Google Ads News
Looker Studio update
Regionalization in Conversational Analytics for Data Studio. Conversational Analytics in Data Studio now supports multi-region BigQuery data agents.
Prediction Policy
Google is updating its U.S. Prediction markets policy in June 2026. From June 2, 2026, ads for prediction market contracts and related products are prohibited in Ohio.
LSA Update
Google is updating its Local Services Ads policies on July 6, 2026.The policies will be renamed “Local Services Ads requirements.”
The update mainly refreshes wording, improves readability, removes outdated rules, and aligns the requirements with the newer Google Guarantee badge system.
Google Tag Gateway
Google tag gateway for advertisers using Amazon CloudFront is now available!
Ad Format
A new text ad format in Google AI Mode has been spotted on desktop.The format includes a website logo, Headline 1, Headline 2, and description, appearing directly in search results.
This could signal a shift in how ads are displayed within AI Mode.Spotted by Sachin Patel & Hana Kobzová.
Google Experiments
Google Ads has launched Campaign Guidance for Experiments, helping advertisers run better tests with an Experiment Power score: low, medium, or high.
It predicts the chance of reaching statistically significant results and gives recommendations to improve setup.
Supports Performance Max and Search campaigns.
Credit: Hana Kobzová.
New documents on Invalid clicks
Google is giving advertisers more visibility into invalid traffic refunds.Its new Ads help documentation highlights the Invalid Activity Credit Report, a tool that shows how much spend has been credited back for invalid clicks and interactions across Search and Performance Max campaigns.
The report breaks down:
• Credited clicks
• Credited interactions
• Credited spend
• Campaign-level impact
• Adjusted performance metrics after credits are applied
This matters because invalid traffic credits often show up in billing history, but they can be hard to connect back to campaign performance.
With this report, advertisers can more easily audit traffic quality, reconcile refunds, and understand the true cost and performance of their campaigns after Google applies invalid activity adjustments.
For anyone managing large Search or PMax budgets, this could become a valuable reporting layer to monitor discrepancies, refunded spend, and the impact of Google’s invalid traffic protections.
More transparency around invalid traffic is always welcome.
Personalized Advertising Policy
Google updated its personalized advertising policy documentation to clarify how restricted targeting rules apply to Demand Gen and Discovery campaigns, especially for advertisers promoting products or services linked to sensitive interest categories.
The update does not introduce new restrictions. Instead, it gives advertisers more guidance on when audience targeting may limit campaign delivery or reach.
Sensitive categories may include areas like health conditions, financial hardship, personal difficulties, and other topics Google treats as sensitive under its personalized ads policies.
This matters because Demand Gen campaigns rely heavily on audience signals across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. As more advertisers move budgets into Demand Gen, Google appears to be responding to questions about how sensitive-interest rules affect targeting eligibility and performance.
Advertisers in sectors such as healthcare, financial services, or other regulated industries should review the updated guidance to understand whether their audience choices could reduce reach or affect ad serving.
V10 structured files
Structured Data Files v10 is now generally available in Display & Video 360 for both downloads and uploads.
Key updates include support for CTV targeting in Line Item files, regional location list targeting in Ad Group files, new and updated Audio Content Type Targeting options, and the removal of deprecated Campaign, Insertion Order, and certain Video Sequence-only Line Item columns.
Teams migrating from earlier SDF versions should review the v10 release notes and follow the migration guide. Google also introduced Partial Structured Data File Uploads to make Line Item uploads easier and more efficient.
Credit to Arpan Banerjee for sharing the update.
Out of stock
Arpan Banerjee discovered that because of the Shopify issue, Merchant Center flagged a lot of product pages as unavailable. Make sure to check these!
GA4 Update
What? Finally, is the GBP connection coming to GA4?Thanks for sharing Syed Muhammad Amir Hassan.
YouTube Update
YouTube has earned its sixth consecutive Media Rating Council brand safety accreditation, now expanded to include YouTube Shorts.
This makes YouTube the first platform to receive MRC brand safety accreditation for short-form video.
The certification covers YouTube’s three inventory suitability tiers Maximum, Moderate, and Limited Mode giving advertisers more control over where their campaigns appear across both long-form videos and Shorts.
With Shorts averaging 200 billion daily views, the accreditation reinforces YouTube’s brand safety protections and gives advertisers greater confidence to invest in short-form video alongside YouTube’s creator community.
OpenAI Feed
OpenAI is adding product feeds to its ads manager, moving the feature over from ChatGPT’s now-defunct instant checkout system.
The feeds were originally used to provide accurate product data, pricing, and checkout eligibility. With checkout shut down and merchant adoption limited, OpenAI is now repurposing them for ads.
The ads manager is starting to look more like Google Merchant Center, with product-level data, performance tracking, and feeds that can power product ads.
Feed data may also improve organic shopping results, but the main goal appears to be monetizing shopping intent in ChatGPT.
Thanks for sharing Juozas Kaziukėnas.
GTM Update
Google Tag Gateway for advertisers is now available via the Google Cloud platform.
Limited by budget test
Google is testing with a new design of limited by budget!
Healthcare test
Google begins testing healthcare ads in AI Mode!
Terms of service
Arpan Banerjee discovered that Google updated the Google Ads Terms of service!
Publisher reviews
Sachin Patel discovered that Google is showing publisher reviews below certain Search Ads.
Week 23 finished
That’s all the news from week 23! If you want to read all the news, check my website.
