Week of Jul 13, 2026

15 changes logged the week of Jul 13, 2026, 2 high impact; 2 took effect. Open this week in the change history.

Google Ads

• 'Good policy health' certification requirement extended to all gambling and games categoriesJul 13, 2026 · Policy · General · effective Sep 14, 2026

  From September 14, 2026, every gambling and games certification category requires accounts to show good policy health; MCCs with repeated revocations or violations lose eligibility, and free-subdomain or unrelated domains are ineligible. Source

• Video campaign groups launched globally to manage reach and frequency across multiple YouTube campaignsJul 13, 2026 · Launch · Video

  Advertisers can group multiple YouTube campaigns under one reach or frequency objective while keeping separate budgets and creatives, with unified reporting on unique reach and weekly frequency. Coming to Display & Video 360 later. Source

• Conversion action statuses were renamed to 'Misconfigured', 'Awaiting conversions' and 'Removed'Jul 13, 2026 · Measurement · Measurement

  Natasha Kaurra and Saquib Syed independently shared the new status labels on LinkedIn; Google's help documentation was updated to match. Source

• 'Partners (Alpha)' setting spotted letting some Performance Max advertisers opt out of Search Partners and GDNJul 15, 2026 · Targeting & Audiences · Performance Max

  A limited alpha adds two checkboxes to Performance Max campaigns to exclude the Search Partner Network and Google Display Network; some accounts also saw household income exclusions. Google confirmed it is a pilot with a small group and gave no rollout date. Source

• Product-level reporting for Performance Max began including all networks, causing a one-time jump in metricsJul 16, 2026 · Reporting & UI · Performance Max · effective Jun 15, 2026

  Bia Camargo flagged that PMax product reports now include video, app and Demand Gen network data (effective June 15), and Google noted a one-time increase in impressions and clicks for PMax only. Source

• Advertisers were emailed that local inventory ads would turn on by default and 'Local products' would go awayJul 16, 2026 · Targeting & Audiences · Shopping · effective Aug 31, 2026

  Arpan Banerjee shared the notice that Shopping campaigns linked to Merchant Center accounts with the LIA add-on will serve local inventory ads by default, with the inventory filter replacing the old dropdown. Source

• Local inventory ads turned on by default in Shopping campaigns; 'Local products' setting replacedJul 16, 2026 · Launch · Shopping · effective Aug 31, 2026

  Google emailed advertisers whose Merchant Center has the local inventory ads add-on that local inventory ads will turn on automatically in Shopping campaigns. The 'Local products' dropdown is removed and advertisers who want to separate online and local inventory must use an inventory filter (Channel = Local or Online) by August 31, 2026. Source

• Google re-tested a sticky sponsored results block with rounded card borders and a thinner labelJul 13, 2026 · Creative & Assets · Search

  Khushal Bherwani reported the card-style sponsored layout on X, echoing a September 2024 test. Source

• Prediction market ads prohibited in Michigan and New YorkJul 13, 2026 · Policy · General · effective Jul 13, 2026

  Google added Michigan and New York to the states where prediction market contracts and related products cannot be advertised. Source

• Ad preview gained filtering by asset plus side-by-side examples for text customization and final URL expansionJul 13, 2026 · Reporting & UI · Search

  Arpan Banerjee reported the new preview options on LinkedIn and X. Source

• Removing a user's account access began requiring a written justification sent to another adminJul 14, 2026 · Policy · Account & Billing

  Arpan Banerjee reported on X that Google Ads now asks for a justification when removing access, tied to multi-party approval security. Source

• Google tested a control letting users hide sponsored products in Shopping results; Ads Liaison confirmedJul 15, 2026 · Creative & Assets · Shopping

  Sachin Patel spotted the hide/show toggle and Ginny Marvin confirmed Google is testing more consistent ad labeling across search and shopping. Source

Merchant Center

• Shopping ads and free listings policies consolidated into single 'Shopping policies'Jul 15, 2026 · Policy · Shopping · effective Sep 1, 2026

  Google will merge the Shopping ads and free listings policies into one set of Shopping policies from September 2026 for clarity, with no substantive or more restrictive changes. Source

Google Analytics

• GA4 added native AdMob linking under Admin > Product linksJul 13, 2026 · Launch · App

  App properties can manage links between app data streams and AdMob apps directly in Analytics Admin (requires Admin/Editor in Analytics and Administrator in AdMob). Source

ChatGPT Ads

• Custom audiences launched: upload email and phone lists to include, exclude or bid-adjust matched usersJul 15, 2026 · Targeting & Audiences · General · effective Jul 15, 2026

  OpenAI introduced custom audiences for ChatGPT Ads, letting advertisers upload first-party customer and prospect lists (emails, phone numbers) to target or suppress at the campaign level and apply bid adjustments to matched users at the ad group level. Lists initially required 25,000 or more members. Source

Took effect this week

• Demand Gen campaigns using view-through optimization on Discover were moved from CPC to CPM billingEffective Jul 15, 2026 · announced Jun 16, 2026 · Google Ads
• Passkeys to be required for sensitive Google Ads account actions starting July 15, 2026Effective Jul 15, 2026 · announced May 8, 2026 · Google Ads

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