Blog News & Updates

Google Ads Updates, November 2026: What Changed and What to Do

Performance Max starts pulling landing-page images into every new campaign on December 4, sourced videos are already on by default, Search campaigns on the Display Network change in February 2027, ads in AI Mode reach 10 more countries, and one Demand Gen headline sounds worse than it is. Every change checked against Google's own pages, with what to do about each.

The Keyword Ninja Team November 13, 2026 16 min read

Quick answer: five Google Ads changes from the past month need action from most advertisers:

  1. Performance Max will pull images from your landing pages by default in every new campaign created from December 4, 2026, even if you turned Dynamic images off for the whole account.
  2. Sourced videos are on by default in new Performance Max campaigns, and Google says the setting may already be active on some existing ones. Up to 10 videos per asset group can come from your social profiles, your landing page and your YouTube channel.
  3. Search campaigns that also run on the Display Network change in February 2027. The current budget split goes away. To keep it, set the Display Network to Low priority with a 50% budget allocation.
  4. Google now puts a number on “enough data” for Performance Max: at least 15 conversions in 30 days for stable performance.
  5. Ads in AI Mode expanded to 10 more countries on October 28, and ads on follow-up questions launched in the US. There is nothing to set up, and Google describes no opt-out.

Below is each change in plain English, what it means for your account and what to do. Every item was checked against Google’s own help pages, announcements and developer posts. Where the industry chatter goes further than Google does, we say so. Section 6 is one of those: the Demand Gen “Display targeting on by default” headline does not change where your ads run.

Note for advertisers in Israel and other non-US markets: ads in AI Mode are available in English, in the countries listed in section 5. Israel is not on the list. Financial Services Verification (section 7) is about the US and Canada. Sourced videos are “rolling out in sequences”, so you may not see the setting yet.

This is the November edition of our monthly series. The October 2026 update is still relevant, and every edition is listed on the Google Ads updates page.

1. Performance Max: landing-page images on by default from December 4, 2026

What changes: from December 4, 2026, every newly created Performance Max campaign has landing-page image extraction turned on. Google scans the campaign’s landing pages for high-resolution images and uses them as ad assets across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps.

The part that catches people: the new default applies even if Dynamic images are turned off at account level. Until now a campaign with no setting of its own inherited the account switch. From December 4 the account switch no longer protects new campaigns. This holds whether the campaign is created in the Google Ads interface, in Google Ads Editor or through the API.

What does not change: existing Performance Max campaigns keep their current configuration.

The risk: by leaving this on you confirm that you own the legal rights to every image on the landing page and may use it in advertising. That is not always true. Typical problem images:

  • stock photos licensed for website use only;
  • product shots supplied by a brand you resell;
  • partner or client logos;
  • photos of staff or customers who agreed to appear on the site, not in ads;
  • banners carrying an offer that has since ended.

What to do:

  • New campaign: in the “Campaign settings” step, open the Images tile under text customization and uncheck Landing page images if you don’t want it.
  • Existing campaign: Campaigns → gear icon beside the campaign → Settings → Asset optimization → Images → Landing page images.
  • If you create campaigns with a tool, a script or the API: the default applies there too. Ask your developer or vendor to set image extraction to opted out explicitly on new campaigns before December 4 if you don’t want it.
  • If you leave it on: go through the images on your landing pages once and remove or replace anything you could not defend using in an ad.

2. Performance Max: sourced videos are on by default

Google’s help center now states: “Sourced videos are enabled by default for all new campaigns.” It adds that if you see the setting active where nobody turned it on, “it may have been activated automatically on some existing campaigns as part of a recent platform update.”

What it does: Google looks for videos in the sources you approve and adds them to your asset groups:

  • social media platforms;
  • the campaign’s landing page;
  • your linked YouTube channel.

The details that matter:

  • Up to 10 crawled videos can be added to each asset group.
  • The videos are uploaded to a dedicated Google-owned YouTube channel branded with your logo and business name.
  • Videos are refreshed on a recurring basis. A video removed from its original platform is removed from Google Ads automatically.
  • The campaign needs a daily budget above $5, and the feature is “rolling out in sequences”, so it may not be in your account yet.

The risk: a video that was fine as an organic social post is not automatically fine as an ad. Think of music licensed only for the platform it was posted on, old prices and offers, or people who never agreed to appear in advertising.

What to do:

  • Check every Performance Max campaign, not only new ones. Campaigns → gear icon next to the campaign → Asset group section → Asset optimization → Sourced videos.
  • Look at which sources are approved. If you want the feature, approve only the sources you actually curate, for example your YouTube channel and not every social profile.
  • Turn it off on campaigns where you want only the videos you uploaded.

3. Search campaigns on the Display Network: the split changes in February 2027

Last month we covered the new channel prioritization controls. Google’s help page for the feature now carries a date that needs action.

What changes: starting in February 2027, every Search campaign with the Display Network turned on (Google calls this Display Expansion) migrates automatically to channel prioritization and budget allocation. In Google’s words, “the current spend allocation setup will go away”, and you may see spend shift between Google Search, search partners and the Display Network.

Two more facts from the same page:

  • To keep your current configuration, Google says to set the Display Network to Low priority with a 50% daily budget allocation. The allocation works on a best-effort basis, so it is not a hard cap.
  • The Display Network will no longer serve on Search campaigns that use the Target impression share bid strategy.

How the controls work:

  • Every channel starts as High priority.
  • A Low priority channel gets budget after the High priority ones, and you can give it a percentage of the campaign’s average daily budget. Google’s example: 5% of a $1,000 daily budget means it aims to keep that channel at or below $50 a day.
  • Setting a Low priority channel to 0% means Google won’t spend on it.
  • If you set priorities before February 2027, they apply right away and replace the current behavior.
  • You can’t set this from a manager account. It is set in each client account or per campaign.

What to do:

  • List your Search campaigns that have the Display Network on. In many accounts it was left on by the default at campaign creation, not chosen.
  • If you did not choose it on purpose, turn it off instead of migrating it.
  • If you want to keep it, set the Display Network to Low priority with a percentage you are comfortable with: 50% to stay where you are today, lower to rein it in.
  • Agencies: this is client by client. Start with the accounts where Display inside Search campaigns spends real money.

Where to find it: Account settings → Channel Prioritization → choose the campaign type → set High or Low priority per channel → optional budget allocation percentage. The controls are rolling out gradually, so the card may not be in every account yet.

4. Performance Max needs at least 15 conversions in 30 days

Google’s troubleshooting page for Performance Max fluctuations now includes two sentences that, according to industry trackers who compared it with an archived copy, were not there in June:

“Performance Max campaigns require minimum data for stable performance. Achieving stable performance requires at least 15 conversions over 30 days.”

They sit under the second of ten reasons Google lists for fluctuating performance: conversion tracking setup and conversion delay. The page itself carries no date. The new wording was first reported at the start of November.

What Google does not say: whether the 15 conversions are counted per campaign or per account, and which conversion actions count. Read it as a floor per campaign until Google says otherwise.

Why it matters: many small accounts split a modest number of conversions across several Performance Max campaigns. Three campaigns with 8 conversions a month each are all under the line. In that situation swings in spend and ROAS are what Google itself tells you to expect, not a fault to fix with daily edits.

What to do:

  • Count conversions per Performance Max campaign for the last 30 days.
  • Under 15: consider merging campaigns so the data sits in one place, and stop judging results on a few days.
  • Keep your tags stable. The same section warns that sudden changes in tag fires affect serving and Smart Bidding spend, and that delayed conversion data can cause spend spikes or low ROAS that recover once the data arrives.

Keyword Ninja Autopilot applies the same caution: when an account shows no conversions in 30 days, it stops making live changes and only previews them.

5. Ads in AI Mode: 10 more countries, and ads on follow-up questions in the US

Last month we wrote that ads in AI Mode were a US test. That is no longer true.

What changed (Google, October 28, 2026):

  • Ads in AI Mode are now scaling in Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore.
  • Google plans more locales in Q4 2026, “including Brazil, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.”
  • Multiturn ads launched in the US: ads can now appear on the answers to follow-up questions in an AI Mode conversation, labeled “Sponsored”.

What Google’s help page says about eligibility:

  • No new campaigns or budgets. Existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are eligible automatically.
  • Language: English, in the United States and “select English-speaking markets”.
  • Broad match, AI Max for Search, Shopping and Performance Max can match on the user’s question and on the AI answer. An exploratory question with no product in it can still trigger your ad.
  • Exact and phrase match keywords are eligible only when the query itself shows direct commercial intent, as on a normal results page.
  • Ads can appear with AI explainers: short text written by Gemini about why the ad is relevant. Advertisers “can’t manually write, edit, approve, or opt out of them.”

What to do:

  • If you advertise in these countries in English with broad match, AI Max or Performance Max, your ads can already appear in AI Mode. Review search terms more often for the next few weeks.
  • If you only use exact and phrase match, expect little change: you are in only for direct, commercial queries.
  • Not available in Israel or in Hebrew. There is nothing to set up yet.

Keyword Ninja separates AI Max traffic from keyword-driven traffic in your search terms, so you can see how much of your observable spend comes from queries you never wrote a keyword for.

6. Demand Gen “Display targeting on by default”: scarier headline than change

You may have seen this summarized as “Google is turning Display on by default in Demand Gen from December 1”. Google’s own post says something narrower.

What actually changes (week of December 1, 2026):

  • The campaign-level Display switch on Demand Gen campaigns goes away as a control. It is set to on for new campaigns and can no longer be turned off there.
  • Display is managed at ad group level, through channel controls. Those default to Display off.
  • Google’s summary: “Overall default campaign serving behavior will remain unchanged.”

Existing campaigns that had Display off at campaign level are converted automatically, with their ad groups adjusted so that, in Google’s words, none of them “will change their serving behavior”. One edge case: an ad group that targeted only Display inside a campaign that had Display off was not serving anyway, and will be set to paused.

Who needs to act:

  • Developers and tool vendors. From that week, trying to turn Display off at campaign level through the API returns an error. Use the ad group channel controls instead.
  • Everyone else: no action. If you want to be sure, open the channel selection in each Demand Gen ad group and confirm Display is where you expect it.

7. Also new this month

Household income exclusions in Performance Max. Google Ads API v26.1 (October 28, 2026) “added support for household income exclusions in Performance Max campaigns”. The API release notes are the only Google source we found, so the option may not be in the Google Ads interface for your account yet.

Smart Bidding Exploration is documented for Shopping and Performance Max, not only Search. Google’s help center describes how it works on all three:

  • It applies only to campaigns on Target ROAS. Shopping and Performance Max campaigns must use a campaign-level bid strategy: moving them to a portfolio strategy turns exploration off.
  • You choose a tolerance between 5% and 30%. A 200% target with a 10% tolerance becomes an effective target of 180%.
  • Google says to expect results within about 15% of that effective target over one to two conversion cycles.
  • It should not be used on campaigns that are limited by budget. If the budget runs out, exploration may pause.
  • In Performance Max with a Merchant Center feed, one toggle covers both Search and Shopping traffic. Without a feed it covers Search traffic only.

Be clear about the trade: this lowers your ROAS target on purpose to buy more volume. Turn it on only if that is what you want.

Channel definitions are coming to Search and Shopping reports. The channel breakdown you see in the Performance Max and Demand Gen channel reports “will be available for standard Search and Shopping reports in 2027”. Google gives no month.

Financial Services Verification is coming to the US and Canada in early 2027. Advertisers will have to show they are authorized by the relevant regulators or recognized registries before running certain financial ads. Google says the program already runs in 42 countries, and that it will publish country-specific information and notify advertisers “if and when they need to complete the process.”

8. For developers, scripts and third-party tools

  • Multi-party approvals change the week of December 7, 2026. When an approval is required, the API will no longer create a user-access invitation until the request is approved, a new error code flags stale requests, and up to 100 pending reviews can be resolved in one call. Google asks developers to update their code before December 7.
  • The Data Manager API can now send Google Ads call conversions (November 4, 2026). The same release adds row-level diagnostics, so a failed upload tells you which records failed, and a lead ID field for lead-form conversions. Attribution by lead ID is not available yet.
  • The Google Ads API now ships twice a month. Version 26 was released on October 14 and v26.1 on October 28. There are still four major versions a year, and sunset dates are unchanged.
  • The Google Ads Developer Blog moved to developers.google.com/ads/blog on November 11, 2026. If you follow it by RSS, the new feed is developers.google.com/ads/blog/rss.xml.

9. Reported, but not confirmed by Google

These items are circulating in the industry. We could not find a Google page for any of them as of November 11, 2026, so treat them as unconfirmed:

  • “Ads with pay-per-lead goals terms.” Search Engine Roundtable reported on November 10 that a new opt-in setting with this name is appearing in some accounts. The only source is a screenshot shared on LinkedIn. The reported terms cover provider verification, Google’s right to use the business content you submit, and monitoring and recording of calls and messages. If the setting appears in your account, read the terms before you accept.
  • An “Asset Activity” section labeled Beta. Reported on November 9: a page of AI-generated insights about your assets, said to update weekly. No Google documentation yet.
  • AI-generated summaries above and below search ads. A test spotted in the wild. No announcement.
  • A claim that Customer Match uploads through Data Manager change their hashing requirement on November 16. We could not find this on any Google page: not in the help center, not in the API release notes, not on the developer blog. Google’s help center still says you can upload plain text, which Google hashes, or hash the data yourself with SHA256. Don’t rebuild an upload pipeline because of a blog post. If Google changes the requirement for your account, it will tell you in the account.

Your November 2026 checklist

Action Who When
Decide whether new PMax campaigns should use landing-page images, and set it per campaign Everyone creating PMax campaigns Before December 4, 2026
Tell your developer or tool vendor to set image extraction explicitly on new PMax campaigns Anyone creating campaigns through the API or a tool Before December 4, 2026
Check the Sourced videos setting and approved sources on every PMax campaign PMax advertisers Now
List Search campaigns with the Display Network on, then turn it off or set Low priority with a percentage Search advertisers Before February 2027
Check Search campaigns on Target impression share that rely on Display Search advertisers Before February 2027
Count conversions per PMax campaign for the last 30 days and merge campaigns that are under 15 Small and mid-size PMax accounts Now
Review search terms more often on broad match, AI Max and PMax campaigns Advertisers in the 10 new AI Mode countries Next few weeks
Update API code that turns Display off at campaign level in Demand Gen Developers, tool vendors Before the week of December 1, 2026
Update code that uses multi-party approvals Developers Before December 7, 2026

Want a second pair of eyes? Our free Google Ads audit shows where your account is spending without converting, in a few minutes.

Sources

All checked on November 11, 2026:

#google-ads#performance max#google-ads-updates#demand-gen#ai-mode

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