Reading time: 5 minutes · For owners of SMBs running Google Ads campaigns in Ausserschwyz, the Linth region and around Lake Zurich
The spring promotion ended months ago. The page for it is still online because nobody felt responsible for taking it down: the person at reception who “also does the website” had other things to do, and the owner writes quotes in the evenings. Until now that was a cosmetic flaw. Since 12 October it can turn into a Google ad.
Google Ads now reads discounts, coupons and promotions from your website and adds them to your ads automatically. The feature is called “Automated promotions” and is switched on by default. If you don’t want it, you have to switch it off yourself. I explain what this means and where to find the switch in the video:
Why this hits local businesses in particular
According to Google’s own help page, this is an AI-based feature that retrieves, checks and displays promotions from your website and other sources. It applies to Search and Performance Max campaigns that use location assets, meaning your business address from a linked profile. According to PPC Land, this doesn’t even require a verified profile. The only exceptions are campaigns that already have their own promotion assets.
That is exactly the typical account of an SMB with a shop, practice or showroom: a local campaign with an address, set up at some point by an agency or someone in-house, and rarely looked at since. And it’s exactly the kind of website where old promotion pages stay up the longest. Almost every company I’ve worked with is bad at taking discounts back off the website. The Black Friday page simply stays up, is never set to noindex and gets dusted off again twelve months later.
Whether the feature is running for you isn’t decided by your gut feeling but by the setting in your account. You pay for every click on these ads. You should know what they promise.
What to do
1. Check whether your account is affected
Affected are Search and Performance Max campaigns with location assets and without their own promotion assets. If you don’t have a campaign like that, nothing changes for you. If you do, go on to step 2. If an agency manages your account, ask specifically: was this setting chosen deliberately? That’s not a question of distrust, just a normal question to someone working with your money.
2. Turn the feature off
The switch sits at account level, not in the individual campaign. This is how Google describes it: in the Campaigns menu, select Assets. On the Associations tab, click the three-dot menu on the right and select Account-level automated assets. Click the three-dot menu again and open Advanced settings. There, select Automated promotions, turn it off, give a reason and save.
3. See what has already been pulled in
Filter your assets by the promotion type. According to a guide from Relevant Audience, automatically created promotions are marked “Google AI” in the column that shows who added an asset. That way you can see whether anything has already landed in your ads since 12 October.
4. Clean up old promotion pages
The switch doesn’t solve the actual problem. Go through your website once: expired promotions, coupon codes, Black Friday pages, “this week only” banners. Whatever is over gets removed or set to noindex. Why the annual discount peak often doesn’t pay off for SMBs at all is something I described in my post on Black Friday and Prime Days.
5. If you want promotions in your ads: control them yourself
There is a middle way. Campaigns with their own promotion assets are excluded, and manually added promotions take priority. So add your promotion yourself and give it an end date. And put offers on the website as text, not just in an image, ideally with structured data behind them. That helps Google, and it helps findability overall, a topic I tackle under SEO for SMBs.
The direction is clear: your website is becoming the brief from which Google, and soon AI shopping agents too, put together ads and offers. Prices, durations, product details, delivery area. Those who maintain this cleanly win. Those who don’t assign it to anyone lose control over their own advertising. How I set up Google Ads for SMBs so that it brings in enquiries rather than clicks is on the services page.
Where the limits are
The feature isn’t bad in principle. If your website is maintained with discipline, promotions are clearly stated as text with a start and end, and someone is responsible for it, you save work: promotion online on the website, and it appears in the ad. Promotion gone, and it disappears again. Whether that makes campaigns better, nobody knows yet, me included. If you don’t use location assets or never have discounts on your website, you can safely ignore this post. And if you don’t know who in the business is responsible for the website, you have a bigger problem than this switch: that’s exactly what marketing without your own marketing department is for.
If you’re unsure whether your advertising budget is being spent sensibly, the media budget and agency check is the quickest way to a clear answer.
Frequently asked questions
What are “Automated promotions” in Google Ads?
An AI-based feature that lets Google retrieve discounts, coupons and promotions from your website and other sources and show them as promotion assets in your ads, without you having added them yourself. Since 12 October 2026 it has been switched on by default for eligible campaigns.
Which campaigns are affected?
Search and Performance Max campaigns with linked location assets that don’t yet have their own promotion assets. According to industry reports, a verified Business Profile isn’t required.
How do I turn the feature off?
In the Campaigns menu, select Assets. On the Associations tab, open “Account-level automated assets” via the three-dot menu, then select “Advanced settings” via the three-dot menu, turn off “Automated promotions”, give a reason and save.
Can I still show promotions in my ads?
Yes. Add the promotion yourself as a promotion asset with a start and end date. Campaigns with their own promotion assets are excluded from the automatic pull, and you keep control over wording and duration.
Do you know what your Google ads are promising right now?
Prefer to talk directly? Book a free 30-minute call or drop me a short note, and we’ll look together at what to do first.
