local inventory ads

Local inventory ads connect online search to the physical shelf. When someone nearby searches for a product you carry, Google can show your ad with the item, its price, and whether it is available for pickup today. Google runs both a paid track (local inventory ads) and a free track (free local listings) off the same underlying data, and offers pickup options like “pickup today” and “pickup later.”

How the data flows

Eligibility rides on connected accounts and clean product data, not clever bidding. You link a verified Google Business Profile to Merchant Center, set a storeCode for each location, and submit a local inventory feed that reports availability, price, quantity, and pickupMethod per store. Google matches that feed against your main product feed, so a mismatch in GTIN, price, or stock can disqualify an item.

As of 2026, the paid ads are delivered through Performance Max for store goals rather than standalone Local campaigns, and Google has extended placements to Waze “Promoted Places in Navigation” pins for US store-goals campaigns. Google reports that retailers running local inventory ads alongside Shopping ads see a 21% lift in store visits and a 9% lift in online conversions for in-store items, though your numbers depend on catalog and foot-traffic realities.

Example: a hardware store with 4,000 SKUs feeds nightly stock counts. A shopper searching “cordless drill near me” sees the exact model in stock at the branch two blocks away, badged “pickup today.”