Google Ads news

Animated images

Thomas Eccel discovered that Google now lets you animate product images or any other image with AI directly inside Merchant Center.

Creator Partnership section

Thomas Eccel discovered that two new Creator Partnerships sections:Creator Search: keyword search + filters (subs, views, location, contact options)Management Menu: manage creator inquiries in one clear overview

E-barometer Update – December Report Is Live

After the Black Week peak, momentum slowed exactly as expected. What’s more interesting is the year-over-year picture.

Gross profit grew +13.0% YoY, outperforming turnover. That’s a strong signal of improving underlying profitability.

This happened despite:

– Ad spend increasing +14.6% – ROAS coming under pressure as a result. In short: margins are holding up better than topline growth, even in a more competitive ad environment.

In the full December report, we break down:

– What’s driving the profit growth – How paid media efficiency is evolving – The key trends to watch heading into 2026. Read the full report here.

Guide me

Arpan Banerjee discovered that Google gives him now the “guide me” option for disapproved ads! When he clicks on it it opens the chatbox.

Call Ads

Arpan Banerjee just sent me the reminder: Google is phasing out call-only ads.• New call-only ads stop in Feb 2026• Existing call-only ads stop serving in Feb 2027

They’ll be replaced by Responsive Search Ads with call assets.

Advertisers should start migrating now to test performance, fix tracking, and adapt messaging for both calls and clicks.

Google Ads update: Prediction Markets (Jan 21, 2026)

Arpan Banerjee just sent me that Google will allow ads for Prediction Markets in the US starting January 21, 2026 but only for federally regulated entities.

Eligible advertisers must be:CFTC-authorized Designated Contract Markets (DCMs), orNFA-authorized brokerages offering access to eligible DCM products.

All advertisers must apply for Google certification and comply with all financial regulations and Google Ads policies.For most advertisers, nothing changes. For regulated platforms, this opens a narrow but official path to paid search visibility.

Merchant Center Change

Starting March 2026, Google Merchant Center will require retailers to use separate product IDs for online and in-store versions of the same product when they differ in price, availability, or other attributes.

Online product data will become the default, and any differing in-store version must be managed as a separate product in the feed. Google is already notifying affected advertisers.

The change improves data consistency across channels but increases feed management complexity, especially for retailers using Local Inventory Ads or managing large, multi-channel inventories.

Thanks for spotting Hana Kobzová

Google Tag Gateway

Google Tag Gateway is starting to roll out a beta Google Cloud Platform integration that allows deployment with essentially one click.

The setup uses an External Application Load Balancer to route tag traffic through a first-party (same-site, same-origin) host, improving resilience against tracking prevention and ad blockers like Apple ITP.

Until now, Cloudflare was the only automated option, with other CDNs requiring manual configuration.

This new Google Cloud Platform integration lowers friction for teams already on GCP, and it’s a notable step toward broader, easier adoption of Google Tag Gateway—assuming Google follows up with solid documentation as the beta expands.

Call Ads

Thomas Eccel discovered that Google Ads is now showing Call Assets directly inside Vehicle Ads!

GEMINI IS TAKING OVER THE AI INTERNET

The first Global AI Tracker of 2026 just dropped and the shift is massive.Gemini has exploded from 5.7% to 21.5% of global Gen AI website traffic in just 12 months.

It blew past the 20% mark and became the first real threat to ChatGPT’s dominance.

Meanwhile…ChatGPT just fell from 86.7% → 64.5% in one year.Still #1 — but no longer untouchable.The gap is closing fast.

Gmail

AI Overviews are now in Gmail😂

API update

Starting on February 2, 2026, the Google Ads API will no longer accept new adopters of session attributes or IP address data as part of conversion imports.

To ensure a more robust and scalable experience for handling complex data, we recommend that Google Ads API developers transition to the Data Manager API – where session attributes and IP address are accepted – as their primary conversion and user data import API.

A/B Test

Dario Zannoni discovered that Google is rolling out a new experiment type for Performance Max campaigns: A/B testing of assets!

Belarus

On January 22, 2026, Google Ads will update its Gambling and games policy for Belarus.

Google will begin accepting online gambling advertisements in Belarus from operators with appropriate licences from the relevant authorizing body in Belarus.

Update Personalized

Google has updated the Google Ads Personalized Advertising policy for improved organization, clarity and readability.

This update, published January 7, 2026, is administrative only and does not change the substance or the enforcement of the Personalized Advertising policy.

India

On January 21, 2026, Google Ads will update the India country specifics of its Gambling and games policy to ensure compliance with local legal requirements.This updated policy will disallow all Rummy and Daily Fantasy Sports promotions targeting India.

Missing Tag

Google Ads is now displaying a new warning when the Google Tag is not installed, found by Paul Cox.

🚨 BREAKING NEWS CHATGPT LAUNCHES ADS 🚨

OpenAI will start testing ads in the US in the coming weeks, only for:

– Free tier users

– ChatGPT Go usersPlus, Pro, Business and Enterprise stay fully ad-free.

How the ads will work:

– Ads will never change or influence ChatGPT’s answers

– Organic answers come first; ads appear separately at the bottom

– Ads will always be clearly labeled as sponsored

– You can dismiss ads and say why

– You can turn off ad personalization

– Your conversations are private and never sold to advertisers

Who won’t see ads:

– Users under 18

– Conversations about sensitive topics like health, mental health, or politics

What ads will look like at first:

– Simple sponsored product or service suggestions

– Only when relevant to your current conversation

– Placed after the main answer, not inside it

Why they’re doing it:

Ads help keep ChatGPT free and affordable, so more people can use advanced AI without paying or by paying much less.

The idea is to grow access without turning ChatGPT into an ad-driven product that sacrifices trust.

Principles from OpenAI:

Policy change

Google has extended the Canada Cannabis Pilot Program. Originally announced in August 2025, the pilot will now run until December 31, 2026.

The program allows limited, legally permitted cannabis-related ads on Search in Canada only. It’s restricted to federally licensed advertisers or authorized government operators and is meant to test user interest and guide future policy updates.

The change was confirmed on January 15, 2026.

New page – Enhanced Conversions for Leads checklist

Google has launched a new page with a practical checklist to help you implement Enhanced Conversions for Leads the right way, so Google Ads can better match clicks to real lead outcomes and improve Smart Bidding.

The page covers:

Google Ads setup: accept data terms, enable auto-tagging, create unique lead conversion actions, start them as secondary.

Website tagging: use Google tag or GTM on all lead pages, enable user-provided data, capture email/phone, send hashed data.

Data prep: normalise and hash PII with SHA-256, format phone numbers correctly.Imports: upload daily via Data Manager, CRM or API, include GCLID + PII, send all conversions.

Verification: test tags, check Diagnostics, confirm conversions show in reports.Optimisation: once stable, use the new conversions for Smart Bidding.Team: make sure dev support and clear ownership are in place.

Thanks for sharing Hana Kobzová.

Campaign budget

Campaign total budgets are now in open beta for Search, Performance Max, and Shopping campaigns. Instead of managing daily budgets, you can set a fixed total budget for a specific period, from a few days to a few weeks.

This helps you control spend more precisely for short tests or timed campaigns, ensuring you don’t overspend or underspend during the activation window.

New AI Format

Google is testing a new ad format in AI Mode results: Explore-style ads that promote guides and articles, not just direct product or offer ads.

The format was spotted by Glenn Gabe, who shared an example showing an ad for informational content appearing inside AI Mode responses.

This could become one of the few reliable ways for publishers to get traffic from AI Mode, since organic links in these results appear to get limited clicks

.Reported by Barry Schwartz, spotted by Glenn Gabe.

API Change

Google is transitioning everyone from the older Content API for Shopping to the new Merchant API, which will be the main way to programmatically manage your Merchant Center data

.The Merchant API is more modern and modular, letting you automate product uploads, inventory updates, promotions, and other Merchant Center tasks more efficiently.

There are firm migration deadlines: developers currently using the Merchant API beta must complete their transition by late February 2026, and all Content API users need to switch over by mid-August 2026.

After those dates, the old Content API will stop working.If your systems, apps, or custom scripts still rely on the Content API, you’ll want to update them to use the Merchant API to avoid disruptions to product feeds and Shopping campaign management.

Thanks for sharing Emmanuel Flossie.

For more information check his video

Marketing objective?

Md Alimul Islam discovered that Google is removing marketing objectives from the campaign setting in Search Ads (like PMax).

Data control

Google Ads is adding a new layer of privacy control called Data Transmission Control, which lets advertisers fine-tune what data is sent when user consent is limited.

It works on top of Advanced Consent Mode and allows separate control over advertising data, behavioral analytics, and diagnostic data.

For example, when ad consent is denied, advertisers can choose to send limited ad data with identifiers removed (still allowing conversion modeling) or block ad data completely.

The setting lives in Data Manager under Google Tag settings and only works if Consent Mode is already active. Once consent is granted, normal data flow resumes.

First spotted and shared by Thomas Eccel.

YouTube upgrade tool

YouTube has upgraded its Promotions tool to support interest-based targeting, letting creators reach viewers based on what they care about—not just age, gender, or location.Interests are built from aggregated, anonymized signals like search behavior and viewing habits.

This makes paid promotions more precise and more comparable to traditional Google Ads targeting.The feature is currently desktop-only, with mobile expected later.First spotted and shared by Georgi Zayakov.

New LSA Test

Google is testing a new LSA change that shows different “trust” qualifiers on profiles, like “Passed license check,” “Number of recent bookings,” “Passed background check,” and “Has business insurance.”The problem is that everyone in LSA already passed all these requirements.

Google is just rotating which badges show on which profiles to test what users respond to. That means visibility and performance can change based on random test variants, not actual differences between advertisers.

This kind of large-scale testing directly impacts advertiser results, turning everyone into test subjects. It’s especially frustrating when the tested elements don’t reflect real differentiation, since all advertisers had to meet the same standards just to be eligible.

Found by Anthony Higman

New LSA Test

LSA has new updates: Google seems to have dropped the test that limited users from seeing the full 20-pack. The “Less Personal Injury Lawyers” button (which pushed people into only the 2-pack or 8-pack) appears to be gone, meaning users can again view the full list of profiles. Great news for visibility.

Found by Anthony Higman

LSA Banner

Google just Updated The Banner In LSA Accounts. Found by Anthony Higman.

Google Ads has made Manual CPC easier to find during campaign setup

The option now appears directly under the “Conversions” goal as “Manually set bids,” instead of being hidden behind the “not recommended” flow.

This makes it quicker for advertisers who prefer Manual CPC to choose it without extra steps.

Observed by Hana Kobzová.

Shop Update

Google has updated Shopping Promotions with new features and policy changes that make discounts more flexible especially for subscription businesses.

The biggest change is support for subscription-based promotions. Merchants can now run deals like money off, percentage discounts, or free trials specifically for subscription products, helping attract new customers and boost sign-ups.

Google also now allows common promo abbreviations like BOGO, B1G1, MSRP, and MRP in promotion titles, making offers clearer and more recognizable to shoppers.

In some markets, promotions can now be tied to specific payment methods, opening the door to cashback or wallet-based deals.

Overall, the update makes Shopping promotions more powerful, more flexible, and better suited for subscription and deal-driven businesses.

This update was found by Emmanuel Flossie for his video check this link.

Account-level placement exclusions

Google Ads now allows account-level placement exclusions, so advertisers can block unwanted websites and apps across all campaigns at once.

Instead of setting exclusions per ad group or campaign, one list can now apply to Performance Max, Demand Gen, YouTube, and Display campaigns, making brand-safety and quality control much easier.

Observed by Aleksejus Podpruginas & Hana Kobzová.

Conversion Summary

Google Ads has added a conversion summary to the Ads Advisor panel under performance graphs. Advertisers now see a quick recap like total conversions and top campaigns—before the AI-suggested questions.

This builds on the December 2025 update that added inline AI prompts, and continues Google’s shift toward AI-assisted analysis inside the main campaign view.

Observed by Hana Kobzová.

A/B Test shopping titles!

Duane Brown discovered that product title experiments are live for some advertisers!

Apple and Google just announced a major multi-year partnership

Google’s Gemini will become the foundation for Apple’s next-gen AI models and cloud stack.

Apple says Gemini offers “the most capable foundation” for its Apple Foundation Models and it will unlock new intelligent experiences across Apple products.

What does this mean?• Gemini will help power Apple Intelligence

• Siri will become far more personalized

• Smarter, more context-aware iPhones coming this year

Two tech giants are teaming up to shape the future of AI on your phone.iPhones are about to get a lot smarter.

Business Agent live

Google has launched Business Agent, an AI-powered virtual associate that lives directly on a brand’s Google Search Business Profile. Built on Gemini models, it can answer detailed customer questions in the brand’s own tone, using data from the website and Merchant Center going far beyond basic store info.

The full “Business Agent” experience, including customization and advanced features, is currently only available to US businesses.

More basic conversational features expanded in 2025 to Canada, Australia, and India, but the advanced version is US-only for now.

Merchants can set it up in Google Merchant Center under the Marketing section by customizing the welcome message, conversation starters, appearance, and support handoff, then activating the agent.

For brands, the value is clear: 24/7 support during buying moments, deeper answers than standard product feeds, and upcoming features like performance insights and agentic checkout for in-chat purchases.

To qualify, a business must be US-based, have a verified Merchant Center account, at least 50 approved offers, and a claimed brand profile.

Thanks for sharing Aleksejus Podpruginas

Update

Google updated the terms for Call and Messaging Ads, and they’re much stricter now:Google will record basically everything that happens through these ads: phone calls, texts, chats, and other communications.

If you accept these terms, you not Google are responsible for telling everyone involved:-

Your employees, contractors, and vendors- Your clients- And making sure your clients tell their own staff. You must get express consent, not just implied consent.

Google and its partners can monitor and use these recordings, including for things like training systems (very likely AI-related).If there’s a legal problem, the liability is on the advertiser, not Google even though Google is doing the recording.

By accepting, you also confirm you are not subject to HIPAA.

These terms are not HIPAA-compliant. If you deal with medical data, you should not accept and should contact Google instead.

In short: more recording, more responsibility on advertisers, more risk, and not safe for HIPAA-regulated businesses.

Thanks for sharing Anthony Higman!

Create account

New option found by Anthony Higman: “Create An Account With Campaign For Faster Set Up” In Account Creation In An MCC.

15 videos

Google is testing a bigger video asset limit in Performance Max, allowing up to 15 videos per asset group instead of the usual 5.

That means advertisers could include more creative variations and cover multiple video ratios in one place, reducing the need for duplicate asset groups or fragmented setups while improving coverage across placements.

This change reflects Google’s growing emphasis on video-rich PMax creative sets and gives advertisers more flexibility in how they layer video into their automated campaigns.

This change was found by Molly Pritchard and Hana Kobzová!

LSA Change

Google Local Ads are prioritizing clickable assets over traditional text with examples showing units featuring up to 9 distinct links (call, website, directions, sitelinks) and much less emphasis on headlines/descriptions.

This signals a shift toward multi-link engagement and interaction-driven formats in local search ads, where users can act immediately rather than read copy.

With more clickable options front and center, local advertisers should rethink how they structure and optimize asset sets to drive action.

Thanks for sharing Anthony Higman

Live sports bidding

Google just made premium live sports inventory including the Olympics available as biddable Connected TV.Instead of only buying via upfront deals, advertisers can now access live sports through Display & Video 360 as programmatic CTV.

That means:

• Buying Olympic and live sports inventory like any other biddable media

• Using Google audience data on big-screen TV

• Managing frequency across TV, YouTube and other devices

• Measuring impact beyond impressions, down to real outcomesLive sports = massive attention.

Now it also comes with performance-style control.

Retail just entered a new phase

On January 11, 2026, Google announced a major shift toward “agentic commerce,” a world where AI doesn’t just help people shop, but increasingly shops on their behalf.

This isn’t a concept anymore. It’s being rolled out.

Here’s what changed:

First, a new open standard for agentic commerce The Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) creates one shared language for AI agents, platforms and payment systems from discovery to checkout to support.

It’s backed by names like Shopify, Walmart, Target, Etsy, Wayfair, Stripe, Visa and more.

Second, checkout inside AI Shoppers can now buy from eligible retailers directly inside Google’s AI Mode and the Gemini app using saved Wallet data.

Fewer steps. Less friction. Fewer abandoned carts.

Third, branded AI sales agents Retailers can launch a “Business Agent” in Search a branded AI that answers product questions and helps close sales in real time.

Fourth, product data built for conversation Merchant Center is adding new attributes focused on how people and AI actually ask questions:

– Common product questions

– Compatible accessories

– Substitutes and alternatives

Fifth, deals at the moment of decision Google Ads is testing “Direct Offers” exclusive discounts that appear inside AI Mode when someone is ready to buy.

What this means: Shopping is no longer just human-driven. AI is becoming an active buyer.

Retailers now have two audiences: People. And the agents acting for them. Discovery, persuasion, and checkout are moving into AI interfaces. If your data isn’t readable by machines, you won’t be chosen by them.

This is what the next era of retail looks like.

🚨BIG UPDATE IN PMAX🚨

DATA EXCLUSIONS!With this feature, you can exclude any of your Website Visitor Lists OR Customer Match Lists!This will seemingly exclude all remarketing lists (it’s not just an audience signal).

Spotted by Callie Kessler

Demand Gen January Updates

January Demand Gen updates – key takeaways

Demand Gen is rolling out several features into general availability that were previously previewed, expanding its role as a full-funnel discovery and conversion channel.

Shoppable CTV is now powered by Demand Gen

Advertisers can enable interactive shopping experiences on YouTube TV screens, allowing viewers to browse and purchase products directly from their TV. Campaigns that include TV inventory drive on average 7% more conversions at the same ROI, reinforcing CTV as a performance contributor, not just a reach play.

Attributed Branded Searches for Demand Gen

Advertisers can now see how many branded searches on Google and YouTube are driven by Demand Gen campaigns. This helps quantify upper-funnel impact that previously sat in a blind spot. Activation currently requires contacting a Google representative.

Travel Feeds for faster booking journeys

Travel advertisers can connect their Hotel Center feed to Demand Gen to automatically generate dynamic video ads with live pricing, ratings, and availability. This shortens the path from inspiration to booking, especially in discovery-led formats like YouTube.

Proven performance versus paid social

Case studies (e.g. LG Electronics) show Demand Gen delivering 24% higher conversion rates than paid social, while reaching high-value users at 91% lower CPA, positioning it as a strong alternative or complement to social discovery campaigns.

Bottom line

Demand Gen continues to evolve from a reach-heavy product into a measurable, performance-driven channel especially with stronger CTV monetization, better branding attribution, and more vertical-specific feed integrations.

Campaign experiments

Google Ads: Campaign Mix Experiments (Beta)Spotted by Dario Zannoni, and this one looks very promising.

Campaign Mix Experiments let you test different campaign combinations, even across multiple campaign types.

For example: • Search + PMax • Search + Demand Gen

• Search + PMax + Demand Gen

Finally, a way to answer these questions with controlled, statistically valid tests, instead of gut feeling.

If the flexibility holds up, this could become a very powerful tool inside Google Ads.

ChatGPT Fee

Later this month, Shopify is opening up its commerce software to ChatGPT. OpenAI will charge a 4% fee on sales made through ChatGPT. Will this inflate prices?

Ads Bug

Some Google Ads advertisers are seeing a bug that causes the option to add notes to disappear from the account change popup, making it harder to document optimizations and performance shifts.

Expanded Text Guidelines

Google Ads has expanded its Text Guidelines feature to support all supported languages as of January 23, 2026.

Previously limited to English and a small group of other languages (including Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch), the feature is now available globally across all languages supported in Google Ads, according to Google’s official help documentation.

Source: Hana Kobzová & Christian Schwarz

Moment of Conversion

CrackPPC – Digital Marketing Agency – Google Shopping & Merchant Specialists discovered that we can now view “by moment of conversion” metrics directly!

Gambling policy

From 23 March 2026, Google Ads is tightening its Gambling & Games certification rules.

Advertisers must now show strong policy compliance (“good policy health”) across all gambling and gaming categories to qualify for certification.

Repeated violations or certificate revocations will make both MCCs and managed accounts ineligible, and existing certifications can be revoked.

Certification will not be granted if:

– The site is hosted on a free platform- It uses a subdomain of a third-party platform

– The advertiser doesn’t own and operate the second-level domain

– The site has no real association with gambling

This is a mandatory service announcement from Google Ads, sent by Google Ads Team (Google Ireland Ltd).Bottom line: Google is raising the bar hard. One-off compliance isn’t enough anymore your entire account history and domain ownership now matter for gambling eligibility.

UCP

Google has launched Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) in Merchant Center, enabling AI agents to complete purchases on behalf of users.

Setup isn’t documented in standard Merchant Center guides and currently lives in Content API developer logs. Activation requires supplemental feeds or custom attributes (feed rules not supported).

Merchants keep full control of customer data and don’t need custom AI integrations.

The update was shared by Emmanuel Flossie , who also published a paid setup walkthrough.

DV360 Update

Campaign and Insertion Order targeting will be fully removed from the Display & Video 360 API and Structured Data Files (SDFs) on February 23, 2026, aligning with the earlier removal in the DV360 UI.

From that date:API calls that retrieve or manage targeting directly at the Campaign or Insertion Order level will return 404 errors.

The advertisers.lineItems.The generateDefault API method will also return a 404 error.All targeting columns in Campaign and Insertion Order SDFs will be empty on download and must remain empty on upload, uploads with populated targeting fields will fail.

In short: targeting must now be handled at the Line Item level only, and any workflows, automations, or SDF processes relying on Campaign or IO targeting need to be updated before February 23, 2026.

Gambling Update

Google Ads has updated its Gambling and Games policy for Ethiopia, disallowing all online gambling advertising targeting the country.

Fake Invites

More new fake invites, please check them… spotted by Jonathan Cottrell

New pop-up

Arpan Banerjee saw that PMAX asset group now reminds to add Message and Call assets!

Google Bug

Heads-up: there’s currently a Google Ads Performance Max bug affecting asset groups.If you’re seeing an error when trying to edit and save existing asset groups, you’re not alone. This has been happening for several days now and changes won’t save in the Google Ads UI.

Google has confirmed they’re aware of the issue and are investigating. In the meantime, the only reliable workaround I’ve found is to make the edits in Google Ads Editor and upload the changes from there.If you’re managing PMAX accounts, this one’s worth flagging internally to avoid wasted time in the UI.

Thanks for sharing Chelsea Harding

2025 Q4 Results Google

In Q4 2025, spending on Google Search ads increased about 13% year-over-year, up from roughly 10% growth in the previous quarter.

Search ad clicks reached their highest level in around five years, showing strong advertiser engagement and demand.

Average cost-per-clicks (CPCs stayed mostly flat or even slightly declined, making the click growth more cost-efficient for advertisers.

AI-driven search experiences and query growth expanded overall search volume, including commercially relevant queries earlier in customer journeys.

Shopping ads also saw healthy performance, with spend and clicks rising, and CPC pressure remaining mild.

Broader advertising formats like Performance Max and video placements (e.g., YouTube) contributed to overall ad ecosystem growth.

Competitive shifts such as reduced participation from some major retailers in Google Shopping auctions helped ease CPC inflation and reshaped auction dynamics.

The bottom line: Google’s search advertising market showed robust growth in both clicks and spend in Q4 2025, with relatively stable CPCs and evolving demand patterns driven by AI and shopper behavior.

Subscribe and Save

Hana Kobzová discovered that “Subscribe and Save” is now Live in Google Merchant Center!

🚨 NEW GA4 Update 🚨

Google has just introduced some significant upgrades in GA4, particularly if you’re concerned about budget planning, attribution, and cross-channel performance.

Here’s what matters:

Cross-channel budgeting (Beta)You can now plan and forecast performance across paid channels in one place.

With projection plans, you see if your spend, conversions, and revenue are on track.

With scenario plans, you can test different budget levels and see how ROI changes.

This finally lets you answer questions like:

– Is my spending pace correct?

– How many conversions will this budget realistically drive?

– Where should I shift the budget to maximize ROI?Improved conversion management for Google Ads users (Beta)

You can now set attribution models per conversion, not just globally.

This means:

– Better alignment between GA and Google Ads numbers

– Fewer reporting discrepancies

– More control over how each conversion influences bidding

They also added stronger cross-channel reporting with new dimension filters for deeper analysis.

New conversion attribution analysis report (Beta)A new report in the Advertising workspace shows the real role of each channel across the journey.

Two key views: Assisted conversions (Last Click)

See which channels helped earlier but didn’t get the final click perfect for proving the value of upper-funnel like YouTube or Demand Gen.

Refined funnel analysis (Data-driven)Touchpoints are grouped into Early, Mid, and Late stages.

Single-touch journeys are separated from multi-touch paths, so you can see:

– Which campaigns close complex journeys

– Which ones work as standalone drivers

From today, you might have major data issues with Shopify

If your store is on Shopify and you use pretty much any ad platform tracking, your data could start getting restricted as of 1/20.

Shopify rolled out an update that automatically decides which Customer Events Pixels are allowed to receive data and which ones aren’t.

That means some of your tracking can quietly stop or get filtered without you noticing.

To avoid data issues:Go to Shopify Settings → Customer Events

Find your Pixels. Set them to “Always On” to keep unfiltered data sharing active

Do this now if you care about clean attribution, stable optimization, and not flying blind in your ad accounts.

Picture credit: Antanas Krimelis

New Partner program

Google has rolled out a refreshed Google Partners Rewards website with a cleaner design and improved navigation, making it easier for partners to understand rewards and track progress. The update is rolling out gradually, so not everyone will see it yet.

Spotted by Anthony Higman & Hana Kobzová.

Logo change

Google has moved the logo settings in Google Merchant Center Next from the Business Info area to a new location under Marketing > Brand > Logo, so merchants upload and edit their logos in a more streamlined place. Only Admin/Super Admin users can access the new location. Found by Emmanuel Flossie.

New podcast

Google has launched a new podcast called Ads Decoded, hosted by Ginny Marvin, to give advertisers behind-the-scenes insights into how Google Ads works, with practical explanations of platform behavior, product decisions, AI features, and tips for managing campaigns. Season 1 has now officially debuted, and episodes are available on major podcast platforms.

New experiment center

Google has launched a new Experiment Center in Google Ads a centralized dashboard that brings Experiments and Lift Studies together so advertisers can test campaign strategies (like bidding, targeting, and creatives) and measure impact more easily before scaling changes.

The unified hub streamlines setup and reporting, making experimentation more efficient.

Found by Hana Kobzová

Sunset

Google is sunsetting the Campaign Manager 360 API v4 on February 26, 2026.

Thanks for sharing Arpan Banerjee

Merchant Center for agencies

Merchant Center for Agencies is now in pilot, and agencies can express interest in participating by submitting the signup form.

New consent check

Google added new insights to Conversion Diagnostics, showing whether Consent Mode is correctly implemented and when conversion modeling actually starts. Advertisers can now see the real uplift from consent-based modeling, sometimes 50%+.

That uplift doesn’t mean campaigns suddenly improved it reveals conversions that were previously invisible. As a result, historical CPA, ROAS, and CVR benchmarks from pre-Consent Mode periods are structurally unreliable and should be recalibrated.

Thanks for sharing Thomas Eccel

Data Manager

Thomas Eccel discovered that data manager can now suggest connections!

CPM ChatGPT

$60 per 1,000 impressions. That’s the number. That’s what OpenAI is reportedly planning to charge for ads inside ChatGPT.

One click preview

Hana Kobzová & Bia Camargo discovered that Google now has one click previews for Pmax.

Use past details

Google Ads support now added a section to “Use Past Details” while filling the Email form to save time and avoid mistakes.Thanks for sending Arpan Banerjee.

Third-Party endorsement

Barry Schwartz discovered that Google is testing placing third-party endorsement content on Search ads! Source: Sarah Blocksidge

V23

Google has released v23 of the Google Ads API, the first 2026 release, and introduced a faster release cadence.Key takeaways for advertisers and platforms:

Performance Max gets network-level breakdowns, finally enabling real surface-level diagnostics and optimisation workflows.Billing and finance become more usable via campaign-level invoice data (including regulatory fees and adjustments).

Campaigns can now be scheduled with exact start and end date-times, enabling true intraday launches via the API.

Demand Gen forecasts are now surface-specific, improving media planning accuracy across placements.

New AI-driven audience tooling allows free-text audience ideas to be converted into structured audience definitions.

Bottom line: v23 meaningfully improves transparency and automation readiness, especially for Performance Max, Demand Gen and large-scale internal tooling.

YouTube

YouTube has started rolling out a new ad experience where interactive ad overlays (such as CTA banners) partially cover or sit over the “Skip Ad” button on video ads.

This can make it harder for viewers to tap Skip as quickly or as easily as before.

Thanks for sharing Anthony Higman

Google Tag Gateway

Google Tag Gateway now supports an integration with Akamai, allowing advertisers and sites using Akamai’s edge delivery services to handle tag traffic more efficiently and securely.

The integration means tags can be fired at the edge (closer to users), which can reduce page latency, improve performance, and help with privacy-centric deployments.

This expands Gateway’s compatibility with enterprise-grade infrastructures and gives teams using Akamai more flexibility in how they manage and serve marketing and measurement tags.

Merchant Center

Google has published a new Merchant Center guide specifically for agencies, aimed at helping teams manage feeds, troubleshoot issues, and optimize Shopping setups at scale.

The guide pulls together best practices on account structure, product data quality, diagnostics and common errors with agency workflows and multi-client complexity in mind. It’s a practical resource to standardise how agencies onboard clients, fix feed problems and use Merchant Center tools more efficiently.

New page

Google has moved the Google Ads advertiser verification page to a new location in the Google Ads interface — now under Admin → Policy → Account instead of its previous spot.

The page is also renamed as part of a broader “Account” hub that centralizes verification, business info, certifications, and compliance tasks.

Thanks for sharing Barry Schwartz & Aditya shrivastava.

Expanding Shopping Ads

Google appears to be expanding Shopping Ads into the Image tab within Google Search.Shopping Ads are now being shown natively inside the Images tab on mobile, clearly marked as “Sponsored”.

This means product ads are no longer limited to the traditional Shopping or Search results.Thanks for sharing Thomas Eccel.

Not pre-selecting

Emil Emanuel Ankjær Nordahl discovered that Google is not pre-selecting Performance Max anymore, when setting up a shopping campaign.

Picsart

Create, export, advertise in one flow.

Picsart has launched a direct integration with Google Ads.That means you can now go from finished creative to live ad assets without downloads, re-uploads or switching tools.

Next-Gen SDK

Google announced the Google Mobile Ads Next-Gen SDK for Android: a ground-up rewrite of the Google Mobile Ads SDK focused on faster load times, higher runtime stability and a cleaner developer integration model for in-app advertising on Android.

The SDK is currently available as an Open Beta and is planned to reach general availability in July 2026, according to Google. It supports both Google AdMob and Google Ad Manager.

Contact Form

Google Ads is retiring its traditional support contact form and replacing it with an AI-powered chatbot as the default first line of support for advertisers.

Instead of submitting a form and waiting for a human consultant, users are now routed to an AI assistant that tries to resolve issues, propose solutions, and surface relevant help documentation before escalating to a person if needed.

This marks a broader shift toward automation in Google Ads support workflows.

Thanks for sharing Marcin Wsół & Hana Kobzová.

Product view

Google Ads has rolled out a new product-level reporting view that finally shows how a single product performs across all campaigns in one place.

When you click a product in the Products tab, you now get a per-campaign breakdown for that exact item, including its individual metrics in every campaign where it runs.

Why this matters in practice:You can instantly spot which campaigns are actually driving value for the same product (and which are just spending).

This makes it much easier to clean up the overlap between Standard Shopping, PMax and other Shopping setups.

It also enables real product-level budget and structure decisions, instead of optimising only at campaign or asset-group level.

This finally makes cross-campaign product optimisation possible without exporting and stitching reports yourself.

Thanks for sharing Justin Jonkman

New page

Google Ads has quietly published new help pages that describe upcoming bulk-edit workflows for callout assets and structured snippet assets.

There’s no formal product announcement yet, but the documentation clearly points to bulk actions such as:

– find & replace across assets

– adding text at scale- changing case (capitalisation)

– editing multiple callouts and snippets in one go

For accounts with dozens (or hundreds) of callouts and structured snippets, this removes one of the most painful and time-consuming hygiene tasks in Google Ads.

Thanks for sharing Hana Kobzová

New Page

New: Google has published a new help page about the Google Ads Experiment Center a single hub for Experiments and Lift Studies.

Spotted by Hana Kobzová via PPC News Feed

Short takeaway: Google is clearly pushing advertisers to combine optimisation testing (Experiments) with real incrementality measurement (Lift studies) instead of treating them as separate workflows.

Looker Studio

Google has added true cross-source filtering in Looker Studio without requiring data blending first.

You can now apply one filter (for example country or campaign name) across multiple sources such as Google Ads, GA4 and Google Sheets by defining a shared ID via ID override.

Why this matters in practice:You no longer need fragile blends just to make basic cross-source filters work.

Dashboards become faster, cleaner and far easier to maintain, especially for multi-source PPC reporting setups.This is particularly useful for agency and enterprise reports where Ads + Analytics + external data live side by side.

How it works (short):You define a common field ID viaResource → Manage field names and IDs (ID override), and Looker Studio uses that shared ID to filter across sources.

Props to Vojtěch Audy & Hana Kobzová for sharing the update.

Video asset section

Google has started automatically filling the Video assets section in Google Merchant Center Next, which previously appeared empty in many accounts despite launching in September 2025.

Videos are now being pulled in from external sources, primarily connected YouTube channels, confirming Google’s plan announced at Google Marketing Live 2025 to create a centralized video asset hub inside Merchant Center.

This signals Merchant Center’s evolution from a feed management tool into a unified creative library powering Shopping, Performance Max, and future AI-driven shopping experiences.

Advertiser takeaway: YouTube and website videos may now automatically become usable ad creatives, making video governance and channel strategy increasingly important.

Source: Hana Kobzová

Demand Gen Drops

Google’s latest Demand Gen insights show advertisers applying key best practices see 40%+ more conversions on average.

Here are practical tips you can apply today 👇

1. Let AI find your next customers Use optimized targeting, Lookalikes, and New Customer Acquisition goals instead of overly restricting audiences.

2. Use performance-focused bidding. Switch to tCPA or tROAS and plan budgets with Performance Planner to give campaigns room to learn and scale.

3. Strengthen your creatives. Aim for Excellent Ad Strength. Provide multiple images, videos, headlines, and descriptions so Google AI can optimize combinations.

4. Fix your data foundation. Implement sitewide tagging and connect offline conversions to improve signal quality and campaign optimization.

Apply for certification

Google Ads will begin rolling out a new feature in February 2026, allowing advertisers to apply for select policy certifications directly within their UI.

YOUR CONVERSION TRACKING STOPS?

Recently, Thomas Eccel highlighted that Google Ads has resumed auditing Cookie Banners and Consent Settings again.

If your consent setup isn’t compliant, your conversion tracking, remarketing audiences, and campaign optimization can suddenly stop working even if nothing else changed in your account.

What’s happening?

Google is actively checking whether websites properly collect and pass user consent signals.

No valid consent = limited tracking = broken performance data.✅ Easy fix: Make sure you’re using an official Google-certified CMP (Consent Management Platform).

A reliable option is Cookiebot Web CMP by Usercentrics, which integrates directly with Google Consent Mode and helps ensure compliance.

✔️ Certified by Google

✔️ Proper consent signaling

✔️ Restored conversion tracking

Don’t wait until your campaigns lose data audit your cookie banner and consent setup today.

Bug

There’s currently a UI bug in Google Tag Manager (GTM) Preview Mode affecting Consent Mode visibility.

When Consent Mode is implemented through GTM templates using GTM’s Consent Mode APIs (setDefaultConsentState, updateConsentState), the Preview Mode fails to display consent interactions or populate the Consent tab correctly.

👉 Important: Consent Mode itself still works properly only the Preview/Tag Assistant interface is glitching, making verification difficult.

The issue has been reported to Google. Direct gtag(‘consent’…) implementations still appear normally in Preview Mode.

Thanks for sharing Simo Ahava & Jim van der Zalm!

Creator

Google Ads’ Creator Partnerships section is now live with searchable creator profiles, effectively becoming a free influencer marketing platform.

Advertisers can find and contact creators, link approved YouTube videos to ads, run Partnership ads in Performance Max and Demand Gen, and track organic + paid performance in one dashboard.

The update was spotted by Adam Treboutat & Hana Kobzová.

Google launches Nano Banana 2

Pro-quality images at Flash speed

Google DeepMind has introduced Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) combining production-level image quality with ultra-fast generation.

Key upgrades:

– Real-time web grounding for more accurate visuals and infographics

– Cleaner text rendering + localization inside images

– Better handling of complex prompts

– Consistent characters and objects across workflows

– Production-ready outputs up to 4K

ChatGPT ad activity is accelerating

New monitoring from Adthena shows a clear ramp-up in advertiser participation inside ChatGPT responses.

Brands spotted so far:Best Buy, AT&T, Pottery Barn, Enterprise, Qualcomm, Expedia.

From 1,500+ prompts analyzed:Most ads trigger on the first prompt

High-intent words like “best” and “new” drive placements

Some ads appear after repeated queries

One example: Best Buy secured two placements in a single iPhone-related response early signs of share-of-voice testing.

Text Guidelines

Google is expanding Text Guidelines to all advertisers globally across AI Max for Search and Performance Max.

Advertisers can now set clear rules to control messaging, excluding specific terms or avoiding certain phrases (e.g., “don’t imply our products are cheap” or “avoid language like ‘only for’”).

The goal: keep creatives aligned with brand standards while matching user intent.

Circle

See the whole picture with Circle to Search

Google just upgraded Circle to Search and now you can search multiple objects in one image at the same time.

Spotted a full outfit you love?Redesigning a room?Curating a mood board?

On Samsung Galaxy S26 and Pixel 10 devices, you can now tap, scribble, or circle everything on your screen and Circle to Search will identify each item, surface visual matches, and help you explore or shop instantly.

– Deconstruct an entire look

– Identify multiple species in one photo

– Even “Try On” outfits virtually (where available)

Powered by Gemini 3’s advanced reasoning, the experience now runs multiple searches simultaneously delivering richer, more complete results.

Search isn’t just about one object anymore. It’s about understanding the whole scene.

If you’re running Demand Gen campaigns with tiny budgets…

There’s an important update coming.

Starting April 1, 2026, Google Ads will enforce a minimum daily budget of $5 (or local equivalent) for all Demand Gen campaigns via the API.

Why?

Because ultra-low budgets struggle in the “cold start” phase, and the system can’t learn or optimise properly.

Here’s what changes 👇

What’s new

Any Demand Gen campaign created or updated with a daily budget below $5 will trigger an error in the Google Ads API.v21+ → You’ll get a BUDGET_BELOW_DAILY_MINIMUM errorv20 → It shows as UNKNOWN, but the internal error will read CampaignBudgetError.BUDGET_BELOW_DAILY_MINIMUM

This applies when you modify:

– Daily budgets

– Flighted (custom) budgets

Start or end dates that affect daily spendWhat about existing campaigns?They’ll continue running even if they’re below $5/day.But the moment you edit the budget or duration, the new rule kicks in.

You’ll need to raise the budget to at least the minimum threshold.

Passkeys

Google Ads Strengthens Account Security With Passkeys.

Google Ads now supports passkeys a passwordless, phishing-resistant login method designed to improve account security.

Passkeys are required for sensitive actions like:• User access changes• Account linking updates

Supported on:Windows 10, macOS Ventura, ChromeOS 109, Android 9+, and iOS 16+(Apple users must enable iCloud Keychain; Bluetooth is required when signing in via phone on another device.)

Setup is simple start from the Google Ads login page and follow the verification steps.

Thanks for sharing Hana Kobzová

Google Ads Adds Direct Support Contact in Help Hub

Google has refreshed the Help Center homepage and advertisers can now see the contact details of their assigned support representative directly in the Help Hub.

✔️ Direct email access

✔️ Option to schedule a call

✔️ Faster, more personalized support

No more searching for the right contact point. A small UX update, but a meaningful shift toward streamlined advertiser support.Worth checking your Help Center to see the new experience.

Thanks for sharing Hana Kobzová.

Google Ads API Developer Assistant v2.0 is here

This major update transforms the Assistant from a code generator into a proactive troubleshooting and automation partner.

Key highlights:

• One-command setup & updates

• Dedicated conversion troubleshooting suite

• Full support for Google Ads API v23• Session hooks for automatic config & cleanup

• Smarter GAQL validation

v2.0 is all about reducing trial-and-error and speeding up API development. If you build with the Google Ads API, this upgrade is worth it.

App update

Google now attributes app campaign conversions to the app install date instead of the original ad interaction.

This change reduces discrepancies with MMP reporting and gives Google’s machine learning faster, more stable signals, leading to improved data accuracy and quicker campaign optimization.The update was spotted by David Vargas & Hana Kobzová!

Reddit update

Reddit is now testing AI shopping carousels in search results.

Budget Pacing

Jordan Fry posted that Google just announced an important change to budget pacing when using ad scheduling in Google Ads and it’s easy to misunderstand what this actually means.

Short version:Ad scheduling still works. Your ads will NOT run outside the hours or days you set.

What is changing is how Google tries to spend your budget.

Until now, ad schedules have indirectly limited monthly spend. If you ran ads only during office hours or weekdays, Google often underdelivered because fewer serving hours existed.

Starting March 2026, Google will proactively try to spend up to your full monthly budget (30.4 × daily budget) regardless of your ad schedule.

So what happens in practice?If your ads only run when your sales team is available for example Monday to Friday, 9–5 Google will now concentrate spend more aggressively during those allowed hours to reach the monthly target.

– No weekend ads.

– No schedule overrides.

– No higher billing limits.

But potentially:

• higher auction participation during open hours

• faster daily pacing• more aggressive bidding

• increased CPC pressure in tightly scheduled campaigns

This mainly affects:

– call-driven businesses

– B2B advertisers

– lead gen accounts using office-hour schedules

The key takeaway: your daily budget is no longer spread across the calendar month, it’s effectively compressed into the hours your ads are eligible to run.

First look: Ads are now appearing inside ChatGPT

Adthena & Ashley Fletcher has identified the first sponsored placements showing for signed-in desktop users in the US, and the rollout already challenges many industry assumptions.

Early predictions suggested ads would only appear after a longer conversational journey. Instead, these ads are triggering immediately in the very first response.

Example:A user asks, “What’s the best way to book a weekend away?”→ Sponsored placements appear instantly within the answer.

A few notable observations so far:

• Ads show directly in the initial response, not after multiple prompts

• Clear “Sponsored” labeling is present

• Brand favicons are prominently displayed

• The UI differs slightly from OpenAI’s earlier conceptual mockups

This is an important signal for search marketers.We may be witnessing the transition from keyword search → conversational discovery → AI monetization.

If ads continue appearing at the start of AI conversations, the implications for Google Ads, SEO, affiliate traffic, and discovery journeys could be massive.

Meridian

Google has introduced a new Scenario Planner interface for Meridian, making its open-source Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) solution significantly more accessible for marketers.

The update removes the need for technical or coding expertise by providing a user-friendly UI where advertisers can test different budget allocation scenarios directly within the platform. Marketers can now simulate investment changes across channels and immediately see projected performance outcomes.

The Scenario Planner delivers real-time ROI estimates supported by clear visualizations, helping teams understand not just what happened historically, but what future budget decisions are likely to drive the best results.

Another key improvement is collaboration. Marketing teams can work together inside the same environment, enabling shared planning, faster decision-making, and more aligned forecasting.

In practice, this lowers the barrier to adopting MMM: marketers can move from retrospective analysis toward forward-looking planning without needing data science expertise.

Text Guidelines

Thomas Eccel discovered that Text Guidelines is now rolling out to more accounts!

Projection Plans

Ivan Cicconi discovered that Google has just rolled out the Projection Plans (Beta) within the Cross-channel budgeting section!

Pmax Ads shown

Thomas Eccel is Finally seeing where Performance Max is showing !

Landing page images

Thomas Eccel discovered that Google ads added examples of how “landing page images” will be used for pmax campaigns.

Perplexity Ads

Perplexity just ditched ads, and that decision says a lot about where AI search is heading. Perplexity AI has officially stopped running ads on its platform.

The reason? User trust.According to statements shared with the Financial Times, the company believes that even clearly labeled sponsored content can make users question whether AI-generated answers are truly objective.

And in AI search, trust is the product. While companies like OpenAI and Google are actively exploring how to integrate ads into AI experiences, Perplexity is going in the opposite direction. Instead of monetizing through advertising, it’s doubling down on subscriptions and paid tiers.

Interestingly, Anthropic has taken a similar stance prioritizing credibility over ad revenue.As someone working in paid media, I find this fascinating.

Search has always been built on ads. But some AI search might not be.If users start associating AI answers with commercial bias, the long-term value of the platform erodes. Perplexity seems to be betting that protecting trust now is worth more than short-term ad revenue.

Demand Gen change

Google started to send email about: Update to Demand Gen Lookalike segments! Thanks for sharing Arpan Banerjee.

Low activity system bulk changes

Google Ads may be automatically re-enabling previously paused keywords through its “Low activity system bulk changes” tool.

Several advertisers have reported seeing activity log entries showing paused keywords being enabled via automated bulk updates something that historically only paused inactive elements rather than reactivating them.

This matters because unexpected keyword activation can impact budgets, pacing, and overall campaign performance particularly in tightly managed accounts where paused keywords are deliberate. Agencies and in-house teams are concerned that automation may be overriding manual controls.

Advertisers are advised to closely monitor change history logs, watch for unexpected activations, and quickly use the undo function if needed.

The issue was first flagged on LinkedIn by Francesco Cifardi.

Results tab

Google Ads has launched a new Results tab in Recommendations, showing the actual performance impact after applying bid or budget changes.

It compares results one week post-change against an estimated “no-change” scenario, using a 7-day rolling average over 28 days and focusing on the primary bidding metric (clicks, conversions, or conversion value).

Available for Budget and Target recommendations across Search, Shopping, Performance Max, and Demand Gen campaigns.Thanks for sharing Hana Kobzová.

Demand Gen Change

Starting March 2026, Lookalike audiences in Demand Gen will no longer act as strict targeting constraints.

Instead of targeting only users within the selected similarity threshold (narrow, balanced, broad), Google will use Lookalike as a signal. The system can expand beyond the defined audience if it predicts better conversion performance or lower CPA.

This is similar to Optimized Targeting, but it does not replace it. When combined, expansion can go even further.

Advertisers who want to keep legacy Lookalike as a hard constraint will need to request it via a form.Another step toward AI-led targeting similar to Meta’s direction in recent years.

Thanks for sharing Dario Zannoni.

Recommends customer behavior

Arpan Banerjee discovered that Google now recommends Customers’ behavior to improve measurement (beta) in conversion action.

600 dollar for conversion tracking?

Natasha Kaurra discovered that Google is now giving 600 dollars for some customers if they activate conversion tracking!

ChatGPT has started testing ads inside ChatGPT

ChatGPT will show sponsored results for logged-in users on the Free and Go tiers in the US.

But:

• ads are clearly separated from answers

• ads do not influence the generated responses

• advertisers never see conversations, memory or personal data

• targeting is based on the topic of the conversation and past interactions only in aggregated form

• sensitive areas (health, mental health, politics) are excluded

• users can fully control, hide and delete ad data

From a performance marketing perspective, this is a very different surface than search or social.

The intent signal is not a keyword. It’s a live problem someone is trying to solve.

That makes this potentially one of the highest-intent environments we’ve seen so far if (and only if) relevance and trust are protected.

What’s also important for advertisers: This is clearly not a “paid answers” model.

It’s a parallel, labeled commercial layer next to organic assistance.

Strategically, this feels closer to:

→ discovery + consideration support than to classic demand capture.

If OpenAI gets the guardrails right, this could become a new category in the media mix:

– conversational intent media.

Very early days but one to watch closely if you work in PPC and growth.

AI Performance dashboard

Microsoft has introduced a new AI Performance report inside Bing Webmaster Tools.

This is the first official dashboard from a search platform that shows how your content is surfaced inside AI-powered answers, including Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and selected partner experiences.

In the new report you can see:Total citationsThe total number of times your pages are cited as sources in AI-generated answers.

Average cited pages

The average number of unique URLs from your site that appear as sources per day.

Grounding queries

The queries and phrases the AI system used when retrieving and grounding your content.

Page-level citation activity

Citation counts per URL, so you can identify which specific pages are being referenced most often in AI answers.

What’s not included (yet):

No intent or sentiment classification

No visibility into the generated answers themselves

No competitive or cross-domain benchmarking, only your own site.

Experiments

Hana Kobzová discovered that Google Ads is now showing recommended experiments in the Experiments page, based on your account setup and performance data.

Product Eligibility

Hana Kobzová discovered that Product Eligibility Per Campaign is now Live in Products Sections!

Google just announced 7 real updates that will reshape how ads and commerce work in 2026

Short version ↓

Based on Google’s new roadmap, AI Mode gets its own native Shopping ad format.

Ads appear inside the AI shopping conversation, next to AI product recommendations.

AI Mode ads expand beyond retail (starting with travel)Same conversational ad format, now for services and complex decisions.

Direct Offers in AI Mode Brands can show tailored offers only when users are ready to buy → including bundles and loyalty benefits (not just discounts).

Native checkout inside AI experiences

Users can complete purchases directly in AI Mode and the Gemini app.

Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)

New infrastructure that connects merchants to AI agents for product access, identity and payments.Automated creator–brand matching on YouTube

Google will match brands to creator communities using AI.

Gemini 3 becomes the engine behind AdsGemini 3 now powers creative, AI Max and Performance Max.

ROAS

According to Andrew Lolk you can now suggest a new-customer conversion value based on your chosen target ROAS, instead of requiring a manually set value.

He sees this as an improvement, but still believes the better way to prioritize new customers is by using a lower ROAS target for new-customer bidding, rather than relying on static value adjustments.

Big Pmax Update

Matteo Braghetta discovered that Google is rolling out controlled A/B testing for creatives directly inside Performance Max!

New Banner

New banner about call-only ads being deprecated! Thanks for sharing Arpan Banerjee.

Merchant Center Change

Google Merchant Center is now surfacing recommendations specifically aimed at improving your product description field in the feed.

The idea is to push advertisers to use richer, more descriptive and query-aligned product text so Google can better understand, match, and rank products across Shopping and Performance Max placements.

For advertisers, this means feed optimisation is becoming more content-driven: weak or generic descriptions are now a measurable quality gap and should be treated as a performance lever, not just a compliance field.

Found by Petter Norlén.

Alphabet reaches 400 billion revenue (GOOGLE IS DEAD 🤣 )

Alphabet delivered a very strong Q4 and closed 2025 with several structurally important signals for the ads and AI ecosystem.

Annual revenue passed $400B for the first time, with FY revenue up 15% YoY and Q4 revenue up 18% YoY. Operating income also continued to scale, reaching $129.0B for FY 2025 (+15% YoY) while keeping operating margins broadly stable around 32%.

From a growth engine perspective:

Search still grows at scale (+17% YoY), confirming that core query-based monetisation is not being displaced yet.

YouTube generated more than $60B from ads and subscriptions in 2025, reinforcing its position as a full-funnel media channel, not just a branding platform.

Google Cloud is now the fastest-growing major segment: Q4 revenue grew +48% YoY to a $70B+ annualised run-rate, and more importantly operating margin jumped to 30.1%, up from 17.5% a year ago.

On the AI side, scale is already massive:The Gemini app has 750M+ monthly active users and Google processes 10B+ tokens per minute across its first-party models, including direct API usage.

The strategic signal for marketers and platforms is also in the investment numbers:Capex nearly doubled YoY in Q4 (+95%), reaching $27.9B, clearly pointing to sustained infrastructure and AI model investment rather than short-term cost optimisation.

Short version: Google is simultaneously scaling its core ads business, rapidly improving cloud profitability, and massively increasing AI infrastructure spend without sacrificing operating discipline.

Malicious Google Ads

More Malicious Google Ads are targeting Mac users by posing as legitimate tools (for example “Mac cleaner”) and then redirecting them to fake Apple-style support pages hosted on trusted Google domains.

These pages instruct users to run hidden Terminal commands, which can compromise the system. The campaigns appear to use hijacked, previously legitimate advertiser accounts, making the ads look trustworthy at first glance.

Thanks for sharing Hana Kobzová

Multi approval

Google Ads now has a “Multi-Party Approval” security feature: sensitive admin changes (like adding/removing users or changing roles) will require a second administrator’s approval before they go through.

If another admin doesn’t approve or deny the request within ~20 days, the change is blocked. This helps prevent account hijacking by making it harder for a single compromised admin to lock others out or grant themselves access.

Thanks for sharing Hana Kobzová.

Pmax update

Emil Emanuel Ankjær Nordahl discovered that Mixed campaign type experiments are now available in an early beta.

You can test different campaign types against each other (for example Search vs. Performance Max, Demand Gen vs. video, or feed-only PMax vs. Standard Shopping).

The main limitation is that both campaigns must already exist, so you can’t yet test small setting changes within a single campaign.

For now, the workaround is to duplicate a campaign and experiment with different structures or bidding. Despite the limits, this is one of the most promising experiment updates so far.

New diagnostics

Georgi Zayakov discovered that Google Ads has quietly added a new data source diagnostics view in Data Manager that shows clear connection health statuses and actionable error messages, so you can spot broken or degrading data connections before they affect reporting or bidding.

This is especially useful if you rely on offline conversions, CRM imports or complex tagging setups, for example integrations with Salesforce.

It’s a small update, but a meaningful step towards more reliable measurement in Google Ads.

Ads GPT

Early signs that ads are coming to ChatGPT: Glenn Gabe & Barry Schwartz have spotted references to “ads shown to the user” in the source code of ChatGPT responses, even though live ads aren’t widely visible yet.

This reinforces OpenAI’s recently announced plan to begin testing ads in the free and lower-cost Go tier, with ads clearly separated from answers and not influencing model outputs!

LSA Problem

Google Local Service Ads can be very expensive, sometimes costing hundreds of dollars per call or click. Normally, Google refunds advertisers for mistaken or invalid leads.

However, marketing expert Anthony Higman reported a case where Google charged his client $400 for a call from an existing customer who clicked the LSA ad.

Even after confirming the caller was not a new lead, Google refused to refund the charge despite multiple escalations.

OpenAI is exploring the next step in monetizing ChatGPT

According to reports, OpenAI has held early talks with The Trade Desk about helping sell ads on the ChatGPT platform.

The discussions suggest OpenAI may initially rely on established ad-tech partners to scale advertising across ChatGPT’s free and lower-priced tiers.

At the same time, the company reportedly plans to develop its own advertising technology in the long term.

OpenAI hits pause on in-chat shopping

OpenAI is reportedly moving e-commerce checkout out of ChatGPT and into external apps instead.

The feature launched last year allowed users to buy directly from merchants like Etsy and Shopify without leaving the chat.

Now the plan is to shift “Instant Checkout” to the Apps ecosystem, likely to reduce complexity around:

– real-time pricing & inventory updates

– fraud prevention

– merchant integrations

The move suggests AI-native shopping is still early, and scaling it safely is harder than expected.

Target only audiences

Anthony Higman discovered this unusual recommendation to target only audiences!

Customer match

Thanks to Arpan Banerjee for sharing this update with me! Google Ads has announced upcoming changes to Customer Match uploads in the Google Ads API.

Starting April 1, 2026, developers will need to use the Data Manager API instead of the Google Ads API for uploading Customer Match data.

Good reminder for teams working with Customer Match integrations to review their implementation and plan the transition early to avoid disruptions.Appreciate you flagging this, Arpan!

BIG META UPDATE

Meta is updating its ad measurement to better reflect how people interact with ads on social media and to align reporting with third-party analytics tools.

Main changes:

Click-through attribution will now count only link clicks for website and in-store conversions, improving consistency with tools like Google Analytics.

Conversions from actions like likes, shares, and saves will move to a new category called engage-through attribution (formerly engaged-view attribution).

For video ads, an engaged view is now defined as 5 seconds instead of 10 seconds, reflecting faster user behavior.

Meta is also partnering with analytics platforms like Northbeam and Triple Whale to include both views and clicks in attribution models.

Overall: These changes aim to make ad performance reporting clearer while still capturing the value of social interactions.

UCP

Google just published new guidance on its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and how it enables AI-driven, on-Google checkout.

Key takeaway for merchants: UCP can power a native “Buy” button on Google surfaces, while you remain the seller of record.

To participate, you’ll need the native_commerce attribute in Merchant Center.Payments use stored Google Wallet credentials, and your payment processor must support Google Pay tokens. Why it matters: less checkout friction in experiences like Gemini and AI Mode, and a clearer operational playbook for implementation.

Thanks for sharing Hana Kobzová

Google is testing a new label in Search: “Sponsored options in the area.”

The new sponsored section is appearing in certain local queries and highlights nearby businesses under a clearly marked sponsored header.

In one example, law firms were shown with an image carousel directly within the sponsored block.The update was first spotted by Anthony Higman and later shared by Barry Schwartz.

Why it matters: This further blends paid placements into the local discovery experience, potentially increasing visibility for advertisers targeting high-intent, location-based searches.

VRC

VRC Non-Skip ads are now globally available in Google Ads unlocking AI-optimized, non-skippable reach on YouTube CTV screens.

Google is rolling out VRC (Video Reach Campaign) Non-Skips, expanding how brands connect with audiences watching YouTube on connected TVs.

What’s happening

VRC Non-Skips are now live globally in Google Ads and Display & Video 360. The format is purpose-built for the living room experience, ensuring ads run as non-skippable placements optimized specifically for CTV screens.

Why this matters

YouTube has been the No. 1 streaming platform in the U.S. for three consecutive years. The TV screen is now prime real estate for brand budgets. With guaranteed, non-skippable delivery, advertisers can ensure their full message is seen in premium, lean-back environments.

AI in the mix

Google AI dynamically optimizes across:

• 6-second bumper ads

• 15-second standard spots

• 30-second CTV-only non-skippable formats

Instead of manually splitting budgets by format, brands can rely on AI to allocate impressions for maximum reach and efficiency.

Advertising just entered the AI conversation

Criteo is now the first ad tech partner integrating with OpenAI’s advertising pilot in ChatGPT (Free and Go, U.S.).This is a structural shift.

For years, digital advertising has lived in search results, social feeds, and display inventory. Now it’s moving into conversational interfaces where users are asking high-intent, decision-driven questions.

Data from 500 U.S. retailers shows that traffic referred from LLM platforms converts at 1.5x the rate of other referral channels.

That matters.When discovery happens inside AI, the funnel compresses. Consideration becomes contextual. Intent becomes explicit. And performance marketing enters a new surface.

Criteo managing over $4B in annual media spend integrating into this pilot signals something bigger:

– Commerce media is expanding into conversational AI

– Retail and brand demand generation is evolving

– LLM platforms are becoming performance channels.

Build to order

Google has added a “build to order” availability option in GMC giving vehicle sellers a clearer way to list customizable, factory-order models.

Large AI Max recommendation

Hana Kobzová discovered that A large recommendation card promoting AI Max is now appearing in the Recommendations tab in Google Ads.

AI Voice

Arpan Banerjee received this email about Performance Max getting AI Voice narration!

GML 2026

Google Marketing Live 2026 set for May 20!

200 Off

Thomas Eccel discovered that Google Ads can now show a”𝟐𝟎𝟎$ 𝐎𝐅𝐅” 𝐛𝐚𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬.

Brand logo’s

Hester Geerdink just sent me this post from Chris Nightingale that Google is rolling out brand logo’s in shopping!

Merchant Center for agencies

Google has launched the new Merchant Center for Agencies in the U.S. and Canada!

Big news for Shopify merchants!

Shopify just announced that ChatGPT will soon power agentic storefronts, allowing shoppers to discover products and complete purchases directly inside ChatGPT.

This new sales channel is expected to roll out by default, with merchants able to manage settings from their Shopify Admin.

What this means

New AI-driven discovery channelFrictionless in-chat purchasingPotential boost in reach & conversions

Redesign

Google Ads has now introduced a redesigned Asset Optimization section for Demand Gen campaigns, with a more structured interface. Thanks for sharing Thomas Eccel

Subscription

Starting March 31, 2026, Google will allow certified U.S. online pharmacies to advertise prescription drugs via recurring billing, including subscriptions, bundled treatment plans, and consultation services.

To participate, merchants must maintain certification, clearly disclose fees, submit full subscription pricing in feeds, link to subscription terms, and follow existing healthcare and recurring billing policies.

Previously disapproved accounts can request a new review once compliant.

Wine

Starting March 31, 2026, the physical goods subscriptions policy will be updated to formally include alcohol (for example, Wine Clubs) for eligible merchants in the United States.

More rich media

You might start seeing a notification saying “More rich media available for your Google Ads.”This means Google-owned assets will now be available directly in the platform, including:

• Photos

• Videos

• Icons

• 3D assets

• Text elements.

Instead of sourcing and uploading everything yourself, advertisers will be able to build creatives directly inside Google Ads.

It is another step towards a future where AI, creative production, and campaign setup all happen in one place.Faster testing. More variations. Less friction between idea and launch.

Thanks for sharing Bia Camargo

Linking YouTube

Google now wants to automatically link with YouTube!

Shop

Arpan Banerjee just spitted this net Ads section called sponsored shops!

OpenAI

OpenAI is reportedly testing an Ads Manager with a small group of partners as its ChatGPT advertising pilot begins to take shape.

Early results show that some brands are seeing click-through rates below 1% significantly lower than what advertisers are used to on Google Search.

But this comparison may be premature. Google has spent more than 25 years refining its ad ecosystem, while OpenAI is still in the early stages of building and testing its approach.

What’s clear is that AI platforms are moving from pure product innovation toward monetization experiments. For marketers, this signals a new channel worth watching even if performance benchmarks will take time to mature.

Capture

Arpan Banerjee just sent me that Google support now let’s you capture a screenshot!

Editor 2.12

Google Ads Editor version 2.12 is rolling out with several updates aimed at improving flexibility, creative testing, and campaign management.

Key changes include an increased video limit in Performance Max asset groups (up to 15 videos) and support for 9:16 vertical images.

Demand Gen campaigns receive multiple upgrades such as optimization for new customer acquisition, brand guideline controls for AI-generated assets, hotel feed integration, a guided campaign setup flow, and a new minimum daily budget requirement of $5.

The update also introduces support for newer non-skippable video campaign formats and bid guidance for video brand campaigns.

Advertisers can now set a fixed total budget for Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns for periods between 3 and 90 days.

Additional improvements include account-level tracking templates and final URL suffixes, expanded reporting for Final URL expansion assets, clearer filtering by campaign status (Pending, Ended, Draft), and a bulk workflow to find and replace broken URLs.

Ads using video

Google Ads just introduced a new update for Performance Max reporting.

Advertisers can now use a new segment called “Ads using video” inside the Performance Max Channel performance report.

This allows you to break down results based on whether video assets were actually used in ad delivery.

This adds an extra layer of insight when analyzing channel performance and creative impact. It becomes easier to understand how video contributes to results across placements and optimize asset strategies accordingly.

The update builds on the earlier “Ads using product data” segmentation that was launched in July 2025.This feature was first spotted by Hana Kobzová.

Budget Bug

Google Ads advertisers may be encountering a new UI bug affecting campaign budget visibility.When applying certain campaign filters in the interface, active campaigns can incorrectly show a daily budget of 0.00 in the campaign table.

Once the filter is removed, the correct budget values reappear.

This indicates the issue is likely a display bug related to filtered views rather than an actual change to campaign budgets or delivery.

Advertisers should double-check budgets after using filters to avoid confusion when reviewing account performance.

The bug was first spotted by Hana Kobzová.

Political

From March 2026, Google is tightening rules on political content in Shopping ads.

In some countries (e.g., US, UK, Australia, Mexico), advertisers can run political-related Shopping ads only after completing election ads verification, and ads will show disclosures.

In others (including Canada, Japan, India, South Korea, Brazil, and all EU countries), political Shopping ads will be completely banned.Advertisers should review campaigns, verify accounts if needed, and update ads before March 2026 to avoid disruptions.

New overlay

YouTube is testing a new ad behavior where, after a viewer skips a video ad, a related banner (overlay card) remains visible on the video until the user manually closes it.

This means advertisers can keep their brand message on screen even after the main ad is skipped, potentially improving brand awareness and engagement metrics.

At the same time, it may affect user experience, since ads don’t fully disappear after skipping.The test was spotted by PPC expert Anthony Higman & Hana Kobzová

Vehicle Listing Ads Update – April 2026

Starting mid-April 2026, Merchant Center account issues will highlight data quality issues related to Vehicle ads.

Google will review both your submitted vehicle data and your website content.

Vehicles may be disapproved if details like availability, condition, price, mileage, VIN, brand, or model don’t match between your data feed and landing page.

To keep listings approved, regularly monitor and resolve warnings in the Merchant Center account issues section.Thanks for sharing Arpan Banerjee

Sticky Gmail Ads

Google is now testing a Sticky Gmail Ads on Mobile! Spotted by Thomas Eccel

Bug?

Arpan Banerjee discovered that Google is showing a Google page for shopping ads instead of leading users direct to the website.

Out-of-stock

Google updated its Merchant Center policy for out-of-stock products. Online stores must now show the Buy/Add-to-Cart button in a disabled (grayed-out, non-clickable) state hiding or removing it is no longer allowed.

Merchants also need to display correct availability (in stock, out of stock, back order, etc.) and ensure their data feed matches the landing page. Non-compliance can affect Google Shopping ad performance.

Thanks for sharing Emmanuel Flossie

For more information check his video.

UCP Update

Google and industry partners announced new updates to the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) an open standard designed to make AI-powered online shopping more seamless and connected.

Key updates

Cart capability: AI agents can now add or save multiple items from a single retailer into a shopping cart, making the experience closer to how people normally shop.

Catalog capability: Agents can access real-time product details such as variants, pricing, and inventory directly from retailer catalogs.

Identity linking: Shoppers can receive loyalty benefits (like member pricing or free shipping) across UCP-enabled platforms when logged in, improving continuity across websites.

Custom adoption: Retailers can choose which UCP features to implement.

Google’s plans

Google will expand UCP features across its AI shopping experiences, including AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app.

A simplified onboarding process in Google Merchant Center will help more retailers adopt UCP.Platforms like Commerce Inc, Salesforce, and Stripe plan to implement UCP soon, aiming to scale “agentic commerce” and improve online shopping for both businesses and consumers.

Checkout ChatGPT

Walmart says purchases made directly inside ChatGPT converted 3× worse than those completed on its own website.After testing ~200,000 products via Instant Checkout, the retailer found in-chat buying delivered only one-third the conversion rate of traditional click-through shopping.

Walmart called the experience “unsatisfying” and is now shifting toward its own integrated checkout flow. Source.

Create

Arpan Banerjee just discovered that the campaign creation dashboard comes up with this “Tell us about your new campaign (optional)”.

Shopping

Interesting find by Juozas Kaziukėnas on ChatGPT quietly testing a dedicated “Shopping” homepage.

It packages existing user behavior (asking for product recommendations) into guided prompt templates like gift discovery, budgeted shopping, and category browsing.

Not groundbreaking UX but a smart step toward structured AI-native product discovery.

Feels likely this evolves into features like price tracking, deals, and more agentic shopping workflows. Discovery first, transactions later.

Google’s latest Demand Gen update is all about one thing: better creative at scale

Here’s what’s new and why it matters:First, AI-powered creative production.

With Veo in Google Ads, you can now turn static images into high-quality video variations. This makes it much easier to scale assets and improve Ad Strength without heavy production costs.

Second, creator-led performance.

YouTube Creator Partnerships are now directly integrated into Google Ads, making it easier to find and collaborate with creators.

The impact is clear: campaigns using creator content are seeing around a 30% lift in conversions on YouTube Shorts.Third, the shift toward owned audiences.

Google is pushing advertisers to build their own YouTube presence, not just run ads.With new optimization for follow-on views, Demand Gen campaigns can now help grow your channel and increase long-term engagement.

The bigger picture: Demand Gen is evolving beyond just media buying.

It’s becoming a mix of AI-generated creative, creator content, and owned audience growth. In other words, performance is no longer just about targeting.

It’s about creative ecosystems.

Pmax Google

Google is doubling down on control and transparency in Performance Max.

For a long time, the biggest criticism of Performance Max was simple: strong automation, but limited visibility and control.That’s starting to change.

Here are the key updates coming in 2026:First, better audience steering.

You can now exclude first-party audiences. In practice, this means you can focus your budget on acquiring new customers instead of re-engaging existing ones a long-awaited capability.

Second, clearer budget insights.A new budget reporting feature helps you project end-of-month spend and understand how daily budget changes impact performance.Third, deeper audience reporting.

You’ll get more granular insights into who you’re reaching, including breakdowns by age and gender. And finally, improved placement transparency.

Placement reporting can now be segmented by network, giving you better visibility into where your ads are actually showing and more control over brand safety.

The bigger shift here is important.

Performance Max is moving from a “black box” toward a system you can actually steer and understand.

ChatGPT Revenue

ChatGPT just crossed $100 million in annualized ad revenue only six weeks after launching its ad pilot.

What’s more interesting is how early this still is.

Less than 20% of eligible users are currently seeing ads, while roughly 85% of Free and Go users could eventually be reached. That means the current revenue is only a fraction of the platform’s full potential.

There are already 600+ advertisers on board, but the real inflection point is coming next: self-serve access, to launch in April.

This will open the door to a much broader market, not just managed pilot participants.

A few other signals stand out:Ad relevance is relatively strong, with fewer than 7% rated as low quality

International expansion is on the roadmap

Advertising is becoming a meaningful part of OpenAI’s broader revenue strategy

VEO

VEO is live in Ads!

Google Ads Asset group theming

Bia Camargo shared a new Google Ads Performance Max feature: Asset Group Theming.

Advertisers can now clone a high-performing asset group and instantly apply seasonal themes (like Easter, Back to School, or sales events).

Google then generates themed image variations and suggests updated headlines, while keeping the original assets unchanged for safe testing.

This helps marketers launch seasonal campaigns faster, scale winning creatives, and test without rebuilding from scratch.

However, it’s not a finished solution creatives still need human review and refinement.

Big updates coming to Google Ads promotional offers

Starting in April, promotional offers will no longer be automatically applied. Instead, partners will have the flexibility to hand-pick the most valuable offers for each eligible new client.

This shift means more strategic control, better alignment with client goals, and stronger campaign performance.

With expanded promotional options available, businesses can:

✅ Attract new customers more effectively

✅ Accelerate campaign growth

✅ Maximize ad credit value

Thanks for sharing Arpan Banerjee

Loyalty update

Big news for retailers: Expanded loyalty program features are here!Building stronger customer relationships just got easier.

With the latest updates, businesses can now integrate loyalty benefits directly into product listings helping reward existing members while attracting new shoppers.

What’s new:

• Showcase exclusive member pricing and special member shipping benefits right on your listings

• Promote loyalty perks across local inventory ads and regional Shopping ads

• Reach shoppers on AI-first shopping experiences like AI Mode and Gemini

• Loyalty features are now available in 14 countries, including the Netherlands, UK, US, Germany, and more

Why it matters:

Personalized offers for loyalty members can significantly boost engagement with some retailers, seeing up to 20% higher click-through rates.

Getting started: Activate the loyalty add-on in Merchant Center, set up your program tiers and benefits, and use Customer Match lists in Google Ads to unlock personalized experiences.

Big update for Display & Video 360 developers

Google has announced new Discord support channels inside the Google Advertising and Measurement Community server for Display & Video 360 API, Structured Data Files, and Bid Manager API.

This gives developers a direct space to ask questions, share feedback, and stay updated on product changes.

Alongside this, the Display & Video 360 API documentation has received a major refresh.

The new structure includes clearer task-based guides, conceptual learning resources, and improved navigation to help users quickly find supported features and versions.

Developers can also send feedback directly from the documentation pages or connect with the team through the new Discord channels.

Commerce media

Google unveils new commerce media capabilities to help brands reach shoppers everywhere

Google has announced major updates to its Commerce Media Suite, aiming to solve one of the biggest challenges brands face today: reaching consumers across a fragmented and fast-moving shopping journey.

A key highlight is a new collaboration with Kroger Precision Marketing, allowing advertisers to activate retail purchase-based audiences on YouTube and third-party inventory through Display & Video 360.

In addition, Google is introducing SKU-level conversion reporting, enabling brands to directly measure how specific media campaigns drive product sales.

The company is also expanding its commerce ecosystem with new audience partnerships, including Best Buy Ads, Costco, Shipt and Western Union.

Looking ahead, Google plans to bring commerce audience integrations from major Asian marketplaces such as Shopee and Swiggy into Google Ads.

With deeper retailer insights, AI-powered targeting and immersive formats like YouTube and CTV, Google aims to help brands unify brand and shopper marketing while unlocking new revenue opportunities for retailers.

Passkey update

Thomas Eccel shared that Google just introduced Passkey support inside Google Ads accounts and it’s a big upgrade from the standard password setup.

Big shift in how commerce is starting to happen online

From this week, hundreds of millions of ChatGPT users can discover and shop products from Shopify merchants directly inside AI conversations.

With the Shopify Catalog making billions of products searchable in chat and checkout happening through an in-app browser shopping is becoming more conversational, contextual, and immediate.

What stands out is that merchants still keep full control over their brand experience: product pages, checkout customizations, payment methods like Shop Pay, and complex flows like cross-border sales, subscriptions, pre-orders, bundles, and multi-item carts all continue to work.

Commerce is no longer limited to websites or apps. It’s increasingly happening wherever decisions are being made, including inside AI chats.

Big update for Shopping advertisers in Europe

Google is expanding CSS Partner advertising to 15 new countries later this year.Launching first (Back-to-School ready):Cyprus, Luxembourg, Moldova, North Macedonia, Malta, Liechtenstein

Second wave (Holiday season ready):Bulgaria, Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Estonia, LatviaThis expansion creates strong new opportunities to scale Shopping campaigns across Europe, especially in emerging markets.

If international growth is on your roadmap, now is the time to start preparing your feeds, bidding strategy and CSS setup.

Credit to Wouter Veenboer for sharing this update!

Apple Ads

Apple is bringing ads to Apple Maps this summer!

AI Agent

Google announced a new AI agent called Google Ads Advisor at Google NewFront 2026, focused mainly on saving time rather than introducing completely new capabilities.

Two standout features are: Help fixing disapproved ads: The AI can guide advertisers on how to resolve ad disapprovals, potentially reducing long support waits and manual troubleshooting.

Prompt-based custom charts: Users will be able to generate reports and charts simply through prompts, avoiding the usual complex reporting workflows (with hoped-for data download options).

Other updates from the announcement include:Confidential Publisher Match to connect first-party data with streaming publishers

Expanded CTV reach to 96% of ad-supported households

New formats like Pause Ads, YouTube Creator Takeovers, and a live sports bidding suite

Overall, the updates focus on automation, efficiency, and expanded reach across streaming and video advertising.

AI Matching

Hana Kobzová discovered that Google has Expand Creator Partnerships With AI Matching!

Apply recommendations automatically

Bob Meijer discovered that Google Ads experiments now have an auto-apply setting!

Shopscore

Ruben Runneboom discovered that Shopscore is now visible