Week of Jan 27, 2025

13 changes logged the week of Jan 27, 2025, 3 high impact; 1 took effect. Open this week in the change history.

Google Ads

• Video Action Campaigns sunset set: no new VACs from April 2025, auto-upgrade to Demand Gen from July 2025Jan 30, 2025 · Deprecation · Video · effective Jul 1, 2025

  Google confirmed that new Video Action Campaigns could no longer be created from April 2025, an upgrade tool would be available in March, and remaining VACs would be automatically upgraded to Demand Gen starting July 2025. Affects every advertiser still running VACs. Source

• Channel controls beta announced for Demand Gen to choose YouTube, Discover, Gmail or Shorts placementsJan 30, 2025 · Targeting & Audiences · Demand Gen · effective Mar 20, 2025

  Demand Gen gained ad-group-level channel controls so advertisers can choose exactly where ads serve across YouTube (including a Shorts-only option), Discover and Gmail. Announced January 30 as a global beta starting March 2025; the controls were seen live in accounts by March 20. Source

• New Demand Gen reporting columns including view-through and platform-comparable conversions rolled outJan 30, 2025 · Reporting & UI · Demand Gen

  Demand Gen gained reporting columns that include view-through conversions and isolate Demand Gen performance in a way comparable to paid social platforms. Rolling out globally from January 2025; the "Conversions (Platform Comparable)" columns were live in accounts by late March. Source

• Local offers with product feeds beta and richer product feed experience announced for Demand GenJan 30, 2025 · Launch · Demand Gen

  Retailers with Merchant Center feeds can show real-time local product availability in Demand Gen ads (beta) and a richer product feed ad experience surfaces full product details. Aimed at connecting online shoppers with physical stores. Source

• Google Display Network inventory added to Demand Gen campaignsJan 30, 2025 · Targeting & Audiences · Demand Gen

  Demand Gen campaigns can now extend to Google Display inventory, which Google says reaches over 90% of the global internet population across more than 3 million sites and apps. Advertisers can control this via channel controls. Source

• AI video shortening tool announced for Demand Gen along with improved ad creation flowJan 30, 2025 · Creative & Assets · Demand Gen

  Google announced a tool to generate shorter versions of video assets at scale, plus an improved Demand Gen ad creation flow with video enhancement selection and shareable ad previews. Source

• Vertical 9:16 image ads announced for YouTube Shorts in Demand GenJan 30, 2025 · Creative & Assets · Demand Gen · effective Feb 28, 2025

  Demand Gen gained a 9:16 vertical image format so image ads render full screen on YouTube Shorts. Rolling out from late February 2025. Source

• Google began a limited test of AI-generated backgrounds on Shopping ad product imagesJan 30, 2025 · Creative & Assets · Shopping

  Samantha Noble shared a Google notification on LinkedIn about a test that swaps product-image backgrounds for AI-generated scenes, with an opt-out. The test was only communicated to selected advertisers. Source

Merchant Center

• Free-listing conversion tracking in Merchant Center renamed to "key events"Feb 1, 2025 · Measurement · Measurement

  Google renamed free-listing conversion experiences in Merchant Center from "conversions" to "key events" to align with Google Analytics and Google Ads terminology. Setup flows and Analytics tabs were relabeled; no merchant action was required. Source

Google Ads API & Scripts

• Search term insight reports began returning empty search subcategories in the API and scriptsJan 28, 2025 · Deprecation · Reporting · effective Mar 3, 2025

  Starting March 3, 2025, segments.search_subcategory in campaign_search_term_insight and customer_search_term_insight reports returns empty values in both the Google Ads API and Google Ads scripts, matching the UI which had already removed the field. Source

Microsoft Ads

• LinkedIn profile targeting piloted as an audience signal for Performance Max in six marketsJan 27, 2025 · Targeting & Audiences · Performance Max

  Performance Max campaigns could use LinkedIn company, industry and job function signals as audience signals in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, France and Germany. Access was by request through account teams during the pilot. Source

• API v13.0.24 added generative AI ad recommendations, placement exclusion lists and NCA goal settingsFeb 1, 2025 · API & Tools · General

  The February 2025 API release added Create/Refine recommendation operations for asset groups, responsive ads and RSAs, AccountPlacementExclusionList, new-customer acquisition metrics and a NewCustomerAcquisitionGoalSetting bulk mapping. Source

Search Console

• Search Console began showing Performance report freshness in 30-minute intervalsJan 29, 2025 · Reporting & UI · Reporting

  The 'last updated' indicator on Performance reports started displaying half-hour granularity (for example '3.5 hours ago') instead of whole hours. Source

Took effect this week

• Remaining Smart Shopping campaigns were converted to Performance MaxEffective Jan 31, 2025 · announced Feb 4, 2025 · Microsoft Ads

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