Google has emailed advertisers that from 12 October 2026, Google Ads will pick up promotions from your website by itself and attach them to your ads as promotion assets. A coupon code, "second item half price", "20% off all sweaters": if it is visible on your landing page, it can show up in your ad. Without anyone entering it in the account.
The setting is on by default. You are opted in automatically. If you do not want it, you have to switch it off yourself.
That sounds convenient. In practice it means your website is now also ad copy. And most websites are kept up to date less carefully than an ad account.
What exactly changes
Google describes the feature in its Help Center under Automated promotions. Google looks for valid offers on your landing pages and attaches them automatically to active Search and Performance Max campaigns that have location assets linked and no manual promotion running.
The date and the automatic opt-in come from the email Google sent to advertisers, which Search Engine Roundtable published on 5 October. Google says it applies to "some advertisers", so not every account gets this at the same time.
One detail that matters: according to Google, each automated promotion can serve for less than 24 hours. After that, Google checks again whether the offer is still visible on your site. Google cannot read start and end dates yet. It says that will change later.
Who this affects
Not everyone. If you run a pure webshop with no location assets in your account, this round does not affect you. If you have a physical store, or a local business such as an installer, hairdresser or garden centre, and your business address is linked to your campaigns, it probably does.
Not sure? Look at the assets in your account and check whether location assets are attached to your Search or Performance Max campaigns. That is the quickest check.
Where it can go wrong
The risk sits less with Google than with your own website.
Old offers are the first issue. The summer banner still on a landing page. "Free shipping over €50" when it is €75 by now. Google says it only shows valid, non-expired offers. I would not rely on that blindly: a page without a clear end date easily looks valid to a system.
The second issue is conditions. Your site has the small print: selected products only, in store only, cannot be combined. A promotion asset has room for one short line. The nuance can get lost, and the person who clicks then expects a discount on everything. That will not get you fined, but it costs trust and often an awkward conversation at the till or in your inbox. I wrote about disappointment after the click in the CRO checklist for webshops.
The third issue applies in the Netherlands and the wider EU. A discount has to be calculated from the lowest price you charged yourself in the 30 days before. The Dutch regulator ACM explains this in its guidance on showing prices (in Dutch). I am not a lawyer, but my reading is simple: if a discount on your site does not meet that rule, the same claim will soon be in your ad. And what is in your ad stays your responsibility.
From now on your website is also ad copy. Maintain it as if it were.
On or off?
Do not switch it off on reflex. If the offers on your site are always correct and current, an automated promotion can help, especially in the weeks around Black Friday.
But "on by default" means trusting, by default, a website that is often maintained by someone other than the person running the ads. In many small businesses one person updates the site and another looks after Google Ads. This falls right between the two.
My advice: switch it off until you know which offers are on your landing pages. Then decide on purpose. Put important campaigns, such as Black Friday, in as manual promotions with their own start and end dates. According to Google, the automated system skips any campaign that already has a manual promotion running.
Watch your numbers too. Google recommends segmenting your reports by click type to see what promotions do. If conversions rise in the fourth quarter, you want to know whether that came from an offer you set up yourself or one Google picked from your site. How to build tracking around what actually sold is covered in this article on ecommerce tracking.
What I am not sure about yet
Google's email does not mention countries. Whether Dutch accounts are included on 12 October or later, I do not know yet. It is also unclear how well Google picks up the conditions and exclusions of an offer. I will look at that in practice after 12 October.
Where to start
- Check per account whether your Search or Performance Max campaigns have location assets. If not, this does not apply to you right now.
- In Google Ads, go to Assets, open "Account level automated assets" through the three-dot menu, choose Advanced settings and set "Automated promotions" on or off on purpose.
- Go through your landing pages for old offers, banners, coupon codes and shipping conditions.
- Check that your discounts match the lowest price of the past 30 days.
- After 12 October: filter your assets by type Promotion. The "Added by" column shows what Google added itself (labelled Google AI).
- Set up important Black Friday offers manually, with start and end dates.
Want someone to look over your account and your site? Feel free to get in touch.