Follow Google Ads changes with dated source evidence, contributor credits and practical context for campaign decisions.
Google Ads
Google Ads has given AI Max campaigns a dedicated Branded Searches control, surfaced by Thomas Eccel. Advertisers can now choose exactly how AI Max handles brand queries with three settings: show ads on all relevant searches (the default), control branded searches through brand inclusions and exclusions, or show ads only on unbranded searches.
Google Ads
VIVEK GUPTA has flagged a new Sync Columns feature inside Google Ads: letting users keep table columns, and segments synchronised across all accounts viewed from a Manager Account (MCC). Set up one account's columns and segments as you want, then apply the same configuration to other accounts in a single action.
Google Ads
VIVEK GUPTA has surfaced a limited-time 2x Google Ads Credit offer rolling out to eligible new advertisers. Reported offer tiers: spend $500 → get $1,000 credit, spend $680 → get $1,360 credit, spend $1,400 → get $2,800 credit.
Google Ads
Affiliate partnerships boost is a new advertising solution that lets merchants discover and boost organic YouTube Shopping affiliate videos within Demand Gen campaigns. The structural value: merchants leverage existing creator trust at scale, with the licensing and discovery workflow streamlined inside Google Ads.
Google Ads
AI-assisted Demand Gen campaign creation is a new workflow that uses account-level intelligence to pre-fill Demand Gen campaigns with optimal budget, bidding, and audience settings based on existing Performance Max campaigns. The system uses historical performance to recommend campaign best practices, provides a clear rationale for each setting, and reduces manual entry errors.
Google Ads
Anthony Higman has flagged that the ability to apply for Google Ads Ad Certifications is now available directly inside Google Ads accounts: what was formerly the standalone Google Ads Advertiser Verification Page. The integration removes a friction point in the certification application workflow, with the certification surface now appearing within the account UI rather than on an external page.
Google Ads
Product videos at scale eliminate the previous 5-video upload limit, enabling Demand Gen campaigns to leverage the entire Google Merchant Centre video library. The system dynamically serves product-specific videos based on real-time user intent and interest, reducing creative overhead and improving relevance through AI-driven video-to-user matching.
Google Ads
As a reminder, Thomas Eccel recalls the material spend impact of the new ad schedule changes: from 1 June 2026, Google will change how it paces campaign budgets based on ad schedules. Today, Google paces around active scheduled days (e.g., 22 weekdays per month for a weekdays-only campaign); from 1 June, Google will pace toward the full monthly cap (30.4x daily budget): speeding up spend on active days.
Google Ads
Creator videos in the asset picker is a new Demand Gen feature that surfaces a library of suggested creator partnership videos directly in the Google Ads asset picker during campaign setup. The system automatically identifies relevant creator content tailored to the brand, increases campaign authenticity via trusted creator voices, and reduces creative production time by pulling existing video content into the campaign.
Google Ads
View-through conversion optimisation is a new bidding enhancement for Demand Gen that lets campaigns include and optimise for view-through conversions alongside click-based conversions. The mechanic accelerates results by capturing conversions when users see an ad and convert later without clicking; scales conversion volume by allowing Google AI to bid on users most likely to convert via either path; and drives strategy alignment by adopting comparable approaches to paid social platforms, where view-then-buy behaviour is prevalent.
Google Ads
Leads in Google Ads is a new, lightweight CRM surface inside Google Ads that consolidates Google-hosted form leads into a single interface. The feature centralises lead management (no prospect falls through the cracks), syncs quality signals back into Google Ads to optimise bidding, surfaces lead-stage progression (raw → qualified → converted → lost), and feeds high-value conversion data into Smart Bidding strategies.
Google Ads
Google Maps inventory is now available in Demand Gen as a selectable channel, allowing advertisers to reach high-intent users in Browse, Directions, and Entity/Place Details modes within Maps. The format uses non-disruptive Promoted Pins with channel controls to opt in or out based on brand or campaign needs.
Google Ads
Three Google Ads developer/policy items landed alongside GML:
Google Ads
Two new lead-management tools are now available alongside Leads in Google Ads.
Google Ads
Product feeds in Demand Gen are expanding across three structural dimensions. New verticals: Vehicle feeds become eligible for Demand Gen product feeds in Q3 2026, extending the format beyond traditional ecommerce.
Google Ads
Campaign Type Attribution is a structural shift for Demand Gen reporting: moving beyond Platform Comparable Conversions (a reporting-only view) into an active attribution model where Demand Gen campaigns can be optimised against the full conversion value they drive, independent of other Google campaign types. Georgi Zayakov flagged it as the most interesting Demand Gen update from GML, noting it makes Demand Gen results "more directly comparable to social platforms": which is clearly where Google wants Demand Gen to sit in the marketing mix.
Google Ads
If you're joining here directly, Part 1 covered Google Marketing Live 2026 and Google I/O: more than 30 launches reshaping Search, YouTube, Commerce, Measurement, and Creative. Catch up on Part 1 →
Google Ads
Demand Gen Uplift Experiments is a new automated A/B testing framework that measures the statistically significant uplift of adding Demand Gen to an existing campaign mix (PMax, App, Video, Display). The mechanic provides a turnkey way to isolate Demand Gen's impact on conversions, sales, CPA, or ROAS: answering the long-standing question of whether Demand Gen is incremental or cannibalising.
Google Ads
Ask Advisor in Google Ads is upgraded with five 2026 additions: Gemini 3 model upgrade, mobile app availability, instant certifications that replace weeks of manual paperwork with instant approvals (Anthony Higman flagged the certification surface this week appearing inside the Google Ads account), 24/7 security monitoring with personalised dashboards (flagged domains, dormant user review), and a revamped homepage with intelligent reporting and AI-powered data visualisation. The visualisation surface lets advertisers transform complex data into clear visualisations with a single prompt.
Google Ads
Demand Gen campaigns are now generally available within Commerce Media Suite: letting brands use retailers' first-party data to reach high-intent shoppers across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. The integration enables brand-retailer collaboration on YouTube and Demand Gen surfaces, with conversion and sales optimisation powered by retailer first-party data flowing through Google AI.
Google Ads
Jason King has spotted phone support reappearing in the Google Ads dashboard Overview: a return of a support surface that had been progressively de-emphasised in recent years. The option appears in the dashboard's contact-support pane, alongside chat and email options, for advertisers who reach the support flow via the Overview tab.
Google Ads
Arpan Banerjee has flagged a second hard deadline from Google: UploadClickConversions is deprecated, effective 15 June 2026. After that date, the API method for uploading click-attributed conversions will no longer be supported, and integrations still using the deprecated endpoint will break.
Google Ads
Thomas Eccel has spotted an AI video generator CTA appearing in Demand Gen campaigns as a beta feature: a "Create video" button in the campaign creation flow that lets advertisers generate AI-powered video assets directly in Demand Gen without going through external production tooling. The feature is in beta and not yet broadly available.
Google Ads
Google Ads has rolled out full placement reporting for the Search Partner Network, which is surfaced via the PPC News Feed. Advertisers can now see specific placement-level performance data across the Search Partner Network: closing the long-standing gap where Search Partners delivered traffic with effectively no placement visibility.
Google Ads
This week features three major industry events over three consecutive days, with some overlapping schedules.
Google Ads
Ahead of Google Marketing Live on 21 May, Ginny Marvin has previewed three AI Max updates.
Google Ads
Google Ads will enforce the 37-month data retention policy from 1 June 2026, with VIVEK GUPTA flagging the deadline ahead of enforcement. The policy was officially confirmed in the Google Ads Developer Blog (covered in Week 19) and applies to the Google Ads API, Google Ads scripts, the Google Analytics Data API, and the BigQuery Data Transfer Service.
Google Ads
Thomas Eccel and Tamás Geiger have both flagged a wave of phishing emails targeting Google Ads advertisers, using a "synchronisation error in your Google Ads account" pretext to trick recipients into clicking a malicious link that purports to fix the synchronisation issue. The emails are sophisticated enough to bypass standard spam filters and reach advertisers' primary inboxes.
Google Ads
Dario Zannoni has flagged a quiet but consequential update to Google's Help pages: primary conversion actions not used for bidding optimisation may be treated differently than expected. The clarification updates the public documentation to explicitly state how primary conversions feed (or don't feed) into Smart Bidding optimisation when they're not selected as the optimisation goal.
Google Ads
Google has released Google Ads API v24.1 on 13 May, with five practitioner-relevant additions. Mobile Device Platform segmentation lets queries segment campaign and customer reports by iOS or Android: a feature previously requiring workarounds for bid adjustments and OS-level performance analysis.
