Google Ads Change Log 2026

Google added the ability to pre-fill a new Performance Max asset group with assets pulled from your existing account and landing pages.

For a small advertiser: Faster setup, but the pre-filled assets are Google's guess at your brand, not your approved creative.

Google released Meridian GeoX, an open source geo experimentation library, to all marketers worldwide.

For a small advertiser: Proper incrementality testing without a data science team, though it needs meaningful spend across several regions to say anything.

Google began testing tighter match type behaviour for Search campaigns serving in AI Mode.

For a small advertiser: An early sign that some keyword control may come back for AI Mode inventory. Nothing to configure yet.

All Google Ads API v22 requests begin failing on 7 October 2026 and integrations must move to v23 or later.

For a small advertiser: Only matters if a third party tool, script or reporting connector still talks to v22. If it does, your reports or bid rules stop that day.

Accounts began receiving recommendations to apply a target ROAS to campaigns currently running without one.

For a small advertiser: A recommendation, not a change. Applying a ROAS target with thin value data usually cuts volume rather than improving returns.

Video campaign groups, announced when the feature rolled out globally in July, became visible in the interface.

For a small advertiser: Lets you budget and report across several video campaigns as one unit. Useful only if you run more than a couple.

Klaviyo joined Google Ads as a supported partner for offline conversion import and Customer Match.

For a small advertiser: If you run ecommerce email through Klaviyo you can push purchase and list data into Google Ads without building an integration.

Google revised its Developer Policies, formerly the Google Ads API Policy, to strengthen security requirements for integrations.

For a small advertiser: Invisible to advertisers directly, but it is the policy under which cheap shared-access tools lose API access.

Personalized advertising on YouTube expands to permit alcohol ads where locally allowed, keeping age restrictions and barring health related alcohol targeting, with exceptions in Egypt, India, Indonesia and Poland.

For a small advertiser: Only relevant if you sell alcohol. Everyone else is unaffected.

Google began showing Shopping ads inline within AI Mode responses using several formats, including carousels.

For a small advertiser: Your Shopping and Performance Max product ads can appear in AI Mode without any new campaign. Your feed is the input.

The server side tag gateway left beta for sites served through Akamai and Fastly content delivery networks.

For a small advertiser: A way to serve the Google tag from your own domain, which survives ad blockers and browser tracking limits better than the standard tag.

Google changed the bumper ad specification from a strict 6 second maximum to a 5 to 6 second range.

For a small advertiser: A 5 second cut is now a valid bumper. Minor, but it stops good short edits being rejected.

Google added an account level automated asset that generates promotion assets from your site and offers.

For a small advertiser: Google can now write and attach promotion assets to your ads automatically, including discounts it inferred from your pages.

Google pushed a large rewrite of its Performance Max help pages at the end of August, covering Search prioritisation, campaign controls, the budget panel tiers and URL expansion.

For a small advertiser: The controls you were told did not exist now do. Guides written before September 2026 contradict Google's own docs.

Shopify merchants can activate Google's Business Agent directly from Shopify rather than through Merchant Center.

For a small advertiser: One less setup step for Shopify stores. The agent answers shopper questions using your product data.

Google revised its Developer Policies so integrations may no longer route traffic through programmatic proxies and must connect to Google Ads using their own dedicated Google Cloud project.

For a small advertiser: Some cheap third party dashboards and scripts share one API connection across many accounts. Those break under this policy.

Google renamed Automatic payments to Postpay and Manual payments to Prepay across roughly 60 help pages and the billing screens. Nothing about how or when you are charged changed.

For a small advertiser: Pure terminology. Your billing behaviour and thresholds are identical.

An alpha feature lets advertisers set Low to High priority sliders for Search, Search Partners, Discover, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Display, which adjusts CPA bids per channel under target CPA bidding.

For a small advertiser: The closest Performance Max has come to real channel control rather than exclusions only. Alpha, so most accounts will not see it.

From 1 October 2026 missed calls during business hours become billable leads when the caller stays on the line more than 20 seconds. Key press routing delays the timer until the key is pressed.

For a small advertiser: Service businesses that do not answer the phone start paying for calls nobody picked up. A direct cost increase for solo trades.

A new Product titles report reveals where Google has replaced your feed title with an AI generated one, and how each version performed.

For a small advertiser: You can finally see when Google rewrote your product titles. Useful when a bestseller quietly stops converting.

Direct booking grew from roughly 20 to more than 500 Reserve with Google partners and is auto enabled for any advertiser whose Business Profile carries an active partner booking link. Bookings count as paid leads.

For a small advertiser: If your Business Profile has a booking link, bookings can be billed to you as leads without you switching anything on.

Reserve with Google booking buttons began appearing on Search and Performance Max ads for businesses with booking links, without an opt in.

For a small advertiser: A booking button can now sit on your ad using a third party booking link you may not have chosen for advertising.

Country by country alcohol rules are replaced from 30 September 2026 by one global framework that widens where alcohol ads may run and adds a certification for regions that permit only zero percent ABV ads.

For a small advertiser: Only relevant to drinks brands. If you sell alcohol, eligibility and certification requirements change on 30 September.

Google reduced the waiting period it recommends before judging or changing a Smart Bidding setting, down from the previous three week guidance.

For a small advertiser: Google is telling you to react faster. On a small account with few conversions, reacting faster is usually how you lose money.

Google warned that Google Tag Manager container snippets will cease honouring gtag config commands.

For a small advertiser: If your conversion tracking mixes gtag and Tag Manager, it can break silently. Broken tracking looks exactly like a performance collapse.

Performance Max campaigns with store goals gained a local customer optimization setting that biases delivery toward people near your locations.

For a small advertiser: Useful if you have a shop and were seeing spend leak to people who will never visit.

Demand Gen campaigns can now optimise toward more than one conversion goal at a time.

For a small advertiser: Small accounts with thin conversion volume can pool two related goals instead of splitting an already sparse signal.

A customer lifecycle optimization tool appeared on the Conversions summary page, letting advertisers separate new buyers from existing customers and bid differently for each.

For a small advertiser: Real control for anyone whose spend keeps re-buying customers they already have.

Google began widely alerting Merchant Center users on 21 August that from 31 January 2027 product images below 500 by 500 pixels are disapproved and removed from Shopping ads and free listings, with no grace period.

For a small advertiser: A hard deadline that can silently delete part of your catalogue. Small sellers with old supplier images are most exposed.

LSA management began moving into the Google Ads interface for selected US home and storefront advertisers, with more US accounts later in 2026 and non US accounts in 2027. The Verified badge is unavailable in auto, beauty and dining.

For a small advertiser: Your LSA account is moving into a more complicated interface. Budgets and lead disputes will sit alongside your Search campaigns.

Google added dedicated experimentation and planning tooling for AI Max and Search campaigns, including an adopt AI Max experiment type.

For a small advertiser: You can now test AI Max as a proper split rather than flipping it on and hoping. This is the safe way to evaluate it.

Minor version v25.1 added text disclaimer assets, campaign auto migration tracking fields, Brand Lift and Conversion Lift resources, loyalty membership segmentation and parental status in reach planning.

For a small advertiser: Nothing to do directly. The migration tracking fields are how tools will report whether your campaign was auto converted to AI Max.

Google began using generative AI to automatically resize uploaded Performance Max video ads into other aspect ratios.

For a small advertiser: Your single video now gets reshaped for vertical and square placements without approval. Cropping can cut off logos, text and faces.

Google removed campaign level language targeting for Search and AI Max for Search from late September 2026, and API calls that add or update a language criterion on a Search campaign now fail.

For a small advertiser: You can no longer restrict a Search campaign to one language. Google detects language itself, so multilingual markets see wider reach.

Between 1 and 30 September 2026 Google automatically upgraded Search campaigns using campaign level broad match or standalone automatically created assets into AI Max, turning on AI powered search term matching and AI generated text customization.

For a small advertiser: The biggest change of 2026 for small Search advertisers. Matching got looser and Google can now rewrite your ad text.

From 17 August 2026 budget limited campaigns on Target CPA or Target ROAS perform more consistently toward the stated target instead of overdelivering. A Bid Target Adjustment Tool was published on 6 July 2026 to review and reset targets first.

For a small advertiser: Quietly the year's most expensive change. If your campaign was beating its target, costs rise toward the number you typed in months ago.

Google announced that legacy Travel campaigns consolidate into the Search campaigns for Travel type introduced in April 2026.

For a small advertiser: Only affects hotels, tour operators and travel sellers. Feeds and formats move into standard Search.

Google Ads added reporting that breaks out new customer performance from returning customer performance.

For a small advertiser: Lets you see whether spend is buying new customers or re-buying ones you had. Important before trusting a high Performance Max ROAS.

All v21 API requests began failing on 5 August 2026. On the same date new OAuth refresh tokens began requiring passkey authentication, so password only, TOTP and SMS two factor no longer qualify. Scripts, Editor, BigQuery Data Transfer and Looker Studio are all affected.

For a small advertiser: If a connector or script needs re-authorising and the Google account has no passkey, it cannot reconnect.

Limited Ad Serving, which caps impressions from advertisers Google has not fully verified, expanded across Search, YouTube, Gmail, Play Store and Discover, with a rollout running through 2028.

For a small advertiser: New or unverified accounts get throttled impressions until verification completes. It looks like a delivery problem, not a policy one.

From 5 October 2026 advertisers promoting government documents or services must show explicit government authorization evidenced by an official website link, with ads limited to matching geographic regions.

For a small advertiser: Affects anyone helping people apply for passports, visas, licences or permits. Without documented authorization, ads stop.

From 3 August 2026 the interface, Google Ads Editor and every API version stopped allowing creation of new campaign level broad match configurations or legacy automatically created assets.

For a small advertiser: The old settings are now a one way door. You cannot add them to a new campaign, only inherit them into AI Max.

From September 2026 Video Reach campaigns expand from in stream only to also serve Shorts and in feed, and Video View campaigns on Maximum CPV move to Target CPV. Campaign statistics are preserved but ad group and ad histories reset.

For a small advertiser: Your YouTube ads start appearing in placements you did not pick, and your bidding model changes underneath you.

A budget panel appeared on Performance Max and Demand Gen review pages showing recommended budget tiers.

For a small advertiser: Google now suggests a budget level on screen while you set up. The recommendation is built to grow spend, not to protect your margin.

A new interface layout displays Target CPA and Target ROAS as standalone bidding strategies again, rather than only as optional targets inside Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value.

For a small advertiser: Easier to see what strategy a campaign is actually on. Nothing changed about how the bidding works.

Google introduced two new product reporting metrics separating clicks on a product listing from other clicks in the same campaign.

For a small advertiser: Lets ecommerce sellers see how much traffic actually touched a product rather than a generic asset.

Google introduced Lead Journey Mapping, a drag and drop visual tool for lead generation campaigns.

For a small advertiser: Useful for service businesses to define what counts as a qualified lead so Smart Bidding optimises toward the right stage.

Advertisers can amplify creator content produced through affiliate relationships on YouTube, announced in the July Demand Gen drop.

For a small advertiser: Only relevant if you already run an affiliate or creator programme. It turns organic creator posts into paid reach.

Google began rolling out AI content labels on generated or AI modified image and video creative across Google Ads, Merchant Center and Asset Studio, addressing transparency rules in the EU, India and New York.

For a small advertiser: If you use Google's AI image or video tools, your ads may carry a visible AI label.

From 27 July 2026 sensitive Google Ads API actions such as user access invitations require multi party approval.

For a small advertiser: Adds a second pair of eyes before someone is granted access to your account. A genuine protection against account takeover.

Editor 2.13 added the AI Max suite for Shopping campaigns, a Performance Max customer retention goal, Maps as a Demand Gen channel, Target CPA and Target ROAS split into separate named strategies, channel performance reporting and an AI generated asset attestation field.

For a small advertiser: Bulk editing of AI Max settings became possible offline, which matters if you manage more than a handful of campaigns.

Performance Max gained household income as an exclusion dimension, alongside existing age and gender exclusions.

For a small advertiser: Another exclusion lever for high ticket sellers whose spend was going to audiences who never buy.

Major version v25 removed lifecycle goal resources in favour of unified Goal and CampaignGoalConfig schemas, dropped the search brand field, and added animated image generation, a Loyalty Retention Goal and YouTube third party conversion attribution. Sunset is August 2027.

For a small advertiser: Breaking changes for tool vendors, invisible to most advertisers.

Advertisers can no longer appeal policy decisions older than six months from inside their Google Ads account.

For a small advertiser: An old disapproval you meant to fight becomes permanent. Small advertisers often leave disapprovals sitting for months.

From 31 August 2026 the Shopping setting that enabled local inventory ads stopped having any effect and is forced on by the backend, so it can no longer be set to false.

For a small advertiser: If you have a local feed, your Shopping campaigns now include local inventory ads whether or not you asked for them.

Google dropped the fifty thousand dollar lifetime ad spend threshold that had gated Lead Form assets.

For a small advertiser: Genuinely good news for small service businesses. Lead forms attached to Search ads are now open to everyone.

Demand Gen campaigns can now use business data feeds to populate ads dynamically.

For a small advertiser: Lets non ecommerce businesses run feed driven Demand Gen ads without a Merchant Center product feed.

Google dropped the Next suffix now that the migration from the classic interface is complete.

For a small advertiser: Terminology only. Guides that talk about choosing between Merchant Center and Merchant Center Next are out of date.

Channel Diagnostics launched inside Performance Max channel performance reporting, flagging channel level issues and suggested fixes.

For a small advertiser: When spend suddenly moves between channels, you now get a reason instead of a guess.

The Attributed Branded Searches metric, announced at Google Marketing Live in May, rolled out globally.

For a small advertiser: Shows how much branded search a campaign generated. Useful evidence when checking whether Performance Max creates demand or harvests your brand.

Google replaced the Google Ads Overview page with a Gemini generated view of dynamic insights.

For a small advertiser: The first screen you see is now an AI summary. Treat it as a prompt to investigate, not as analysis.

Performance Max reporting can now break product performance down by individual asset group.

For a small advertiser: You can tell which asset group is carrying which products, the missing piece for structuring by margin.

Creating new Smart Campaigns through the Google Ads API is blocked from 23 September 2026, pushed back from the original 5 August. Existing Smart Campaigns keep serving and remain editable.

For a small advertiser: Smart campaigns are effectively dead. They left the interface in 2024 and the last creation path closes in September 2026.

Google updated its Destination Mismatch rules so a final URL may redirect to a different domain when pre approved, for example a manufacturer sending users to an authorised retailer.

For a small advertiser: Helpful if you sell through resellers or use a separate booking domain. Redirects that used to trigger disapproval can now be sanctioned.

From 18 August 2026 Google automatically began building conversion based customer lists for advertisers already using Enhanced Conversions and Customer Match. It is opt out.

For a small advertiser: Google starts generating audience lists from your customer conversion data by default. Worth knowing if you have privacy commitments.

Demand Gen campaigns optimised for view through conversions on Discover switched from cost per click to cost per thousand impressions billing. The change was automatic.

For a small advertiser: Your invoice changes shape and cheap looking clicks stop being the unit you pay for. Costs can rise without any setting change.

Smart Bidding Exploration extended beyond Search to Performance Max and Shopping, and a Promotion Mode was added for short sale periods.

For a small advertiser: Exploration deliberately spends part of your budget on queries it is unsure about. On a small budget that is a real cost.

The first 2026 stage of Limited Ad Serving restricted impressions from unqualified advertisers on Search queries carrying a higher risk of a poor user experience, weighing user complaints and clarity of branding.

For a small advertiser: New and unverified accounts get throttled before they ever reach the August stage. It looks like a delivery problem, not a policy one.

Google pushed the automatic upgrade of Dynamic Search Ads campaigns to AI Max from September 2026 back to February 2027, and restored the ability to create DSA campaigns on 15 June 2026.

For a small advertiser: You got five more months to plan the move, but the destination has not changed. Dynamic Search Ads is still ending.

Google rolled out enhanced Local Services Ads formats for real estate agents across the United States.

For a small advertiser: Only relevant to estate agents. More ad real estate, and more competition for the same leads.

All Google Ads API v20 requests began failing on 10 June 2026.

For a small advertiser: Only relevant if an old connector was still on v20, in which case it stopped that day.

From 1 June 2026 granular daily, hourly and weekly stats are retained for 37 months, and queries reaching beyond that window return an invalid date error in both the API and scripts.

For a small advertiser: Year on year comparisons beyond roughly three years stop working. If you wanted 2022 data, it is going away.

A setting appeared in AI Max letting advertisers manage how their ads appear on branded versus unbranded searches.

For a small advertiser: The main defence against AI Max eating your own brand traffic at a higher price than a dedicated brand campaign would.

Google confirmed 18 August 2026 as the final deadline to migrate from the Content API for Shopping to the Merchant API.

For a small advertiser: If your feed tool still used the old API, your products stopped updating. Stale prices and stock cause disapprovals and wasted spend.

Advertisers can now run uplift experiments to measure the incremental impact of adding a Demand Gen campaign.

For a small advertiser: The honest way to find out whether Demand Gen is adding sales or just claiming credit for them.

Google Ads added a centralised interface for handling leads captured through Google hosted lead forms.

For a small advertiser: Small service businesses can see and work leads inside Google Ads instead of waiting for a CSV or an email.

Google launched Real Time Policy Reviews, giving faster policy decisions when campaigns are submitted.

For a small advertiser: Less dead time between building an ad and it serving, which matters when you are launching a promotion on a date.

Google confirmed Display campaigns move into Demand Gen, combining Display Network reach with YouTube, Discover, Gmail and Maps in one campaign type. New Display campaigns are created only inside Demand Gen from June 2026 and the migration completes by 2027.

For a small advertiser: Standalone Display is over. Migrated campaigns arrive with a number two suffix and inherit Demand Gen channel controls.

At Google Marketing Live on 20 May 2026 Google confirmed AI Max for Search is generally available worldwide, having launched in beta in May 2025.

For a small advertiser: AI Max stopped being an experiment and became the default direction for Search. Everything else in 2026 follows from this.

AI Brief lets advertisers give AI Max written brand guidelines and messaging preferences that steer generated text.

For a small advertiser: The closest thing to a control over what Google's AI writes about your business. Important if text customization is on.

Google announced a native ad format inside AI Mode, AI powered Shopping ads, a retailer in stock listings format, Direct Offers integration and Business Agent for Leads, initially testing in Education, Automotive and Real Estate.

For a small advertiser: You cannot buy AI Mode placements separately. Eligibility flows from existing Search, AI Max, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.

Google merged its separate AI advisors into one Ask Advisor spanning Google Ads, Analytics, Merchant Center and Marketing Platform, and expanded Asset Studio with Gemini Omni, image generation and video generation.

For a small advertiser: Free creative generation inside the platform, which lowers the barrier for a solo advertiser with no design budget.

Demand Gen ads launched on Google Maps as a selectable channel, alongside creator asset tools, product feeds on more devices and improved Gemini models.

For a small advertiser: Maps is now a Demand Gen surface, which matters for local businesses only reaching people on YouTube and Discover.

From 15 June 2026 the Google Ads API stopped accepting new adopters of offline conversion imports and enhanced conversions for leads, pushing new integrations to the Data Manager API.

For a small advertiser: If you are setting up offline conversion import for the first time, the path is Data Manager now. Existing setups keep working.

Google confirmed that search terms reports can show a paraphrased or categorised version of a query rather than the literal words typed, particularly for AI driven queries.

For a small advertiser: The report you use to write negative keywords is now partly a summary. Negatives built from it are less reliable.

Google Tag Manager configuration became accessible from within the Google Ads interface, following a test in April.

For a small advertiser: Conversion tracking setup no longer requires bouncing between two products, a common reason small advertisers never finish it.

Google launched journey aware bidding in beta, which optimises on the whole lead to sale journey including calls and form submissions, extended Smart Bidding Exploration to Performance Max and Shopping, and introduced demand led budget pacing.

For a small advertiser: Demand led pacing means your daily spend swings more than it used to. Your average daily budget is a much looser promise.

Google launched AI Max for Shopping to add AI matching to standard Shopping campaigns, with the feature appearing widely in accounts by July 2026.

For a small advertiser: A middle path for ecommerce: keep campaign level control of Shopping instead of handing budget to Performance Max across all channels.

Performance Max gained controls letting advertisers pull campaigns off the Search partner network and off Display.

For a small advertiser: The most requested control finally shipped. You can stop Performance Max filling low intent Display inventory with your budget.

Google Ads introduced a preview showing the estimated effect of a negative keyword before you apply it.

For a small advertiser: Removes the main risk of negative keywords, which is blocking good traffic with a broad term you did not think through.

Google introduced Search campaigns for Travel, folding travel feeds and formats into the standard Search campaign type.

For a small advertiser: Only affects travel businesses. Legacy Travel campaigns migrate into this type from August 2026.

Major version v24 made videos and logo images required for Demand Gen video responsive ads, removed campaign level video brand safety in favour of a customer level setting, and added view through conversion optimisation plus gender exclusions for Performance Max. Sunset is May 2027.

For a small advertiser: The Demand Gen creative requirements are the part that reaches advertisers: a video ad without a logo will not build.

Google added AI qualified call lead conversions and made call recording the default for AI handled lead calls.

For a small advertiser: Better call lead quality signal for service businesses, but recording became a default rather than a choice.

Google reported that Gemini powered enforcement blocked 8.3 billion policy violating ads and suspended 24.9 million accounts in 2025, while cutting incorrect advertiser suspensions by 80 percent. Real time ad review expands to more formats during 2026.

For a small advertiser: Enforcement is faster and more automated in both directions. Approvals speed up, but so do suspensions.

Google consolidated enhanced conversions setup into one toggle instead of a multi step configuration.

For a small advertiser: Enhanced conversions materially improve conversion counting after browser tracking limits. This removes the main reason people skipped it.

The Google Ads scripts editor began rolling out Merchant API support on 22 April 2026, ahead of the Content API for Shopping sunset on 18 August 2026.

For a small advertiser: Only matters if you run custom scripts that touch Merchant Center data. Those needed rewriting before August.

Google started showing sponsored results inside the Images tab on mobile search.

For a small advertiser: A new placement your existing campaigns can serve on without opting in. Visual products benefit, service businesses mostly do not.

Performance Max channel reporting gained a timeline view showing how spend moved between channels over time.

For a small advertiser: Makes it obvious when Performance Max quietly shifted your budget from Shopping to Display in a given week.

Experiment winners began being applied automatically unless the advertiser opts out.

For a small advertiser: An experiment you set up to learn something can now change your live campaign without you approving it.

From 1 April 2026 the Google Ads API stopped accepting new Customer Match adopters, including developers who had uploaded nothing between October 2025 and March 2026, directing them to the Data Manager API.

For a small advertiser: If you want to upload a customer list for the first time, the route is Data Manager, not a custom API script.

Google extended loyalty programme features in Merchant Center to 14 countries and to AI powered surfaces.

For a small advertiser: Lets retailers show member prices in Shopping ads and free listings, which lifts click through on price led categories.

Google rolled out Asset Group Theming, letting advertisers clone an asset group with a seasonal theme applied.

For a small advertiser: Faster seasonal creative for small retailers, without rebuilding an asset group per holiday.

Google made Veo, its generative video model, available globally inside Asset Studio, and added AI voice over for Performance Max video assets.

For a small advertiser: A solo advertiser can generate video without a camera or an editor. Quality varies and the output is your responsibility.

Minor version v23.2 added a VideoEnhancement resource, an AppTopCombinationView, business logo support in customer assets, ad group ad date scheduling and a hotel feed disable option for Demand Gen.

For a small advertiser: Ad group ad date scheduling is the notable one: start and end dates on individual ads, useful for sales that must stop on time.

Google announced Shopping ads availability in 15 additional European countries.

For a small advertiser: New markets to sell into if you can ship there. Feed localisation and currency are the work, not the campaign.

From 30 April 2026 a uniqueness check blocks creation of duplicate Lookalike lists sharing the same seed list, expansion level and country targeting, mainly affecting Demand Gen.

For a small advertiser: Housekeeping. It stops accounts accumulating dozens of identical audiences that split reporting for no benefit.

Google withdrew ad format policies covering Form ads, Image quality, Responsive ads and Text ads because the products they governed have been replaced.

For a small advertiser: Housekeeping. It confirms expanded text ads and legacy formats are gone for good.

Editor 2.12 added campaign total budgets over 3 to 90 days, the five dollar global minimum daily budget for Demand Gen, Performance Max video limits raised to 15 per asset group, 9:16 portrait images, brand guidelines and hotel feeds for Demand Gen, and account level tracking URLs.

For a small advertiser: Bulk editing caught up with the year's budget and AI text controls. Worth updating if you manage more than a few campaigns offline.

Performance Max reporting gained video visibility metrics showing how video assets actually served.

For a small advertiser: More evidence for whether the video assets you were required to upload are doing anything.

Google made non skippable Video Reach campaign inventory globally available, with AI picking ad lengths to deliver a complete message on connected TV.

For a small advertiser: Mostly a brand budget product. For a small advertiser it is a way to overspend on reach with no measurable return.

Google broadened the recurring billing disclosure policy covering how subscription terms must be presented.

For a small advertiser: Directly affects anyone selling a subscription, membership or free trial that converts to paid.

From 1 April 2026 all Demand Gen campaigns require a minimum daily budget of five US dollars or local equivalent, enforced through the API and the interface.

For a small advertiser: Very small test budgets on Demand Gen are no longer possible. A campaign below the floor will not run.

From 1 April 2026 any account with undeclared campaigns has all campaign management changes rejected with an EU political advertising declaration error.

For a small advertiser: This bites accounts that never touch politics. If the declaration is missing, you simply cannot edit your campaigns.

Text guidelines, which constrain what AI Max may write, went to global beta for all advertisers across Search and Performance Max. Reusable rules across campaigns followed in April.

For a small advertiser: The main guardrail on AI generated ad text. Without it, AI Max writes from whatever is on your landing pages.

Google introduced passkey support as a passwordless sign in method for Google Ads, rolled out more widely in March and April.

For a small advertiser: Worth doing now, because from August 2026 API and tool re-authorisation requires a passkey on the account.

Google announced on 25 February and rolled out on 22 April a change to how average daily budget pacing works for campaigns that use ad scheduling.

For a small advertiser: If you daypart, your daily spend distribution changed. Campaigns can spend more within their active hours than before.

Support initiated account changes now require explicit authorisation from the advertiser, and support forms require account authorisation before submission.

For a small advertiser: A meaningful protection. Sales representatives can no longer apply changes to your account on a phone call alone.

Performance Max placements were added to the Where ads showed report and Search Partner domains became visible in placement reporting.

For a small advertiser: You can now see the actual sites and apps it bought. Combined with April's controls, Performance Max stopped being unauditable.

Google changed app conversion attribution so conversions are credited back to the install date.

For a small advertiser: Only affects app advertisers. Historical app campaign reports shift shape after the change.

Google released a no code interface for its open source Meridian marketing mix model that projects return across budget scenarios in real time.

For a small advertiser: Marketing mix modelling without a data science team, though it still needs enough spend history to say anything useful.

Google shifted Demand Gen away from Lookalike segments toward AI driven audience signals.

For a small advertiser: Manual audience building loses ground again. Your first party data becomes a signal rather than a hard target.

Google added a tool that assigns a ROAS value to acquiring a new customer versus a repeat one.

For a small advertiser: Lets you tell Smart Bidding that a first time buyer is worth more than a repeat order, which changes where budget goes.

All Google Ads API v19 requests began failing on 11 February 2026, the first of four API sunsets in the year.

For a small advertiser: Only relevant if an old connector was still on v19, in which case it stopped that day.

Google transitioned its primary support channel from a support form to an AI chatbot, with auto filled details from past cases added the same week.

For a small advertiser: Getting a human on a small account got harder. Most first line answers now come from a bot.

Google Ads added product level reporting showing how each individual product performs across every campaign type at once.

For a small advertiser: Ends the guesswork of comparing the same product across Shopping, Performance Max and Demand Gen in separate reports.

Major version v23 shipped, adding Performance Max data broken down by channel including Search, Search Partners, Gmail, YouTube, Display, Discover and Maps at campaign, asset group and asset level. Sunset is February 2027.

For a small advertiser: Channel level data became available to reporting tools, so third party dashboards can finally show where the spend went.

A Billing reports section appeared in the Billing menu, giving a detailed breakdown of what makes up an invoice.

For a small advertiser: Useful when a monthly invoice does not match expected spend, which happens more now that pacing is demand led.

Google released the Experiment Center, a single dashboard for campaign testing, and opened a Campaign Mix Experiments beta for testing combinations of campaign types.

For a small advertiser: Campaign Mix is the honest way to test whether adding Performance Max helps or just moves credit around.

Advertisers gained the ability to exclude website visitor lists and Customer Match lists from Performance Max campaigns.

For a small advertiser: Stops the campaign spending acquisition budget re-buying people who already bought, the most common reason its ROAS looks better than it is.

Total campaign budgets, previously Performance Max only, opened in beta for Search and Shopping, letting you set one budget across a defined period with Google pacing it to the end date.

For a small advertiser: The best budget control shipped this year for a small advertiser. It removes the risk of a promotion overspending while you sleep.

Placement exclusions can now be applied once at account level rather than campaign by campaign.

For a small advertiser: One list of blocked sites, apps and channels that covers every campaign including Performance Max and Demand Gen.

Google began rolling out branded AI Business Agents in Merchant Center, which answer shopper questions using a retailer's product data.

For a small advertiser: Real and available for retailers. Its answers come from your feed, so feed quality is now customer service quality.

Google broadened eligibility rules for Shopping promotions ahead of 2026.

For a small advertiser: More small retailers qualify to show promotion annotations, which lift click through rate on price led categories.

Google launched UCP, a shared standard letting AI agents handle product discovery, checkout and support with participating retailers, alongside the Business Agent and new Merchant Center attributes. It expanded to more markets and to YouTube in May.

For a small advertiser: The start of shopping happening inside AI agents. Your feed becomes the storefront an agent reads.

From 2 February 2026 the Google Ads API stopped accepting new adopters of session attributes or IP address data in conversion imports, directing them to the Data Manager API.

For a small advertiser: Only affects custom conversion integrations. Existing setups continue.

Google began using a new Advertiser Large Foundation model to detect fraudulent advertisers at account level.

For a small advertiser: More automated suspensions, including false positives on legitimate new accounts. Thin site content is the main risk factor.

Google upgraded Creator Partnerships with tools to find and manage YouTube creators, later adding AI matching in March and reach metrics in September.

For a small advertiser: Brings influencer style partnerships into Google Ads. Realistic only once you have budget beyond core Search.