Week of Aug 3, 2026
16 changes logged the week of Aug 3, 2026, 3 high impact; 2 took effect. Open this week in the change history.
Google Ads
- Campaign-level broad match and legacy ACA creation stopped; auto-migration to AI Max during September
From August 3, 2026 advertisers can no longer enable the campaign-level broad match setting or legacy automatically created assets in the Google Ads UI, Editor or API. Remaining eligible Search campaigns using them are migrated to AI Max (AI-powered search term matching and text customization on by default) gradually during September 1-30, 2026, with an opt-out in campaign settings. Source
- Government documents and services ads limited to authorized providers from October 5, 2026
From October 5, 2026, only providers explicitly authorized by the relevant government entity, with domains linked from official government websites, may run ads promoting government documents and services, and only for the specific services and regions they are authorized for. Source
- Limited ad serving policy expanded to cover all Google Ads products
Google extended Limited ad serving beyond Search to all Google Ads, restricting impressions from unqualified advertisers across Search, YouTube, Gmail, Play and Discover in specific scenarios. Implementation is gradual and completes by 2028; advertisers qualify via verification, clear branding, policy compliance and positive engagement. Source
- Search ad descriptions were spotted with clickable, keyword-style hyperlinks pointing to the ad's landing page
Nayan Prakash shared the experiment on LinkedIn; Search Engine Roundtable documented it the same week. Google did not confirm. Source
- A 'Report on new customers acquired' measurement-only option replaced the 0.01 bid-adjustment workaround
Vasant Chaudhary found the new customer acquisition option that segments conversions by new versus existing customers without affecting bidding; Thomas Eccel shared it on LinkedIn. Source
- Sensitive account actions restricted for free email domains in a security test
Google began testing a requirement that sensitive actions such as account linking and user access changes be performed from corporate email addresses rather than free domains like Gmail, citing a rise in account hijacking. Source
- A 'new' option let text disclaimers override descriptions pinned to position one
Emirhan Bayutmus spotted the option, labeled new in the interface, allowing compliance text to display as the first description. Source
- Ad Preview & Diagnosis tool broke for many users due to a captcha loop
Advertisers reported the preview tool repeatedly prompting captchas and failing to load results. Source
- Phone call conversions leads report gained a 'View call report' link
Govind Singh Panwar spotted the new link that opens call details in a new tab. Source
Merchant Center
- 'Deal Ends' experimental annotation documented for Shopping ads, showing '3 days left' urgency badges
A new Merchant Center help page explains the experimental Deal Ends annotation, which automatically adds countdown badges such as '3 days left' under product prices on Product Listing Ads, generated from existing promotions and sale_price data. Deals must expire within 7 days; there is no opt-out and no dedicated reporting yet. Source
Google Ads API & Scripts
- Pilot launched to restrict sensitive API calls on manager account hierarchies to allowlisted Cloud projects
Google began piloting a program that audits API activity under a top-level manager account and restricts account management, user management and billing API methods to a pre-approved allowlist of Google Cloud projects, so unapproved applications fail even with valid credentials. Source
Microsoft Ads
- API v13.0.29 added LinkedIn segment criteria, a search term landing page report and bulk negative keywords
The August 4, 2026 release added CustomLinkedInCriterion and GetLinkedInSegments, SearchTermLandingPageReportRequest, AssetGroupNegativeKeywords and other bulk entities, and Python/PHP SDK deserialization updates. Source
- Excluded content terms let advertisers block Audience ads next to specific page titles
Up to 1,000 terms can be set at account or campaign level under Tools > Content suitability, complementing website exclusion lists and category exclusions; gradual rollout. Source
- Age and gender include/exclude targeting added to Performance Max
Performance Max campaigns can include or exclude age brackets (18-24 through 65+) and gender (Male, Female, Unknown), matching Search and Audience controls; GA on September 8, 2026 with Google import support to follow. Source
- Assets tab gained policy status filters and bulk edit/appeal for disapproved assets
Disapproved or policy-limited text and image assets can be filtered, reviewed with rejection reasons, and edited or appealed in bulk. Source
ChatGPT Ads
- Product feed campaigns gained oCPC beta, dynamic URL macros, a multi-product carousel test and integrations
OpenAI extended conversion-optimized CPC to product feed campaigns in beta, added landing-page macros ({campaign_id}, {ad_group_id}, {ad_id}, {ad_account_id}), began testing a carousel showing multiple products from one advertiser, launched Triple Whale and Hightouch Conversions API integrations, and made automatic advanced matching default for new pixels (existing pixels enabled August 17). Source
Took effect this week
Share this page: https://gadschangehistory.com/week/2026-08-03/