Google Ads News
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.
Political Ads
Google Ads has introduced a new pop-up asking advertisers to confirm whether their account runs EU political ads.
The prompt appears when opening the account and must be answered (or canceled). The selected status applies to all relevant campaigns, though individual campaign settings can still be adjusted later.
Advertisers can also set this status manually in Admin → Policy → Account. The update was first spotted by Hana Kobzová.
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
Policy change
Update for Advertisers – Google Ads Policy Change (March 17, 2026)Google has officially discontinued the previous requirements related to Form ads, Image quality, Responsive ads, and Text ads.
This change reflects the evolution of these ad formats into newer Google advertising products.
Going forward, advertisers should refer to the latest Google Ads policies and updated ad format requirements to ensure their campaigns remain compliant and optimized.
Thanks for sharing Arpan Banerjee
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.
Policy change
Google is removing several legacy ad format policies in Google Ads as the platform shifts toward more automated, AI-driven campaigns.
As of March 17, requirements tied to older formats including form ads, image quality rules, responsive ads, and text ads are being discontinued.
Google says these frameworks are no longer relevant as legacy formats have evolved into newer campaign types and ad experiences.
Why it matters: This move simplifies the policy landscape for advertisers, reducing confusion around outdated requirements and reinforcing Google’s push toward unified standards for modern, automated ad formats.
Advertisers should now focus on current Google Ads policies that govern newer campaign types and AI-driven ad solutions.
Create
Arpan Banerjee just discovered that the campaign creation dashboard comes up with this “Tell us about your new campaign (optional)”.
MCC Select change
Two weeks ago I noticed that Google changed the switcher for MCC’s really annoying.
Arpan Banerjee discovered that you can now receive updates via WhatsApp!
Merchant Center
Over the past week, Emmanuel Flossie noticed a growing number of merchants experiencing “Product page unavailable” errors in Google Merchant Center.
This can significantly impact product approvals, visibility, and overall campaign performance.
To help, he has put together a short video explaining the possible causes and the practical steps you can take to resolve the issue quickly.
Vodcast
Google has launched Ads DevCast, a bi-weekly vodcast and podcast for developers and technical professionals working with advertising and measurement tools.
Hosted by Cory Liseno, it covers deep technical updates and insights on platforms like Google Ads, Google Analytics, Display & Video 360, and Meridian.
The first episode explores the rise of AI agents in advertising, highlighting new open-source MCP servers for natural-language API queries, generative AI workflows using tools like Gemini, and a Gemini-powered Google Ads API Developer Assistant that speeds up coding and debugging.
The series aims to broaden the “Ads Technical Community,” enabling marketing power users to work with real-time data while engineers focus on strategic innovation.
New Check
Google Ads will introduce a uniqueness check for Lookalike user lists in the Google Ads API starting April 30, 2026, mainly affecting Demand Gen campaigns. Lists will be considered duplicates if they match the same seed audiences, expansion level, and country targeting.
After enforcement, API v24+ will return a DUPLICATE_LOOKALIKE error, while earlier versions will return RESOURCE_ALREADY_EXISTS. Advertisers and developers should reuse existing audiences and update error-handling logic. Most users are expected to see little impact.
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.
Week 12 finished
