Google Ads can now read the offers on your website and show them in your ads. You do not have to write them. You may not even know it is happening.
The feature is called automated promotions. Google added a help page for it in early September 2026. Since then, practitioners have reported that the setting is already switched on in their accounts. Search Engine Land reported on 2 October that Google will start attaching these promotions to eligible campaigns from 12 October. Google's own help page gives no date.
So the safe assumption is simple: it may already be on in your account. This article shows how to check, what can go wrong, and how to decide whether to keep it.
What automated promotions do
Google's help page explains it in one line: Google Ads “automatically identifies and extracts promotional offers directly from your website.”
If your landing page says “20% off black sweatshirts”, Google can turn that into a promotion asset. It then shows the discount under your ad in the search results.
Your campaigns are eligible if all three of these are true:
- It is a Search or Performance Max campaign.
- It has location assets attached. These usually come from a linked Google Business Profile.
- It has no manual promotions running.
That covers many local service businesses, shops with premises and showrooms. If you have never added a promotion asset yourself, you meet the third condition by default.
One more detail matters. Google cannot yet read start and end dates from your site. So each automated promotion serves “for a limited time (less than 24 hours)”. After that, Google may switch it back on, as long as it can still see the offer on your website. Google says this will change once it can extract dates.
What can go wrong
The feature is only as good as your website. Google reads what is visible on the page, not what you meant.
Some examples of how that can go wrong (hypothetical, for illustration):
- An old offer is still on the page. A “Summer sale: 15% off” banner nobody removed in September keeps getting picked up, day after day, while you plan your Black Friday offer.
- An offer meant for one group shows to everyone. A trade discount, a first-order code from a pop-up, or a B2B price list can read like a public offer.
- The offer has conditions the ad does not show. “20% off orders over £200 with code AUTUMN” can be shortened to something that looks simpler than the real deal.
In each case, your ad makes a claim that you did not write and may not honour. That can cost you clicks from people expecting a deal you are not offering. It can also cost you trust when they reach the page.
None of this means the feature is bad. Google lists “automatic sourcing” of your active offers as the benefit, and for a business with clean, current offers, it may help. The point is that it acts on your behalf, so you need to know whether it is on.
How to check your account in five minutes
1. See whether it is on. In Google Ads, go to Assets. In the filter bar, select the More (three-dot) icon, then Account-level automated assets. Select the three-dot icon again, then Advanced settings. Look at the Automated promotions drop-down. Google labels the on position “On (recommended)”.
2. See what it has found. Go to Assets. In the filter bar, choose Asset type, then Promotion. Automated promotions show “Google AI” in the Added by column. Hover over it to see where Google sourced the offer. Hover over the promotion name to see its headline.
3. Check your own website. Open your main landing pages on desktop and mobile. Look at banners, sticky bars, pop-ups and footer text. Anything that looks like an offer could be read as one.
4. Decide. See the next section.
Keep it, control it or turn it off
You have three sensible options.
Keep it on if your offers are always current, apply to everyone, and are simple to state. Add a weekly check of your landing pages to someone's list, especially through Q4.
Control it by adding your own promotion assets. Google says automated promotions skip any campaign that already has manual promotions running. Manual promotions also let you set exact wording and start and end dates. For Black Friday and Christmas, this is the option we would usually choose.
Turn it off if your site carries trade pricing, conditional codes or offers you do not want advertised. Use the same path as step 1, and choose Off in the Automated promotions drop-down. Google may ask for a reason.
This is the same pattern as other recent automation defaults, such as the move to AI Max for Search. The feature may be useful. But “on by default” means someone should decide, not just accept. If you are used to accepting Google's suggestions without review, read why a Google rep's recommendation is not a neutral one.
This is the kind of check we build into paid media efficiency work: making sure nothing in the account spends money or makes claims without an owner.
How to tell if it is helping
Google suggests segmenting campaign reports by click type to see how people interact with your offers. It also says to look at overall campaign impressions and conversions, because the wider effect can matter more than clicks on the promotion itself.
That is fair, but it is also hard to read on a small account. A cleaner test: note the date it went live in your account, and compare conversion rate and cost per conversion for the four weeks before and after. Exclude weeks where you changed budgets, bids or offers. If you cannot see a difference, the safest choice is usually the one that gives you control.
If you run Performance Max, the same principle applies to everything it does automatically. Our guide to auditing PMax and AI Max campaigns covers what to check. For Merchant Center's separate promotion features, see Merchant Center's Business Agent and new promotions.
The bigger point
Google is adding more features that act on your account without a person approving each change. Each one is small. Together, they mean an account that nobody reviews can drift: new matching, new assets, now new offers in your ads.
You do not need to switch everything off. You need someone who looks. If you are not sure what is switched on in your account, start with these signs Google Ads is wasting money.