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 has issued a sunset reminder for Google Ads API v20, prompting teams still running on the older version to migrate to a supported release. v20 will stop accepting requests after the announced sunset date, and integrations that have not been migrated will begin returning errors against the older endpoints.
YouTube
Google has announced a new partnership through which Albertsons Media Collective brings first-party shopper data to YouTube and third-party inventory in Display & Video 360. Brands can reach high-intent shoppers on YouTube and across premium publishers, and measure impact with SKU-level sales reporting.
Google Ads
Google has updated its certification process to allow advertisers to apply for cryptocurrency and complex speculative financial product certifications directly inside their Google Ads account, starting May 2026. The new in-account flow covers four certification categories: cryptocurrency exchanges and software wallets, cryptocurrency hardware wallets, cryptocurrency coin trust, and complex speculative financial products.
Google Ads
The Performance Max Search Partners and Display Network exclusion option flagged by Thomas Eccel as a test in Week 18 has now rolled out to a broader pool of accounts. Jason King has confirmed seeing the option live in his accounts, framing the rollout as a brand-new Google Ads option now widely available.
Google Ads
Thomas Eccel has flagged a new metric appearing in Google Ads Brand Lift Studies, called Association. The metric lets advertisers select a concept, category, or attribute and measure how strongly users associate the brand with that concept after exposure to the campaign: a measurement type previously available only through bespoke brand-tracking research with separate vendors.
Google Ads
Google has detailed product reporting changes in the Google Ads API for advertisers running upgraded Shopping campaigns. The changes affect how product-level data flows through the API once Shopping campaigns are migrated into Performance Max or AI Max, and adjust the resource model for product segmentation in reporting queries.
Google Ads
Google is rolling out a Channel performance over time report for Performance Max, flagged by Aleksejus Podpruginas. Found under the Insights and reports section in a dedicated Channel performance tab, it shows how a campaign distributes budget and delivers across networks over time: the kind of channel-level visibility advertisers have long said Performance Max lacked.
Google Ads
Anthony Higman has spotted Google integrating immersive map view videos into PPC ad units. The functionality builds on a setting that appeared in Location Manager earlier in the year, where advertisers were pre-opted into the feature.
Google Ads
Dario Zannoni has also flagged the appearance of Uploaded Display Ads in Demand Gen campaigns, a new format that allows up to 20 static images in classic display sizes (300×250, 120×600, and others) in GIF, JPG, or PNG format. Ads created in this format will run exclusively on the Google Display Network.
Google Ads
Google has rolled out direct inline exclusion for placements in the Performance Max "When and where ads showed" report. Aleksejus Podpruginas has flagged that advertisers can now filter and exclude irrelevant placements at scale directly from the report view, rather than navigating to the separate exclusion list interface.
Google Ads
Google Ads is rebranding its content suitability inventory tiers starting May 2026. "Expanded" becomes Maximum inventory; "Standard" becomes Moderate inventory; and "Limited inventory" keeps its current name.
Google Ads
Thomas Eccel has spotted that Google Ads has added App Consent Insights, a new diagnostics view providing a breakdown of Consent Mode performance for mobile apps by app, platform, source, and region. The view returns a General Consent Rating (Excellent, Good, Poor) mirroring the equivalent rating for Web Consent Mode, a live count of apps actively sending consented data, and a consent rate table split by EEA and non-EEA showing the percentage of conversions coming from consented users.
Google Workspace
Cory Liseno has also released v2.3.0 of the Google Ads API Developer Assistant, focused on security and reliability rather than new functionality. The update introduces hardened workspace isolation via automatic Python virtual environments under a new Rule 4.5, optimised cross-campaign audits for disapproved ads, and "zero tolerance" GAQL query validation that flags common errors: including unsupported OR operators: before the request reaches the API.
Google Ads
From 1 June 2026, Google Ads will pace scheduled campaigns toward the full monthly cap of 30.4× the daily budget, regardless of how many days the schedule allows ads to run. Previously, a weekdays-only campaign with a $100 daily budget paced toward roughly $2,200 monthly; under the new rules, the same setup could spend up to $3,040, concentrating delivery on active days within the unchanged 2× daily overspend ceiling.
Google Ads
Cory Liseno has announced that Google Ads API v24 is generally available. The headline addition is support for Conversions with Cart Data, which extends conversion tracking with product-level transaction details: unlocking advanced sales and profit reporting.
Google Ads
Marcin Wsół has spotted a new "Set up in Google Tag Manager" option in the Google Ads conversion configuration flow. The button sits alongside existing installation methods and pushes a pre-populated tag configuration directly into GTM: eliminating the need to manually copy conversion IDs and labels into a new tag.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft has unveiled a major round of advertising updates at its Spring Summit, framed around what it calls the "three eras of the web": the human web ("help me find it"), the LLM web ("help me choose"), and the agentic web ("do it for me").
Google Ads
Google has announced three additions to Ads Advisor, the AI agent in Google Ads, ahead of Google Marketing Live on 20 May. Proactive troubleshooting flags complex policy violations without prompting and walks advertisers through a fix path before submitting an appeal: initially covering unacceptable business practices, circumventing systems, and counterfeit goods.
Google Ads
Thomas Eccel has flagged that Google Ads has relocated Lift Studies into the "Experiments" section of the interface, with a refreshed setup flow. Two studies are available: Brand Lift measures the impact of video and audio ads on awareness, consideration, and purchase intent through surveys, returning absolute lift, lifted users, and cost per lifted user.
Google Ads
Vivek has spotted a new step in the Google Ads campaign creation flow titled "Where do you want to run ads?": offering advertisers a choice between all channels or select individual channels before campaign settings are finalised. The control gives upfront visibility over where ads will appear, rather than relying on post-creation opt-outs.
YouTube
Ginny Marvin has published a detailed walkthrough of how to activate YouTube Creator Partnerships directly inside Google Ads, recorded with Melissa Nikolic, Director of Product Management for YouTube Ads, on stage at the YouTube NewFronts in New York. The conversation centres on lowering the barrier to creator marketing: historically reserved for brands with dedicated influencer resources: and bringing it into the same workflow as standard Google Ads campaign management.
Google Ads
Google has begun displaying sponsored product ads directly within the free listing grid on the Google Shopping tab: a placement previously reserved exclusively for organic listings. Brodie Clark first documented the change on 20 April 2026; SERP Alert followed with broader analysis.
Google Ads
From 4 May 2026, Google Ads will allow online gambling advertisements in Alberta, Canada, for entities authorised by the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC). The change covers lotteries, sports betting, online casinos and fantasy sports, with brand awareness campaigns only at launch and strict geo-restriction to the province.
Google Ads
New customer acquisition (NCA) goals for Performance Max campaigns are now importable directly from Google Ads into Microsoft Advertising, and the feature was rolled out to all advertisers this week. Google "website visitors" audience segments convert to equivalent rule-based remarketing lists; Google's auto-created "all visitors" and "all converters" lists map to Microsoft equivalents; unsupported lists such as Customer Match can be substituted with "all converters" or omitted at import.
Google Ads
Anthony Higman has identified a new Local Services Ads mobile format that shows a single business listing (one-pack) that expands into a five-pack, then into the full LSA list.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising now supports campaign names up to 400 characters, up from the previous 128-character limit. The increase applies across the UI, API, Editor, imports, and reporting, and brings Microsoft to parity with Meta and Google.
Google Ads
Google has announced that the Google Ads API will require MFA for all new OAuth 2.0 refresh tokens starting April 21, 2026, with enforcement rolling out over the following weeks. Existing OAuth refresh tokens continue to work without interruption.
Microsoft Advertising
Arjun Singh has flagged that Google is consolidating its tagging ecosystem: Google Ads, GA4, and Floodlight: under a single Google Tag using the GT-XXXXXXXX format, retiring the AW-XXXXXXXX format used for Google Ads conversion tags. The unification is intended to reduce tag conflicts, improve cross-platform data consistency, and simplify container management in GTM.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising is rolling out autogenerated assets to Responsive Search Ads that lack the maximum number of user-supplied text assets. The feature uses AI to generate fresh, relevant ad copy for campaigns with insufficient or infrequently updated assets, which Microsoft reports underperform compared to campaigns with full asset volume.
Google Ads
Landing page reporting is now available for Performance Max campaigns in Microsoft Advertising, showing performance by Final URL, including spend, impressions, clicks, conversion metrics, and ROAS. The view can be segmented by campaign, asset group, and custom parameters.
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