all of your competitors in your own Google Business Profile. This is active in all Google Business Profiles for lawyers.” He added, “This is legit just a really really awful thing to do to businesses.”

Here is a GIF of his video of this in action:

Here is a static image of that section that shows the competitors in the Google Business Profile:

Forum discussion at X.