Since October 12, 2026, Google Ads automatically pulls promotions and coupons from a website and shows them in Search and Performance Max ads. It's on by default for campaigns with a linked location that don't already have their own promotion assets.

Google doesn't need you to write a promotion anymore. It'll just take one off your site.

What changed on October 12

Google Ads began automatically identifying promotions and deals on advertiser websites and applying them directly to campaigns as automated promotion assets. The feature is opt-out, not opt-in: it's live by default, and Google notified advertisers by email ahead of the October 12 start, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable and PPC Land.

Which campaigns it touches

It applies to Search and Performance Max campaigns that have a location asset linked and don't already have manual promotion assets set up. Google says it only shows offers it can still verify on the live site, and each automated promotion is only eligible to run for less than 24 hours at a time before Google re-checks it. Automated promotions show up in your Assets view labeled "Added by: Google AI," though per Google's email, assets with zero impressions won't appear there at all.

The real risk: stale specials and fine print

Here's the problem. Google's claim is that it only pulls active, current offers, but "current" means whatever's technically still live on a page you forgot about. A "$50 off your first repair" special from last spring, buried on an old landing page nobody's looked at in months, is exactly the kind of thing this feature is built to surface, and exactly the kind of thing most shops don't realize is still sitting on their site. That special showing up in a Performance Max ad in front of every searcher in your market isn't a minor glitch. It's a pricing commitment you didn't choose to make today.

This needs a review, not a guess

Whether this is currently running in your account, and which offers it's pulling if so, isn't something to leave to chance. If Watson & Co. manages your Google Ads, this is already on our radar; we check account-level automated assets as part of how we run a campaign. If another agency or your own team runs your ads, it's worth having someone confirm what's live before a stale promise costs you a job you can't actually deliver at that price.

That's part of what our free Growth Audit covers: a real look at what Google is doing inside your account, not just what you think is running. It pairs well with a look at your Google Ads account structure overall, and with how your Local Services Ads are set up, since both touch the same location data this feature reads from.

Better: write your own promotions

Writing your own promotion assets inside Google Ads gives you control over the exact offer, the exact dates, and the exact fine print, instead of letting an algorithm decide what counts as a live deal. That's a decision for whoever manages your account, made with full visibility into what's actually profitable to offer right now, not a default setting to leave running on autopilot.

Matt's take

The worst version of this is a plumber whose site still shows a "$50 off" special from a promotion that ended eight months ago, and Google Ads just started running it again, today, in front of every searcher looking for a plumber in their market. Nobody signed off on that price. Nobody's team knows it's live.

I'd rather see every home service client writing their own promotions with intention than leaving this on autopilot. An automated system deciding what deal to show your customers, based on whatever it can still technically find on your website, is not a strategy. It's a liability waiting for someone to notice.

FAQ

What is Google Ads automated promotions?
A feature that lets Google Ads automatically find promotions and coupons on an advertiser's website and show them in Search and Performance Max ads, without the advertiser manually creating a promotion asset.
Is automated promotions on by default?
Yes, for Search and Performance Max campaigns with a linked location asset that don't already have their own promotion assets. It's opt-out, meaning it runs automatically unless someone turns it off at the account level.
How do I know if Google is pulling coupons from my site into my ads?
Automated promotions appear in your Assets view labeled "Added by: Google AI," though Google's email notes that assets with zero impressions won't show up there. The safest way to know for sure is to have whoever manages your account check it directly.
Can I turn off Google's automated promotions?
Yes, it's an account-level setting under automated assets. Whether to turn it off, and what to run in its place, is a decision your account manager should make deliberately rather than leaving on autopilot.

Sources

Find out what's costing you leads

If you don't know for certain what's running in your Google Ads account right now, you're not alone, and that's exactly the gap we close. Get your free Growth Audit and we'll show you what Google is actually doing with your account, your profile, and your ads.