Microsoft Advertising is rolling out a slate of updates aimed at making Performance Max campaigns easier to manage, measure, and migrate — especially for advertisers already using Google Ads.

Driving the news. Microsoft now lets advertisers import Google PMax campaigns that use new customer acquisition (NCA) goals, a feature that has been generally available in Microsoft since early this year.

The update is now live for all advertisers.

That means marketers can more easily port over campaigns designed to prioritize first-time buyers without rebuilding them from scratch.

What’s new. Microsoft says imported Google PMax campaigns with NCA goals will carry over if they don’t already exist in the advertiser’s account. Existing Microsoft NCA settings won’t be overwritten.

For audience lists:

• Google website visitor segments will convert into Microsoft remarketing lists.
• Google’s “all visitors” and “all converters” lists will map to Microsoft equivalents.
• Unsupported lists, like Customer Match, will prompt advertisers to use fallback options.

Microsoft also says it takes a more conservative approach to “unknown” customers, classifying them as existing customers to avoid overcounting new customer conversions.

Why we care. This could make cross-platform campaign expansion faster and lower the friction of testing Microsoft’s PMax inventory removing the need of rebuilding campaigns from scratch. The added landing page reporting and search term visibility also give marketers better insight into what’s driving performance, which can help improve optimization and budget decisions.

More visbility for PMax. Microsoft is also adding landing page (Final URL) reporting for PMax campaigns. Advertisers can now see spend, clicks, impressions, conversion value, and ROAS by landing page.

They can also segment by campaign, asset group, and other dimensions.

Microsoft also said search term reporting is becoming more visible by default, with more transparency updates — including auction insights and added publisher URL metrics — planned later.

Other key updates:

• Seasonality adjustments now support portfolio bid strategies, expanding a tool advertisers use for short-term events like promotions.
• Campaign name limits are increasing from 128 to 400 characters, helping agencies and enterprise teams manage naming conventions at scale.
• Autogenerated assets are expanding to underbuilt Responsive Search Ads to improve ad relevance and performance.
• Merchant Center users can now update store names and domains directly without contacting support.

The bottom line. These updates make it easier to scale across platforms, save time on campaign setup, and get better visibility into what’s actually driving performance — giving advertisers more control over both efficiency and results.

Google is making Gemini a core part of ad enforcement, saying the AI upgrade helped catch more scams while sharply reducing mistaken suspensions of legitimate advertisers. The move shows how quickly ad safety is turning into an AI fight over speed, scale, and accuracy.

The details. In its 2025 Ads Safety Report, Google said it blocked or removed 8.3 billion ads and suspended 24.9 million advertiser accounts last year. It said more than 99% of policy-violating ads were stopped before they ran.

• Google credited Gemini with cutting incorrect advertiser suspensions by 80%, processing 4x more user reports than the year before, and spotting scam signals faster by better understanding ad intent.
• Scams were a major focus. Google said it removed 602 million scam-related ads and suspended 4 million scam-linked accounts.

By the numbers:

• 602 million scam-related ads removed
• 4 million scam-linked accounts suspended
• 4.8 billion ads restricted
• 480 million web pages blocked or restricted
• 245,000+ publisher sites actioned
• 35 policy updates made in 2025

The U.S. picture: Google said it removed 1.7 billion ads and suspended 3.3 million advertiser accounts in the U.S. in 2025. The most common violations included abuse of the ad network, misrepresentation, sexual content, personalization violations, and dating and companionship ads.

Why we care. This directly affects whether campaigns launch, stay live, or get flagged. Google is signaling that AI will play a bigger role in deciding which ads run and which accounts get stopped. For advertisers, that raises the stakes on policy compliance while also promising fewer costly false suspensions.

How it works: Google said Gemini analyzes hundreds of billions of signals, including account age, behavior patterns, and campaign activity, to detect malicious intent earlier than older systems built more heavily around keywords and rule matching.

The company also said that by the end of 2025, most Responsive Search Ads would be reviewed instantly at submission, blocking harmful ads before launch. It plans to expand that capability to more formats this year.

Yes, but. Faster automated enforcement does not always mean smoother enforcement. Some advertisers in the U.K. and U.S. have recently reported bulk ad disapproval alerts despite finding no actual policy issues. That adds pressure on Google to prove tighter AI enforcement will not create new disruptions for legitimate brands.

Bottom line: Google wants advertisers to see Gemini as both shield and filter — tougher on scams, but more precise with legitimate accounts. The real test is whether that balance holds as enforcement gets faster and more automated.

Google’s blog post. Gemini is stopping harmful ads before people ever see them

Automation doesn’t fail on its own — it does exactly what it’s trained to do. The problem is that when Google Ads is fed incomplete, misaligned, or overly broad signals, it can optimize toward the wrong outcome faster than most advertisers realize.

In our second installment of SMX Now, our new monthly series, Ameet Khabra of Hop Skip Media will break down a real account where a 417% jump in conversions turned out to be the wrong kind of success. She’ll use that case study to explain the four key ways automation drift enters an account: signal drift, query drift, inventory drift, and creative drift.

You’ll leave with a practical framework for diagnosing drift early, understanding where human oversight matters most, and managing automation more deliberately so it works toward real business goals — not just platform-reported wins.

Join us May 6 at noon ET.

Save your spot

Google is giving advertisers more control when appealing disapproved ads in bulk — a small but meaningful update that could save time and reduce accidental resubmissions.

Driving the news. Google has added a new option in its bulk ad review workflow that lets advertisers select ads from specific campaigns when requesting a policy re-review.

Previously, advertisers appealing disapproved ads in bulk often had to resubmit all eligible ads across an account — including older campaigns that hadn’t been updated.

That created extra work and could clutter the review process with ads that weren’t actually fixed.

What’s new. Advertisers can now click a new “Select eligible campaigns” option on the Google Ads policy violations page when filing a bulk appeal.

That means they can:

• send only recently fixed ads for review,
• avoid including outdated campaigns,
• and streamline the appeal process.

Why we care. Bulk appeals are often used after widespread disapprovals or policy issues. Being able to narrow submissions by campaign should make the process faster, more precise, and easier to manage at scale.

For agencies and large accounts, the update could also reduce the risk of confusion when handling multiple policy fixes at once.

The bottom line. This isn’t a flashy product launch, but it’s the kind of workflow improvement advertisers have been asking for — giving teams more control and less friction when fixing disapproved ads.

First spotted. This update was first spotted by Hana Kobzová of PPC News Feed.

Google is retiring legacy Search automation tools, including Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), in favor of AI Max, its broader AI-powered campaign suite. This will affect you if you use DSA, automatically created assets (ACA), or campaign-level broad match settings.

Driving the news. AI Max for Search campaigns is exiting beta after adoption by “hundreds of thousands” of advertisers globally, Google said.

• Starting in September, eligible campaigns using DSA, ACA, or campaign-level broad match will be automatically migrated to AI Max.
• Google will stop allowing advertisers to create new DSA campaigns through Google Ads, Ads Editor, and the Ads API once automatic upgrades begin.
• The company expects all eligible migrations to be completed by the end of September.

Why we care. These tools are being phased out, whether you act or not. Moving early to AI Max gives you more control over targeting, creative, and landing page settings before automatic upgrades begin. It also offers potential performance gains, with Google reporting an average 7% lift in conversions or conversion value at similar efficiency.

What Google says. AI Max delivers “an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS for non-retail” when you use its full feature set — including search term matching, text customization, and final URL expansion — compared with search term matching alone.

Catch up quick. DSA has long helped advertisers capture additional traffic beyond keyword-based campaigns by dynamically generating headlines and directing users to relevant landing pages.

• But Google says consumer search behavior is becoming more complex and less predictable.
• AI Max is designed to go beyond website landing page signals by using broader real-time intent data.

How AI Max works:

• Uses advertiser inputs, such as website content and existing ads.
• Expands reach to additional relevant search queries.
• Dynamically customizes ad copy and landing page destinations.
• Adds more controls for advertisers, including brand, location, and text guidance settings.

What you should do now. Google is urging advertisers to upgrade before September to keep more control over setup and avoid disruption.

Phase 1: Voluntary upgrades (starting now)

• DSA users: Google is rolling out upgrade tools this week to help move campaign history, settings, and data into standard ad groups.
• ACA and broad match users: Advertisers will see in-platform prompts to switch to AI Max.

Phase 2: Automatic upgrades (starting September) For advertisers who don’t switch manually:

• DSA campaigns will convert dynamic ad groups into standard ad groups, with legacy settings and URL controls preserved.
• ACA campaigns will move to AI Max with search term matching and text customization turned on by default.
• Broad match setting campaigns will move with search term matching enabled by default.

What Google are saying. I asked Google whether this update reduces the role of manual keyword strategy and feed-based search structures. A Google spokesperson responded that keywords remains essential and this update is to help with keyword management:

• ‘Keywords remain an essential component of a successful campaign strategy, providing the “fuel” for our AI and for the intent signals necessary to drive performance.’ 
• ‘Rather than reducing their role, this upgrade is designed to help advertisers simplify management and expand beyond keywords while remaining in control.’

Bottom line. Google is making AI Max the default path for Search automation, signaling a broader shift away from manual campaign management toward AI-led optimization. If you migrate early, you’ll have more time to test settings and fine-tune performance before the forced switch.