Week of Jan 20, 2025
16 changes logged the week of Jan 20, 2025, 1 high impact; 3 took effect. Open this week in the change history.
Google Ads
- Campaign-level negative keywords rolled out to all Performance Max advertisers
Campaign-level negative keywords, previously in beta since DMEXCO 2024, began rolling out to all Performance Max advertisers over the following weeks. Advertisers can now exclude specific queries for brand suitability or other reasons. Source
- PMax search terms insights gained a 'Source' column showing which theme, URL or asset triggered the query
Natasha Kaurra and Hana Kobzová reported a new source column in Performance Max search terms insights that attributes queries to search themes, landing URLs or creative assets. No Google announcement accompanied it. Source
- PMax search term reports began labelling low-volume queries as 'Private'
Arpan Banerjee spotted queries in Performance Max reports grouped under a 'Private' label for terms with fewer than 50 unique searches over 90 days. The change was not announced. Source
- Government documents policy dropped certification for European vignettes and French business IDs
Google removed the certification requirement for advertisers promoting European vignettes/e-vignettes, and advertisers promoting business identifiers only in France no longer need government authorization (a policy exclusion application is still required). Enforcement began February 5, 2025 and ramped over about 8 weeks. Source
- Search themes officially launched in Performance Max with source column and usefulness indicator
Search themes graduated from beta in Performance Max. Search terms insights gained a source column showing whether a term came from a search theme, the landing page or assets, and a usefulness indicator flags which themes are adding incremental value. Source
- High value new customer mode for the new customer acquisition goal rolled out to all advertisers
The high value mode of the new customer acquisition goal, introduced in beta in 2024, rolled out to all Performance Max advertisers. It lets advertisers specify high-value customers and their long-term value through Customer Match so bidding can prioritise them. Source
- Device targeting beta announced for Performance Max
Google announced a Performance Max beta allowing advertisers to customise targeting to computer, mobile or tablet traffic. Device targeting reached accounts in May 2025. Source
- Brand exclusions by format announced for retail Performance Max campaigns
Retail advertisers with product feeds will be able to apply brand exclusions to Search text ads only while continuing to capture branded traffic on Shopping ads. Announced as coming soon. Source
- Asset group performance segmentation and downloads rolled out in Performance Max
Advertisers can segment asset group performance by device, time, conversions and other dimensions, and download asset group data from the Google Ads interface. Rolling out to all Performance Max campaigns. Source
- Age-based demographic exclusions beta announced for Performance Max
Google announced a beta letting advertisers exclude specific age brackets from Performance Max campaigns, with sign-up required. The control started appearing in accounts in April 2025. Source
- Crypto exchange and software wallet ads allowed in South Africa with FSCA registration
Advertisers registered with South Africa's FSCA and certified by Google may promote crypto exchanges and software wallets targeting South Africa from February 12, 2025. Hardware wallet promotion is also allowed. Source
- Assets reporting gained a 'Used since' column showing when each asset was added
PPC News Feed first spotted a new 'Used since' column in asset reporting that reveals when creative elements were added to an account. Search Engine Roundtable documented the same column for Performance Max a week later. Source
- Advertiser verification help articles reorganized for readability
Google restructured and clarified its Advertiser Verification help center articles. No change to verification requirements or enforcement. Source
- "URL contains" rules announced for Performance Max campaigns with product feeds
URL contains rules, which restrict final URL expansion to pages matching a string, were announced as expanding soon to Performance Max campaigns that use product feeds. Source
Google Analytics
- GA4 added copying of custom reports and explorations between properties
Users can now copy a custom detail report or exploration configuration from one property to another, saving setup time and avoiding configuration drift across properties. Source
- Admin API added userDataRetention field to DataRetentionSettings (v1alpha/v1beta)
The Google Analytics Admin API gained a userDataRetention field so developers can read or change a property's user-level data retention separately from event data retention. Source
Took effect this week
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