Week of Jul 20, 2026
18 changes logged the week of Jul 20, 2026, 6 high impact; 1 took effect. Open this week in the change history.
Google Ads
- Local Services Ads moving into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals
Google is migrating Local Services Ads out of the standalone dashboard into Google Ads as a new Performance Max campaign type with pay-per-lead goals. Ads still show only on Search and Maps and bill per valid lead, but weekly budgets become daily, manual bidding and vertical-level tCPA are removed, BBB callouts end, and historical LSA performance reports do not carry over. Source
- Local inventory ads enabled by default in Shopping campaigns from August 31, 2026; Local products toggle cut
Google announced that from August 31, 2026 Shopping campaigns in accounts linked to a Merchant Center with the local inventory ads add-on will serve local inventory ads by default, and the campaign-level "Local products" toggle is being removed. Advertisers wanting separate online and local budgets must adjust inventory filters before the deadline. Source
- In-account appeals removed for policy decisions older than six months
Effective immediately, advertisers can no longer appeal a policy decision from within Google Ads if the decision was made more than six months earlier. Source
- Gambling certification applications and standards revised globally
From August 26, 2026, all new gambling, certified non-casino game and social casino applications must use revised forms requiring valid local licences, destination-site compliance (age warnings, addiction resources, licensing details) and account structures that do not mix certification types. Source
- Telemedicine prescription-drug service ads allowed in Spain
From August 2026, telemedicine providers certified by LegitScript and Google may advertise prescription drug services in Spain; prescription drugs themselves cannot be promoted. Source
- Crypto exchange and wallet ads allowed in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under MiCA
From August 2026, advertisers holding CASP licences under MiCA and Google certification may promote crypto exchanges, software wallets and hardware wallets in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Source
- AI Max features spotted rolling out inside Standard Shopping campaigns
Practitioners saw AI Max controls appear in Standard Shopping campaigns: AI-powered matching for conversational queries, auto-generated ad copy from Merchant Center attributes, Final URL expansion and text-versus-Shopping format selection. Source
- Household income exclusions (seven brackets plus Unknown) appeared at the Performance Max campaign level
Thomas Eccel found the new exclusion options in a European PMax campaign and shared them on LinkedIn. Source
- Enhanced Brand Lift study option rolled out to more advertisers, detecting lifts as small as 1.2%
Advertisers can now choose between Standard Brand Lift (2% detection threshold) and Enhanced Brand Lift, which detects lifts down to 1.2% and is 60% more likely to detect positive lift but needs roughly three times the budget. Source
- 'Missed growth opportunities' moved from Labs into the Recommendations tab as 'Missed opportunities'
Thomas Eccel noticed the estimates of missed clicks, conversions and value now live in Recommendations rather than the Labs hub. Source
- Comparison Listing ads renamed CSS Product Listing ads with rewritten Help documentation
Google replaced the Comparison Listing ads format name and Help page with 'CSS Product Listing ads', redirecting the old URL; the carousel format for comparison shopping services works the same way. Source
- 'Recommended by Google AI' measurement suggestions added to the Conversion summary page
The Conversion summary dashboard now shows AI-generated recommendations to improve conversion measurement, labeled 'Recommended by Google AI'. Source
Merchant Center
- Ask Advisor began rolling out in Merchant Center following its Google Marketing Live 2026 announcement
Ask Advisor, Google's Gemini-built agent spanning Google Ads, Analytics and Merchant Center, started appearing in selected Merchant Center accounts to diagnose account issues and help with tasks, in a phased rollout. Source
- AI summary insights, suggested searches and previous-chats panel added to the Merchant Center dashboard
Merchant Center added AI-generated summary insights, a search box with suggested queries and a section for previous AI chats on the dashboard, building on Merchant Advisor and AI performance reports introduced earlier in 2026. Source
Google Ads API & Scripts
- Google Ads API v25 released with loyalty retention goals, Shorts social metrics and unified goals schema
v25 added the ad_sub_format_type segment for non-skippable YouTube ad durations, comments/likes/shares metrics for Shorts ads, a loyalty retention goal, a revamped new customer acquisition goal using Goal and CampaignGoalConfig (removing CustomerLifecycleGoal and CampaignLifecycleGoal), and consented YouTube channel insights, and made synthetic content attestation fields mutable. Source
- Local Inventory Ads enabled by default for Shopping campaigns from August 31, 2026
ShoppingSetting.enable_local is overridden to true for all Shopping campaigns; from v25.1 setting it to false returns ContextError.OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CONTEXT. Advertisers wanting online-only serving should add a listing scope with product_channel ONLINE via CampaignCriterionService or use the inventory filter. Performance Max and Demand Gen are unaffected. Source
- Google Ads Editor 2.13 released with channel performance reports, AI attestation and AI Max for Shopping
Editor 2.13 added native channel performance reporting, a User attestation field for AI-generated image and video assets, AI Max capabilities for Shopping campaigns, a customer retention goal for Performance Max, business name and logo fields on responsive and non-skippable video ads, classic display assets and the Maps channel for Demand Gen, optional Target CPV/CPM bids with best-practice warnings, redesigned column management and resumable downloads, and restructured Target CPA/Target ROAS bidding strategies; creating Video Action campaigns was removed. Source
ChatGPT Ads
- Conversions objective with oCPC, geo exclusions, 7-day daily budgets, Bulk API and AppsFlyer/Adjust added
OpenAI shipped eight updates: conversion-optimized CPC campaigns via a Conversions objective (billed per click), location exclusions, daily budgets redefined as a seven-day average with intraday pacing (from July 27), automatic advanced matching for the pixel, AppsFlyer and Adjust mobile measurement integrations, an asynchronous Bulk API, and refreshed product feed cards with prices and star ratings. Source
Took effect this week
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