Week of Aug 18, 2025

9 changes logged the week of Aug 18, 2025, 2 high impact; 2 took effect. Open this week in the change history.

Google Ads

• CSAI policy renamed Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE) and made an egregious violationAug 19, 2025 · Policy · General · effective Oct 22, 2025

  Google renamed and expanded its child sexual abuse imagery policy to CSAE, covering all formats including AI-generated and fictional material. From October 22, 2025 violations are treated as egregious, leading to immediate account suspension and possible reporting to NCMEC. Source

• Canada cannabis Search ads pilot launched for federally licensed producers and retailersAug 20, 2025 · Policy · Search · effective Aug 25, 2025

  Google began a pilot allowing legally permitted cannabis products and services to be advertised on Search in Canada by holders of federal Health Canada licences and authorized retailers, with users able to opt out via ad settings. The pilot was later extended through December 31, 2026. Source

• Full placement reporting launched for the Search Partner Network in Search, Shopping and App campaignsAug 21, 2025 · Reporting & UI · Search

  Advertisers can now see site-level placement data for ads served on the Search Partner Network in Search, Shopping and App campaigns, matching the transparency already available in Performance Max. Source

• Preview ad option added next to View asset detailsAug 18, 2025 · Reporting & UI · Search

  A new Preview ad button in the Google Ads console opens a modal showing how a responsive search ad renders without leaving the asset details screen. Source

• Google briefly announced removal of manual language targeting from Search campaigns by end of 2025Aug 18, 2025 · Targeting & Audiences · Search

  Google's language targeting help page stated that manual language targeting would be removed from Search campaigns by the end of 2025 in favour of AI language detection, but the notice was removed within days and the change's status is unclear. Source

• Search ads tested an 'X visits in the past month' engagement labelAug 22, 2025 · Creative & Assets · Search

  Thomas Eccel and Khushal Bherwani spotted ads carrying a label showing how many visits the site received in the past month. Google did not confirm the test. Source

• Demand Gen now warns that videos under 10 seconds are ineligible for YouTube in-streamAug 23, 2025 · Creative & Assets · Demand Gen

  Google Ads added a warning in Demand Gen when video assets are shorter than 10 seconds, which makes them ineligible for YouTube in-stream placements, and recommends assets over 15 seconds. Source

Merchant Center

• Content API for Shopping sunset announced for August 18, 2026Aug 18, 2025 · Deprecation · Feeds · effective Aug 18, 2026

  Alongside Merchant API general availability, Google announced that the Content API for Shopping would be shut down on August 18, 2026, giving merchants and platforms one year to migrate product, account, inventory and reporting integrations to the Merchant API. Source

Google Analytics

• Admin API added GetReportingIdentitySettings and removed legacy Universal Analytics methodsAug 20, 2025 · API & Tools · Measurement

  Admin API v1alpha gained GetReportingIdentitySettings for reading a property's reporting identity, and removed deprecated UA-era methods such as account configuration and connected site tag operations. Source

Took effect this week

• Online gambling ads opened in Cameroon and Namibia for licensed operatorsEffective Aug 19, 2025 · announced Aug 4, 2025 · Google Ads
• Google Ads API v18 sunset confirmed for August 20, 2025Effective Aug 20, 2025 · announced Jul 10, 2025 · Google Ads API & Scripts

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