This is the first newsletter of the year, so let’s kick things off with an update on Google Ads.
Overall, the updates in 2026 are pushing towards the same direction: Google wants you to trust the AI more and manage less manually. While there aren’t a lot of massive product launches, there are some exciting features that I love, a number of the 2025 announcements around AI are now in action, and there are a couple of feature deprecations and policy updates that you need to pay attention to.
Whether you’re a marketer or you’re planning to double down on your advertising in 2026, you need to read this.
Section 1: Campaign Updates
1. AI Max will be taking the main stage
Ads will be more integrated into Google’s AI Overview (the AI-generated answers at the top of search results) in 2026. As this feature becomes more common, AI Max will be key for advertisers to capture the opportunity.
The name “AI Max” has caused some confusion as it sounds like a new campaign type, but it’s not. AI Max is a set of AI features that layers on top of your existing Search campaigns. It does two things. First, it expands your reach by finding search queries beyond your current keywords. So even if you haven’t explicitly bid on a term, the AI might show your ad if it thinks the query is relevant. Second, it automatically tailors your ad copy and sends users to whichever landing page it thinks is most relevant based on their search.
This rolled out to all advertisers by Q3 2025, so you should already have access. If you’re running Search campaigns, it’s worth testing. But keep a close eye on your search terms report because the AI will cast a wider net than you might be used to. You’ll want to add negative keywords more actively to filter out irrelevant traffic.
2. Better Reporting for Performance Max
One of the biggest frustrations with Performance Max has always been the lack of visibility. You put budget in, results come out, but you have no real idea which channels are doing the heavy lifting. Is it Search? Shopping? YouTube? Display? You couldn’t tell.
Google has finally addressed this with channel-level reporting in late 2025. You can now see performance metrics broken down by Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, and Discover/Gmail at the account level. This means you can actually understand where your money is going and make more informed decisions about whether PMax makes sense for your business, or whether you’d be better off running dedicated campaigns for specific channels.
This was one of the most requested features from advertisers, and honestly, it should have been there from the start.
3. Demand Gen replaces other video campaigns
If you’re still thinking about Video Action campaigns or Discovery ads, those have already been phased out and replaced by Demand Gen, consolidating YouTube, Gmail, and Discover campaigns to focus on mid-funnel customer engagement.
Google launched an upgrade tool in March 2025 to help with the migration, and in July 2025 it began automatically upgrading any remaining VACs to Demand Gen.
The upside is that Google also announced a couple of new features for Demand Gen in October 2025. It now has Target CPC bidding to give you more control, new customer acquisition goals such as New Customer Only Mode, and AI-generated video tools. Simply put, if you’re thinking about video advertising, Demand Gen should be what you’re looking at.
Section 2: Feature Updates
1. Call Ads are being retired
If you’re using standalone call ads to generate phone leads, pay attention. From February 2026, you won’t be able to create new call ads. Existing ones will keep running for a while, but they’ll stop serving entirely by February 2027.
The solution is straightforward: add your phone numbers as call assets within responsive search ads instead. This fits Google’s broader direction of moving away from fixed ad formats towards a pool of assets that the AI assembles dynamically. Rather than you creating a specific call ad, you give Google your headlines, descriptions, images, and call assets, and it figures out the best combination to show.
If call ads are a significant part of your lead generation, start migrating now rather than waiting until the deadline.
2. Ads Advisor
This is actually my favourite update of all. In late 2025, Google launched “Ads Advisor” in the Google Ads interface, which is a conversational AI tool that acts as a campaign co-pilot. It analyses trends in your account and suggests optimisations. Think of it as having a Gemini app that reads your data and teaches you everything about your performance.
I really love this launch for a few reasons. First, instead of copy-pasting your performance and sending it to ChatGPT or Gemini, you can now just ask Ads Advisor directly. Second, it runs on Google’s entire external and internal knowledge base of its ads products, so it has a much lower rate of hallucination. And finally, it’s completely free of charge, even if you spend $0 on Google Ads. Ever since it launched, it has become my default go-to for any questions on Google Ads, and I can already imagine it replacing the Ads support team at Google. Definitely worth exploring if you want a second opinion on your campaigns or if you’re managing accounts solo and could use another set of eyes.
Section 3: Shopping Ads Updates
1. Subscription promotions are now allowed
Starting January 2026, you can create promotions that are tied to a subscription. This includes offers like discounts on products for subscribers or free trials. You can set these up in Merchant Center.
2. Language restrictions have loosened
The policy on promotional language is now less strict. You can use common abbreviations like “BOGO” (Buy One Get One) and “MSRP” (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) in your promotions.
3. Payment-based offers (Brazil only)
For advertisers in Brazil, you can now run promotions that require a specific payment method, such as cashback offers tied to a particular digital wallet.
4. Google Lens integration
Shopping ads are being integrated with visual search through Google Lens. When someone takes a photo of a product or searches using an image, your Shopping ads can appear. This opens up a new discovery channel, especially for fashion, home goods, and anything where visual appearance matters.
5. Audience exclusions
You now have more control over who sees your Shopping ads. Since August 2025, you can add audience exclusions to filter out segments you don’t want to target. Useful if you’re trying to focus on new customer acquisition and want to exclude existing customers, or if certain audience segments just don’t convert well for you.
Section 4: Policy Updates
1. Prediction markets are now allowed
The most significant policy update for 2026 applies to advertisers in the United States. As of January 21, 2026, Google now allows advertising for regulated prediction markets. This isn’t limited to a specific ad type; however, advertisers who wish to run these ads must be federally regulated and apply for certification through Google.
2. Set up Consent Mode and Enhanced Conversions if you haven’t
This isn’t a single policy update, but if you haven’t set up Consent Mode and Enhanced Conversions yet, 2026 is the year to do it. The ongoing global focus on data privacy continues to shape the platform, and these tools are becoming essential for accurate measurement in a world with fewer cookies.
Section 5: Beta Products
Two beta products worth trying out. If you’re already working with a Google rep, ask about access. If not, watch for these to go live in 2026.
1. Performance Max A/B Testing
One of the biggest criticisms of PMax has been that you can’t properly test what’s working. You throw in a bunch of assets and hope for the best. Now there’s a beta feature that lets you run A/B tests on your PMax assets through the Experiments page. You can test different combinations of headlines, descriptions, and images to see which set actually drives better results. If you’ve been frustrated by the black box nature of PMax, this helps.
2. Insights Finder
This is an AI tool that analyses your existing customer data, conversion patterns, and market signals to uncover new audience segments that you might not have considered. If you’re looking to expand your brand’s reach, this can be a great tool. For example, it might reveal that users with a high interest in “Eco-Friendly Products” are a strong converting segment for you. You could then use this information to create a new campaign or asset group specifically targeting that audience with tailored messaging.
So… what does this mean for me in 2026?
None of these updates are dramatic on their own. But they all point the same way, and it’s worth understanding the bigger picture.
Not only keywords but also signals
In the past, keywords were your primary lever. You’d carefully build out keyword lists, manage match types, adjust bids at the keyword level. That’s still possible, but feeding the AI high-quality audience signals is just as important as your keyword list. Match types are broader, and Google’s AI now relies more heavily on a rich variety of “signals” such as demographics, browsing behaviour, and your own first-party data to understand user intent and context. Using broad match keywords combined with specific audience signals will be the key best practice.
First-party data matters more than ever
The focus is expanding from simply acquiring new customers to increasing the lifetime value of your existing ones. Previously, connecting your ad campaigns to long-term customer value was difficult and often required manual analysis outside of Google Ads. Now, features like Enhanced Conversions and value-based bidding allow you to feed your sales and CRM data directly back into Google’s AI. The system can now track beyond the click and automatically learn to bid more for users who resemble your most valuable, long-term customers. This makes nurturing relationships a direct, automated optimisation strategy within the platform.
Brand and performance have merged
The old separation between brand campaigns and performance campaigns doesn’t really exist anymore. Campaigns like Demand Gen and Performance Max work across the entire funnel, from awareness to conversion, within a single campaign. A strong brand and good creative help the whole system perform better. You can’t just optimise your way to success with clever bidding if your ads and landing pages aren’t compelling.
None of this means you need to overhaul everything tomorrow. But when you’re setting up new campaigns or reviewing your strategy, keep this direction in mind. The platform is shifting towards more automation and more AI control. You can fight it, or you can learn to work with it.
What updates are you most interested in? Anything you want me to dig deeper on? Let me know in the comments.
About me
Thank you for reading until the end :) I’m Loretta, and I’ve spent the past decade at Google working with thousands of customers all over the world. My work spans digital marketing, business transformation, strategic partnerships, program management, and app development.
I believe AI will empower individuals more than ever, and I’m here to translate my decade of experience into simple, actionable advice to help you achieve your goals. I post bi-weekly about digital marketing tips, industry updates and best practices.
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