Google’s calendar just showed up uninvited, carrying three deadlines and two instruction manuals.

Mark the August 17th: Smart Bidding will get an upgrade that should change how budget-limited campaigns behave.

Campaigns consistently beating their Target CPA or ROAS will start optimizing toward the target you actually set, rather than overshooting it because the budget ran out. Nice.

Then mark the 1st: From September, Google auto-upgrades eligible Search campaigns to AI Max.

Running Automatically Created Assets or campaign-level broad match? You’re in, no opt-in required, with search term matching and text customization enabled.

Homework included: Google also published three Help pages for Performance Max pay-per-lead goals, covering campaign settings, service areas, and targeting. Check it out.

Tick tock: Meanwhile, Shopping ads are testing Deal Ends annotations, badges reading “3 days left” beneath eligible prices.

No opt-in here either. But accurate Merchant Center promotions, genuine discounts, and correct expiration dates improve your odds.

And papers, please: From Oct. 5, advertisers promoting government documents and services need explicit authorisation, linked from an official government site.

Google Ads have been busy. If you’re running them, make sure you’re up to date, too.