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.
YouTube
Google has updated the ad requirements for its YouTube and Discover feeds to clarify how election ads are treated. The update is documentation-only: no changes were made to the policy enforcement scope.
Microsoft Advertising
Seasonality adjustments: previously available only for individual campaigns: are now available for campaigns using Portfolio bid strategies. The feature is designed for short-term events with a temporary, significant change in expected conversion rates, such as a major promotion or seasonal peak.
Google Tag
Google has launched the Google Tag Gateway for advertisers in beta, available via integration with Fastly CDN through Google Tag Manager. The gateway allows the Google tag to load from the advertiser's domain rather than a Google domain, and forwards measurement events from the advertiser's domain to Google: improving signal recovery and data privacy.
Google Ads
Anthony Higman flagged a widespread Google Ads policy glitch sending mass "Destination not working" warning emails across accounts, confirmed as false positives across the PPC community. No corrective action is required on landing pages for accounts that received these notifications.
Google Ads
Thomas Eccel has spotted two Merchant Centre feed attributes gaining visible placement in Google Shopping listings. Business logos now appear next to the merchant name in sponsored product listings: a trust signal before the click.
Google Ads
Cory Liseno and Matt Landers have published episode 3 of the Ads DevCast, covering the new Google Ads and Analytics MCP servers for cross-platform data analysis, the Google Ads API Developer Assistant for writing and debugging API integrations, new Data Manager UI diagnostics, and AdMob SDK migration tools. Available on YouTube, YouTube Music, and as a blog post.
Google Ads
Google has added campaign-level filtering to its bulk ad review workflow. Advertisers requesting bulk revision of policy-flagged ads can now select specific campaigns rather than submitting all eligible ads simultaneously: reducing the risk of triggering broad re-review of campaigns that are already serving correctly.
Google Ads
The April coverage and images show a superseded DSA plan. Google's 11 June update moves the start of automatic DSA upgrades to February 2027. Automatically created assets and campaign-level broad match remain on the September 2026 timetable.
Display & Video 360
Google has released the April 2026 update to the Display & Video 360 API. The update adds beta support for Demand Gen resource management: allowlisted customers can now create, update, and delete Demand Gen line items, ad groups, ads, and targeting via the API, with full general availability planned later in 2026.
Google Merchant Center
Google has published its annual product data specification update effective April 14, 2026. New delivery attributes at the product level include: handling_cutoff_time (the daily deadline for processing online orders); minimum_order_value (the minimum spend required for delivery); and two new loyalty sub-attributes: loyalty_program_label and loyalty_tier_label: for tier-specific delivery benefits per product.
Apple Ads
David Vargas has reported that two weeks after Apple Ads' second-position ad placement launched, the Insights section shows impression share only for the first position, not for all positions combined, with no visibility into second-position appearances or direct performance. Vargas's own data shows that only one keyword gained +10% in impression share from the second placement, with CPA there ($9.41) higher than in the first position ($5.50).
Google Ads
Google will resume certification applications for online gambling advertisers targeting Australia on April 21, 2026, after a pause since August 2025. The update follows Google's March 2026 eligibility changes, which impose stricter account and domain verification standards.
Google Ads
Arpan Banerjee and Thomas Eccel have both identified a new Results tab inside Google Ads Recommendations, showing the actual incremental impact of bid and budget recommendations that have already been applied: enabling advertisers to see whether Google's suggestions moved metrics in the stated direction rather than acting on blind faith.
Google Ads
Jeremy Young has flagged a growing wave of phishing attacks targeting agency Google Ads Manager accounts. The scam involves fraudulent audit invites followed by a phishing email mimicking a read-only MCC access invite.
Google Ads
Arpan Banerjee has spotted that Text Guidelines (Beta): the brand rule system constraining AI-generated ad copy: can now be copied from an existing campaign to a new one in a single click, enabling consistent brand tone and messaging rules to be applied across an account without manual re-entry.
Google Tag
Google has added dedicated channels for the Data Manager API to its Google Advertising and Measurement Community Discord server: #data-manager-api for questions and feedback, and #announce-data-manager-api for product news. Google's Developer Relations team will be actively present on both channels.
Google Ads
Natasha Kaurra has identified that the "Do not assign a value" option has been removed from the Google Ads conversion setup flow. Advertisers must now choose either a fixed value per conversion or dynamic values.
Google Ads
Following the Easter rollout, Google's seasonal Asset Group Theming is now live for Mother's Day. The feature duplicates an existing asset group, applies AI-generated themed images and updated copy, and leaves the original asset group untouched: all changes require approval before publication.
Google Merchant Center
The Merchant API will be available as an Advanced API in the Google Ads Scripts editor from April 22, 2026. The API is modular: sub-APIs cover Product Studio, Reviews, Notifications, and expanded data-source management, including supplemental, local, regional, and promotional data.
Google Ads
Thomas Eccel has spotted a new Beta button in Performance Max asset groups labelled "Copy and edit with AI." The feature duplicates an entire asset group in one click and connects to Google's creative editing tools: Nano Banana 2 for image generation and editing, and Veo 3 for video variations: allowing AI-remixed creative variants to be produced without leaving the Google Ads interface.
Google Ads
Jason King has flagged that Google Ad Grants campaigns stopped serving ads on Google Maps after February 3, 2026, with no official explanation from Google to date. The issue affects all Ad Grants accounts running map-based placements.
Google Ads
Google will update its Healthcare and Medicines policy in April 2026 to allow certified online pharmacies to promote prescription drug services in India. Advertisers need LegitScript Healthcare Merchant Certification and must apply directly to Google when the policy takes effect.
YouTube
Arpan Banerjee has spotted Google product rating annotations surfacing directly on YouTube Shorts placements. The star rating overlay brings Shopping-style social proof to the Shorts format, providing products with an additional trust signal when a viewer engages with a short-form video ad.
Google Ads
Google has announced that enhanced conversions for web and enhanced conversions for leads will be combined into a single feature with a unified on/off toggle, effective June 2026. From April 2026, Google Ads will simultaneously accept user-provided data from website tags, the Data Manager, and API connections: removing the requirement to choose a single implementation method.
Google Merchant Center
Google has extended its loyalty programme features in Merchant Centre to 14 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Microsoft Advertising
Anthony Higman has spotted Google testing two new multi-location Google Business Profile asset formats in Google Ads: one variant shows GBP review figures alongside additional information for each location, and the other shows locations in a swipeable carousel. Higman noted the carousel version appeared partially glitched in his observations, suggesting the feature is still in development.
Google Ads
Google has announced that Shopping Ads are expanding into 15 new European markets across two waves. The first phase, timed for Back to School, covers Cyprus, Luxembourg, Moldova, North Macedonia, Malta, and Liechtenstein.
Google Ads
Google has updated Help Centre articles for nine advertising policy areas: Cryptocurrencies, Editorial, Financial products and services, Healthcare and medicines, Limited ad serving, Other restricted businesses, Sexual content, Sexual health and wellness, and related policies: for improved organisation and readability. Google has confirmed that the updates do not change policy enforcement; they are content and structure improvements only.
Google Ads
Axel Falck has spotted a new native view in Performance Max called "Channel performance over time," displaying how each channel (Search, YouTube, Display, etc.) contributes to results as a stacked time-series graph, with a filter to toggle between performance metrics and investment. The view was previously only available via custom scripts.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft’s 1 October 2026 milestone reserves new API features and enhancements for REST. Its SOAP API is scheduled for full deprecation on 31 January 2027. These are separate dates for integration planning.
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