Google Ads Updates: Every Change That Mattered in the Last 30 Days (October 2026)

This is our monthly log of Google Ads changes, written for UK advertisers. It covers 13 September to 13 October 2026, plus a few things announced just before that window which rolled out inside it. Every item has a date, a source, a note on whether it applies in the UK, and a straight verdict on whether it deserves your time. Where Google has published something on its own pages, we link to it. Where a change has only been spotted by practitioners or reported by one outlet, we say so.

Every Google Ads change at a glance

The five changes that matter most

1. Your Search campaigns are probably AI Max campaigns now

In April, Google said it would upgrade Search campaigns that use automatically created assets (ACA) or the campaign-level broad match setting to AI Max for Search. The upgrades ran from 1 September, in place, keeping campaign IDs and history. Google's own post said: "We expect all upgrades for eligible campaigns to conclude by the end of September."

What got switched on depends on what you had. Campaigns with automatically created assets received search term matching and text customisation, which means Google can match to searches beyond your keywords and write headlines from your landing pages. Campaigns with the broad match setting received search term matching.

Google then spent the rest of the month adding the controls and reporting to go with it:

• The reporting view "Search terms and landing pages from AI Max" was renamed "Search terms and ad combinations" (around 22 September).
• New columns for brand inclusions, locations of interest, commission and optimised targeting were spotted on 8 October.
• You can now preview up to 10 AI-generated headlines and descriptions from a final URL before you switch text customisation on (help page, 8 October). If you advertise in finance, health or aesthetics, look at these before you opt in. Our botox advertising guide explains why automated copy is a real compliance risk in regulated categories.
• At DMEXCO on 23 September, Google announced a single Search ads journey report, running from search term to the asset shown to the landing page. Google says it will "share additional details and availability later this year". It is not live yet.

What has not happened yet: the Dynamic Search Ads upgrade. Google's 11 June update moved it: "Dynamic Search Ads sunset and auto-upgrade… will begin in February 2027." Plenty of blogs still say DSA moved in September; it did not. Google has published help documents on testing AI Max against DSA with a custom experiment (choose "Upgrade campaign" at the "Make changes" stage), so the sensible move is to run that experiment on your biggest DSA campaign now, rather than let February decide for you.

2. The language setting is leaving Search campaigns

Google's help page is blunt: "Starting in September 2026, the way language targeting works is changing for Search campaigns… The campaign-level language targeting setting will be removed." For Performance Max, the setting "will no longer apply to ads shown on the Google Search Network". Google now works out the language from your ads, your landing pages and the user's language preferences. Other Performance Max channels keep the setting, and Google says "no action is required by advertisers".

For most UK accounts running in English only, that is true. It matters if you run Welsh-language campaigns, separate campaigns for EU markets, or campaigns aimed at speakers of other languages living in the UK. You can no longer use the setting to keep English-browsing searchers out of a Polish-language campaign, for example. Google has not published an exact switch-off day; MediaPost reported late September.

3. Google can now copy offers from your website into your ads

From 12 October 2026, automated promotions are switched on by default for Search and Performance Max campaigns that use location assets. Google crawls your landing pages for live offers, such as "20% off" or "buy one get one free", and attaches them to your ads as promotion assets. Campaigns that already have manual promotion assets are skipped. Each automated promotion is re-verified against your site, and the setting is controlled at account level.

The upside is real for retailers and multi-site businesses: a promotion line is a strong CTR lever. The risk is an offer appearing that you did not mean to advertise: an expired code, a members-only price, or a conditional offer with the conditions stripped off. In regulated UK categories, an inaccurate offer in an ad is also an ASA problem, not just a Google one. And with Black Friday six weeks away, plenty of sites are about to publish a lot of offers.

Google's help page names no countries for this, so we have marked UK availability as partial until it is confirmed in a UK account. This is separate from Merchant Center's own automated promotions, which is a US closed beta.

4. Some of your numbers moved, and nothing really changed

Three reporting definitions changed in the window. Each will move a number in your reports without any change in what your ads achieved.

• Demand Gen view-through conversions. Display impressions in Demand Gen now count towards view-through conversions from a "rendered" impression, at least one pixel on screen for any duration, instead of the Active View standard. Reported view-throughs will rise. Separately, view-through conversion optimisation is now on by default for newly created Demand Gen campaigns (help page, around 23 September). The counting change was reported on 5 to 7 October and is rolling out "in the coming weeks"; we have not found a Google help page that states it, so treat the detail as reported rather than confirmed.
• Video engagements. Google's help page now defines an engagement as "watching a video ad for at least 10 seconds", up from 5. Shorts count 10 seconds or a CTA click; bumpers and non-skippable ads count clicks only. Engagement counts and engagement rate will fall.
• The learning period. Around 22 September, Google's bid strategy page said calibration takes "up to around 50 conversion events or 3 conversion cycles". By 4 October the 50 had gone, replaced by "typically takes 1-2 conversion cycles". If you have been telling clients a new strategy needs 50 conversions, stop quoting it as Google's guidance. For a long B2B sales cycle, one or two conversion cycles can mean weeks. Our learning phase guide covers how to handle it on a small budget.

Also from the bidding desk: Google confirmed the 17 August change to budget-limited tCPA and tROAS campaigns finished rolling out on 27 August. Third-party data from Smarter Ecommerce, published mid-September, showed CPCs rising on budget-limited campaigns afterwards. Google's help page adds that it "does not automatically adjust your bidding targets or budgets". If a budget-capped campaign was beating its target before August, expect it to drift towards the target. Reset targets or budgets on purpose, using data from after 27 August. Our ROAS benchmarks guide helps you set the target from your margin.

5. Conversion Lift testing is opening up

Google rewrote its Conversion Lift help page in early October, and trade reports (Search Engine Roundtable on 8 October, PPC News Feed on 7 October) describe it as self-serve for Search and Performance Max for the first time. The published requirements:

• at least 1,000 observed conversions (modelled or supplementary conversions don't count)
• a minimum study budget of US$5,000
• at least one compatible conversion action
• a holdback between 1% and 50%, for at least 7 days (14 recommended)

Google's page still says Conversion Lift "isn't available for all Google Ads accounts", so not everyone will see it yet. But this is the best measurement news of the month. Google also has new numbers to sell you on its own tools (see the measurement section below), and a lift test is how you check them on your own account rather than taking Google's average.

Search, AI Max and bidding: everything else

AI campaign localisation (beta). A new tool creates a translated copy of a Search campaign. It covers keywords, ads, sitelinks, callouts, images and landing pages (through a JavaScript snippet you can deploy with Tag Manager). It starts from US English into 10 languages, and budgets are copied without currency conversion. Useful for UK brands expanding into the EU, but have a native speaker check the output. Help page found around 2 October. Source

Ask Advisor can now make changes. The beta Gemini assistant in Google Ads can pause and rename campaigns, change budgets and locations, appeal disapproved ads and update final URLs, with your approval. It is not available in manager accounts. Spotted on 22 September. Decide who on your team may approve its suggestions before someone clicks "Apply". Source

AI-first campaign creation (test). Some accounts now see a "What's your goal for this campaign?" box as the main way to build a campaign, with manual set-up demoted to a link. Google's Ads Liaison called it "an experiment". Spotted 12 October. Source

Recommended investment strategy: Holistic and Growth modes. Holistic moves budget from weaker campaigns to stronger ones and adds weekly spend; Growth only adds budget. Both show a 7-day forecast and suggested target changes with an "Apply all" button. Help page updated around 23 to 24 September. Check what Holistic would cut before you apply it. Source

Promotion mode (beta) gets new controls. It now works with daily budgets as well as total budgets, on Search and Performance Max, with start and end dates, a target ROAS tolerance and an optional extra daily budget; campaigns revert automatically afterwards. One catch: "You can't edit your Target ROAS while promotion mode is active." Set your base target before you switch it on for Black Friday. Reported 11 to 30 September. Source

Smaller things spotted by practitioners (single sources, not confirmed by Google): a forecast of lost conversion value when you lower a budget (24 to 28 September), a break-even target ROAS calculator that works from your profit margin (9 October), and a Product Value Optimisation beta that applies product-level value multipliers (11 to 14 September).

Spend benchmarks report. The Overview page now compares your weekly spend and clicks with "businesses like yours", grouped by industry and location (spotted 16 to 18 September, including in euro accounts). The API added percentile benchmarks in v25.2. Treat it as a nudge to spend more, not a profitability benchmark: your budget should come from your margins and CPA, not a peer average. Our guide to how much a small business should spend on Google Ads works it through. Source

Performance Max, Demand Gen and YouTube

The September Demand Gen Drop (Google blog, 24 September) added one-tap full-screen image ads on Shorts (9:16), simpler Gmail image ads and affiliate location extensions in Maps. A Business Agent sign-up for YouTube ads was announced alongside it, but Google's holiday post describes that as a US beta. Google's headline stat: adding Gmail to Demand Gen image creative brought "+40% conversions at the same ROI" on average (Google internal data, February 2026). Add 9:16 image assets if you haven't. Source

Display inventory in Demand Gen is now billed by CPM, not CPC, according to Google's updated FAQ (around 26 September). Demand Gen review times are now stated as 3 to 5 business days, up to 7 for complex formats, and any edit restarts the clock. Launch Q4 Demand Gen campaigns at least a week early. Source

"Overlay on videos" (Demand Gen). Google can add AI-written text from your text assets on top of your videos, and it appears to be on by default (spotted 9 October, single source). Ads with AI-edited assets are labelled "created or edited with AI" in the EU, India and New York; the UK is not on that list. Audit this for brand-sensitive clients. Source

Performance Max: "Where should people go after clicking your ads?" Some accounts now offer a choice between your website and a Google-hosted Business Profile page "optimised for ads" (spotted 15 to 17 September). For lead generation where you need your own landing page and CRM tracking, keep it on your website. Source

Experiments get an AI summary, and Google's help page now spells out what applying each Performance Max experiment does: a migration moves all traffic, an optimisation applies settings permanently, and a custom experiment lets you choose (8 October). Read that line before you press apply. Source

Creative tools. Google says Gemini Omni video creation in Asset Studio, which turns a URL, brief or images into a video ad, is rolling out globally and free (Google blog, 1 October). Free video ad dubbing into 33 languages and locales was reported for select accounts in mid-September. Source

Automated bidding for video reach campaigns (beta). Efficient reach, non-skippable and target frequency campaigns can now bid automatically to spend the budget, with no target CPM (help page, around 10 October). Source

Shopping and Merchant Center

Image quality no longer blocks products. Poor image quality stopped preventing products from serving around 11 to 12 October. A 500 by 500 pixel minimum applies from 31 January 2027, and promotional overlays are still disapproved. Source

Fast-changing products. Items whose price or availability changes more than once a day may now be disapproved rather than updated automatically (page revised 27 September). Watch this if you run flash pricing over Black Friday. Source

A new store_address attribute is required for local inventory ads and local free listings (13 October). This lands on top of August's change, when local inventory ads were switched on by default for every Shopping campaign from 31 August; online-only sellers should add an inventory filter (Channel = Online). Source

Store ratings thresholds were spelled out: around 100 reviews and 3.5 stars or more for ads, over a 24-month window, calculated per country (around 18 to 22 September). Source

Loyalty Customer Match expanded to AI Mode, Gemini and five more countries (India, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea and Spain). The UK was already eligible. If you run a loyalty scheme, set up member pricing before Black Friday. Source

Free product listings were removed across the EEA (15 to 18 September) as part of Google's Digital Markets Act compliance, along with organic "popular products" carousels and the Shopping tab. Productrise measured drops of roughly 90 to 100% in Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands. The UK is not in the EEA and is not affected, and paid Shopping is unchanged everywhere. If you sell into the EU, expect free Shopping traffic there to fall and budget for paid Shopping through a comparison shopping service. Source

Product videos. Merchant Center added product-level video uploads (6 to 240 seconds, 720p), but on 13 October videos were reported stuck in "preview processing". Probably a bug; recheck before you rely on it. Planning your peak? Our Black Friday checklist has the full timeline.

Measurement and tracking

The Tag Manager change that can double-count conversions

On 8 October, Google Tag Manager's release notes announced that "all Google Tag Manager (gtm.js) container snippets will initialize on container load", regardless of gtag('config') commands. Those config commands now appear in the dataLayer as gtag.config events, which may fire wildcard custom-event triggers. If you have a trigger matching every custom event (a .* regex, for example), it can now fire on config events too. That means extra pageviews or, worse, extra conversions.

On 12 October, Tag Manager added the ability for containers to send data directly to Google measurement products through destination tags, the delivery of the Google tag and Tag Manager merger announced in August. An in-account banner will invite you to "optimise" containers. On 17 September, GTM also started suggesting AI-written version names and descriptions when you publish.

Data Manager, Data Strength and Google's new numbers

On 10 September, Google announced that Data Manager is coming into Google Analytics and Display and Video 360, that enhanced conversions are coming to GA4 and DV360, and that the Data Manager API is now "universal", built on the IAB Tech Lab's Event and Conversions API standard. The API is live; Google gave no date for the GA4 and DV360 integrations. It also launched a Data Strength Uplift metric in Google Ads, which estimates the extra conversions your first-party data set-up recovers.

Be clear about what that metric is. It estimates reporting recovery, conversions Google can now see, not incremental sales. Google's own figures are averages across advertisers, and they are Google's: +26% incremental ROAS for advertisers connecting offline and app data, +11% Search conversions from enhanced conversions versus standard imports, and +14% conversions from Google tag gateway. On 13 October Google rewrote its Data Strength best practices page into a full implementation checklist, adding more claims (+8% incremental ROAS from enhanced conversions with value bidding, +5.3% conversions from Customer Match signals). Use the page as an audit list. Use a lift test to check the numbers.

Multi-source conversions (beta) can now use your CRM or order database to fill in missing email, phone or address details on conversions the Google tag recorded, and to restate conversion values for refunds or final basket totals (help docs reported 16 to 21 September). Uploads must arrive within 24 hours. If you have a CRM, transaction IDs that match across tag and CRM are what make this work. Source

GG_ transaction IDs. Google's documentation now explains that transaction IDs beginning GG_ are temporary IDs Google generates when you are not passing your own, which means deduplication is not working properly (reported 11 October). Search your conversion data for GG_ before Black Friday. Source

Customer Match accepts IP addresses and timestamps, but not for UK users. Uploads can now include an unhashed IP address and an interaction timestamp to improve match rates. Google's help page says: "IP matching isn't supported for end users located in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland." UK advertisers should keep using the old template for UK lists, and segment uploads by region if they sell internationally. Source

Meridian GeoX is now generally available worldwide, so you can run standalone geo experiments or feed results into Meridian as calibration. Brand signals such as branded search volume can now go into the model too (Google blog, 10 September). UK ITV regions and postcode areas suit geo tests well. Bear in mind that Google built the test, the model and the media. Source

Google Analytics 4. App conversions now appear in GA4's cross-channel conversion reports, with separate attribution settings (29 September, rolling out). Hostname "include" filters let you allowlist the domains allowed to send data (21 September), but events with an empty hostname are blocked, so test the filter before enforcing it. GA4 also had an outage on the evening of 29 September US time (early hours of 30 September in the UK); if you import GA4 conversions, check for a dip before blaming your bidding. Tracking AI traffic too? Here is how to set up AI channel groups in GA4.

The Overview page now counts video impressions as steps in conversion paths and adds a "Performance by stage" card grouping metrics into awareness, consideration and action (around 8 October). Note that GA4-imported conversions are excluded, so if you bid on imported GA4 key events, these cards will understate video's role. Source

Policy and compliance

For UK gambling operators and affiliates, the 14 September change sits on top of August's certification rewrite: one application per country, no account holding both online gambling and social casino certificates, required site footers naming the licensee and licence number, and recertification after any material change. Agencies with gambling clients inside a shared manager account should consider separating them, because the account's policy history now counts.

For UK "help with your passport, driving licence or DBS check" sites, the government documents rule is the big one. Commercial contracts, business licences and blog posts do not count as proof of authorisation. If you are not named on a gov.uk page as an authorised provider, expect disapprovals.

For brands with several domains, the business name change is welcome: a parent brand advertising on a retailer or sub-brand domain it has a verified relationship with can use its own brand name. Google has not said how the relationship is verified.

Local Services Ads now charge for some missed calls. From 1 October, unanswered calls during business hours can be charged as leads if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, and Google rewrote its "How leads work" page on 8 October with new lead statuses and a 15-day window for repeat contacts. Coverage so far describes US advertisers, and the notice states no geographic limit, so UK LSA users should check their account messages and make sure phones are answered. Source

Developer and API access. On 10 September Google moved Google Ads API access to Google Cloud projects and began sunsetting developer tokens, and its renamed Developer Policies (31 August) are being enforced through a review of existing integrations. PPC Land reports that shared "programmatic proxies" are now banned, so every tool, including AI agents that manage accounts for clients, needs its own Cloud project; we could not find that wording in Google's own text. Ask your bid management, reporting and AI tool vendors how they connect.

US-only policy changes you can ignore in the UK: a six-month pilot allowing some firearm accessories on Search in the US, Connecticut becoming the fifth US state where prediction market ads are banned (7 October), and complex speculative financial products being allowed in Chile and Denmark.

Ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode: still not in the UK

Google's help page lists ads within AI Overviews as available in English in Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and the US. The UK is not on the list. Ads can still appear above or below AI Overviews "in all 200+ markets where AI Overviews are available", which includes the UK.

Meanwhile, Google tested ad formats in US AI Mode almost weekly: plain "Sponsored" text links and text-anchor ads inside answers (15 to 20 September), sponsored and organic products blended in one view (25 September), longer AI summaries above brand ads (30 September), possible sitelinks (2 and 6 October), and a beta Direct offer asset that serves only with AI Max or text customisation and shows a "Claim one-time code" bar (7 October). Google also confirmed exact and phrase match Search campaigns can serve text ads in AI Mode for explicit queries. On 13 October a Google spokesperson told Adweek that ads in AI Mode and AI Overviews have "recently expanded to include certain pharmaceutical products", in the US only.

None of this runs in the UK yet. But when it arrives, it will draw on the campaigns you already have: Search, Shopping, AI Max and Performance Max. Clean search term hygiene, complete sitelinks and a well-built product feed are how you get ready. For the bigger picture, see our guide to generative engine optimisation.

AI Overviews moved onto brand searches. Chris Long of Nectiv found AI Overviews on 93% of roughly 100 brands he tested (30 September). DemandSphere's tracking showed AI Overviews on branded queries going from 26% on 1 September to 82% on 29 September. Neither names a market, and Google has not confirmed either figure, but AI Overviews run in the UK. Compare brand campaign CTR and impression share for September against August, and don't cut brand bidding on the strength of a few weeks of disrupted data.

Search results ad tests the UK may see. Review ratings shown in Search ads (8 October), several sitelink redesigns (20 September to 13 October), sponsored products laid out like the organic product grid (30 September) and grey-background Shopping ads without a "Shop now" button (12 October). If CTR swings with no account changes, a layout test is a likely cause.

Regulation and the bigger picture

The CMA wants AI assistants on UK choice screens. On 23 September the Competition and Markets Authority published a second consultation proposing choice screens on Android and Chrome with up to 12 search providers, and widened eligibility so AI assistants can qualify. Users would get a prompt roughly once a year. The consultation closed on 9 October and a final decision is expected by the end of 2026. The CMA expects about 1% of users to switch, so this is a slow-burn story, but it is the strongest case yet for testing ChatGPT Ads and Microsoft Advertising alongside Google. Separately, the CMA's publisher conduct requirement (opting out of AI Overviews without penalty) has a compliance deadline of 3 December 2026. Source

Ofcom's fraudulent advertising code consultation closed on 2 October. It proposes nearly 40 measures for the largest platforms, including advertiser identity checks, "one strike" bans for scam advertisers and a searchable ad library. A final statement is due by mid-2027. Expect more verification friction on Google in the UK, especially in finance; our UK financial services verification guide covers what Google already asks for. Source

US ad tech case. The judge's 106-page remedies opinion was unsealed in mid-September and both sides filed proposed final judgments on 2 October. There is no breakup, but there will be a six-year monitor, interoperability with rival ad servers and a bar on Google Ads bidding directly into Google's own publisher ad server. The scope is worldwide but nothing takes effect until a final judgment is entered, so UK Search buying is unaffected for now.

Search is a shrinking share of Google Ads. Brainlabs data across 31 accounts (published 7 October) shows Search campaigns falling from 86% to 71% of spend and from 62% to 41% of clicks between January 2024 and August 2026, as budgets drift to Performance Max, Demand Gen and video. A separate Brainlabs analysis of 54 clients found AI referral sessions up 163.5% but replacing only about 5% of lost organic visits. It is agency data, not a peer-reviewed study, but it is worth checking your own campaign-type mix. Source

Your third-party rank and competitor data may be off. DemandSphere says Google has been returning spurious results to suspected bots on about 11% of the search pages it collects daily, and Nozzle measured 8.0%. Google has not confirmed either. Use Auction Insights, which is first-party, for decisions about competitors. Source

No Q3 benchmarks yet. No Q3 2026 CPC benchmark report from Tinuiti, Skai, Optmyzr or WordStream had been published by 13 October; they usually land in late October, around Alphabet's quarterly results. We'll fold them into next month's update.

Who each change affects

Dates to put in the diary

For developers and anyone using third-party tools: Google Ads API v22 was due to sunset on 7 October; v25.2 shipped on 23 September with asset-group-level tracking templates for Performance Max; and from v26 (due mid-October) the API moves to two releases a month, with fewer blog announcements, so subscribe to the release notes page. Google's official Google Ads MCP server reached v0.0.5 on 9 October; upgrade past the 28 September build, which stopped OAuth tokens being written to logs. Source

Your October account check

What didn't change this month

Being exhaustive means saying where we looked and found nothing. In this window we found no change to: Chrome third-party cookies (they are staying, with no removal timeline); the EU User Consent Policy or Consent Mode (the last change was June 2026, when ad_storage became the sole gate for advertising data); Google's invalid traffic credits; billing and payments terms; the healthcare and medicines policy; misrepresentation rules; UK financial services verification; EU political ads (stopped since October 2025); the US search antitrust appeal; or Google Ads scripts. No new Google Ads Editor version shipped either: 2.13 from July is current.

How we put this together

We tracked every Google Ads change dated 13 September to 13 October 2026 across Google's own sources: the Google Ads and Commerce blog, Google Ads and Merchant Center help pages, the Google Ads policy notices, the Ads Developer Blog and API release notes, and Google Tag Manager and GA4 release notes. We cross-checked against Search Engine Roundtable, PPC News Feed, PPC Land, Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Land, and against regulators' own pages for the CMA, Ofcom and the European Commission.

Where a change appears only in one practitioner's screenshot or one outlet's report, we say "spotted" or "reported". Where Google's own wording exists, we quote it. Where sources disagree on a date, we give the one Google publishes and note the conflict. UK availability is only marked "yes" where Google's page or a UK account confirms it.

This page is updated every month. For the platform Google is now competing with, see our ChatGPT Ads updates, and for the same month on Facebook and Instagram, our Meta ads updates. For the bigger themes behind this month's changes, read our Google Marketing Live 2026 roundup and our explainer on the Performance Max channel report.

Frequently asked questions