Google Ads Automated Promotions Are On by Default: A Local Offer Audit
From October 12, 2026, Google Ads began reading some advertisers’ websites, extracting discount offers and attaching them to ads automatically. The feature is on by default. In the same week, Google updated its Google Maps and Business Profile content policy to spell out what merchants can and cannot post. If you manage local businesses, these two changes affect how your offers appear across Search, Maps and Business Profiles. Here’s what changed and a simple audit you can run.
Automated promotions in Google Ads
According to a Google email notice published by Search Engine Roundtable on October 5, Google Ads will “automatically identify and extract high-quality promotions” from an advertiser’s website from October 12 and apply them to campaigns. Examples given are discount offers and deals.
PPC Land’s detailed write-up sets out the scope and controls based on that notice:
- Who is affected: Search and Performance Max campaigns that have linked location assets and do not already have promotion assets.
- Manual wins: campaigns with manually added promotion assets are skipped.
- Reporting: generated assets appear in the Assets section once they serve, but assets with zero impressions won’t appear. You only see offers after they’ve been shown.
- Opt-out: one account-level switch under the account-level automated assets settings: find Automated promotions and turn it off. No campaign-level control was named.
- Re-checking: PPC Land cites PPC News Feed reporting that each sourced promotion is eligible for less than 24 hours before it must be re-verified.
Google hasn’t explained how it judges which offers are “high-quality”, or how it handles expired or conditional offers that are still on a page. That uncertainty is the main risk.
Why this can go wrong
Local business websites are full of old offers: a summer sale banner that never came down, a first-visit discount that only applies at one location, a coupon with conditions in small print. If Google picks one of those up and shows it in an ad, a customer may walk in expecting a deal the business no longer offers. The ad is still the advertiser’s responsibility.
The Business Profile promotions policy
Separately, Google updated the advertising and solicitation section of its Google Maps and Business Profile prohibited and restricted content policy. As Search Engine Roundtable reported on October 6, Google added a “For merchants” section:
- In the listing (business name, description and other profile fields): no promotional or commercial content containing time-bound promotions, pricing or direct calls to action.
- In posts: no email addresses, phone numbers, social media links or links to other websites that aren’t related to your business. Offers and updates that may be seen as promotional are otherwise permitted in posts.
Put simply, promotions belong in Business Profile posts (including offer posts), not in the profile itself. The help page on creating posts covers offer posts with titles, dates, coupon codes, links and terms.
How the two changes connect
Google is increasingly pulling offer data from wherever it can find it: your website for ads, your posts for Maps and Search. If those sources disagree, customers see conflicting information. The fix is the same for both: one accurate, current source of truth for offers, kept in sync across your site, ads and Business Profile.
A local offer audit
Website
- Search the site for “off”, “%”, “sale”, “discount”, “coupon”, “free” and “deal”. List every page with an offer.
- Remove or update anything expired. Put clear dates and conditions next to each active offer.
- Check location-specific offers clearly say which location they apply to.
Google Ads
- Decide per account: keep automated promotions on, or turn them off and manage promotion assets manually.
- If you keep them on, check the Assets section regularly for newly served promotions.
- If you have specific offers you want shown, add them as manual promotion assets. Campaigns with manual promotion assets are skipped.
Business Profile
- Remove prices, time-bound offers and calls to action from the business name, description and other profile fields.
- Move current offers into offer posts with clear dates and terms.
- Remove any unrelated phone numbers, emails or external links from posts.
What to do this week
- List every Google Ads account with location assets linked to Search or Performance Max.
- Make an on/off decision on automated promotions for each one and record it.
- Run the website offer search above and clean up expired offers.
- Review each Business Profile description and posts against the updated policy.
- Set a monthly reminder to repeat the check.
The bottom line
Automated promotions can save time for businesses with tidy, current websites. For everyone else, they are a risk that is switched on by default. Combined with clearer Business Profile rules, the message is simple: keep offers accurate in one place and make deliberate choices about automation.
Want us to run this local offer audit across your Google Ads and Business Profiles? Book a free strategy call and we’ll take you through it.
