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Google Ads newsletter – week 26

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New campaign diagnostics!

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Felix Mayo discovered this new campaign diagnostics for PMax!


Return Policy

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Arpan Banerjee discovered that Google Merchant seems to have updated its return policy’s product condition, where “slightly used” option is also given.


Auto-updates for shipping info in Merchant Center

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Google now auto-updates shipping time estimates using: → Linked partner accounts (order tracking) → Website data (scraped by Google)Opted out by default

U.S. only (intl. opt-in possible) Found under: Products > Automatic ImprovementsThanks for sharing Hana Kobzová!


New report

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🛰️ Yoann Ferrand discovered that Google appears to be reintroducing the “product status change” report within Google Merchant Center!


Compact UI Segment

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Saquib Syed discovered that Google is testing with this new compact UI for segments.


New signal

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Thomas Eccel, Just spotted something new in GA4 that might save your conversion tracking (literally):GA4 now gives you a Consent Signal Rating for each data stream.Yup, it rates how well you’ve implemented Consent Mode.

And here’s why this matters:Google Ads is planning to block conversion tracking if your consent setup isn’t compliant. So if you’re running ads in 2025, this is HUGE.

You can find your rating here:

Admin → Data collection and modification → Consent settingsNeed a solid CMP?

I use Cookiebot Web CMP by Usercentrics myself. Super easy to install and compliant.


Google Launches 1st Order Promotions for Shopping Ads

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Google has introduced 1st Order Promotions (New Customer Promotions) for Shopping ads, allowing merchants to automatically offer exclusive discounts to first-time buyers directly within their paid listings.

Why it matters:

– Helps brands stand out in competitive Shopping results.

– Boosts click-through and conversion rates by removing friction for new customers.

– Makes customer acquisition more cost-effective by offering visible, auto-applied promotions.

Key details:

– Discount options: % off or fixed dollar amount.

– No minimum spend allowed.

– Only for paid Shopping ads (not free listings).

– Campaigns must use the New Customer Acquisition Goal.

– Promotions require approval in Google Merchant Center.

– Currently U.S.-only, and limited to allowlisted merchants.

Check Google’s official setup guide for full implementation details.


New label test

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Nayan Prakash discovered that Google is testing with one big sponsored results label! No more sponsored labels for seperate ads in this example.


GA4 Update

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GA4 has introduced an update that’s bringing new colors and enhanced clarity to your data visualizations!


YouTube Studio Updates Analytics Advanced Mode

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Georgi Zayakov posted that YouTube is rolling out improvements to Analytics Advanced Mode in Studio, focusing on better usability and workflow efficiency.

Key changes include:

– New sidebar layout for easier access to breakdowns, metrics, and filters

– Multi-metric selection to select/deselect multiple metrics at onceImproved filtering by title, video duration, and publish date; option to hide charts

– Report saving so users can store and reopen custom report setups

– Enhanced top navigation with saved and built-in reports (e.g., “first 24 hours,” “audience retention”)

– Expanded comparison tools for metrics, content types (videos, playlists, groups), and time periods

– Reusable saved comparisons to streamline repeated analysis

This update is rolling out gradually and is designed to make data exploration faster and more


YouTube Bulk Uploader

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Tired of uploading videos to YouTube one by one?The new YouTube Bulk Uploader, an open-source tool built on Google Cloud lets you easily manage and upload large volumes of videos, ideal for video-driven ad campaigns.

For more information, read this article.


Political Ads

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Natasha Kaurra discovered that Google Ads has introduced a new required setting when creating campaigns: advertisers must now confirm whether their campaign involves EU political ads. This change aligns with evolving European regulations.


Cost data import GA4

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Additional data sources are now supported for cost data import in open beta. With this enhancement, you can import cost data from multiple sources, such as:

– Google Sheets

– Amazon Redshift

– Amazon S3

– BigQuery

– Google Cloud Storage

– HTTPS

– MySQL

– PostgreSQL

– Snowflake


New preview

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Zeeshan Ali spotted this new preview interface!


Captcha

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Anthony Higman spotted this CAPTCHA in his MCC. I don’t remember seeing this before. Is this meant to stop agents? Oh wait agents can solve CAPTCHAs.


New Video Analysis

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Aleksejus Podpruginas discovered this new Video Analysis Feature in Google Ads!


Google is rolling out a new way for publishers to monetize beyond traditional ads: Offerwall in Ad Manager.

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After testing with over 1,000 publishers, Offerwall is now live, giving users flexible access to content and publishers new ways to earn.

Here’s how it works:

Visitors can unlock content by choosing from options like watching a short ad, completing a survey, making a micro payment, or signing up for a newsletter.

Publishers can also customize their own access options.

An AI-powered feature called Optimize decides when to show the Offerwall to each visitor, maximizing both engagement and revenue.

It’s designed to support publishers of all sizes, but especially smaller ones that need lightweight, diversified monetization tools.


Imagen 4

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Google’s latest text-to-image model, Imagen 4, is now live available via the Gemini API (paid) and Google AI Studio (free tier for prototyping).

Why it matters:

• Much better at rendering text within images

• Higher image fidelity (up to 1024×1024)

• New Ultra version offers even greater control and precision

• Images are watermarked with SynthID for trust and attribution

Access is rolling out in 38 countries (18+).

Imagen 4 is part of Google’s broader Gemini stack and a direct competitor to DALL·E, Midjourney, and Adobe Firefly.


GTM Update

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Pause and delete buttons have been merged into the delete functionality, allowing customers to now rollback their Google tag gateway for advertisers setup with Cloudflare.


Healthcare and medicines policy

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In July 2025, the country-specifics of the Healthcare and medicines policy will be updated to allow telemedicine providers to promote prescription drug services in the United Kingdom and Singapore.


Error Ads Scripts

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Starting July 14, 2025, Google Ads scripts will throw errors for deprecated features related to:1. Ad Customizers

Affected: All AdCustomizer entities (e.g., AdsApp.AdCustomizerSource, newAdCustomizerSourceBuilder).

Impact: These will return sunset errors.Background: Made read-only in 2022, stopped serving in May 2024, and fully removed from the API in v19.2. Feed-based Legacy Ad ExtensionsAffected: withOnlyLegacy() methods used to access old feed-based ad extensions.Impact: These methods will throw sunset errors.

Update: withOnlyUpgraded() methods will only show a warning (asset-based extensions are now default and only option).

Action Required:Stop using all ad customizer and legacy ad extension script features before July 14, 2025.

Update scripts to rely solely on asset-based extensions and remove legacy-specific selectors.


Offline conversion import API

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Effective August 6, 2025, Google will phase out the debug_enabled field from Offline Conversion Imports in the Google Ads API.Key Changes:v21 (Upcoming)debug_enabled will be removed from UploadClickConversionsRequest.

The error ConversionUploadError.CLICK_NOT_FOUND will no longer be returned. v18, v19, v20 (Existing)debug_enabled field will remain, but won’t function.CLICK_NOT_FOUND errors will not be returned, even if debug_enabled is set to true.

What This Means:You can no longer use debug mode to identify mismatched click data.

Update your applications if they depend on debug_enabled or the CLICK_NOT_FOUND error.


iOS App advertisers:

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Important update from Google Ads.

Starting August 2025, enhanced on-device conversion measurement will be available for iOS App campaigns using the latest Firebase SDK (v11.14.0).

This brings improved optimization and reporting using event data like IP addresses, while maintaining user privacy.

No user-identifying info will leave the device.The update won’t apply in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland. To benefit, update your Firebase SDK and link it to your Google Ads account. Opt-out is possible via a form.

Thanks for sharing Arpan Banerjee


Google is rolling out an update to the Ad Preview tool in Google Ads

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The tool now provides a full preview of the Google search results page for a specific keyword, enabling advertisers to view which ads and assets are triggered.

Govind Singh Panwar & Barry Schwartz noted a new UI/UX change where the tool also previews missing assets and prompts users to add them before showing the ad.


Heads-up for Looker Studio users

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If you’re using comparison metrics together with the “Group others” option on charts, be aware that this combination can lead to incorrect data. To prevent this, comparison metric fields will now display “no data” when “Group others” is enabled.

Also released: updates to the Looker connector. You can now connect to a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance over private IP using:

  • Private services access
  • Private Service Connect

All you need is the Looker instance ID.

Small but important changes that improve data accuracy and secure connectivity.


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