The changes that matter to advertisers, with the sources behind them and a practical next step. Pick a topic and catch up at your own pace.
Google Ads
Google Ads is showing Target CPA and Target ROAS as explicit bidding strategy choices in campaign settings. This continues the Smart Bidding renaming covered in Week 25, now visible in the interface.
Google Ads
Google Ads can display a text disclaimer as the first line of ad copy, overriding descriptions pinned to position one.
Google Ads
Mobile product ads are showing a "generating insights with AI" notice that transforms into a description beneath the ad unit. This continues the AI-descriptions rollout covered in Week 27, now on Shopping surfaces.
Google Ads
Local Services Ads are now appearing within Google's AI Mode. It extends last week's LSA-to-Google-Ads migration story into Google's newest surface.
Google Ads
Google's July Demand Gen Drop targets holiday readiness, noting 94% of holiday shoppers who used YouTube took further purchase steps after watching a related video.
Google Ads
Google added two metrics to product reporting: product clicks and non-product clicks. They separate clicks on the product itself from clicks on other ad elements, not renamed columns.
Google Ads
Google is updating its Healthcare and Medicines policy in August to let telemedicine providers promote prescription drug services in Spain. Providers must hold LegitScript's Healthcare Merchant Certification, and violations receive a warning at least seven days before any account suspension.
Meta Ads
Meta lists 24 September 2026 as the retirement date for Graph API v20.0. Integration owners should check which version their requests use; Marketing API versions follow a separate schedule.
Meta Ads
Setting a ROAS goal is now available when optimising to maximise the number of conversions, not only conversion value. Meta can chase volume while holding a return threshold.
TikTok Ads
TikTok says Symphony with Seedance 2.5 supports videos up to 30 seconds and up to 50 image, video or audio references. Access is rolling out to selected paid advertisers in selected markets.
Google Ads
The newsletter reports AI video labelling controls, crediting Felix Duerler's observation on 31 July.
Google Ads
Google introduces AI asset labels across Ads, Merchant Center and Ads Editor, including an AI label column in Asset Studio.
Industry
In this Community Q&A edition of Ads Decoded, Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin answers practitioner questions on measuring campaign success as search queries turn into conversations.
Google Merchant Center
A new "Has improvements" Tracking Status was spotted on a store visit conversion action during an account audit. Clicking it shows what is missing to enhance the conversion setup.
OpenAI
OpenAI's advertiser email confirms daily budgets now work on a seven-day average: spend can reach twice the daily budget on any day but must not exceed the weekly average. This formalises the change covered in Week 27, matching Google's pacing model.
Google Tag
The latest Data Manager API release adds a RemoveAllAudienceMembers method, simplifying audience list clearing.
Reddit Ads
Reddit's new generator builds free-form ads from real community conversations: you provide your website, media, and context, and its Community Intelligence produces a brand summary, audience insights, and ad concepts, with drafts informed by KarmaLab best practices. Free-form ads have delivered twice the CTR of standard formats since 2024, with Canada Goose seeing a 10.5-point ad awareness lift and the UK Department for Transport a 14-point action intent lift.
Google Search Console
The Generative AI performance report is rolling out to more users, with Google promoting it in-console. It shows site performance in generative AI features on Google Search.
ChatGPT Ads
Juozas Kaziukėnas found an Ads Manager setup that directs an ad click into a business-agent conversation. He had not seen the resulting consumer ad live, so the evidence establishes a setup test rather than a completed public rollout.
Industry
Google rewrote its Crawl Budget documentation. Every site starts with a conservative crawl budget that adjusts based on demand and server capacity.
Google Merchant Center
The Ask Advisor chat, announced for Google Ads in May, is now appearing in Merchant Centre. Some accounts show an AI insights summary, a search box with suggested queries, and previous chats.
Industry
A federal court threw out Google's case against SerpApi, a company scraping Google Search results. Google argued bypassing its anti-bot systems was unlawful; the court disagreed.
Google Merchant Center
Google has confirmed a fix for the Shopify product ID issue that threatened merchants with lost product history. This closes the caveat first raised in Week 25 alongside the server-to-server integration.
Anthropic
The Claude Security plugin scans code for vulnerabilities before commits or across a codebase, from the terminal. It runs on the Claude inference you already pay for.
Industry
Google launched both AI Overviews and AI Mode in France, announced by Search lead Elizabeth Reid. France had been a notable holdout market.
Amazon Ads
Amazon clarified that both Item name and Item highlights contribute to search in its revised product title format.
Amazon Ads
Amazon introduced automatic Streaming TV deal selection for Brand+ campaigns. The system picks premium STV deals rather than requiring manual selection.
Amazon Ads
A new Targeting strategy beta appeared at campaign level in manual Sponsored Products campaigns, off by default. Enabled, AI adds up to four new keyword and product targets.
Amazon Ads
A Seller Central alert and help page set out requirements for AI-generated human images, with immediate effect. Sellers must comply with the new disclosure rules as legislation rolls out.
Walmart Connect
Alphabet reported $112bn in net profit for the quarter, more than all 40 DAX companies earned across 2025. The stock still fell on the report.
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