Google Ads has quietly switched on "automated promotions", an account-level automated asset that reads deals off your website landing pages and attaches them to your Search and Performance Max ads without you creating anything. It is on by default for eligible accounts. If your site has a stale banner, check it today or turn the feature off.
What exactly did Google change?
Google added a new automated asset type that sources promotions from your landing pages and shows them with your ads. Google’s own help article, "About account level automated assets", describes it this way: "Automated promotions is an AI-powered feature that automatically sources, validates, and displays high-quality deals and offers from your website and other sources." The same page says it works with Search and Performance Max campaigns that use location assets, "to help drive both online and offline conversion discovery with zero manual effort."
There was no launch post on the Google Ads blog. The change was spotted by Hana Kobzová of PPC News Feed and written up by Adriaan Dekker on September 2, 2026, then reported by Search Engine Roundtable on September 7, 2026.
In plain terms: if your appliance repair site says "$25 off your first service call" in the header, or your Shopify store shows "Buy one, get one free" on a collection page, Google may now pull that line into your ad as a promotion, the same way dynamic sitelinks and dynamic callouts already borrow text from your site.
Is my account affected?
You are affected if you run Search or Performance Max, have location assets attached, and have no manual promotion assets in the account. According to the Google help documentation as summarised by Search Engine Roundtable, those are the three conditions. Location assets are the piece most owners forget they have: if your Google Business Profile is linked to Google Ads, you almost certainly have them.
The third condition matters most. An account that has never touched the promotions feature, which describes most local service businesses and many small e-commerce stores, is the account most likely to have this switched on right now.
Why should a small business care?
Because a promotion in an ad is a claim, and Google is now making that claim on your behalf from whatever your website happens to say. Google’s guidance, quoted by Search Engine Roundtable, is to "keep your website’s promotional details up to date, or manually upload specific promotions if you require exact control over what is shown."
The risk is not that Google invents an offer. It is that your website is out of date. Expired seasonal banners, an offer that only applies in one city showing to the whole province, and discounts with conditions buried in fine print are common on small-business sites. Any of those can now surface next to your ad, and a customer who clicks on "20% off" and is refused at the counter is not a lead, they are a one-star review.
The upside is real too: a visible deal before the click is exactly what promotion assets are for. And Google says detected promotions are "re-verified within 24 hours", so an offer you remove from the site should drop out of your ads within roughly a day, according to the Adriaan Dekker write-up of September 2, 2026.
Manual promotion assets vs automated promotions: which should I use?
Manual promotion assets give you control; automated promotions give you coverage without effort.
| Feature | Manual promotion assets | Automated promotions (new) |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes the offer | You, in Google Ads | Google’s AI, from your landing pages |
| Campaign types | Search, Performance Max and others | Search and Performance Max with location assets |
| Default state | Off until you create one | On for eligible accounts |
| Start and end dates | Set by you | Based on what the site shows; re-verified within 24 hours |
| Fine-print control | Full: occasion, code, minimum order, dates | Depends on what is readable on the page |
| How to stop it | Pause or remove the asset | Add manual promotions, or opt out in account-level automated assets |
| Best for | Stores and services with specific, dated offers | Accounts with clean, current site offers and no time to manage assets |
Note that this is a Google Ads feature, not the older Merchant Center "automated promotions" that reads offers from your product feed. A Shopify store running Shopping ads may now have both, and they are managed in different places.
How do I turn automated promotions off?
You opt out at the account level, not per campaign. Google’s help article lists the path: in Google Ads go to Campaigns, then Assets, open the Associations tab, use the three-dot menu to choose "Account level automated assets", open the three-dot menu again for "Advanced settings", pick the asset type you want to turn off, give a reason and save. Because it is account-wide, turning it off removes it from every eligible campaign at once.
The quieter way to keep control is to add your own promotion assets: Google will not run automated promotions in an account that already uses manual ones.
What to do this week
- Open Google Ads, go to Assets, filter by "Promotion" and look for entries labelled as automated. If any exist, read them word for word against what your website actually honours.
- Walk your own website as a customer would: header bar, homepage hero, collection pages, service pages. Remove or update any offer that has expired, is region-specific, or has conditions a customer could not see in an ad.
- Decide on control. If you run dated or conditional offers, create a manual promotion asset with the right dates and fine print; that alone disqualifies the account from automated promotions. If you have no offers at all, turn the automated asset off so nothing gets scraped by mistake.
- Put a monthly reminder on the calendar to re-check both the site and the Assets tab.
This is the kind of setting we check on day one of every account. Deciding which automated assets may run was part of the pre-launch checklist when we launched Trucare Appliance Repair’s Search campaign in August 2026 on a $942 budget, which produced 10 tracked leads at $94 each in its first month (Trucare case study).
Frequently asked questions
Does Google Ads automated promotions cost extra?
No. Automated promotions is an automated asset, and like dynamic sitelinks or dynamic callouts it carries no separate fee. You pay the normal cost per click when someone clicks the ad. The financial risk is indirect: a promotion pulled from an outdated page can attract clicks from people expecting a deal you no longer offer, which wastes budget and hurts conversion rate.
Will automated promotions show on Performance Max campaigns?
Yes, if the campaign has location assets attached and the account has no manual promotion assets. Google’s help article specifically names Search and Performance Max campaigns "that use location assets". Because Performance Max serves across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps, a promotion pulled from your site can appear in more places than a standard Search ad would.
Can I control the wording of an automated promotion?
Not directly. Google sources the wording from your landing pages and other sources, so the only lever you have is what your website says. If you need exact control over the offer text, dates, promo code or minimum order, create a manual promotion asset in Google Ads. According to Google’s guidance reported on September 7, 2026, manually uploaded promotions are the recommended route when you "require exact control over what is shown".
Is this the same as automated promotions in Google Merchant Center?
No. Merchant Center has its own automated promotions setting for Shopping ads, which pulls offers from your product feed and is managed inside Merchant Center. The new feature lives in Google Ads under account-level automated assets and applies to Search and Performance Max campaigns with location assets. A store running Shopping ads may have both switched on, so check each separately.
Not sure which automated assets are running in your account? Request a free 48-hour audit and our ex-Googler founder’s team will show you exactly what Google is adding to your ads and whether it is helping or hurting your cost per lead.
Sources: Google Ads Help, About account level automated assets; Search Engine Roundtable, Google Ads Automated Promotions (September 7, 2026); Adriaan Dekker, Automated Promotions Launch (September 2, 2026); Google Merchant Center Help, Manage automated promotions.