Since 12 October, Google Ads has been switching on a feature that pulls discount offers straight off your website and shows them in your ads as promotion assets. Nobody has to set anything up, and nobody has to approve it. It's on by default.
For some advertisers that will be a nice free boost. For others it means an expired code, a members-only offer or a deal you never meant to advertise could be sitting under your Search ads right now. With Black Friday a few weeks away, this is a good moment to check what Google is showing on your behalf. Here's what's changed and what I'd do about it.
What Google has changed
Google emailed advertisers in early October to say that, starting 12 October 2026, it would "automatically identify and extract high-quality promotions" such as coupons and deals from advertisers' websites and apply them to eligible campaigns as promotion assets. Search Engine Roundtable reported the email on 5 October, and PPC Land covered the detail the following day.
The key points:
- Which campaigns: Search and Performance Max campaigns that have location assets linked. Google says it "currently only applies" to these.
- Which are excluded: campaigns that already have promotion assets attached.
- Default setting: on. You have to actively opt out if you don't want it.
- Where the offers come from: Google's own help page on account-level automated assets describes automated promotions as an AI-powered feature that finds, checks and shows deals "from your website and other sources".
Automated promotions sit alongside the other account-level automated assets Google already generates, such as dynamic sitelinks, dynamic callouts, dynamic structured snippets and dynamic image assets. If you've ever been surprised by a sitelink you didn't write, this is the same idea applied to your offers.
Why this matters more than it sounds
A promotion asset is a strong signal in an ad. It's often the thing that makes someone click you instead of the competitor above or below. That cuts both ways.
The risks I'd worry about:
- Expired or out-of-date offers. Plenty of sites leave old banners, pop-ups or blog posts live long after a sale has ended. If Google picks one up and a customer can't redeem it, you've paid for a click and annoyed a buyer.
- Offers that weren't meant for everyone. First-order codes, email-subscriber discounts, trade pricing or staff codes can all be visible on a page somewhere. Shouting about them in paid search can eat into margin quickly.
- Margin you've already planned around. If your bidding and targets assume full-price sales, a discount appearing in your ads changes the maths without your input.
- Brand positioning. Premium brands often avoid leading with discounts. An automated "20% off" under your brand ad might not be the message you want.
Google hasn't said what makes a promotion "high-quality", how expired offers are handled, or which fields it fills in. PPC Land flagged those as open questions too. Until that's clearer, I'd treat this as something to monitor rather than trust blindly.
How to check what's running in your account
This takes ten minutes and I'd do it this week.
- Check whether you're eligible. Do any of your Search or Performance Max campaigns have location assets linked? If you're a pure online store with no Google Business Profile linked, this may not affect you yet. If you have shops, showrooms or a business address linked, it probably does.
- Look in the Assets section. Automated promotion assets appear in the Assets area of your account. Note that only assets that have picked up impressions are shown, so an empty list today doesn't guarantee nothing will appear tomorrow.
- Review the offers Google has picked. Is the discount current? Is the wording accurate? Does it apply to everyone? Would you be happy for a new customer to see it?
- Audit your own website. Search your site for old promotion pages, stale banners, ended sale terms and hidden codes. Tidy these up regardless; it's good housekeeping and it's what Google is reading.
When to keep it on, and when to switch it off
I wouldn't automatically turn it off. For a retailer running a clear, sitewide offer that genuinely applies to everyone, showing it in your ads without lifting a finger is useful, especially over the busy Black Friday and Christmas period.
Keep it on if your website offers are always current, your promotions are open to all customers and you're comfortable with discounts appearing in your ads.
Switch it off if you run lots of targeted or private codes, your site has a history of leaving old offers live, you're a premium brand that avoids discount messaging, or your margins are tight enough that an unplanned discount would hurt.
To switch it off, Google's help page says to go to Campaigns > Assets, open the Associations tab, use the three-dot menu to choose Account-level automated assets, then open Advanced settings from the same menu. Select Automated promotions, turn it off, choose a reason and save. It's an account-wide setting; there's no mention of campaign-level control, and you can change it back at any time.
The better long-term option for most ecommerce brands is to add your own promotion assets. Campaigns that already have promotion assets attached are excluded, and you get to control the wording, the dates and exactly which offer shows. Set start and end dates for Black Friday now rather than the day before.
The bigger pattern: Google keeps adding defaults
This is part of a steady trend. Every year Google Ads automates more of what you used to set by hand: assets, text, images, and now offers. Most of these features are switched on by default, and the notification is usually a single email that's easy to miss.
That's not a reason to fight automation. Used well, it saves time and often performs. But it does mean someone needs to be reviewing account-level settings regularly, not just bids and budgets. I'd add a quick check of automated assets to your monthly routine, and every time Google announces a new default.
What this means for your business
If you run Search or Performance Max campaigns with location assets linked, Google may already be showing discounts from your website in your ads. Check the Assets section, review what's live, clean up any old offers on your site, and decide deliberately whether to keep the feature or switch it off. Ahead of Black Friday, the safest approach is to add your own promotion assets with clear dates so you stay in control of what customers see.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes on your account settings, my Google Ads consultancy service covers exactly this kind of audit, alongside bidding, Shopping and Performance Max.
Want me to check your Google Ads account?
I've spent more than 15 years in PPC, including time at Google, and I regularly find automated settings quietly working against an account's goals. If you want to be sure your ads are showing the right offers this Black Friday, book a free 30-minute call or a free marketing audit and I'll take a look with you.
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