Week of Dec 15, 2025
11 changes logged the week of Dec 15, 2025, 2 high impact. Open this week in the change history.
Google Ads
- Help page quietly updated to show ads in AI Overviews live in 11 more English-speaking countries
Advertisers noticed Google's 'About ads and AI Overviews' help page changed to list Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines and Singapore. No formal announcement accompanied the expansion. Source
- Ads in AI Overviews expanded to 11 more English-language countries
Google updated its help documentation to show ads inside AI Overviews now serve in English in Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore, in addition to the US, on mobile and desktop. Eligible ads come from existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. Source
- View-through conversion optimized bidding launched for Android App campaigns for installs
App campaigns promoting Android apps can now opt into bidding that uses view-through conversion signals, extending reach on AdMob and YouTube formats where users convert after viewing rather than clicking. A view is 50% of pixels on screen for 1 second (or 2 seconds of video), matched to a conversion within a 24-hour window. Source
- Ads Liaison clarified exact match keywords don't block broad match from serving in AI Overviews
Toan Tran asked whether an exact match keyword would prevent its broad match twin from serving in AI Overviews. Ginny Marvin said it will not, because exact match is not eligible for AI Overview placements. Source
- Demand Gen campaigns gained a 'Presence' vs 'Presence or interest' location targeting option
Demand Gen setup now lets advertisers choose Presence only or Presence or interest, matching the control long available in Search. Previously reaching only people physically in a market required manually excluding other countries. Source
- Resized videos added as an auto-enabled asset optimization in Demand Gen
A new Resized videos option in Demand Gen asset optimization settings automatically creates alternate aspect ratios of video assets and may be on by default alongside shorter video variants and landing page screenshots, so advertisers should review their settings. Source
Merchant Center
- Product Studio added animate-image, background removal and resolution-upscaling tools
Product Studio in Merchant Center gained three tools: animate a static product image into a short video from a text prompt, one-click background removal, and image upscaling, complementing the existing Generate image feature. Source
Google Ads API & Scripts
- Google Ads API v19 sunset confirmed for February 11, 2026
All v19 requests began failing on February 11, 2026; developers had to move to v20 or later. Source
Microsoft Ads
- Microsoft clarified that exact match keywords take priority over Performance Max and Ad Rank
Microsoft Ads Liaison Navah Hopkins confirmed that an exact match keyword in a Search campaign wins the auction over Performance Max for the same query; otherwise Ad Rank decides. Copilot surfaces do not block exact match, though broad match and PMax serve more often on conversational queries. Source
- Placement and topic content targeting launched for Audience ads in all markets
Advertisers can target Microsoft placement bundles (for example Gaming, MSN Health, Outlook) or 27 topic categories for native, display and video ads, with a content targeting report. Microsoft listed it as generally available in January 2026. Source
Search Console
- Search Console resolved weeks of 50+ hour Performance report delays
Throughout early December 2025 Performance reports lagged by 50-70+ hours instead of the usual few hours; the backlog cleared on December 15-16, 2025 and normal freshness returned. Source
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