Google added a new promotion targeting option to Google Merchant Center for audience targeting. The option is labeled "preferred audience" and is available when setting up a promotion.

This promotion can be seen by customers who are new to your store or who are based in a certain location. There are two options, new customer and location.

• New Customers: These are customers that haven't interacted with your brand before. Note: The new customer audience type is exclusively for Shopping Ads. If you select both Shopping Ads and Organic options, it will only apply to Shopping Ads.
• Location: These are customers that you can target based on their location. They can be located in, are regularly in, or have shown interest in a specific region. Note: The location audience type is exclusively for Organic. If you select both Shopping Ads and Organic options, it will only apply to Organic.

This change was spotted by Emmanuel Flossie who wrote on LinkedIn and on his blog, "Is Google blessing us with another feature for promotions just in time for Black Friday? Yes they did!" He added:

It's great to see Google continuing to expand the promotional flexibility of Merchant Center. The ability to target specific customer groups opens up more strategic possibilities, especially when combining promotions with product-level performance data.

That said, it's somewhat puzzling why new customer targeting is only available for Shopping ads, while location targeting is limited to organic searches. Both options should be available across all listing types, especially when running region-specific campaigns or in-store promotions.

Still, these updates are a step in the right direction, giving advertisers more tools to personalize offers and reach customers in more innovative ways.

Here is a screenshot of this setting:

Here is a short video he made on it:

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google announced it has added Waze ads inventory to Performance Max for store goals campaigns and Channel performance reporting is now available in all Performance Max campaigns in Google Ads.

Google said Waze ads inventory is now in Performance Max for store goals campaigns. This allows businesses to appear as a 'Promoted Places in Navigation' pin on a user's map. For U.S. advertisers using PMax for store goals, these ads are now fully available.

Performance Max will automatically use your existing assets to optimize for Store Visits, Store Sales, or Local Actions Directions.

Google said, "we are planning to expand Waze inventory to additional markets beyond the U.S. in 2026."

Of course, not all are happy Google is lumping Waze ads here...

Plus, Google said "Channel performance reporting is now available in all Performance Max campaigns." In the coming week, Google said you should be able to get specific reporting on search partners and access the channel performance report via manager accounts (MCC).

Here is a summary:

(1) Waze inventory is now in US Pmax for store goals campaigns
(2) Channel performance reporting is available in all Pmax campaigns
(3) More visibility is coming soon to channel performance reporting with Search partners & MCC support

ð'¡ð¯ ð-£ð-²ð-¿ð-³ð-¼ð-¿ð->ð-®ð->>ð-°ð-² ð- ð-®ð... ð'ð-½ð-±ð-®ðð-²ð:

ð ð-ªð-®ðð-² ð-¶ð->>ðð-²ð->>ðð-¼ð-¿ð is now in US Pmax for store goals campaigns
ð"ð--ð-µð-®ð->>ð->>ð-²ð-< ð-½ð-²ð-¿ð-³ð-¼ð-¿ð->ð-®ð->>ð-°ð-² ð-¿ð-²ð-½ð-¼ð-¿ðð-¶ð->>ð-' is available in all Pmax campaigns
ð' ð- ð-¼ð-¿ð-² ðð-¶ðð-¶ð-¯ð-¶ð-<ð-¶ðð ð-¶ð ð-°ð-¼ð->ð-¶ð->>ð-' ðð-¼ð-¼ð->>'... pic.twitter.com/8aInsvKA6g

'" Google Ads (@GoogleAds) November 6, 2025

Forum discussion at X.

Google added a new navigation button to Google Merchant Center labeled "Creative Content." I believe this is where you access Product Studio or parts of it, and all your videos and assets for your Merchant Center campaigns.

This was spotted by Casey Gill who posted about it on LinkedIn - she wrote, "Video assets in new Google Merchant Center 'Creative Content' addition. This feature aims to enhance brand profiles and product listings across Google's paid AND organic placements. They'll also automatically appear in Google Ads asset library for linked accounts. If it's rolled out in your account, find it under Creative content > Video assets (directly under Product Studio)."

Here is her screenshot:

As you can see, the screenshot says:

Introducing Video assets in Creative content:

Google has surfaced your brand and product videos to help you engage more customers and increase conversions.

Engage more customers and increase conversions with your videos on Google.

In Video assets, Google brings together videos from your website and social channels as well as those generated by Al. You can manage how your videos are shown across Google in organic search results, your ad campaigns, and on your brand profile.

"One of the coolest features I'm most excited about is the ability to map the videos to product listings. There's also the ability to use AI-powered product mapping from your YouTube channel," Casie added.

Do you see this? I see it mentioned in the updated help documentation.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google updated its Circumventing systems policy to add a new section for Advertiser verification. In short, and as Google wrote, "Providing false or fraudulent information as part of our Advertiser verification programs is not allowed."

This new section was added over here and read:

Circumventing systems: Advertiser verification:

Not allowed Providing false or fraudulent information as part of our Advertiser verification programs is not allowed.

Examples (non-exhaustive):

If you violate Google Ads policies or provide false or fraudulent information during the verification program, you will not be verified or will lose your verified status, and your account will be suspended.

Why this isn't allowed:

• It's harmful to people: When advertisers hide their true identity, users can't make informed choices to avoid scams, misleading information, and dangerous products or services.
• It damages the overall advertising ecosystem: When people can't trust the verification status of advertisers, they become less likely to trust any ads, which hurts all advertisers. Google Ads wants to maintain a safe and transparent ecosystem for everyone.
• It has been used to attempt to evade policy enforcement: Everyone needs to follow the same Google Ads policies. Attempting to use false or fraudulent identity information to get around those policies is not allowed.

Best practices (non-exhaustive):

• Submit authentic government documents: If you're asked to submit a government-issued photo ID, registration or license, ensure the information is accurate and unmodified.
• Submit authentic business documents: If you're asked to submit business documents, such as information about your business relationships or the provider of the goods or services, ensure the information is accurate, and only hide or edit proprietary or personal information.

Tips for submitting your appeal:

• Explain your situation: Provide details about the form of identity you used as part of the advertiser verification program. If there's been a mistake, explain what happened.

Google said, "This clarification reinforces our existing policy that submitting false or fraudulent information through our verification programs is a direct violation of the Circumventing Systems policy and will result in account suspension. There is no change to enforcement of this policy."

Google also added another line to the overall policy that says, "Using appropriate click trackers and redirecting users is okay as long as you're not doing these things to try to hide that you're showing or doing anything that goes against Google Ads' policies."

You can compare the live page to the archived version if you want to see all the changes.

Forum discussion at X.

Google has released version 2.11 of the Google Ads Editor, which includes over 15 new features and removes a couple of older features. The full list of features is below, as Google posted on its site.

Google Ads Editor is a free, downloadable application for managing your Google Ads campaigns. The tool aims to save time and simplify bulk changes to your Google Ads campaigns.

Google released version 2.10 in July 2025, then version 2.9 in March 2025, then version 2.8 in November 2024, then before that version 2.7 in June and Version 2.6 was released in March 2024 and version 2.5 was released in November 2023.

New features in version 2.11, so here they are:

Campaign-level negative keyword list in Performance Max

Take more control over your Performance Max campaigns by adding campaign-level negative keyword lists directly in Editor. This functionality gives you greater control over where your ads appear. By adding lists of negative keywords, you can prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant search queries, ensuring your budget is spent only on reaching relevant customers. Campaign-level negative keyword list ultimately improves campaign efficiency and return on investment, a level of control that is also available for Search and Shopping campaigns.

Search term report for Performance Max campaigns

Gain more valuable insights into which specific search terms are triggering your Performance Max ads. With this increased transparency, you can better understand customer search behavior, identify irrelevant queries to add as negative keywords, and ultimately optimize your campaigns for more relevant traffic and a better return on investment.

Scheduled link checks

This feature provides a simple, efficient, and automated way to find and fix broken links within your campaigns. The feature addresses the challenges of manually checking links, especially in large accounts, and to improve upon the existing functionality for link checking by offering a faster and more integrated solution.

Account-level placement and IP exclusions

Now you can ensure brand safety across your entire account with unprecedented ease. Account-level placement and IP exclusions allows you to centrally exclude content based on themes, keywords, and placements at the account level, eliminating the need for individual campaign adjustments. By consolidating these controls in one location, you will save significant time, prevent implementation errors, and guarantee your brand's suitability preferences are applied consistently and predictably across all of your campaigns.

Campaign selection in download dialog enhancements

This enhancement introduces an improved UI in the download dialog, making it more convenient for you to select and sync only the campaigns you need, which helps streamline your workflow and speeds up the syncing process for large accounts.

Enhancements to CSV import and export functionality

We have implemented several key improvements to the CSV import and export processes to provide users with greater efficiency and control such as running CSV operations across a larger volume of accounts directly within the account management interface and viewing import results and configuring account selection using manager account views of the affected accounts. We have also simplified export configuration into a single unified configuration dialog.

Smart Bidding Exploration

Smart Bidding Exploration is a new opt-in feature for Search campaigns that uses Google's AI to bid on potentially high-performing search queries. Google AI and flexible ROAS targets work hand-in-hand to fuel an advanced algorithm that captures new searches and secures additional conversions from the traffic you're already eligible for. The result is scaled performance and traffic diversity, meaning your impressions, clicks and conversions will be driven by more unique search term categories.

Editable lead forms

You can now edit your existing lead form assets directly, providing greater flexibility and efficiency for your campaigns. This saves you significant time, as you can easily make updates and corrections to your existing lead forms instead of creating an entirely new one each time.

URL settings for asset group

You now have more granular control over your ad tracking at the asset group level. URL settings for asset groups allow you to set a tracking URL template, a final URL suffix, and custom parameters for asset groups, ensuring accurate and consistent measurement for your automated campaigns.

Nudge to add Google Merchant Center feed to Demand Gen campaigns<< 

A new recommendation will now appear to nudge you to attach a Google Merchant Center feed to new Demand Gen campaigns, helping you get set up for optimal performance.

Support more ad types in ad previews

Ad previews now support more ad types, including Demand Gen and responsive video ads. Ad preview gives you a clearer and more accurate look at how your creatives will appear to users before they go live, helping you ensure optimal presentation and creative quality.

'Agency/Provider list' user list type

Google Ads Editor has added a new "Agency/Provider list" user list type, specifically designed to allow you to use third-party PII user lists from your data partners for targeting on Google's owned and operated surfaces. By leveraging curated user lists from your trusted data partners, you can reach highly specific and relevant audiences, potentially leading to more effective campaigns and a better return on investment.<< 

'TrueView' rename in certain stat names

Certain reporting metrics have been renamed to provide greater clarity and consistency. The terms "View" and "View Rate" are now labeled as "TrueView Views" and "TrueView View Rate" in some reports, aligning with our updated video campaign terminology.

NCA high LTV in Search campaigns

This feature allows New Customer Acquisition High Lifetime value for Search campaigns. It was previously allowed for Performance Max campaigns.

Video generation enhancement

You can now automatically create on-brand videos from your existing assets, like images and text, combined with your brand's colors and fonts. this can be easily enabled or disabled with a toggle in your ad group's "Asset optimization" settings. This feature is on by default and helps you get started with video advertising on YouTube by generating videos in all aspect ratios, expanding your reach and improving campaign performance.

Streamlined campaign construction flow for Search campaigns

The construction flow tool expands to include Search campaigns, giving you a simplified and accelerated process to create new campaigns from scratch. Follow the step-by-step process to build an optimized campaign and use the integrated GenAI tools to assist. You can access this streamlined experience directly from the "Add Campaign" menu, by selecting "Add Search campaign"

Here are the features going away:

To simplify and streamline your campaign management, Google has removed some ad types and manual CPV campaigns.

• Removal of ad types: Several legacy ad types, including App install ads and Image app install ads and Display ads have been removed. While existing ads of these types will still be shown in Editor, and you can delete, pause, and unpause them. However, you will no longer be able to create any new ads of these types or make changes beyond updating status and labels.
• Deprecation of manual CPV campaigns: Manual CPV (mCPV) bidding strategy is no longer supported for newly created mCPV campaigns. The replacement for mCPV campaigns are Video view campaigns (VVC) with Target CPV (tCPV) bidding, which leverages AI and multi-format ads to help drive more cost-efficient views and higher engagement. To simplify this transition, Google Ads Editor now includes a conversion tool that will guide you through upgrading your existing mCPV campaigns to the new and improved VVC format.

Forum discussion at X.

Did you know that Google Merchant Center will automatically crop your product images in Google Shopping if it thinks it will look better in Google Search? Did you know that you can also opt out of what they call "Smart Cropping"?

This was spotted by Kirk Williams who posted on LinkedIn that he dug into this for a client and Google told him it is called "Smart Cropping" and you can opt out of it.

The email from Google said:

This is a follow up email to our chat conversation regarding images showing incorrectly on Google Shopping. As discussed over the chat,

Here's what we can do: Opt-Out of Smart Cropping.

Please confirm stating that you would like to opt out as the image crop is not as desired. Please keep in mind that opting out will apply at the account level, not the item level, to help optimize the overall experience. To give us one-time approval to make the changes you want, please use the approval template below.

Additionally, this authorization should be coming from the admin of the MC account.

One-time Approval Template

Here is a screenshot of this email from Kirk:

I had no idea about this, and I am sure some of you did not as well.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

A few weeks ago, Google launched a new ad layout with the large "Sponsored results" label that groups numerous ads under that one label, and then sticks a "Hide sponsored results" button after you have already seen the ads. Well, it is leading to accidental ad clicks based on what I am reading and hearing across the industry.

Google announced this as a way to "make navigation even easier." But as I wrote then, "I suspect it is to drive more clicks (likely confused clicks on ads - at least in the short term)." And yea, I seem to be correct.

I know many search marketers and SEOs who have accidentally clicked on these ads. And yes, these are people who know Google Search well. Can you imagine the average searchers?

I personally clicked on an ad twice by accident last week. These were for navigational queries where I try hard not to click on the ad, because I don't want to cost that site any money. So I spend a second longer to scroll past the ad and then click on the organic result. But in these two cases. I scrolled past the first ad, and then clicked on the second result to go to the site but that was an ad as well!

The hide sponsored results button should be at the top, not at the bottom and each and every sponsored result needs its own label. It is way more confusing to know what is an ad and what is not an ad in this new layout. And in my opinion, this is intentional - to drive more clicks on ads and earn Google more money.

We spoke about this a few times on the It's New - daily show we do. Greg Finn, who has been doing Google Ads management for like two decades, said he accidentally clicked on an ad. Wil Reynolds almost clicked on an ad:

Holy smokes, even I almost fell for the new Google layout where you can't really tell where sponsored ads are.

The only giveaway was that philabundance didn't show up in position 2, 3, or 4 for their own brand. In what I thought was the organic area.

Gross.

'" Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) November 1, 2025

I posted a poll asking my followers (who are incredibly Google savvy) on X on Sunday if they did as well, and so far about 18% (early on in the poll it was closer to 10%) said they did not, the rest know they did by accident and some do not even know:

Have you unintentionally clicked on a Google Ads because of the new Sponsored Results grouping layout?

'" Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) November 2, 2025

Glenn Gabe has as well:

Yes, so I can only imagine what a normal user is doing. :) $$$ https://t.co/rDDcGiJfUN

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 2, 2025

And others:

Apparently even I got tricked into clicking the sponsored ads since the heading somewhere on the top said Sponsored post but when you scroll down, they don't say it anymore.

'" Matta Kumar | SEO Nerd & AI Marketing (@mattaskumar) November 3, 2025

If Google really wanted to improve the experience, it would label each an every ad clearly and stick ad hide ads button at the top, not below the ads, after you already were forced to see the ads.

I am not a fan of this change because it leads to clicks that are not intentional and undesired.

Forum discussion at X.

More Data from Seer:

Google's new deceptive ad layout not only tricks people into clicking more ads

It costs businesses real money ð'' pic.twitter.com/fAzqx2s1KT

'" Cyrus SEO (@CyrusShepard) November 4, 2025

Robby Stein, VP of Product for Google Search, was interviewed on the Silicon Valley Girl channel by Marina Mogilko about AI Search at Google. He explained how to do SEO for AI Mode and he was crystal clear that Google Ads is not going away with the release of these new AI features.

Marina Mogilko from the channel asked Robby Stein, "Do you feel like Google Ads is going away in the future?"

Robby Stein from Google responded, "Don't see them going away." He then explained how ads are being tested in AI Mode and how they can be helpful.

I have never seen someone ask Google if Google Ads are going away because of AI Mode - so this felt new.

This came up at the 8:27 mark into the video, here is the embed:

Here is the transcript:

Marina Mogilko: Do you feel like Google Ads is going away in the future? Because as a business owner, we rely on them, right? They they drive traffic. Uh, and if they are going away, what should be our strategy?

Robby Stein: Don't see them going away. What people actually do, we're observing, is that the way people use Google search isn't really changing. It's it's really expanding is is what's happening. So, think about all the things you need in a given day. It's everything like you need a quick insurance quote. You need to file your taxes. You need to look up a kind of question about a local business question in your county. Like you're going to use Google and find that you need that information. But what's happened is that now you can do all these new things. So, you could take a picture of your shoes and say, "Hey, these are my shoes. What are other cool shoes like this?" And we could answer that now or help give you provide you context with that. Or you could ask about this really cool restaurant question. It can be five sentences about all your, you know, allergies, issues with this. I have this big group. I want to make sure it's got light. What can I book in advance? And you can put that into Google now, too. I think that's in in opportunity for in the future to be even more helpful for you, particularly in advertising context. And so we started some experiments on ads within AI mode and within Google AI experiences. But we're we've been really focused on building great consumer products first and foremost. But I think users are starting to see some ads experiments there too.

Marina Mogilko: Interesting. So, will I be able to like pay to get recommended like for AI to even consider my business?

Robby Stein: I mean, we don't think that there should be any barrier to people finding information. So, if there's information out there, it should be found. But I think what you'll find is that there could be new and novel ad formats that if you're, let's say, shopping or you're, you know, looking for, you know, you have a complex doing a house remodel, like there's all kinds of interesting services that could be helpful for you that if we had more information and you could articulate more what you needed. Hey, I have this kind of wood. These are the kind of contractors I have. This is my constraints. These are the price range. You could give even more fine-tuned recommendations or potential other services that you could consider or deals that could be more useful to you. Those are all things we're thinking about. Um, I'd say it's early days and finalizing kind of how ads might appear in these systems. But something that we're thinking about.

Forum discussion at X.

Google may have a new chart in the Google Ads overview tab named cross campaign metrics. It seems similar to the Cross-Media Reach Measurement but this is shown in the overview tab and not in that specific report.

Anthony Higman posted about this on LinkedIn and shared this screenshot of the cross campaign metrics chart showing in his Google Ads overview tab:

It shows how your ad campaigns work to expand your reach and shows the "saw awareness," "saw action," and "saw both" overlap and it includes unique visitor metrics along with total cost.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google Merchant Center Next added new analytics data to the Promotions tab/section. This shows you two new analytics charts including "Your promotions at a glance" and "Performance in the last 28 days." These are summary cards to see how well your promotions are performing in Google Search.

This was spotted by SERP Alerts who posted about it on X and wrote:

GMC Next now has a new display for the 'promotions' tab. The new section has a 'your promotions at a glance' title that features the status of your promotions, along with a performance report preview for the promotions themselves. This report has gone through a few different iterations in recent months, with this looking like more of a final form.

Here is a screenshot of this:

Forum discussion at X.

Google updated the Google Ads Gambling and Games policy this week to define that sweepstake casinos are not social casino games. Google said this update was added on October 28, 2025.

This now prohibits sweepstake casinos from using Google Ads for advertising.

The Gambling and Games policy document gained one line, it reads:

Examples of games that are not social casino games: Sweepstake casinos

Google wrote:

On October 28, 2025, the Gambling and Games policy was updated to introduce examples of the type of games that do not qualify for certification under our social casino games policy, with sweepstake casinos identified as such an example of games that are outside the scope of the social casino games policy and ineligible for certification.

Games that fall under the banner of real-world rewards are subject to the specific restrictions and allowances of the online gambling policy.

There were no other changes to this document.

Forum discussion at X.

Google Merchant Center now lets some merchants and advertisers define an audience for a promotion. This allows you to restrict who sees the promotion in Google Search for your Merchant Center shopping listings.

This was spotted by Heidi Sturrock on LinkedIn (hat tip PPC News Feed) who wrote, "Google Merchant Center now allows you to define an audience when creating a promo. You can choose to show your promotion only to new customers or based on location."

Here is a screenshot of this feature:

This is different from the first order promotion feature in that the "setting the conditions of the offer as it will be displayed to users in shopping results, however it does not restrict targeting," Heidi explained.

Heidi shared these two useful examples:

• Offered '20% off your first order' exclusively to new shoppers, while protecting margins for repeat buyers.
• Ran region specific discounts for a new market without discounting shoppers elsewhere.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google is testing adding to the call and message button on Local Service Ads a reviews and sometimes overview button. Reviews takes you to the reviews but the overview button to the local listing for that business.

Anthony Higman posted this on X and explained this might not be a good thing. He wrote:

The kicker is kind of obvious, but it is a focus on messaging. When you click any of the new buttons for Reviews or Overview it takes you to the profile where the messaging button pops up with a highlighted blue button giving messaging response times.

Also another interesting observation here is that they still have the old green checkmark on all profiles currently despite them saying they were phasing this out for the new twitter verified blue checkmark on October 20th.

Here are his screenshots:

Here are those posts:

The Kicker Is Kind Of Obvious, But It Is A Focus On Messaging. When You Click Any Of The New Buttons For Reviews Or Overview It Takes You To The Profile Where The Messaging Button Pops Up With A Highlighted Blue Button Giving Messaging Response Times. pic.twitter.com/P08QnAPeK7

'" Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) October 26, 2025

Forum discussion at X.

Google Ads has supposedly added more integration between the main Google Ads platform and reporting and the niche Local Service Ads platform. Some can now see conversion tracking actions in the Google Ads interface.

Lori Gilstrap posted on LinkedIn, "I found a new conversion tracking action in the Google Ads interface today for Local Service Ads (LSA). It's a Phone Call Conversion Action created by Google and it's counting leads."

She shared this screenshot showing those LSA phone call conversions in the Google Ads interface. Here is it:

Lori added, "Very interesting, since I would love for LSAs to be within the same platform, but I don't think that will happen. Maybe Google has added this for reporting."

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google is rolling out map pin clicks in the Google Ads and Google Local Service Ads reporting. This can be found under Campaigns view, then under Segment, and then under Click Type.

Also, another metric named "Show Nearby Locations" may be also showing to some advertisers.

So two new metrics are rolling out:

(1) Maps Pin Clicks

(2) Show Nearby Locations

This was spotted first by Red Lead Web Design on X who shared these two screenshots:

Anthony Higman also spotted it afterwards and shared this screenshot:

yeah found it in like 2 of our accounts but ours are also mostly local. Hmmm pic.twitter.com/LVZWiKf9Ht

— Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) October 27, 2025

Forum discussion at X.

Google Ads seems to be bringing the ability to do campaign level audience exclusions to Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. A new Data Exclusions feature is showing up for some advertisers under campaign settings.

This was spotted by Satoshi Ando on X, I found it via Dario Zannoni on LinkedIn who wrote, "This screenshot from Japan shows new controls to exclude remarketing lists from P-Max campaigns. The control are labelled "Data Exclusions" and are found in the campaign settings menu, right above the Third-party measurement option."

According to some, this feature can be activated if you reach out to your Google Ads rep and ask for it.

Here is a screenshot from Satoshi Ando:

Satoshi Ando wrote (translated):

In P-MAX campaign settings, enable the ability to exclude audience lists. This allows exclusion of audiences who have visited specific pages, such as existing customers, recent CV users, or recruitment pages. I'm curious about which one has better accuracy'""deliver only to new customers" or this exclusion method'"but it might be safer to do both.

Forum discussion at X and LinkedIn.

Google Ads added a new tab on the Recommendations page named Investment Strategy. This tab "provides account-level suggestions to help you understand the potential impact of increased investment on your key metrics, such as clicks, conversions, or conversion value," Google wrote.

"The new Investment Strategy tab on the Recommendations page helps you make informed decisions about how to allocate additional budget across your campaigns to maximize performance," Google added.

Charlotte Osborne was one of the first to spot this and she posted on LinkedIn, "Google Ads has launched a new "Investment Strategy" section within the Recommendations page, which is pretty cool for seeing how increasing your budget could affect key outcomes like clicks, conversions, or conversion value." She added, "Google uses historical performance data to model different investment scenarios and suggests how to allocate extra weekly spend across eligible campaigns."

Here is a screenshot of this new tab from Charlotte:

Here are the differences between the Investment Strategy and Performance Planner recommendations:

Here is how to access the new investment strategy tab:

1. Go to Recommendations within the Campaigns menu.
2. Select the Investment Strategy tab.
3. Select whether you want to optimize for Clicks, Conversions, or Conversion value.
4. Set your investment in 2 ways:
   • Enter the "Additional weekly spend" you're considering.
   • Enter the desired "Weekly increase" in your chosen key metric (for example, "50 more conversions"). The other field will update automatically based on your input.
5. Review and choose your campaigns. The table shows a list of campaigns that can benefit from additional budget. You'll find details such as the suggested new budget, estimated impact on performance (for example, weekly increase in conversions), and new average CPA or ROAS.
6. Customize your campaign selection. By default, all eligible campaigns are selected. You can deselect any campaigns you don't want to include in this budget increase. The total spend and projected impact will adjust as you select or deselect campaigns, redistributing the planned investment across the remaining selections.
7. Select Apply all to update the budgets for the selected campaigns.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

It looks like Google is launching a special agency version of Google Merchant Center named Merchant Center for Agencies. Google explained this version is a "tailored experience designed specifically for agency users. The product allows for the management of multiple Merchant Center accounts at scale."

Google posted a new help document about Merchant Center for Agencies saying "Merchant Center for Agencies is available exclusively for agencies." Explaining, "The platform can be used by agencies that manage Google Merchant Center accounts for other businesses."

I spotted this Dario Zannoni who posted about this on LinkedIn and he wrote, "Merchant Center for Agencies looks quite similar to the old Multi-Client Account (MCA), but with functionalities more specifically targeted to agencies and should provide a clearer and more straightforward implementation."

Here is how to get access to the new Merchant Center for Agencies:

• For new users: To request an agency account, complete the Contact us form.
• For existing users: If you already have an agency account, go to merchants.google.com. Your agency account will be the default view.

Google said these are the key benefits of this view:

• Increased operational efficiency: Save 1'"2 hours weekly with a simplified, single-view interface that helps you manage all accounts.
• Enhanced leadership oversight: Monitor all Merchant Center accounts from a central dashboard. This allows your team to quickly identify issues, delegate tasks, and improve team collaboration.
• Proactive issue resolution: You can detect problems early, so the account warnings don't turn into suspensions. This proactive approach helps protect your clients' revenue and builds trust.

The dashboard gives you higher level data across all your clients, Google wrote:

• Summary statistics on account statuses, issues, and diagnostics.
• A quick view of your top 5 "starred" accounts.
• Accounts with significant changes in key metrics such as clicks and disapprovals.

For more details, see this help document.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google Ads is celebrating its 25th birthday/anniversary today. Yes, Google launched AdWords 25 years ago today in 2000.

In 2018, Google renamed AdWords to Google Ads and the ad labels and technology have drastically changed over the years. But this product is still Google's cash cow, bringing in the vast majority of its revenue quarter after quarter.

That being said, Vidhya Srinivasan, VP/GM of Ads & Commerce posted a video on X about Google Ads and it hitting the 25 years. Here is that video:

We're celebrating a major milestone! ð Google Ads turns 25 this week, but the innovation is just getting started.

Vidhya Srinivasan, VP/GM of Ads & Commerce, shares how AI is empowering us to rethink what's possible' and create a future of smarter, more helpful advertising.'... pic.twitter.com/uFNxmcUiu9

'" Google Ads (@GoogleAds) October 21, 2025

And Google got Noha Abdalla, CMO of Choice Hotels, to talk about it:

What has driven marketing's greatest transformation in the last 25 years? ð¤"

According to Noha Abdalla, CMO of Choice Hotels, the answer is happening right now: AI.

Hear from Noha on why this is the most exciting moment in her career. pic.twitter.com/XtZxUPhLiC

'" Google Ads (@GoogleAds) October 21, 2025

Google also got Jeremy Hull of Brainlabs:

Jeremy Hull of @Brainlabs names Quality Score as the innovation that changed everything for Google Ads. Why? It forced ads to be the actual answer to your question.

And as we celebrate 25 years of Google Ads innovations, the breakthroughs continue. With the help of AI we're'... pic.twitter.com/4aVm8WZinV

'" Google Ads (@GoogleAds) October 22, 2025

Five years ago I covered the 20th birthday. I assume I should still be around to cover the 30th birthday too, I hope. :)

As Menachem Ani said, Google Ads seems to be moving faster than ever:

The pace of change has been amazing to watch https://t.co/Lyg1Sjznu6

'" Menachem Ani - Google Ads (@MenachemAni) October 21, 2025

Here are the key highlights of Google AdWords/Ads over the past 25 years:

• 2000: Google launched AdWords (the former name of Google Ads). Initially, Google employees set up and managed campaigns, but a self-service AdWords portal was later introduced for small businesses.
• 2005: Google started a campaign management service called "Jumpstart".
• 2007: Google acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, which was important for gaining ad-serving technology and industry relationships.
• 2008: Google launched the Google Online Marketing Challenge, an academic exercise for students.
• 2018: Google retired the DoubleClick and AdWords brands. The core product was renamed Google Ads to simplify entry points for advertisers, providing access to inventory on Google Search, YouTube, Google Play, and AdSense.

Yea, I am skipping a lot - I've written over 3,200 articles on Google Ads on this site over the years.

Later Ginny Marvin posted this:

2/2 I hope you enjoy this reflection on 25 years of Google Ads in my new LinkedIn article: https://t.co/df4kH0Kc97

'" AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) October 23, 2025

And later Google posted about it on its blog.

First, a celebration. Happy 25th, @GoogleAds! ð' Looking at this ad from 2000: so much progress, so much change! Things that haven't changed: how powerfully digital advertising connects people & businesses + our relentless innovation to serve businesses. https://t.co/I5Ahp2YLlY pic.twitter.com/ds1LG2zO5c

— Vidhya Srinivasan (@VidsSrinivasan) October 23, 2025

Forum discussion at X.

Google posted a new help document that says it will delete accounts without any campaigns after 6 months. "If an account does not have any campaigns, it'll be permanently deleted by Google Ads 6 months after cancellation," Google wrote.

The new help page goes on to say:

This means that the account can't be reactivated. You'll get a 30 day warning via email before the account is deleted.

To prevent your canceled account from being deleted, you'll need to reactivate it. Learn more about how to Reactivate a canceled Google Ads account.

I spotted this via Hana Kobzová who wrote on PPC News Feed, "This update is important for advertisers who may want to keep historical data or preserve account structure for future use."

Here is a screenshot of that help document:

Forum discussion at X.