Google announced two sets of Google Ads updates on 23 and 24 September 2026, the second aimed at the holiday season. The closed beta of AI Brief for AI Max is coming to French, German and five more languages, a new report will link each search term to the ad assets the user saw and the landing page, and Demand Gen image ads on YouTube Shorts and Gmail now open the landing page with one tap. Before Black Friday on 27 November 2026, a small business in Canada, France or Germany has three jobs: tidy the landing pages AI Max may use, prepare 9:16 images, check conversion tracking.
What Google announced on 23–24 September 2026
Google published five changes in two posts: AI Brief languages and a new AI Max report on 23 September, three Demand Gen updates on 24 September. Sources on Google's blog: AI Max features and September Demand Gen Drop.
| Date | Change | Status per Google | Who should act |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Sep | AI Brief for AI Max in French, German, Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish | Closed beta | Search advertisers in these languages |
| 23 Sep | One report: search term → ad assets → landing page | "Later this year" | Accounts using AI Max |
| 24 Sep | One-tap visits from image ads on Shorts (9:16 full-bleed) and Gmail | Available now | Demand Gen advertisers |
| 24 Sep | Business Agent for YouTube Ads, conversational AI beside video ads with product feeds | Sign-up form | Advertisers with a product feed |
| 24 Sep | Affiliate Location Extensions: Promoted pins in Google Maps | Announced | Retail networks, dealerships |
What AI Max and AI Brief do
AI Max is a set of targeting and creative features for Google Search campaigns. Per the Google Ads help centre, it matches ads to search terms beyond your keywords, writes ad text from your landing page copy and can send clicks to other URLs on your site. Controls include URL exclusions, brand exclusions and locations of interest.
AI Brief lets the advertiser describe the business, audience and key messages for AI Max in plain words; accounts in the closed beta will be able to write it in German or French. With text customization on, Google builds ad copy from your existing ads, assets and landing page text, so page copy needs the same care as the ads.
What to set up before Black Friday
- Choose the pages AI Max may use. Exclude job listings, old promotions and blog archives. Give each advertised offer its own page with terms and a call to action in plain text: landing pages for paid traffic. If the account uses tracking templates, test one expanded URL first: Google warns that incompatible templates can send Final URL expansion traffic to a 404 page.
- Draft the brief now. Write down your buyers, this season's offer and the claims you avoid, in French and German for the EU and in French for Quebec, so the text is ready when the account joins the beta.
- Set brand exclusions and locations of interest. Brand exclusions sit at campaign level, locations of interest at ad group level. An Ottawa business serving only Ottawa–Gatineau should set both before AI Max widens matching.
- Check the budget. Google says AI Max is ineffective in campaigns limited by budget.
- Prepare vertical images. One-tap visits on Shorts need 9:16 full-bleed image ads. Google reports that advertisers adding Gmail to Demand Gen see on average 40% more conversions from image creatives at the same ROI. That figure is Google's internal data (global Gmail ads, February 2026); test it on your own account before moving budget.
- Link Google Business Profile to Google Ads for Promoted pins in Maps, a condition in Google's Maps advertising guide.
- Verify conversions. Automated bidding optimises toward recorded conversions, so a missing or duplicated form event distorts it.
Canada, France and Germany
For bilingual Canadian accounts the French brief is the most relevant change, and retail networks and dealerships can add Promoted pins in Google Maps. In France and Germany the local-language brief is the main change. For account basics, see our Google Ads guide for small business.