Week of Aug 4, 2025
25 changes logged the week of Aug 4, 2025, 8 high impact; 4 took effect. Open this week in the change history.
Google Ads
- Political content policy restricted EU political advertising under Regulation 2024/900
From September 2025 Google restricts political advertising in the EU as defined by the TTPA regulation, including ads by or for political actors and ads intended to influence elections or referendums. Advertisers were asked to self-declare political ad intent from mid-August 2025; the EU Political Ads Transparency Report was discontinued. Source
- Full search terms reporting rolled out to all Performance Max campaigns
Search terms reporting with the same granularity as Search and Shopping campaigns is now available for every Performance Max campaign, and also through the Google Ads API. Source
- Campaign-level negative keyword lists made available to all Performance Max campaigns
All Performance Max campaigns can now apply shared negative keyword lists at the campaign level (up to 10,000 negatives), covering Search and Shopping inventory, making cross-campaign exclusions easier to manage. Source
- Sitelinks began factoring into Performance Max ad strength
Vojtěch Audy and PPC News Feed shared screenshots of sitelinks listed in the PMax ad strength widget. Google's ad strength help page was updated to include sitelinks without a broader announcement. Source
- Side-by-side creative A/B experiments launched in beta for Demand Gen
Demand Gen gained a beta experiment flow that duplicates a campaign to test image or video variants head to head, with configurable budget, traffic split and duration. Google made asset uplift experiments generally available on November 17, 2025 with 70/80/95% confidence thresholds. Source
- AI asset optimization enabled by default for Demand Gen image and video ads from September 4, 2025
Google notified advertisers that asset enhancements (auto-generated aspect ratios, shorter video cuts, image variations, text suggestions and an AI image editor) would be switched on by default for new and existing Demand Gen ads from September 4, 2025, with per-ad opt-out. Source
- Performance Max search themes limit raised from 25 to 50 per asset group
Advertisers can now add up to 50 search themes per Performance Max asset group, double the previous limit, to steer Search inventory matching. Source
- Performance Max new customer acquisition reporting improved and goal diagnostics added
Google improved new versus returning customer estimation so 'Unknown' conversion labels are eliminated, added a new customer acquisition parameter to the conversion tag, and introduced goal-related diagnostics that flag issues such as missing tags or broken conversions. Source
- Device targeting and age exclusions fully launched in Performance Max; gender controls entered beta
Device targeting (mobile, desktop, tablet) and age-based demographic targeting are now fully available in Performance Max campaigns, and gender-based demographic controls launched in beta. Source
- Full asset-level stats and Final URL expansion asset reporting added to Performance Max
All Performance Max campaigns now show conversions, cost and clicks per asset, and a new report exposes the text assets Google generates through Final URL expansion so advertisers can review and remove unwanted ones. AI-powered creative recommendations were added alongside. Source
- Demand Gen channel controls gained a Google Maps-only option in beta
A beta lets Demand Gen campaigns serve exclusively on Google Maps (promoted pins) through channel controls, the first way to isolate Maps spend outside Performance Max. Source
- Online gambling ads opened in Cameroon and Namibia for licensed operators
From August 19, 2025, operators licensed by Cameroon's Agence de Régulation des Jeux or Namibia's Gambling Board / Lotteries Board and certified by Google may advertise gambling. Source
- $0.01 placeholder value for new customer acquisition no longer supported
Google Ads stopped accepting the common $0.01 workaround as the additional conversion value for new customers in customer acquisition goals; advertisers must set a realistic value or use their own data. Source
Google Analytics
- GA4 fixed conversion under-reporting for properties sharing web conversions with multiple Ads accounts
A data-quality improvement prevents conversions from being under-reported when a property has multiple linked Google Ads accounts that share web conversions. Source
Google Ads API & Scripts
- Performance Max device targeting, negative keyword lists and age exclusions launched across all API versions
Google added three PMax controls to every supported Google Ads API version: campaign-level DeviceInfo criteria, campaign-level negative keyword lists via CampaignSharedSetService (SharedSet type NEGATIVE_KEYWORDS), and AgeRangeInfo negative criteria for age exclusions. Source
- Google Ads API v21 released with AI Max for Search, PMax search terms and EU political ads declaration
v21 (released alongside minor versions v20.1 and v19.2) added Campaign.contains_eu_political_advertising, the campaign_search_term_view exposing Performance Max search terms, ai_max_setting.enable_ai_max plus the ai_max_search_term_ad_combination_view, brand guidelines on by default for new PMax campaigns, and QR codes, barcodes and terms in PromotionAssets. Source
- EU political ads self-declaration enforced in the Google Ads API and scripts from September 3, 2025
From September 3, 2025, creating a campaign without Campaign.contains_eu_political_advertising fails with FieldError.REQUIRED in v19/v20 (already enforced in v21), and changing proximity, location or location_group targeting on undeclared campaigns fails with MISSING_EU_POLITICAL_ADVERTISING_SELF_DECLARATION errors. Campaigns declared as containing EU political ads stopped serving in the EU on September 22, 2025. Source
Microsoft Ads
- Premium Streaming campaign type launched for video ads on Netflix, Roku, Paramount and other CTV platforms
A new campaign objective lets advertisers serve video on premium streaming inventory including Netflix, Roku, Paramount, LG, Samsung and Rakuten across TVs, mobile, desktop and consoles, with 1 to 3 star creative quality tiers unlocking placements. Source
- Modeled conversions launched for UET Consent Mode in the EEA, UK and Switzerland
Microsoft began estimating conversions lost to declined consent using modeling so reporting and bidding reflect consented and modeled activity for traffic from the EEA, Switzerland and Great Britain. Source
- Share of voice metrics (impression share, click share, lost IS) added to Performance Max
Impression share, click share and impression share lost to budget/rank began rolling out for Performance Max in August 2025 and were generally available by January 2026 with data back to November 10, 2025. Source
- Search term insights and audience insights added to Performance Max reporting
Performance Max advertisers gained search term insights alongside audience insight reporting dimensions. Source
- Asset group-level reporting with segmentation rolled out for Performance Max
Asset group reports can be segmented by device, audience, time and other dimensions; listed as rolling out in August and generally available by September 17, 2025. Source
- Shopping campaigns gained clearer delivery statuses with recommended fixes
New statuses such as "Product offers not found" and "No targeted products" appear on the Overview page with suggested solutions. Source
- Disclaimer support extended to Performance Max
Performance Max campaigns can carry the disclaimer feature introduced for Audience ads in April 2025. Source
- Budget suggestions and performance estimates added for new Performance Max campaigns
New non-feed Performance Max campaigns receive suggested budgets and projected performance during setup. Source
Took effect this week
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