# Google Ads Change History

> A change history for Google Ads, Merchant Center, Google Analytics, and the Google Ads API. Every policy, product, and interface change since January 2025, filterable by date and category, styled like the Google Ads Change history screen.

Independent project by Brandon Mangan (https://brandonmangan.com). Not affiliated with Google.

## Data
- Full dataset (JSON): https://gadschangehistory.com/changes.json
- RSS: https://gadschangehistory.com/feed.xml
- Methodology: https://gadschangehistory.com/about/

## Recent changes
- 2026-09-08 · Google Ads · Measurement: Store sales measurement moved into Data Manager with direct CRM and Google Sheets connections — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-08-store-sales-in-data-manager/
- 2026-09-08 · Google Ads · Creative & Assets: Shopping ads showed a '200+ sold last week' badge more widely — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-08-shopping-ads-sold-last-week-badge/
- 2026-09-08 · Google Ads · Policy: Location asset requirements rewritten for terminology, readability and troubleshooting steps — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-08-location-asset-requirements-clarified/
- 2026-09-08 · Google Ads · Reporting & UI: AI Dashboards started appearing in advertiser accounts a month after being announced — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-08-ai-dashboards-appearing-in-accounts/
- 2026-09-07 · Merchant Center · Reporting & UI: Merchant Center's AI performance insight panel briefly showed its internal prompt instructions in a glitch — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-07-merchant-center-ai-insight-prompt-glitch/
- 2026-09-04 · Google Ads · Launch: Waze Ads in Performance Max expanded from the United States to select global markets — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-04-waze-ads-expanded-beyond-united-states/
- 2026-09-04 · Google Ads · Targeting & Audiences: Google began a small test serving exact and phrase match Search ads in AI Mode — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-04-exact-and-phrase-match-ads-in-ai-mode-test/
- 2026-09-04 · Google Ads · Reporting & UI: Google Ads began nudging advertisers about recommendations they had already dismissed — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-04-dismissed-recommendations-resurfaced/
- 2026-09-04 · Google Ads · Creative & Assets: Google tested sitelinks that collapse by default with a count you click to expand — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-04-collapsing-sitelinks-test/
- 2026-09-03 · Google Ads · Policy: An 'Under re-review' eligible (limited) ad status drew attention; Google said it has existed for years — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-03-under-re-review-eligible-limited-status/
- 2026-09-03 · Google Tag & Tag Manager · Measurement: Google tag gateway for advertisers left beta on Akamai and Fastly — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-03-tag-gateway-akamai-fastly-out-of-beta/
- 2026-09-03 · Google Ads · Policy: Personalized advertising policy to allow personalized alcohol ads on YouTube where locally permitted — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-03-personalized-advertising-policy-to-allow-personalized/
- 2026-09-03 · Merchant Center · Reporting & UI: Merchant Center AI performance insights expanded to Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-03-merchant-center-ai-insights-four-more-markets/
- 2026-09-03 · Google Ads · Reporting & UI: YouTube Creator Partnerships analytics gained unique reach and co-viewer metrics for linked creator videos — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-03-creator-partnerships-analytics-reach-metrics/
- 2026-09-02 · Google Ads · Targeting & Audiences: Hotel campaigns gained sub-country location targeting for regions, states, cities and postal codes — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-02-hotel-campaigns-subcountry-location-targeting/
- 2026-09-02 · Google Analytics · Reporting & UI: Google Analytics showed zero traffic for September 1 across many properties due to a processing glitch — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-02-ga4-zero-traffic-september-1-bug/
- 2026-09-02 · Google Ads · Creative & Assets: Bumper ads redefined as 5 to 6 seconds long instead of '6 seconds or shorter' — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-02-bumper-ads-redefined-5-to-6-seconds/
- 2026-09-02 · Google Ads · Creative & Assets: Automated promotions launched: Google pulls offers off landing pages and attaches them to ads — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-02-automated-promotions-launched/
- 2026-09-02 · Google Ads API & Scripts · Deprecation: Google Ads API v22 sunset confirmed for October 7, 2026 — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-02-ads-api-v22-sunset/
- 2026-09-01 · Google Ads · Reporting & UI: Performance Max Help documentation rewritten to clarify Search prioritization, controls and budget panel — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-01-pmax-help-doc-search-priority-rewrite/
- 2026-09-01 · Google Ads · Targeting & Audiences: Lookalike segments expanded to Video brand campaigns with narrow, balanced and broad reach tiers — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-01-lookalike-segments-video-campaigns/
- 2026-09-01 · Merchant Center · Launch: Business Agent can now be switched on from the Google & YouTube app in Shopify — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-01-business-agent-enabled-from-shopify/
- 2026-09-01 · Google Ads · Targeting & Audiences: AI Max help doc was updated: broad keywords are not treated as exact match for keyword prioritization — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-01-ai-max-exact-match-prioritization-doc-update/
- 2026-09-01 · Google Ads · Creative & Assets: Sponsored results gained a 'What customers love' block labeled 'AI-generated from the store rating reviews' — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-09-01-ai-generated-store-rating-reviews-label/
- 2026-08-31 · Merchant Center · Reporting & UI: Popular products report enhanced with broader coverage and more accurate rankings — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-31-popular-products-report-enhanced/
- 2026-08-31 · Google Ads · Bidding & Budget: Channel prioritization sliders spotted in Performance Max alpha for Search, YouTube, Display and more — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-31-pmax-channel-prioritization-alpha/
- 2026-08-31 · Google Ads · Reporting & UI: 'Automatic payments' renamed Postpay and 'Manual payments' renamed Prepay across billing — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-31-payments-renamed-postpay-prepay/
- 2026-08-31 · Google Ads API & Scripts · Policy: Google Ads Developer Policies updated for AI-era integrations — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-31-google-ads-developer-policies-updated-for/
- 2026-08-31 · Google Ads API & Scripts · Policy: Google Ads Developer Policies updated to ban programmatic proxies and require a dedicated Cloud project — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-31-developer-policies-update-no-proxies/
- 2026-08-31 · Google Ads · Launch: AI Mode began showing inline Shopping ad carousels plus a single ad unit at the bottom of responses — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-31-ai-mode-inline-shopping-carousel-ads/
- 2026-08-29 · Google Ads · Reporting & UI: Product titles report launched showing AI-customized titles versus original titles with performance — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-29-product-titles-report-ai-generated/
- 2026-08-29 · Google Ads · Bidding & Budget: Local Services Ads to charge for missed calls over 20 seconds and follow-up calls from October 1, 2026 — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-29-lsa-charges-missed-and-subsequent-calls/
- 2026-08-29 · Google Ads · Creative & Assets: Dynamic remarketing ads on the Display Network tested a 'For You' label in the top-left corner — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-29-for-you-label-dynamic-remarketing-test/
- 2026-08-28 · Merchant Center · Creative & Assets: Product spec for short_title was updated to say Performance Max now uses it for YouTube and Discover formats — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-28-short-title-attribute-now-used-by-pmax/
- 2026-08-28 · Google Ads · Creative & Assets: Reserve with Google 'Book' buttons began appearing on Search and Performance Max ads for eligible merchants — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-28-reserve-with-google-book-buttons-in-search-and-pmax/
- 2026-08-27 · Google Ads · Reporting & UI: 'Troubleshoot performance fluctuations and changes' help docs published for each campaign type — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-27-troubleshoot-performance-fluctuations-help-docs/
- 2026-08-27 · Google Ads · Creative & Assets: Sponsored results tested swipeable category tabs (e.g. 'featured', 'cheap') that filter the ads shown — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-27-swipeable-category-tabs-under-sponsored-results/
- 2026-08-27 · Google Ads · Bidding & Budget: Smart Bidding guidance shortened: wait 1-2 conversion cycles after changes instead of 3 cycles or 4 weeks — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-27-smart-bidding-adjustment-period-shortened/
- 2026-08-27 · Google Ads · Bidding & Budget: Customer retention controls added to bid higher for loyalty program members and show member benefits — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-27-loyalty-member-bidding-controls/
- 2026-08-27 · Google Tag & Tag Manager · Deprecation: gtm.js snippets to stop honoring gtag('config') commands from October 2, 2026; sites must use gtag.js — https://gadschangehistory.com/changes/2026-08-27-gtm-snippets-stop-honoring-gtag-config/