Deadlines & playbooks

Google Ads deadlines, and what to do about each.

Google's notice windows can be as short as fourteen days, and the announcements rarely arrive as blog posts. This page tracks every dated change worth putting on a calendar, with the concrete move for each. Below the calendar are the full Monday-morning playbooks.

The calendar

Last reviewed September 12, 2026. Dates come from Google's own notices and help documentation unless flagged otherwise.

DateWhat changesThe move
Aug 5, 2026Passed Google Ads API requires a passkey for new OAuth refresh tokensAnyone with scripts, dashboards, feed tools or Ads Editor users. Existing tokens keep working; service accounts are exempt. Ask each vendor whether the connection runs on a service account or one person's authorization. Brief
Aug 12, 2026DerivedPassed Working deadline to create a passkeyGoogle documents an activation delay of up to seven days, so this is seven days ahead of the reported account-level date. Filter the Passkey status column across your full hierarchy, then have each admin test one real sensitive action. Brief
Aug 17, 2026Passed Budget-limited campaigns deliver to your stated tCPA or tROASSearch, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen and Travel. App and Video keep the old behavior. No opt-out. Close the gap between stated targets and actuals using the Bid Target Adjustment Tool. Brief
Aug 19, 2026UnconfirmedPassed Passkey required for sensitive actionsWidely reported, but Google's own advertiser email said July 15 and no Google page names a date. Trust the notification in your account. Retire shared logins and name a second verified admin per account. Brief
Aug 24, 2026Passed Merchant Center reporting redefinedCommission-eligible products split out of Organic into a new YouTube affiliate value, and YouTube organic definitions realign. Both restate history back to July 1, 2026. Ads product-level reporting also expands to all Performance Max networks plus Video, App and Demand Gen, and that one is not backdated. Export the old-definition report before the 24th and annotate the July 1 to August 23 window in whatever the client sees. The organic drop and the ads rise are definition changes, not demand.
Aug 31, 2026Passed Local inventory ads turn on by defaultStandard Shopping campaigns with the LIA add-on. The Local products setting disappears. Use the Inventory filter to keep online and local budgets split. Brief
Sep 1 to 30, 2026Live Automatically created assets and campaign-level broad match auto-upgrade to AI Max, campaign by campaignACA campaigns also get search term matching and text customization. Broad match campaigns get search term matching only, and lose the exact-as-broad prioritization the setting provided. Google expects all upgrades to conclude by September 30. Pull each campaign's migration date from the API, add exact-match copies (not conversions) for brand campaigns, and note each flip date as it lands. Brief
Sep 4, 2026Passed Opt-out form closes for generative AI video reframing in Performance MaxGoogle emailed a subset of advertisers on August 17. Applies to video assets already uploaded. No blog post, no updated documentation, and the in-account control is campaign level. File the form once per account. The checkbox is per campaign and resets on every new launch. Brief
Sep 15, 2026 Financial Services Verification enforcement begins in 13 EEA countriesBulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia. Banking, loans, cards, investment, trading, insurance. Unverified advertisers stop serving there; nothing is disapproved. Eleven other EEA countries have been enforced since July 23. Filter every account by location targeting for the thirteen, start G2 today, and check the geographic report on September 16. Brief
Sep 21 to
Oct 7, 2026		 Performance Max stops returning "Cross-network" as reporting tools move off API v22API v23 (January) returns the specific channel instead. Supermetrics flips September 21; v22 is sunset for everyone October 7. Filters on "Cross-network" return empty, not an error. Search every query, filter and script for the string "Cross-network" and replace it with a campaign type filter. Find each vendor's flip date. Brief
Late Sep 2026 Language targeting removed from Search and AI Max for Search; Performance Max newly in scope on Google SearchWriting a language criterion to a Search campaign via the API returns OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CONTEXT. Performance Max does not error, so testing there gives a false all-clear. Find every script, bulk template and platform that writes a language column on Search campaigns. Brief
Sep 30, 2026 Merchant Center requires pickup_cost and minimum_order_value where pickup appliesUK, Switzerland and all EEA. Applies when pickup costs or minimum order values exist on the site and in_store products are enabled for pickup. Announced April 28, 2026. Add both attributes to the feed for pickup-enabled products before the deadline. Google's notice
Oct 1, 2026Email only Local Services Ads charges for missed calls and follow-up callsA missed call during business hours held past 20 seconds bills as a valid lead; follow-ups bill once within 15 days even if the first contact did not qualify. IVR exception: the timer starts on key press. Announced by advertiser email August 25; no Help Center page as of this review. Compute your unanswered-past-20-seconds rate from 90 days of call logs, then make the IVR decision deliberately. Related brief
Oct 1, 2026 DV360 removes digital content label exclusions and most sensitive category exclusionsThe targeting options and the matching Structured Data File columns are removed, not renamed. Announced August 27 on the Ads Developer Blog. October 12: business name and logo become required on YouTube responsive ads without advertiser-level defaults. Export current brand-safety settings from every line item before October 1, because the record of what you excluded disappears with the control.
Oct 5, 2026 Government documents and services policy: only authorized providers may advertiseThree cumulative criteria, including a link from an official government site naming you as authorized. Commercial contracts, trade licenses and registry entries are explicitly not accepted. Posted August 4. If you advertise visas, permits or document services, read criterion one honestly today; most resellers will not clear it. Google's notice
Oct 7, 2026 Google Ads API v22 sunsetAll v22 requests fail. Anything still on v22 must be on v23 or later, which also triggers the Performance Max channel change above. Check the client library version in every script and ask every vendor. Google's reminder
Oct 30, 2026 Personalized advertising permitted for alcohol on YouTube inventoryWhere locally permitted. Excluded: Egypt, India, Indonesia, Poland. Health-related alcohol interest targeting still prohibited. The unified global alcohol policy framework takes effect September 30. Posted September 3. Alcohol advertisers: revisit YouTube audience strategy after the 30th; everyone else, nothing. Google's notice
Rolling
into 2027		 Local Services Ads migrate to Performance Max pay-per-leadPhased, US first, with as little as fourteen days notice per account. Performance reporting does not transfer. Export LSA reporting now, before a notice arrives. Brief
Feb 2027 Dynamic Search Ads automigrate to AI MaxMoved back five months from the original September 2026 date on June 11, 2026. DSA only. Do not migrate early on the strength of a September headline. Run the AI Max conversion-data audit first. Brief
Four September changes, one reporting surface. The AI Max auto-upgrade rolling all month, exact and phrase match keywords newly eligible in AI Mode (no date, no opt-out, spotted September 3), language targeting removal in late September, and the August 17 target change still bedding in all land on the same Search reports. A September variance now has at least four in-platform causes the reports cannot separate. Write the caveat before the numbers come in. Brief
Two dates that interact. A budget-limited campaign gets a stricter target on August 17 and, if it runs automatically created assets, a wider pool of eligible queries on September 1. Google's own AI Max documentation states the feature is not effective on campaigns limited by budget. If that describes an account you manage, either fund it properly or keep search term matching off until you have.

The playbooks

The full Monday-morning move from each brief, in one place.

Ads · Governance

After the July 2026 Terms of Service update

  1. Read the updated terms in your account and find the "automated program features" authorization clause, so you can quote it rather than paraphrase it.
  2. Check client MSAs and disclosures for who answers for AI-generated assets. If your contract is silent on machine-generated creative, it's out of date as of July 1.
  3. Inventory the AI surfaces live in each account (auto-apply, AI Max, PMax asset generation) and assign a named human reviewer with a written cadence.
  4. Brief the team: anything typed into Google Ads' conversational tools is contractually usable input. Keep client-confidential strategy out.
  5. Audit which URLs and accounts you've authorized Google to access and crawl, and prune anything a client hasn't approved.
Read the full brief →
Ads · Bidding

Before the August 17 bid target change

  1. Filter every account for campaigns "Limited by budget" on tCPA/tROAS (now or in the last 12 months), and pull the stated-vs-actual delta in the Bid Target Adjustment Tool.
  2. Export current actuals now as your baseline for the client record when performance shifts.
  3. Flag campaigns whose target lives in a contract or forecast, and decide deliberately before August 17: apply recent actuals, set a custom target, or switch to Maximize Conversions/Value.
  4. For overperformers you want to keep, make the actual the stated target. $5 behavior survives only if $5 is what's typed in.
  5. After August 17, recheck PMax/Demand Gen channel mix and give changed campaigns 1 to 2 conversion cycles before judging.
Read the full brief →
Ads · Search

Before you opt into AI Max for Search

  1. Check your conversion values, not just your conversions. Pass real revenue, or AI Max can't tell a good query from a cheap one.
  2. Turn it on for one non-critical campaign first, then read the search terms report to see what the AI thinks "more of what you want" means.
  3. Pressure-test your negative keyword list. It's now your main steering wheel.
  4. Decide brand by brand. Keep brand campaigns out unless you want bleed into competitor queries.
  5. Set a 30-day review on incremental conversions, not just CPA.
Read the full brief →
Ads · Performance Max

While the PMax Partners alpha rolls out

  1. Check Performance Max campaign settings for a Partners (Alpha) section with Search partners and Google Display Network checkboxes.
  2. Pull PMax channel distribution reporting and quantify Search Partners and Display share of spend and conversions, with CPA/ROAS by channel.
  3. Act on junk placements today with account-level placement exclusions and content suitability settings.
  4. Ask your Google rep for the Performance Max Partners alpha by name.
  5. If you have the toggle: one campaign, one network unchecked, two-week minimum hold, judged against a screenshotted baseline.
Read the full brief →
Ads · Shopping

Before local inventory ads flip on August 31

  1. In Merchant Center, check whether the local inventory ads add-on is enabled. If not, stop: this change can't touch you.
  2. List every linked Standard Shopping campaign and note which are intentionally online-only or local-only.
  3. Set the Inventory filter before August 31: Channel = Online or Channel = Local. The Local products setting is going away.
  4. Screenshot settings and drop a dated annotation so September's numbers have an explanation attached.
  5. In early September, watch for store-visit conversions in campaign totals and budget pacing shifts, alongside the August 17 bidding change.
Read the full brief →
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