Google updated its Advertising Program Terms effective July 1, 2026 — the first revision in 8 years. For affiliates and media buyers who rely on automation and landing pages, the changes are more consequential than they appear: you are now legally responsible for every asset AI generates in your account, including headlines, images, and landing pages produced by Performance Max and other automated features.
The Advertising Program Terms are the contract between advertisers and Google that defines rights, responsibilities, data usage, and the consequences of violations. The previous version dated back to April 2018. The new terms took effect July 1, 2026 and reflect how Google Ads actually operates today — a platform driven by AI, automation, and machine-generated creative outputs.
What Changed in the Google Ads Terms of Service in 2026?
Five changes with direct operational impact for anyone advertising on Google Ads:
- AI input usage rights — everything you provide to Google Ads tools (AI Brief, URLs, website content via authorized crawl) can be used to optimize your campaigns automatically
- Automation is no longer 'optional' — the new terms removed the language describing automated features as something you choose to activate. Automation is the default system you participate in
- Full advertiser liability for AI-generated outputs — headlines, images, landing pages, and audiences generated by Performance Max, RSAs, and automated assets are your legal responsibility
- Explicit ongoing review obligation — the terms now directly state you must review, approve, or remove automatically generated campaigns and ad assets on a continuing basis
- Arbitration overhaul and jurisdiction-specific fees — disputes now follow American AAA rules; Google can charge fees specific to your jurisdiction
Why This Hits Affiliates Harder Than Brand Advertisers
Large brand advertisers have legal teams that track contract updates. Affiliates and independent media buyers typically do not. And affiliates are exactly the profile most exposed to these new rules: they rely on automation to scale, depend on landing pages to convert, and rarely have formal asset review processes in place. The combination — high automation, low governance — is where risk concentrates. A disapproved ad or a policy violation from an AI-generated headline is your problem under the new terms, not Google's.
When you authorize Google to crawl your site for automated campaigns, it does not crawl just your landing page. It crawls everything: old blog posts, expired promotions, privacy policies, support pages, career pages. Any indexed content can become a headline in Performance Max — including a post about a product you stopped selling months ago, or a 30% discount that ended last quarter. Under the new terms, whatever gets generated from that content is your responsibility.
What Google Crawls and How It Becomes Ad Copy
When you connect your site to Performance Max or use conversational campaign setup tools, Google accesses your content as raw material for automatic assets. In practice, these are the most common sources of unwanted ad copy:
- Old blog posts containing outdated pricing or discontinued offers
- Seasonal promotion pages still live on the domain after the offer ended
- Legal pages (terms of use, privacy policy) written for lawyers, not for ad copy
- Support or FAQ pages that were never intended as marketing material
- Discontinued product pages that still exist on the domain
- Any URL not explicitly blocked in a page feed
The documented solution: create a page feed with ONLY the URLs you want Google to use as inputs. Exclude everything else. But this still requires control over what exists on the domain Google is crawling — a structural problem for affiliates using generic multi-purpose websites.
Isolated Landing Pages: Why AdsPages Protects Affiliates by Design
AdsPages creates completely isolated landing pages — no blog, no support pages, no promotional history. Each page is a dedicated file containing only the active offer. When Google crawls an AdsPages landing page, it finds exactly what you intend it to find: the current offer's value proposition, with no noise. This is not just organization — it is compliance by design. You do not need to configure a page feed to exclude unwanted pages because those pages simply do not exist.
Affiliates using dedicated, isolated landing pages significantly reduce the risk of unwanted automatic assets — because Google only crawls what you intend it to see. No old posts, no expired promotions, no pages that were never meant to become ad copy.
AdsTracking and the New Data Input Rules
The updated terms also explicitly address how data you provide to Google is governed. Conversion events, remarketing lists, CRM data — all of this is now covered by the input usage rules. AdsTracking sends clean, structured events to Google that are compatible with the standards the new terms require. Correct tracking is no longer just a performance decision — it is a compliance decision.
Compliance Checklist for Affiliates: 7 Steps
What you can do right now, regardless of which tools you use:
- Audit what Google is crawling — in Performance Max, check the landing page report to see which URLs are being indexed and used as asset inputs
- Create a page feed with ONLY the URLs that should feed your automated assets
- Explicitly exclude: privacy policy, terms of use, old blog posts, support pages, and expired promotions
- Review automated assets every week for the first 30 days of any new campaign — then monthly once the account is stable
- Use brand lists and negative keywords to control the language outputs AI can generate
- Fill out AI Brief (launched at Google Marketing Live 2026) with your brand guidelines, target audience, and what must NOT appear in your ads
- Document asset approvals in high-spend accounts — a simple folder with review screenshots creates an audit trail
Frequently Asked Questions About the 2026 Google Ads Terms Update
Is Performance Max the campaign type most affected by the new rules?
Yes. Performance Max is where automation has the most autonomy — it generates assets dynamically, selects landing pages, defines audiences, and distributes budget automatically. The new terms are partly a direct response to how PMax operates today. If you run PMax campaigns, the new asset review obligations are especially relevant to your workflow.
Do I still need to review assets manually if I fill out AI Brief?
Yes. AI Brief guides campaign direction — goals, personas, brand guidelines — but it is not a guarantee. Google can generate assets that are technically within your guidelines but do not accurately represent your offer. Weekly review (then monthly once the account is stable) is an explicit obligation under the new terms, not a suggestion.
Do the new terms change how I should send conversion events?
The change is legal, not technical: the data you provide to Google is now explicitly covered by the input usage terms. This reinforces the importance of sending clean, accurate events — no duplicate conversions, no inflated data, no CRM records that violate user consent. AdsTracking handles the technical side; you need to ensure source data complies with the privacy regulations in your markets (GDPR, CCPA, LGPD for Brazil).
If I use isolated landing pages instead of a full website, am I less exposed to the crawl risk?
Significantly less exposed. Affiliates using dedicated landing pages — like those generated by AdsPages — already have structural separation between what Google crawls and everything else. There is no blog, no history, no secondary pages. The risk of unwanted inputs entering your automated assets is structurally lower by design.
Does Google using my site content as AI input require my consent?
Under the new terms, authorizing Google to crawl your website for campaign purposes also authorizes using that content as input for AI features. This is not a separate opt-in — it is part of the same authorization. This is precisely why controlling what content is available to crawl (via page feeds or isolated landing pages) matters: the authorization applies to whatever Google can reach, not just what you intend it to use.
The Bottom Line
The 2026 Google Ads Terms of Service formalize something that was already true in practice: automation is not optional, and the responsibility for what it generates always belongs to the advertiser. For affiliates, the most concrete risk is uncontrolled site crawling turning unplanned content into ad copy. Isolated landing pages and clean conversion tracking are the two most direct protections — and both are part of what AdsX is built to provide.
Run Google Ads Campaigns That Are Compliant by Design
AdsPages creates isolated landing pages with no noise — Google crawls exactly what you intend. No page feed configuration, no excluded pages, no compliance headaches.