Google Ads automated promotions will start adding coupons and deals from your website to your Search and Performance Max ads on October 12, 2026, unless you switch the setting off. If your offers change often or carry fine print, check your account before that date.
Search Engine Roundtable reported the change on October 5, 2026, based on an email Google Ads sent to some advertisers. This guide explains how the feature works, who it affects, what can go wrong, and the exact steps to keep control.
Last updated: October 6, 2026 (IST)
What Are Google Ads Automated Promotions?
Google Ads automated promotions is an AI-powered feature that finds deals and offers on your website, checks their quality, and shows them as promotion assets in your Search and Performance Max ads, so you do not have to build each asset by hand.
Google’s Help Center describes the feature as one that sources, validates and displays high-quality deals and offers from your website and other sources. Promotion assets are the small ad extras that show a sale or discount next to your ad text. Until now, advertisers added them by hand. From October 12, Google will add them for eligible accounts, which moves promotion control from your team to the system.
- Source: your website and other sources, according to Google’s Help Center.
- Format: promotion assets that appear with Search and Performance Max ads.
- Default: on. Google Ads sets it as opt-out, so you must act to stop it.
- Control: the account-level automated assets settings in Google Ads.
Short version: it is a default-on helper, so decide now whether you want it.
How Google Ads Automated Promotions Work
The automated promotions system is an AI process that scans your site for offers, validates them, and attaches approved deals to eligible campaigns. Google has not published every validation rule, so advertisers should check each live promotion themselves instead of trusting it blindly.
Google says the system sources, validates and displays offers. It has not shared how it ranks deals, how often it re-reads your site, or how it handles an expired code. Unverified: whether a promotion disappears the moment your page changes. Treat the page you control as the source of truth, and keep offer pages clean, dated and easy to read.
- Google finds a coupon or deal on your website or another source.
- The system validates the offer for quality.
- An approved offer appears as a promotion asset in an eligible Search or Performance Max ad.
- Your account-level setting decides whether any of this happens.
Takeaway: the steps are simple, but you do not see the checks, so audit what goes live.
Who Gets Google Ads Automated Promotions on October 12
Eligible advertisers are Search and Performance Max users who have linked location assets and no existing promotion assets. Google reportedly emailed select advertisers, so not every account will see the change. Open your own account settings to confirm your status.
The report says the rollout targets accounts that already link location assets, which suggests local and multi-branch businesses feel it first. Accounts that already run promotion assets were described as outside the rule. Unverified: whether Google will widen eligibility later. If you never received the email, still check the setting, because a missing email does not prove you are exempt.
| Your situation | Likely result | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Location assets linked, no promotion assets | Eligible. Setting is on by default. | Decide: keep it or turn it off. |
| Promotion assets already live | Reported as outside the rule. | Keep your own assets current. |
| No location assets linked | Not in the reported scope. | Re-check after October 12. |
| No email received | Unverified: you may still be affected. | Open the settings and look. |
Wrap-up: five minutes in your settings tells you where you stand.
Risks of Google Ads Automated Promotions
The main business risk of automated promotions is that an AI system, not your team, decides which offer represents your brand. A wrong, expired or low-margin deal can reach shoppers before anyone on your side notices the mismatch at all.
Offers in ads must match what a shopper gets on the landing page. If a sale ended on your site but a promotion still shows, you earn a click and a complaint. Margin is a second risk, because a discount on a low-margin product can raise sales and cut profit. Reporting is the third: you may see promotion clicks without knowing which deal drove them.
| Option | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Keep automated promotions on | Saves setup time. May add offer text you forgot to add. | Less control. Possible wrong or stale deals. Harder to explain results. |
| Turn automated promotions off | Full control over every offer. Easier brand and legal review. | More manual work. You may miss a useful deal placement. |
- Stale offers: a promotion that outlives the real sale.
- Margin leaks: discounts shown on products you did not mean to promote.
- Brand tone: wording you did not write.
- Unclear reporting: weaker link between a deal and a result.
Rule of thumb: if you cannot review it, you should not leave it on.
How to Turn Off Google Ads Automated Promotions
You turn off automated promotions inside the account-level automated assets settings in Google Ads. Choose the promotions asset type, give a reason, and save. The change applies to the whole account, and campaigns follow it unless you override a single campaign.
Google documents the steps in its Help Center, and Search Engine Roundtable reports the same path: open the automated assets settings, find Automated Promotions, and select Off. Menu names can shift slightly between Search and Performance Max guides, so follow the screen you see. Make the change before October 12 if you want no promotions from day one, and note who made it.
Steps below follow the Google Ads Help page on account-level automated assets and the Performance Max account-level automated assets guide.
- Open Assets in the Campaigns menu.
- Select the Associations view in the table dropdown.
- Click the three-dot menu and choose Account level automated assets.
- Open Advanced settings.
- Pick Turn off specific automated assets and choose the promotions asset type.
- Add a reason and save.
Per Google’s Performance Max guide, campaigns default to the account setting, but you can override it per campaign. Save the change, then screenshot it for your records.
Wrap-up: switching it off is quick, and you can revisit it after watching a test.
Checklist: What to Do Before October 12
Your pre-launch plan is a short audit of settings, offer pages and reporting that you finish before Google starts adding promotion assets. It takes under an hour for most accounts and protects your brand from stale or off-strategy deals before they go live.
Start with the settings, because that is the only step with a deadline. Then clean the pages Google may read, since the system pulls offers from your site. Finally, set a review habit. Promotions can change daily, so a one-time check is not enough. A weekly look at live assets catches problems early, keeps your offers honest, and builds a record you can show a client.
- Open account-level automated assets and note the current promotions setting.
- Decide: keep on, turn off, or test on a few campaigns.
- List every live sale, coupon and expiry date on your site.
- Remove old offers and expired codes from public pages.
- Add clear start and end dates to each offer page.
- Check the promotion assets report each week after October 12.
- Write down the date you changed the setting, so you can compare results.
Our earlier guide on moving from Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max shows the same pattern: Google adds automation, and you decide how much control to keep.
Wrap-up: do the settings step first, because it is the one that expires.
Google Ads Automated Promotions: Common Questions
When do Google Ads automated promotions start?
October 12, 2026, according to an email Google Ads sent to select advertisers, as reported on October 5, 2026.
Which campaigns are affected?
The report names Search and Performance Max campaigns with linked location assets and no existing promotion assets. Other campaign types were not mentioned.
Can I turn off Google Ads automated promotions?
Yes. Go to the account-level automated assets settings, find Automated Promotions, and select Off. Google’s Help pages list the steps.
Will automated promotions cost extra?
No separate fee was mentioned in the report. Unverified: confirm in your account, and watch your normal click costs after launch.
Do promotion assets change my Quality Score?
Google has not said. Unverified. Track click-through rate and conversion rate before and after instead of guessing.
What if a wrong offer appears in my ad?
Turn the setting off, fix or remove the source offer on your site, and check the assets report. Then re-test with a small campaign.
Get a Second Opinion
Not sure whether to keep this setting on? Micro Supple, an AI Digital Marketing Company in Vaishali, offers a free consultation and ad-account audit. Learn more about Micro Supple, see our Google and Meta Ads management page, or return to the Micro Supple home page.
Leave a Reply