From 12 October 2026, Google Ads will automatically pull offers such as coupons and deals from your website and attach them to Search and Performance Max ads that have a linked location asset, unless you opt out. Google announced the change in an email to advertisers that Search Engine Roundtable published on 5 October 2026. The feature is opt-out, not opt-in.
That gives a UK local business running its own ads a short window to answer one question: is every offer on your website something you would be happy to see in an ad tomorrow, and honour for every customer who clicks it?
What exactly is Google changing on 12 October?
Google's email, as quoted by Search Engine Roundtable, says Google Ads "will automatically identify and extract high-quality promotions, such as coupons and deals, from your website and apply them directly to your campaigns." Google's help page on automated promotions adds the detail that matters. The feature covers active Search or Performance Max campaigns with location assets attached. It is part of account-level automated assets, and the promotions may appear with your ads on Google Search or elsewhere in Google's ad inventory.
Two details on that help page should change how you look at your own website. First, Google says it "currently cannot extract start and end dates" from your offers. Second, each automated promotion serves for less than 24 hours and only comes back if Google can confirm the offer is still visible on your site. In plain terms, Google is reading what your pages say right now, not what you meant them to say.
Who does this affect in the UK?
PPC Land's analysis of the email, published on 6 October 2026, notes that Google has not said which regions and languages are covered. It also points out that location assets do not require a verified Business Profile, so a campaign can qualify even if you have forgotten the link exists.
The businesses most exposed are the ones that use local ads to drive calls and visits: trades, salons, clinics, garages, restaurants, independent shops and service firms with a showroom. Many of these sites still carry seasonal offer pages that were built for one campaign and never taken down.
Why does this matter more for a small business than a big brand?
PPC Land's coverage lists the ways this can go wrong: expired offers, regional pricing, conditional discounts and leftover sale pages that a machine could read as valid. It also notes that Google's 1 July 2026 Terms of Service update restates that advertisers are responsible for reviewing automatically generated assets. Google switches the asset on, and you own what it says.
The CMA's guidance on complying with consumer law when using AI agents is not about ad assets. The same principle applies here, though: "you are responsible for what an AI agent does in the same way you are responsible for what an employee does," and that holds "even if someone else designed or provides the AI agent on your behalf." The guidance also says marketing should give accurate information about prices and that offers and price reductions must be genuine. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, the CMA can now fine businesses directly for consumer law breaches, up to 10% of global turnover.
Should you keep it on, switch it off, or use manual promotions?
Go through this checklist for your own site:
- If you have no offers anywhere on your site, the setting will do little. Switch it off anyway so a future blog post or landing page cannot trigger it.
- If you have one permanent, unconditional offer (for example "free no-obligation quote" or "10% off your first visit for new customers"), keeping it on is reasonable. Check that the wording still makes sense when it is lifted onto an ad.
- If you have seasonal or dated offers, switch it off. Google cannot read your end dates yet, so a live "summer sale" page is a risk.
- If your prices differ by postcode, branch or customer type (trade versus retail, members versus non-members), switch it off. An ad cannot carry those conditions reliably.
- If you are planning Black Friday or Christmas offers, add them as manual promotion assets with start and end dates. Google's help page says the automated system skips campaigns that already have manual promotions running, so a manual promotion gets you the benefit and keeps you in control.
- If an agency or freelancer runs your account, ask them in writing which setting they have chosen and why. You are still the one responsible.
What could a stale offer cost you?
Take a hypothetical kitchen fitter in Leeds. The figures below are illustrative, not drawn from any source, and are only there to show the scale of the risk for a local service business:
- Monthly Google Ads spend: £1,200, mostly on Search with a location asset linked to the Business Profile.
- Average cost per click of £2.50, giving roughly 480 clicks a month.
- An enquiry rate of 4%, so around 19 enquiries, and 3 of those becoming jobs at about £8,000 each.
- A forgotten page from last spring still says "£500 off any full kitchen installation this summer".
Say Google extracts that offer and all three customers arrive quoting it. The fitter either honours £1,500 of discounts, which is more than the month's £1,200 ad spend, or refuses and starts three customer relationships with an argument and a possible complaint about a misleading ad. Neither cost appears anywhere in the Google Ads dashboard. It comes out of margin and reputation.
Now flip it. If the same fitter has a genuine, standing offer such as "free design visit within 10 miles", an extracted promotion might lift click-through at no extra cost. The feature is the same in both cases. What changes the outcome is whether the website was written with it in mind.
How do you check and change the setting?
Google's help page gives the exact path:
- In Google Ads, open Campaigns, then Assets.
- In the filter bar, click the three-dot More icon and select Account level automated assets.
- On that page, click the three-dot icon and choose Advanced settings.
- Open the Automated promotions dropdown and choose Off, giving a reason if asked.
To see what has already run, filter the Assets view by asset type Promotion and look for Google AI in the Added by column. PPC Land points out one gap: assets with zero impressions are not listed, so an offer that was attached but never shown leaves no record. Check again a week after any change, not only once.
What should you change on your website?
The CMA's AI agents guidance is clear that offers and price reductions in marketing must be genuine, and an extracted promotion is marketing. In practice, for a small site:
- Search your own site for "%", "off", "free", "sale", "offer" and "discount".
- Delete expired offers or redirect the page to a current one. A "this offer has ended" banner is better than nothing, but a machine may still read the headline.
- Put the key condition in the same sentence as the offer, for example "15% off boiler servicing for new customers in Bristol, until 30 November".
- Avoid "was" prices unless you have genuinely sold at that price recently.
If you want to know whether a genuine offer helps, run it as a manual promotion on one campaign first and compare it with a campaign that has no offer, using the approach in this guide to A/B testing for UK small businesses.
How does this fit the wider pattern in Google Ads?
PPC Land lists similar changes from earlier this year, including a 5 August 2026 email about automatically created assets and broad match campaigns being upgraded to AI Max from 1 September. Each change is small on its own. Together they mean a campaign you built carefully in spring may be doing several new things by autumn.
For owners managing their own ads, a fifteen-minute monthly check of account-level automated assets, recommendations auto-apply and asset reports is now part of the job. If you would rather hand that to someone, a managed paid media service should be able to show you, on request, which settings they have chosen and why.
What should you do this week?
- Today: open Account level automated assets and see whether Automated promotions is on. If you are unsure about any offer on your site, switch it off now. You can turn it back on later.
- This week: search your site for offer language and remove or update anything expired, conditional or area-specific.
- This week: write down every genuine offer you are willing to honour from an ad, with dates and conditions.
- Before November: add your seasonal offers as manual promotion assets with set start and end dates.
- Monthly from now on: filter Assets by Promotion and Added by Google AI, and review any other account-level automation Google has switched on.
The change itself is small. What it exposes is bigger: your website now feeds your ads directly, and a page you forgot about can turn into a promise to a customer. Fix the pages and choose the setting on purpose, and this becomes a useful tool rather than a liability.
Google Ads Automated Promotions Start 12 October 2026 — FAQ
When do Google Ads automated promotions start?
Google's email to advertisers, published by Search Engine Roundtable on 5 October 2026, says Google Ads will start extracting promotions from advertiser websites on 12 October 2026. It applies to Search and Performance Max campaigns that have linked location assets and no promotion assets attached. You are enrolled automatically. So if your account qualifies and you do nothing, Google can start showing offers it finds on your site from that date. You can switch it off for the whole account at any time in the account-level automated assets settings.
Does this affect UK Google Ads accounts?
Neither Google's email nor its help page names specific countries or languages, and PPC Land's 6 October 2026 coverage says plainly that regions and languages are not specified. That means a UK owner should not assume they are excluded. If you run Search or Performance Max campaigns with a location asset linked to your Business Profile, open your account-level automated assets settings and check the Automated promotions setting yourself. It takes a couple of minutes and removes the guesswork.
How do I turn off automated promotions in Google Ads?
According to Google's help page, go to Assets in the Campaigns menu, click the three-dot More icon in the filter bar and choose Account level automated assets. On that page click the three-dot icon again, select Advanced settings, open the Automated promotions dropdown and choose Off. Google may ask for a reason. The setting applies to the whole account, so this switch cannot leave it on for one campaign and off for another. If you want control over one campaign only, add a manual promotion asset to it, because Google says the automated system skips campaigns with manual promotions running.
Can Google show an expired offer from my website?
Google's help page says advanced verification aims to show only active, non-expired offers. It also says each automated promotion serves for less than 24 hours before it is checked against your site again. The same page admits Google currently cannot extract start and end dates. So if an old offer is still visible on a live page, Google may treat it as current. The safe assumption is that anything on your site that reads as an offer can be pulled into an ad, and you are responsible for it being true.
Should a small business keep automated promotions switched on?
Keep it on only if your website offers are always current, apply to everyone, and have conditions you are happy to honour from an ad. Good examples are a single, permanent offer such as a free quote or a standing new customer discount. Switch it off if you have old sale pages, area-specific prices, trade-only discounts or vague offers. If you want offers in your ads, a manual promotion asset with set dates gives you the benefit with far less risk.
