Google announced that it will begin to highlight data quality account issues related to Vehicle ads within Google Merchant Center. This will begin in mid-April 2026.

Google said this is "to make sure your vehicles comply with Google's Vehicle ads data quality requirements, we evaluate both the submitted vehicle data and the associated website content for every vehicle uploaded to your account."

Vehicles will be disapproved if the vehicle data across your data source and landing page doesn't match. In the Merchant Center account issues page, Google will display what the issue is and how to fix it. To maintain listing approval, please monitor and resolve all warnings on the account issues page of your Merchant Center.

Here are some examples of data quality issues:

Vehicle availability mismatch:

Your vehicle's availability must be highlighted or visible on your vehicle description page.

Learn How to fix: Vehicle availability mismatch.

Vehicle condition mismatch:

The condition[condition]attribute in your data must match the condition on your vehicle description page.

Learn How to fix: Vehicle condition mismatch.

Vehicle price mismatch:

The price[price]attribute value provided in your product data and the corresponding values on your vehicle description page must match.

Learn How to fix: Vehicle price mismatch.

Vehicle mileage mismatch:

The vehicle mileage on your vehicle data and your vehicle descriptions must match.

Learn How to fix: Vehicle mileage mismatch.

Mismatched vehicle information:

The vehicle identification number (VIN), brand or model on your vehicle data and your vehicle description pages must match.

Learn How to fix: Vehicle Mismatch.

Vehicle landing page error:

The link_template, link, or ads_redirect attributes must have the correct and expected URL values for your vehicle landing pages.

Learn How to fix: Landing page error.

Forum discussion at X.

Google Ads and Merchant Center is expanding the Loyalty program features to highlight key perks, expand local and regional visibility, expand internationally and within AI Mode and Gemini.

Google wrote, "We are now expanding Loyalty program features to help you build stronger customer relationships and drive long-term growth. By integrating your loyalty benefits directly into your product listings, you can reward existing members and encourage new shoppers to join your program."

Here is what is new:

• Highlight key perks: Showcase member pricing to display exclusive discounts and member shipping to feature special delivery options directly on your listings.
• Expanded local and regional visibility: Loyalty annotations are now available for local inventory ads and regional Shopping ads, allowing you to promote in-store or region- specific member benefits.
• International expansion: Loyalty features have expanded to 14 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.
• AI-First shopping surfaces: Loyalty benefits are also showcased to shoppers on Google's AI-first surfaces, such as AI Mode and Gemini.

I spotted this via Arpan on LinkedIn who wrote, "more clicks, more loyalty is Google's 20% boost."

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google announced several new steering updates for Google Ads Performance Max including first-party audience exclusions, budget reporting, full audience reporting and network segmentation in placement reporting.

Google calls this, "Precision steering for your target audience" with the new "First-party audience exclusions." This enables advertisers to exclude specific customer lists from your Performance Max campaigns, and target the right customers for your business goals. For example, this can help your budget focus on acquiring new customers rather than re-engaging those who have already converted.

Also, there are new insight reports available.

(1) Budget reporting: Access the budget report directly within Performance Max to project your end-of-month spend. Use this to understand how shifting your daily budget impacts your performance.

(2) Network segmentation in placement reporting: We are rolling out the ability to segment placement reports by network. This allows you to identify where your ads have served, giving you the visibility needed to help ensure brand safety. To make it easier to find the placement report, you can now access it in the 'When and where ads showed' tab.

(3) Full audience reporting: New upgrades provide detailed performance breakdowns for different audience demographics and segments, including age range and gender.

Forum discussion at X.

Google Ads has released a minor version update to the Google Ads API. We are now up to version 23.2. 23.2 adds VideoEnhancement resource, updates to HotelSettingInfo, and so many other updates. Google wrote, Today, we're announcing the v23.2 release of the Google Ads API. To use the new v23.2 features, you must upgrade your client libraries and client code. All the updated client libraries and code examples have been published."

Before this release was version v23.1 in February>a and then 23 at the end of January, then version 22 on October 15, 2025, then version 21 on August 6, 2025 , then 20 on June 5, 2025, 19.1 in April 2025, then 19 in February 2025, then version 18 in October 2024. Before that was 17.1 in August 2024 and then before that was version 17.0 in June 2024 and then before that was version 16.1 and then Version 16 in February 2024. Before that was version 15 back in October 2023. Then before that was version 14.1 which was released in August. Version 13.1 preceded this new version, which was released in April 2023. Version 12.0 was released in October 2022, Version 11.0 of the Google Ads API was released in June, and version 11.1 was in August. Also Version 10.1 was released on April 27, 2022 and version 10.0 was released on February 9, 2022. And Google has sunset the AdWords API on April 27th which will completely stop working at the end of July.

Here is a screenshot of the release notes:

Forum disucssion at X.

Google is continuing to expand ads across AI Mode and now there's another type of ad unit for retailers to play with. We know that AI Mode is the future of Search and that means Google will need to continue innovating on the advertising front. In January, Google announced "new tech and tools" for retailers which included agentic commerce and direct offers for retailers. But I just spotted "Sponsored Stores" when performing an ecommerce search and that's the first time I have seen that in AI Mode.

Once I performed the search and clicked a product in the answer within AI Mode, ecommerce information was populated in the right sidebar (like it normally is). But, when scrolling through the information, I spotted "Sponsored Stores". This is a great, and easy, way for Google to generate ad revenue within AI Mode. We know a ton of people search for shopping-related information and giving retailers the ability to sponsor their store is a no-brainer in my opinion.

You can see a screenshot below of what this looks like:

And here is my tweet about this, which also contains information about "Quick results from the web", which I also found interesting. Google provided two quick links out to gap.com for the shopping query before the answer was provided in AI Mode. "Quick results" is not necessarily new, but it was interesting to see that above the answer. Note, those are organic links and not ads.

More ads in AI Mode -> Two interesting AI mode findings this morning. First, a "Sponsored stores" link when clicking a product in AI Mode. More monetization options for Google there.

Second, AI Mode provided "Quick results from the web" at the top of the response (driving me'... pic.twitter.com/grEnmxu3gk

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 25, 2026

Again, it will be interesting to see how Google innovates on the ad side when it comes to AI surfaces like AI Mode. Sponsored Stores is another option for retailers. Keep your eyes peeled for the new ad unit when using AI Mode.

GG

Google announced it will be updating its Shopping Ads political content policy on April 16, 2026. Google said the update is to "implement additional restrictions on some political content."

Several countries are impacted, including the United States. This policy update will only apply to Shopping ads. Merchants running Shopping ads featuring some political content in the following countries will require merchants to verify their Google Ads account as an election advertiser:

• Argentina
• Australia
• Chile
• Israel
• Mexico
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• United Kingdom
• United States

Google said it will also prohibit some Shopping Ads featuring political content in India.

You can find the updated policy language here explaining which types of content will require election ads verification. You can apply for election ads verification here.

Forum discussion at X.

Google Merchant Center updated its landing page requirements to say that products that are out of stock, those pages must have a grayed out add to cart/buy button on that page.

The document says, "For 'out of stock' items, the 'Buy' button must be greyed out on your product landing page." Here is that section:

Make sure availability matches your product data, and that products can successfully be added to a cart and delivered to a customer. For example, if a product is out of stock on your landing page, then update the availability [availability] attribute in your product data to match. That way, users won't try to purchase a product that you don't have in stock. For 'out of stock' items, the 'Buy' button must be greyed out on your product landing page.

This change was spotted by Emmanuel Flossie who wrote, "Hiding the button is not allowed. Leaving it fully clickable is not allowed. What you need to do now is disable the button."

Here is his video explaining this:

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google is reportedly expanding Shopping Ads eligibility to 15 additional European markets. This is a two phase roll out over the coming months...

This was posted by Artur Mosiak on LinkedIn, which was covered by Hana Kobzová on PPC News Feed. Arthur wrote, "This expansion is rolling out in two stages to help retailers capture peak demand right when it matters most."

Phase one markets include:

• ð¨ð¾ Cyprus
• ð±ð> Luxembourg
• ð²ð© Moldova
• ð²ð° North Macedonia
• ð²ð< Malta
• ð±ð® Liechtenstein

Phase two markets include:

• ð§ð¬ Bulgaria
• ð­ð· Croatia
• ð±ð< Lithuania
• ð'ð® Slovenia
• ð·ð' Serbia
• ð§ð... Bosnia
• Herzegovina
• ð²ðª Montenegro
• ðªðª Estonia
• ð±ð>> Latvia

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

On March 17, 2026, Google retired some of its Google Ads policies on Ad format requirements. These are specific to "old ad formats that are no longer in use are also being retired," Ginny Marvin of Google.

Google wrote, "Effective March 17, 2026, the Form ad requirements, Image quality requirements, Responsive ad requirements, and the Text ad requirements policies have been discontinued. This change is a result of these product offerings evolving into newer Google products, rendering the original policy requirements obsolete for advertisers."

Ginny Marvin from Google added on X, "This is just a notification that the policies around old ad formats that are no longer in use are also being retired. This doesn't affect existing ad formats like Responsive Search Ads, Responsive Display Ads, etc. and has zero impact on any of your existing ads and campaigns."

Ginny referenced Anu's coverage of this on Search Engine Land.

Forum discussion at X.

OpenAI continues to drive forward on the ads front. This weekend AdWeek reported that OpenAI is currently testing an Ads Manager for ChatGPT advertisers. As AdWeek explained, "The Ads Manager is a dashboard that lets marketers run, monitor, and optimize campaigns in real time."

And what ending up being somewhat comical, an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed that advertisers currently get weekly CSV reports with performance data like clicks and impressions. As you can guess, the advertising community collectively laughed out loud about that... You have one of the top AI companies sending CSV files to advertisers spending a lot of money with them. That said, I'm sure they are going to move quickly with rolling out Ads Manager. Time will tell.

OpenAI Ads Manager (confirmed) -> OpenAI is Testing An Ads Manager, As Its New Ads Business Fights Growing Pains

"The Ads Manager is a dashboard that lets marketers run, monitor, and optimize campaigns in real time."

And hey, the testers currently get WEEKLY CSV files with'... pic.twitter.com/jqgDTjQlNU

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 14, 2026

Beyond that, Adthena recently explained they saw an uptick in ChatGPT ads across the platform. They are tracking ads in ChatGPT heavily.

Update on ChatGPT Ads: Adthena is seeing an uptick in activity. Their CMO posted more examples this afternoon on LinkedIn of ads they are seeing and pinged me there.

Advertisers spotted so far:
ð"< Best Buy
ð"< AT&T
ð"< Pottery Barn
ð"< Enterprise
ð"< Qualcomm
ð"< Expedia'... pic.twitter.com/QadQWpokut

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 25, 2026

On that note, I have explained before that spotting ChatGPT ads in the wild was like spotting Bigfoot. They were very hard to find... But today, I'm seeing many ads when searching ChatGPT via one of the free accounts I have. And after sharing about that, Anthony Higman also said he is seeing a ton of ads there today. So I do believe they are continuing to expand the number of ads they are running across ChatGPT.

Its like every search now LOL pic.twitter.com/pJmtIUNwkd

'" Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) March 16, 2026

Like I said in my tweet, some of the ads were targeted, while others were not so targeted... Anyway, keep an eye out for ChatGPT ads. They seem to be showing up more and more.

GG

Have you ever waited on hold for support with Google Ads? Do you enjoy the hold music that Google selected for your wait time? Well, some advertisers say it can drive you crazy.

Patrick J Garrett posted on Bluesky asking Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, to do something about it. He said, "With an average hold time of 3-5 minutes with a repeating ~ 25 second classical music piece, it's enough to drive one crazy."

He suggested maybe changing up the music, so it doesn't continuously repeat over and over again.

He wrote:

Any chance you could work your magic & get the ads support hold music updated? With an average hold time of 3-5 minutes with a repeating ~ 25 second classical music piece, it's enough to drive one crazy. Longer musical piece of a fresh rotation would be amazing. Pls/thx!

Ginny Marvin from Google replied that she will pass along the feedback. Here is her full response:

Hi Patrick! I don't have the slightest insight into hold music programming, much less sway over it. But I will pass along the feedback!

I found this funny, on some level, so I wanted to share it here.

Forum discussion at Bluesky.

The folks at PPCSurvey have released a comprehensive new "State of PPC" report that covers the full gamut of PPC, with responses from over one thousand PPC practitioners. The 72-page free report covers everything from ad platform adoption to LLM usage and includes a wide breadth of responses from in-house marketers and agencies, all with different budgets, company sizes, and locations.

Is PPC Easier Today?

One of the most interesting answers that I found in the survey was that 53% of respondents claimed that managing PPC campaigns is "harder" than it was 2 years ago. A mere 16% thought that it was "easier" than it was 2 years ago, and 31% said it was "about the same."

Of those in the minority who thought it was easier, their rationale was:

• Improved automated bidding - noted by 45% of "easier" respondents
• The use of AI/LLMs - noted by 39% of "easier" respondents
• Improved automated targeting - noted by 38% of "easier" respondents

The more important question, however, may be why the majority think that PPC management is harder than it was two years ago. The most common reasons are:

• Less insight from ad platforms - noted by 62% of "harder" respondents
• Less accuracy - noted by 62% of "harder" respondents
• Increased competition - noted by 45% of "harder" respondents
• Less control - noted by 43% of "harder" respondents

There is a treasure trove of PPC information, facts, and figures in the State of PPC report, and the full report is available as a free (ungated) download over at PPCSurvey. Head on over to get all the deets on challenges, platforms, AI, pricing models, and more!

Google Ads is rolling out Google AI voice models as a new asset optimization feature for your video ads. This is for your existing Performance Max video ads.

Google sent emails to some advertisers saying, "Performance Max is rolling out a new asset optimization feature to improve the viewer experience of your video ads. It uses Google AI voice models to add realistic voice-over to video ads, in order to drive user engagement and ad performance."

Arpan Banerjee posted about this on LinkedIn and said, "Google's AI will automatically add realistic voice-overs to your silent Performance Max video ads. It pulls directly from your own headlines & descriptions."

The feature will select from advertiser-provided headlines/descriptions and generate voice-over from that text, which will then be layered onto the base video and saved as a new video asset. The voice-over feature will only apply if the ad doesn't already contain a voice.

Google said you can opt out of this before March 20, 2026, by opting out of video enhancement control. "On March 20, 2026, all ads with video enhancement control turned on will be eligible to serve voice-enhanced versions of your videos. For ads that are already opted out of the video enhancement control, no action is necessary," Google added.

Here is the email:

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google has sent notices to some advertisers asking them to confirm whether their campaigns contain European Union political content. The deadline to confirm is by March 31, 2026.

Arpan Banerjee received this notification and posted about it on LinkedIn - the email says:

European Union (EU) regulation requires Google Ads to ask whether or not your campaigns have EU political ads. You'll need to confirm this for your existing campaigns by March 31, 2026. Learn more about how an EU political ad is defined.

Here are a few ways you can do that:

Confirm for a campaign
To confirm for a campaign, go to "Campaign settings" and select "EU political ads". Learn more about how to confirm for a campaign.

Confirm for many campaigns
To confirm for many campaigns at the same time, go to the "Campaign" and select "EU political ads". Learn more about how to confirm for many campaigns.

Confirm for an account
To confirm for all new and existing campaigns, you'll need to confirm for an account.

If you select "No", the same selection will be applied to new and existing campaigns. You can change this for any campaign at any time. Learn more about how to confirm for an account.

Here is a screenshot:

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google Local Service Ads can be super expensive; each call or click can cost hundreds of dollars. Which is why Google has generally been good about refunding for mistaken leads or issues with those leads.

But LSA guru, Anthony Higman was shocked to see Google not credit his client $400 for a call from an existing client who happened to click through the Google LSA ad. Google reportedly confirmed the call came from an existing client and not a new lead, but refused to credit the ad money back.

Anything posted the details on X and said, "Our client was charged $400 for a current client to call their Google Local Services Ads profile. direct business search was not turned on. I thought, ok no big deal, I will escalate this and they will obviously rectify the situation since this was a mistake. I went back and forth with an account manager over there who denied it. I escalated it further and they are not refunding it even though they clearly know its a current client call."

Here is the email he shared of this from Google:

I guess the auto credit system in place is not working in some situations. :(

Here are screenshots of the support chat:

pic.twitter.com/syH9CNtM8v

'" Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) March 3, 2026

Len added:

Historically.. LSA does not credit duplicate leads if they can't track it OR if it's been over 15 days since they last called.

They've removed this language from their site though: https://t.co/xWc7V1RtIW

'" Len (@lenraleigh) March 4, 2026

Do any of you have similar issues?

Forum discussion at X.

Google sent out emails to some advertisers and also posted on its blog about changes coming to the Customer Match uploads in the Google Ads APl. After April 1, 2026, those data uploads are no longer going to work in the Google Ads API and must be done in the Data Manager API instead.

This email was posted by Arpan Banerjee on LinkedIn who wrote, "If you use Customer Match with the Google Ads API, a change is coming."

The email says:

We're writing to inform you of upcoming changes to Customer Match uploads in the Google Ads API. After April 1, 2026, you must use the Data Manager AP! for this functionality.

You're receiving this email because you haven't uploaded data to Customer Match lists from the developer token in your Google Ads manager account (Customer ID ###) in the last 180 days.

Effective April 1, 2026, Customer Match data uploads using the Google Ads API with your developer token will fail. If you want to upload data to Customer Match lists, you should instead use the Data Manager APi to manage and upload data to Customer Match lists.

For non-Customer Match operations, you should continue to use the Google Ads API.

What is changing? The Data Manager API provides a unified data ingestion API for sending data across all Google platforms, with enhanced security protocols compared to the Google Ads API. Developers who aren't actively uploading data to Customer Match lists in the Ads API (no Customer Match data uploads in the last 180 days using OfflineUserDataJobService or UserDataService) will receive an error when attempting to upload data to Customer Match lists.

Why are we doing this? The Data Manager API provides a better developer experience and has new exclusive features, such as confidential matching and encryption. Developers can use the Data Manager API for Customer Match list management and uploads. Review our blog post and upgrade guide for more information.

Here is a screenshot:

So make sure to change your API endpoints for these, if you have not already.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google has added a new attribute to the Google Merchant Center availability options within vehicle listings. The new one is named "Build to order" and only works for Google Vehicle ads.

Google posted this in this help document and it reads:

Build to order [build_to_order] (Vehicle ads only): The vehicle isn't immediately available in dealership inventory, but it can be customized and ordered by the customer directly.

Note: The preorder [preorder] value should only be used for new products that haven't been released yet. Existing products that are out of stock and will be back in stock at a later date that you're accepting orders for should use backorder [backorder].

I spotted this addition via Emmanuel Flossie who posted about it on his blog and on LinkedIn and said, "Google just rolled out a new availability attribute value, and there's one condition setting that will get your products rejected if you miss it."

Here is his video on this new update:

Here is a Google help document with these details.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google has updated or is updating a number of Google Ads and Google Merchant Center policies. This goes across alcohol, prescription drugs, gambling and games and government documents and services policies.

(1) Physical goods subscriptions expansion: Alcohol - Google Merchant Center:

Physical goods subscriptions policy will be updated to formally include alcohol (for example, Wine Clubs) for eligible merchants in the United States. Requirements for alcohol subscriptions:

• Offers must comply with all standard Alcoholic beverages policies.
• To ensure compliant serving, you must use the Google product category 'Alcoholic Beverages' (ID 99676).
• Like other subscription products, you must update your product feed with the subscription cost [subscription_cost] attribute.

Be aware that our systems can only support one subscription price per landing page and subscription cost should be a total, non-discounted periodic payment. Google wil also encourage you to review your checkout process to ensure all mandatory fees are clearly disclosed to customers.

(2) Recurring billing policy expansion: Prescription drugs - Google Merchant Center:

Google is updating its recurring billing policy. This update will allow certified merchants to promote prescription drugs with recurring billing and bundled services in the U.S.

If you are a certified U.S. Online Pharmacy, you can now run the following types of offers:

• Prescription drug subscriptions: Selling prescription drugs using a recurring billing model.
• Prescription drug bundles: Bundling prescription drugs with services (like weight loss programming or coaching), as long as the prescription drug is the primary product.
• Prescription drug consultation services: Offering 'access to prescription drug,' which includes evaluations to determine prescription eligibility (whether they are recurring standalone consults or recurring consults bundled with a prescription drug).

To take advantage of these changes, ensure you meet the following criteria:

• Certification: Maintain status as a certified U.S. Online Pharmacy.
• Feed compliance: Use the subscription cost [subscription_cost] attribute to submit the total, non-discounted periodic payment and include a URL link to your subscription terms and conditions in the return policy field in your Google Merchant Center account.
• Fee transparency: Clearly disclose all associated fees and explicitly state on the landing page what the offer includes (for example, "prescription drug only" or a "bundled treatment plan").
• Policy adherence: Comply with all existing Healthcare & Medicine and recurring billing policies.

If your account is currently disapproved for prescription drug subscriptions, you can request a new account review in the Merchant Center when you've met the above requirements.

(3) Update to Gambling and Games Policy: Indiana, USA (March 2026) - Google Ads:

On March 31, 2026, Google will update the United States country specifics of its Gambling and Games policy to temporarily pause new certification applications for online-gambling promoting content (aggregators) in Indiana.

(4) Update to Other restricted businesses: Government documents and services policy (March 2026) - Google Ads:

On March 17, 2026, the Google Ads "Other restricted businesses: Government documents and services policy" will be updated.

If you're running ads promoting "Business identifiers" and exclusively targeting India as a region, you don't need to qualify as a government or authorized provider but will still need to apply to be excluded from the policy, to ensure your ads aren't improperly disapproved.

Please note: If you are running ads for any restricted government documents and services that are covered by this policy, you will still need to apply for certification, by choosing the appropriate option that applies to your individual case

Google will begin enforcing the policy update on March 17, 2026.

That is all folks.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google has published a new help document titled About the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and UCP-powered checkout feature on Google. This was published in the Google Merchant Center help documentation section.

Last month, Google announced UCP powered checkout on AI Mode. UCP is Universal Commerce Protocol, "a new open standard for agentic commerce that works across the entire shopping journey," Google wrote. It basically lets you more effortlessly connect your ecommerce store with agents to have the AI agents checkout with your site.

The help document was discovered by Hana Kobzová who posted about this on PPC News Feed and said, "The help page also reinforces that UCP powers agentic checkout in experiences like Gemini and Google AI Mode, positioning it as core infrastructure for AI driven commerce across Google."

The document says, "This article only applies to products with eligibility in the United States and for participating merchants and partners. You may see this checkout experience soon on specific surfaces such as AI Mode in Search and Gemini."

Here is a screenshot, I assume this page will change a lot over the coming several months:

Forum discussion at X.

Google Ads has often used dynamic labels for some of the ad groupings. I mean, we've seen tons of variations of these and I am not sure if they mean anything specific. But here is one that caught my eye, this is titled "Sponsored options in the area."

This one was spotted by Anthony Higman who posted the following screenshot on X:

Anthony's comments were more focused on the image carousels within this local ad panel that the ad title.

Here is Anthony's post:

Curious How Many People Expand The Photos On This Silly Ad Type/The Worst Ad Type Ever Introduced To Google?

Also Do You Even Care About Silly Stock Photos Of Trucks Crashing When Looking For A Lawyer? Looks Like I Answered That One Myself!! Lol

By The Way, Its No! The Answer'... pic.twitter.com/6IyylYqeeM

'" Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) February 24, 2026

Forum discussion at X.