Google will start pulling images from advertisers’ landing pages into Performance Max ads by default. From Friday, December 4, every newly created Performance Max campaign will have image extraction switched on, Google announced on October 21, and the setting will apply across the Google Ads interface, Ads Editor and the Ads API. Google’s AI will scan landing pages for high-resolution images and use them as creative assets across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps. The change applies even in accounts where Dynamic Image Extensions were switched off, while existing campaigns keep their current settings.
The account switch stops deciding
Until now, a new Performance Max campaign without an explicit image-extraction choice inherited the account-level Dynamic Image Extensions setting. An advertiser who switched that setting off could rely on it as a blanket protection. Google removed a different advertiser control this month when it dropped language targeting from Search campaigns.
From that date, the campaign-level setting is the only one that counts, and its default is on. Google’s post is explicit that the new default applies even if Dynamic Image Extensions are disabled at the account level. Advertisers who want no extraction must say so for each new campaign they create, instead of relying on the account switch.
What Google will take from your pages
Image extraction means Google’s systems scan the landing pages a campaign points to, pick out high-resolution images, and turn them into ad assets. Those images can then appear across six Google surfaces: Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps. The feature is about using pictures that already exist on the site, not generating new ones.
Google draws a line between extraction and enhancement, and advertisers should not confuse the two. Enhancement can alter existing assets through cropping, animation and background expansion, while extraction only selects images from the page. Checking one control tells an advertiser nothing about the other, so both need a place on the campaign-launch checklist.
How to keep your images out
The opt-out sits at campaign level. In the interface, advertisers can open a new campaign’s settings, go to Asset optimization, and switch off landing-page images there. In the API, the choice is explicit: set GENERATE_IMAGE_EXTRACTION to OPTED_OUT in the campaign’s asset_automation_settings when the campaign is created. Doing nothing from December 4 means extraction is on.
Changing the setting on an existing campaign needs more care. Google warns that updating asset_automation_settings replaces the whole list rather than merging individual entries, so an update that only mentions image extraction could clear a separate automation setting such as text asset automation. Advertisers should retrieve the current settings first and include every entry they want to keep.
Google also supplies a way to check where each campaign stands. A Google Ads Query Language query returns every Performance Max campaign’s ID, name and automation settings, so teams can tell an explicit opt-out apart from a campaign that is still relying on the inherited account setting. Google suggests keeping that output with the campaign-launch checklist.
Our Read
The substance here is not a new feature but a flipped default, and flipped defaults matter more than launches because they change what happens when nobody does anything. Until December 4, an advertiser’s silence meant no extraction. After it, silence means extraction, and anyone who relied on the account-level switch must now police every new campaign instead.
The timing sharpens the point. December 4 falls on the Friday after Cyber Monday, so the first campaigns under the new default will be December launches, when templates get reused without a second look. Agencies that build from templates should put the opt-out in the template now, and brands should audit which landing-page images are approved before Google starts choosing.
Google’s warning matters too. The company asks advertisers to confirm they hold the rights to their landing-page images and to allow Google to use them for ads. A photo cleared for a website is not automatically cleared for an ad, and a site with stock imagery carries more risk than one with owned photography.
Why It Matters
Performance Max is Google’s default campaign type for most advertisers, so a change to its defaults reaches almost every Google Ads account. The December 4 switch adds no feature advertisers asked for; it changes what a new campaign does untouched. For brands that guard their imagery, the cost of missing the opt-out is seeing unapproved photos in their ads.
Background
Google has been expanding automated ads across its products all autumn, including taking AI Mode ads to ten more countries. Performance Max, which serves ads across all of Google’s channels from a single campaign, has been at the centre of that push.
Source: Google Ads Developer Blog and Search Engine Watch
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