Google Ads Settings That Turn On Unless You Turn Them Off

A coupon you forgot about on an old landing page can end up attached to your Google ad. That is the risk behind Google Ads automated promotions, and it is not the only setting that changes your ads without asking.

The short answer: if your Search or Performance Max campaigns have location assets attached and no promotion of their own, Google can find offers on your website and show them with your ads. Check the Promotion report in your account, sweep your website for old offers, and decide whether Automated promotions stays on. Then spend a few more minutes on the other automatic settings below.

This audit is written for owners and office managers at home service companies, pool companies, and law firms. Each setting shows Google’s default, Google’s own click path, and what we recommend for a service business. Every click path is quoted or summarized from Google’s Help Center with a link. There are no screenshots on this page. Google moves buttons, so if a step does not match your screen, follow the linked Google page.

Does Google Ads Change My Ads Without Asking?

Yes, for several settings that are on unless you turn them off. Here is the whole audit on one table.

Example: One Service Ad, Before and After

This is a made-up example to show the risk. It is not a real account, not a screenshot, and not how Google lays out an ad.

How to Turn Off Automated Promotions in Google Ads

Automated promotions is Google’s feature that finds offers on your website and attaches them to your ads. In Google’s words, it “automatically identifies and extracts promotional offers directly from your website,” and the offers “may serve alongside your ads on Google Search or across Google’s broader ad inventory.” Google also says to “keep your website’s promotional details up to date, or manually upload specific promotions if you require exact control over what is shown.”

Google says it only shows offers it can still see on your website, and that each automated promotion serves for less than 24 hours before it can be re-enabled. That helps with an offer that has come down. It does not help with an old coupon page that is still live and shows no end date, because that offer can still look active.

Is your account eligible?

Google’s requirements, from About Automated promotions:

• An active Search or Performance Max campaign with location assets attached (including Local Ad campaigns).
• No manual promotion currently running on that campaign.
• Compliance with standard Google Ads advertising policies.

Service businesses can be more exposed than they think. When you select a Business Profile for a Performance Max campaign with pay-per-lead goals (the campaign type Local Services Ads is moving into), Google says that creates an account-level link that “can enable showing location information from Business Profile in other eligible campaigns through location assets” (About pay-per-lead goals for Performance Max campaigns). So a home service account that linked its profile for pay-per-lead can end up with location assets on its regular Search campaigns, which is the condition automated promotions needs. Can, not will. Check your own account.

Law firms rarely run coupons, so the exposure is usually smaller. The same rule still applies to any firm whose Search or Performance Max campaigns carry location assets.

See what Google has already added

Google’s steps:

1. Go to Assets in the Campaigns menu.
2. In the filter bar, select Asset type and choose Promotion.
3. Identify your automated promotions under the Added by column, where they will be labeled as Google AI.

Google adds that you can hover over Google AI to see where the promotion was sourced.

Turn it off

Google’s steps, word for word:

1. Go to Assets in the Campaigns menu.
2. From filter bar select the “More” (three-dot) icon and select Account level automated assets.
3. On the “Account level automated assets” page select the “More” (three-dot) icon.
4. Select Advanced settings.
5. Select the Automated promotions drop-down menu and choose the option Off, then provide a reason if prompted.

This is an account-level setting, so it covers every eligible campaign in the account. If you want to run a real offer instead, Google’s About promotion assets page covers creating one with promotion dates, and notes that when promotion assets exist at more than one level, “the most specific will be used.”

What Google has not said

• The October 12 date appears only in Google’s email to advertisers, not on Google’s help page. We do not know whether every eligible account got the email, or whether some accounts already had automated promotions serving before that date.
• Google’s examples of promotions are coupons, deals, and “Buy one get one free.” We do not know whether Google treats a free estimate or free consultation line as a promotion. Check the Promotion report rather than assume.
• Google’s promotion assets page says offers can come from “your website and other sources.” Google does not say what the other sources are.

The Stale Offer Sweep: Find What Google Could Pull

Google pulls offers from your own landing pages, so look at your site the way Google does. Replace yourdomain.com with your domain and run these searches on Google:

• site:yourdomain.com coupon
• site:yourdomain.com special
• site:yourdomain.com "% off"
• site:yourdomain.com "$ off"
• site:yourdomain.com discount
• site:yourdomain.com deal

Then open your seasonal pages yourself: spring opening, pool closing, tune-up, and free estimate pages. Search results can miss a page, and these are the ones that tend to carry last season’s offer. For every offer you find, do one of three things: delete it, add a clear end date, or change it to an offer you will honor today.

Law firms: also run site:yourdomain.com "free consultation". We do not know whether Google treats it as a promotion, so check the Promotion report after October 12 rather than assume either way.

What Are Account-Level Automated Assets?

These are extra lines Google builds for your ads, mostly from your website. Google says dynamic sitelinks and dynamic callouts “may show alongside or instead of manually created” ones, and gives examples of callouts pulled from a landing page: “25 years of experience”, “Book online”, and “Certified technicians” (About account level automated assets). If your site says it, your ad can say it, so an outdated claim on your site can become a line in your ad.

Automated location assets work a little differently. Google says that if you have not added locations to your account, it may match your business to known locations based on things like your landing pages, and that you can add location information yourself for the most accuracy.

Pause a single dynamic callout (About dynamic callouts): in Campaigns, open Assets, then Assets, select the Callout summary card, filter Added by for Google AI, and choose Pause or Remove on the callout. Pausing keeps it available to turn back on. Removing deletes it for good. Google notes this option is available once your callouts have been upgraded.

Turn one type off account-wide (Google’s steps, summarized): go to Assets within the Campaigns menu. On the Associations tab, select the three-dot menu on the right, then Account level automated assets. Select the three-dot menu again, then Advanced settings. Choose the asset to turn off, select your reason, and Save.

Google Ads Business Name Policy, October 2026

Google posted on October 1, 2026 that in October 2026 it will update its business name rules to allow the business name and the destination domain to differ “in certain limited cases”: the name reflects the advertiser’s recognized brand, there is “a verified direct relationship between the advertiser and the domain owner,” and the products or services are offered on the destination domain. Resellers and booking intermediaries do not qualify (Update to Editorial Policy, October 2026).

Under the current Business name requirements, generic or location-based names such as “Mountain View Plumber” are not allowed, and if you completed Advertiser Verification, the name must match your domain or the name you submitted during verification.

If You Run Pay-Per-Lead or Your LSA Moved Into Google Ads

Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals add bookings as an optional lead type, “available starting in October 2026,” where a customer schedules an appointment directly through your ad (About pay-per-lead goals). Google’s Local Services Ads transition page lists bookings among the leads you pay for: “You only pay for valid, qualified leads (such as phone calls, message leads, or bookings).” A booking nobody confirms is a lead you paid for.

One more for LSA advertisers: Google notified advertisers that from October 1, 2026, missed calls during business hours can be billed in some cases. Google’s public How leads work page now lists this as a valid lead: “You missed a phone call during your business hours and the customer stays on the line for more than 20 seconds.” What to do about it is in LSA for pool companies, and the platform move itself is in the LSA to Performance Max pay-per-lead migration guide.

While You Are in Your Business Profile

Location assets come from your Business Profile, so check it while you are thinking about offers. Google’s Maps user contributed content policy says a merchant’s listing may not contain “Time-bound promotions, pricing, or direct calls-to-action,” while offers “are otherwise permitted in posts.” Move any discount or “Call now” text out of your business description and into a post. Search Engine Roundtable reported this as a policy update on October 6, 2026. Google’s page does not show a change date.

While you are logged in, check the other setting that stops wasted spend: your negative keyword list.

Sources, read October 6, 2026. Google Ads Help: About Automated promotions, Performance Max automation feature availability, About promotion assets, About account level automated assets, About dynamic callouts, About pay-per-lead goals for Performance Max campaigns, Local Services Ads transition to Performance Max. Local Services Help, read October 8, 2026: How leads work. Advertising Policies Help: Update to Editorial Policy (October 2026), Business name requirements. Google Business Profile Help: Maps user contributed content policy. News coverage of Google’s email: Search Engine Roundtable and Search Engine Land.