Hi,

We logged 16 changes this week across Google Ads, Merchant Center, Google Tag Manager and the Google Ads API, and two of them are high impact.

The big ones

• You can now cap how much a campaign spends on Display and Search partners. (High impact) Google launched two optional controls. Channel prioritization lets you mark channels as High or Low priority, so high priority channels get funded first up to their Target CPA or Target ROAS before anything flows to the rest. Budget allocation then sets a maximum percentage of the daily budget for a low priority channel, on a best-effort basis, and a 0% setting stops that channel entirely. The part to diary: from February 2027 the current spend allocation setup for Search campaigns with the Display Network turned on goes away, and spend can shift between channels. To keep today's behaviour, set the Google Display Network to Low priority with a 50% budget allocation. Details
• Google Ads API v26 is out, and it has breaking changes. (High impact) Local Services Performance Max campaigns now require country_code and listing_id at creation. The enhanced_conversions_for_leads_enabled field is gone, replaced by enablement_setting. Hotel-specific fields in AdGroupBidModifier are replaced by vertical-agnostic ones, and hotel CriterionError reasons are renamed, so error handling needs updating too. On the upside, v26 adds read-only Search Lift reporting with 15 new metrics, LINE and SMS business messaging, and a Shopping listing_type field. If you or your vendors build on the API, read the migration notes before your next deploy. Details
• Universal Cart is live for US shoppers. Google turned it on across Search AI Mode and the Gemini app. Shoppers can hold products from several retailers in one cart, get price drop and back in stock alerts, see promo codes, and either pay with Google Pay or hand off to the merchant's own cart. Merchants stay the seller of record and still handle order confirmations and support. Nike, Sephora, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, Wayfair and many Shopify merchants are offering the in-cart checkout. Google's launch post did not cover merchant fees, product ranking or data sharing, so retailers evaluating this are doing it without those answers. Details
• Lead forms can now score leads from the answers people give. A lead scoring section appeared on custom questions, where you tick which answers qualify a lead for your business. Each question can carry up to 12 answer options and any of them can be marked as qualifying. It sits under Assets, then Lead form, then Create lead form, then Custom questions. If you run lead forms, this is the cheapest way to stop paying for the wrong leads twice. Details
• Certification applications are moving into the Google Ads account itself. From this month Google is gradually letting some advertisers apply for certifications under a new Policy section inside Admin, with online gambling the only certification listed at launch. The Help Centre route still works, and Google said existing certifications and pending applications are unaffected. Expect it to appear in your account at some point rather than all at once. Details
• Pharmaceutical ads started appearing in AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google confirmed that ads on these surfaces were recently expanded to include certain pharmaceutical products, in a US-only test. Advertisers can run standard text and Shopping ads in sections marked Sponsored, and existing prescription drug certification rules still apply. Drug ads are kept out of the more experimental formats, including ones where AI rewrites the copy. Visibility looks thin so far, so treat it as a test rather than a channel. Details

Also this week

• A bug left Merchant Center product videos stuck in preview processing, including YouTube-hosted and third-party ones, leaving listings static in Search. Google confirmed the issue and told merchants not to touch the video_link attribute while it is open, because an edit restarts the review timeline. Details
• Google announced a Data Strength Uplift metric for the Google Ads interface, showing how much your data setup contributes to conversion gains, and said Data Manager is expanding to Display & Video 360 and Google Analytics. Details
• Optimized Tag Manager containers now send data straight to Google measurement products through destination tags, instead of loading a second gtag.js script, which keeps settings and diagnostics in one place. Details
• The Google Ads API moved to two releases a month starting with v26. There are still four majors a year, everything in between is non-breaking, and sunset dates and migration deadlines do not change. Details

Took effect this week

• Oct 12: Automated promotions to switch on by default for Search and PMax campaigns on October 12, 2026. Details
• Oct 15: Channel prioritization and budget allocation launched, letting advertisers cap Display and partner spend. Details

Coming up

• Oct 21: YouTube Masthead to accept certified online gambling ads from October 21, 2026. Details
• Oct 21: Online lottery ads to be allowed in Colombia from October 21, 2026 for CNJSA-authorized operators. Details
• Oct 30: Personalized advertising policy to allow personalized alcohol ads on YouTube where locally permitted. Details

See every change with filters, sources and effective dates at https://gadschangehistory.com. Reply to this email if you spot something we missed.

From Google Ads Change History by Brandon Mangan. Not affiliated with Google.