Google Ads News Archive: Every Past Edition of Our Roundup

In campaign setup, Google Ads now presents Target CPA and Target ROAS as direct selections instead of as optional goals nested within Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value. This brings back the four-way arrangement that was in place before the 2021 consolidation. It was first noticed on 30 July and is now rolling out.

Google Ads has introduced a Budget Panel on the Performance Max and Demand Gen campaign review screens. By reading your campaign configuration and account history, it provides as many as three daily budget suggestions, low, medium, and high, each paired with a forecast of the reach and performance expected at that level. It started appearing in accounts around 31 July.

Google Ads is introducing an Insights carousel made up of swipeable cards instead of a single surfaced recommendation. The seven card types address urgent campaign problems, budget-constrained campaigns, abnormal spend shifts, actual versus target CPA, device-level conversion changes, week-over-week conversion movement, and ads with improved click-through rate.

Ahead of the holiday period, Google announced several Demand Gen updates: checkout links have been expanded to nine additional markets, a Target ROAS enhancement is intended to prevent the strategy from bidding too cautiously so it can hit targets sooner, and the Universal Commerce Protocol supports creator content promotion through YouTube ads and affiliate partnerships, currently US only. According to Google, advertisers using checkout URLs see an average 6 percent lift in conversions.

Google has introduced two metrics in product reporting: product clicks, which means clicks on the product itself, and non-product clicks, which means clicks on another element in the ad such as the store name or a call to action. One counting oddity is important: each non-product click is assigned to every product in the ad, so an ad with five products logs five non-product clicks from one interaction.

Google has released a help article on offline conversion tracking with GBRAID, the identifier that connects a conversion occurring off your site back to the campaign that generated it. The guide is split into getting started, website and lead-tracking updates, conversion imports via Data Manager, and best practices.

Beginning in September 2026, older Video Reach campaigns will no longer be limited to in-stream placements and will instead serve in-stream, Shorts, and in-feed, while Video View campaigns using Maximum CPV will shift to a Target CPV strategy. The transition is automatic. Campaign stats remain intact, but ad group and ad histories are reset, and although company name and logo are populated from the video, ad text and headlines must be updated manually at the next edit.

Google Ads has added an AI use section that allows advertisers to state whether a video asset was created or edited with AI, and that declaration follows the ad wherever it appears, including the EU, India, and New York State. This arrives after an EU requirement that begins on 2 August 2026.

Google has published a Create YouTube audio ads help page, its first documentation for the format. Audio ads play to listeners on YouTube and YouTube Music; the creative is a video link with a static image or light animation; and the maximum runtime is 30 seconds, with 15 seconds or less being non-skippable and 16 to 30 seconds skippable. They run as a Video campaign using the Audio subtype under brand awareness and reach, with Target CPM bidding.

Google has revised how conversion health appears in the interface. The conversion actions overview now uses five plain-language, colour-coded statuses, Active, Needs Attention, Misconfigured, Awaiting Conversions, and Removed, and the status card changes “Last seen” to “Last Event Ping,” which shows when your tag last fired even if no conversion was captured.

Google has eliminated the earlier conversion-data requirement for Target ROAS and Maximize Conversion Value bidding in Demand Gen, allowing a campaign to launch on value-based bidding without first accumulating conversion history. The interface’s bidding section was redesigned at the same time.

Google is rolling out a “How this ad was made” panel in My Ad Center across Search, YouTube, and Discover so users can see whether generative AI was involved in creating or editing an ad. Ads made with Google’s own AI tools are labeled automatically; when outside AI tools are used, you are expected to mark that yourself.

SMS has been introduced by Google Ads as another channel within Message assets, joining WhatsApp, Messenger, and Zalo. As with the other options, you create a 140-character opening message, and SMS threads roll into your current account-level message asset objectives. Compared with WhatsApp Business, the setup is simpler, making it easier to activate a text-message lead route.

Google Ads has added asset picking to the ad preview experience. A dialog now organizes your Images, Videos, Headlines, and Descriptions, while also displaying the count selected for each, so you can inspect exact combinations rather than only one static render. This is meant for previewing and QA, not for altering how ads are actually delivered.

Google has updated its AI Max help docs with fresh FAQs explaining what the feature does and how it connects with Performance Max, and it has also removed the previous statement that AI Max did not work with the Google Ads API and Editor. AI Max is still an optimization layer for Search campaigns, not an independent campaign type.

Google has said it is deploying a fix for an issue in which uninstalling and reinstalling the Google & YouTube app on Shopify reset product IDs and erased their historical performance records. There is still no completion date, and merchants are being told not to uninstall the app while the fix rolls out.

Google Ads has begun showing AI-created conversion recommendations in the Conversion Summary dashboard, marking items like Page view and Engagement conversions with a “Recommended by Google AI” label and a one-click setup option. This is only a nudge to complete measurement setup; it does not alter how conversions are counted.

Google is extending eligibility for Shopping ads and free listings to fourteen more European countries, including Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Serbia, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Montenegro. To sell in those markets, you need standard Merchant Center onboarding plus product data that meets local requirements.

Beginning in September 2026, Google will bring its separate Shopping ads policies and free listings policies together into a single Shopping policy set within Merchant Center. Google frames the update as an organisational one: guidance will be easier to find in one location, and current product listings will not face any added restrictions.

Google has launched a dedicated NotebookLM workspace for agencies. Using a set of prompts, it can draft client-facing pitch emails, discovery call scripts, campaign setup guidance, and Performance Max recommendations. Its purpose is to accelerate the first draft of a pitch, not to improve the strategy itself.

Google Ads now lets you duplicate a Performance Max asset group into themed versions, with generative AI restyling your existing product imagery against seasonal backdrops like Back to School or Halloween. Your original assets remain unchanged, while the themed copies are available as testable variations.

In Performance Max, the Channel Performance area now offers a diagnostics view either overall or for individual channels, including Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps. It identifies missing or unaccepted assets, such as headlines, descriptions, and images, that are restricting where the campaign can show.

Demand Gen campaigns now include an Animated Images beta that automatically applies motion effects to static image assets. Google says the aim is to increase engagement using the same creative, and the enhancement is turned on by default.

Starting in July 2026, Google is removing the “Next” label: the migrated platform will once again be called Google Merchant Center. There are no changes to features, access, or account settings.

On 22 June, Google said its target-driven bid strategies will change on 17 August 2026, with budget-constrained campaigns set to perform more steadily against their assigned targets. Beginning 6 July, the Bid Target Adjustment Tool will allow you to inspect and update campaign targets before the rollout.

Google Ads launched a reworked Overview page on 30 June, built with Gemini: a full-screen AI workspace that condenses account performance, highlights insights, and presents guided actions. The beta is available for English-language accounts, with early access provided through Google account teams.

On 26 June, the Max Conversion Value bidding strategy became available in Standard Shopping campaigns, accessible directly from the bidding dropdown in campaign settings. Until now, this type of revenue-focused bidding had been tied to Performance Max.

Performance Max’s Products report added an asset-group filter on 25 June, enabling product-level performance analysis by asset group rather than only at the campaign level.

A Text Disclaimer asset became available on 22 June in the Assets section for regulated industries. Advertisers choose a disclaimer type and text, preview its appearance on Responsive Search Ads, and it works with AI Max features, including Final URL Expansion.

On 18 June, Google announced a beta that allows the Google tag to pull in extra data sources, including CRM and backend systems, to strengthen conversion measurement. Google says the feature delivers two advantages: more resilient measurement when signals are missing, and better bidding through more complete data.

The Attributed Branded Searches metric rolled out globally on 30 June. It measures branded search volume generated by ad impressions and is intended to demonstrate the intent lift from YouTube brand campaigns. Video View campaigns can also incorporate YouTube Shorts ad actions into budget optimization.

On 27 May, Google said Display campaigns will be integrated into Demand Gen. Beginning in June 2026, the migration tool will be available; once moved, campaigns retain access to more than two million sites and apps, add inventory from YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps, and receive a “#2” suffix in their names while keeping performance history intact.