Google Ads

Pop art Gmail inbox showing a Google Ads rep email stamped with a red CAN-SPAM warning and a $53,088 penalty notice, with the missing opt-out link circled.

A LinkedIn Post Just Put Google's Own Ads Reps on a $53,088-Per-Email Hook

Emmanuel Flossie, a Google Ads Diamond Product Expert, publicly accused Google Ads representatives on May 11, 2026 of sending unsolicited commercial emails to advertisers without a CAN-SPAM-compliant opt-out. The FTC sets civil penalties at $53,088 per individual email in violation, and the statute holds the company whose product is

Pop-art illustration of a Microsoft Advertising PMax placement report with three highlighted columns labeled clicks, conversions, and spend over a publisher URL.

Microsoft Just Beat Google to PMax Placement Transparency

Microsoft Advertising added clicks, conversions, and spend to its Performance Max Website URL publisher report on May 7, 2026. Until then, advertisers running PMax on Microsoft could see which sites their ads ran on but not what those placements actually returned. Google's equivalent "Where Ads Showed"

Pop-art Google Ads dashboard with a giant passkey symbol overlay, calendar dates July 15 and July 8 highlighted, and a comic speech bubble reading 'Sensitive Action Blocked'.

Google's 7-Day Passkey Delay Quietly Moves the July 15 Deadline to July 8

Google Ads will require a passkey to confirm sensitive actions starting July 15, 2026, including account linking changes, user access edits, billing updates, and unusual bulk operations. New passkeys carry a seven-day security delay before they can authorize those actions, which means an agency that waits until July 14 to

Pop art comic illustration of a Google Ads Target CPA bid strategy dial being adjusted by an AI hand, with phone, form, and newsletter icons funneling into a single auction box.

Google's Journey-Aware Bidding Beta Finally Lets Target CPA Look Past the Form-Fill

Google announced journey-aware bidding in beta on May 7, ahead of Google Marketing Live 2026 on May 20. Search campaigns optimizing to Target CPA will now learn from non-biddable conversion goals (phone calls, form submissions, newsletter signups, and other secondary signals) alongside the primary one advertisers selected. The catch: accounts

Pop-art illustration of a Google Ads AI Max term exclusion list moving from a campaign-level box into a larger account-level container, with a stopwatch losing billable hours.

Google's AI Max Exclusions Are Going Account-Wide and Repricing the Setup Hour

Google Ads is rolling out account-level exclusions for AI Max content and titles, surfacing through Search Engine Roundtable on May 7, 2026. The change moves term exclusions and messaging restrictions, currently capped at 25 terms and 40 restrictions per campaign, to inherit from the account. For agencies that built billable

Pop art illustration of a vintage red telephone receiver with a glowing REC button next to a tearing July 1 calendar page and a comic-book CONSENT speech bubble

Google's July 1 Call Recording Flip Hands Wiretap Liability to 12 States

Google Ads will switch call recording from off to on by default on July 1, 2026 for accounts with no prior selection, covering U.S. and Canada calls routed through Google Forwarding Numbers. Healthcare and financial services accounts stay off automatically. The flip applies inside the 12 all-party consent states,

Pop-art illustration of a Google Ads campaign showing a strikethrough pinned description while a glowing disclaimer asset takes the first description line.

Google's Disclaimer Asset Wins the Pinning Fight in Every Search Ad

Google rolled out a new disclaimer asset for Search campaigns starting April 30, 2026. The asset locks up to 90 characters of designated text into the first description line of every ad in the campaign, and Google's documentation confirms it overrides any pinned description-1 asset that already exists.