Black Friday is November 27. The platform changes that matter for this sale arrived across the fall, from September onward, and they are not limited to Google Ads. Here is what changed, and what to look at before the sale week.
If you only have an hour
- Reconcile Google, Meta and Microsoft conversions with store or CRM numbers for the last 30 days, and watch the ratio.
- Check brand Search budget, impressions and clicks week over week.
- On Meta, check "Detected offers" in Commerce Manager, and whether Sales and Leads ad sets have lost manual placements.
- If you run more than one language, pull this week's search terms.
1. The Search language setting is leaving, and some accounts have already lost it
Google's developer blog, dated August 13, said the campaign-level language setting would start coming out of Search campaigns in late September. PPC Land reported the control missing from some live accounts on November 3 and 4. The rollout is still uneven. The same developer blog says existing language criteria can still be returned when a campaign is queried, but they are not used for Search targeting.
The About language targeting help page says Search ads "will automatically match based on the language of your ads," using the search term language and the user's language settings. The developer blog also tells advertisers to keep ads and landing pages clearly structured in the intended languages. In Performance Max, the setting no longer applies on the Search Network, but it still does on YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail.
What to check: pull this week's search terms on multilingual campaigns, and keep each campaign's ads and landing pages clearly in one language.
2. Promotion Mode can run a sale window, but only on some campaigns
Promotion Mode is in open beta. For 3 to 14 days it can lower tROAS by a 5% to 90% tolerance, optionally add daily budget, then return automatically to the previous settings. It works on standard Search and Performance Max campaigns with campaign-level tROAS, not portfolio strategies or shared budgets. Exploration currently applies to Search inventory only.
Google's About Promotion Mode page says you cannot change the baseline tROAS or average daily budget outside the Promotion Mode settings during an active promotion. After it ends, allow one to two conversion cycles for performance to settle. Google's page still says retail will be available in November 2026.
What to check: set the window and the baseline before you turn it on, only on campaigns that have already completed a conversion cycle, and check it is not budget-limited (Exploration can stop if it is).
3. Performance Max may step back from some brand queries
In early November, Search Engine Roundtable quoted wording from Google's help page "How Performance Max interacts with other campaigns in your account" that Performance Max "may filter out" navigational or brand-specific queries so a dedicated brand Search campaign can serve them. The verb is "may," not "will." The quoted passage does not define a brand query, and it does not say what happens if you have no brand Search campaign.
What to check: confirm the brand Search campaign has budget and eligible ads, and compare brand impressions and clicks week over week. If you run PMax only, decide this week whether to add a brand Search campaign.
4. Some brand AI Overviews have moved to the right column
This is separate from the Performance Max wording. AI Overviews for many brand searches have been appearing in the right-hand column on desktop, where the knowledge panel used to sit. The layout was first spotted on October 31 and reported by Search Engine Roundtable on November 2. Published examples are desktop results, and Google has not said whether this is a test.
What to check: search your own brand terms on desktop. I would not rebuild a campaign around an unconfirmed layout.
5. Smart Bidding "Learning" now lasts 7 days at most
Google rewrote its About Smart Bidding learning help page in October, as reported on October 21. The "Learning" status never lasts more than 7 days; Search Engine Land says the old wording was 7 to 14. It still appears for a new or reactivated bid strategy, a change in the campaigns, ad groups or keywords it covers, or a significant change to conversion goals. Changes to budgets, targets, creatives or targeting no longer trigger it.
Performance still typically takes one to two conversion cycles to settle. If you need a new Performance Max or Demand Gen campaign for Black Friday, I would launch it by November 16 at the latest.
What to check: judge bid and budget changes by your days-to-conversion, not by the status column.
6. Meta is removing manual placements from some objectives, gradually
This is a gradual rollout, not a completed removal, and Meta has not dated it. Meta's help page Choose ad placements in Meta Ads Manager says Sales, Leads and App promotion campaigns no longer get manual placement choice at the ad set level. Awareness, Traffic and Engagement still do.
Set audience and placement controls applies across the account and only lists four exclusions: Audience Network native, banner and interstitial; Audience Network rewarded videos; Marketplace; and the right column. They do not turn off Feed, Reels or Stories.
What to check: see whether the change has reached your Sales and Leads ad sets, snapshot placement breakdowns now, and use account exclusions only for those four placements.
7. Detected offers can follow a duplicated Meta ad
On November 6, PPC Land reported a practitioner finding, with Meta's own "Duplicate your ad" notice in the screenshots: eligible promotions can appear on the new ad even when promotions were turned off on the original. The control is a Commerce Manager checkbox called "Detected offers," under Settings, then Offer merchandising.
What to check: if you run more than one offer at a time, open that checkbox before you duplicate ads for the sale.
8. Microsoft's Conversions API now accepts events up to 90 days old
Microsoft's Conversions API documentation now says eventTime must be within the last 90 days. That submission limit is separate from the conversion goal's attribution window: the event still has to fall inside that window to get credit. Microsoft still recommends sending events in near real time.
What to check: confirm the goal's window covers your actual close time, and reconcile platform conversions with backend orders or CRM deals.
9. ChatGPT Ads switched to Target CPA and Target CPC on November 9
OpenAI's bidding help page says Target CPA and Target CPC are available for new campaigns from November 9. Existing Max Bid and Max CPC campaigns can move to the new targets from the same date, and those legacy controls retire on January 1, 2027. From November 18, using the old bid fields in the API selects the new targets. The new targets are average-cost goals, not auction caps, and a tight target or weak signals can leave budget unspent.
What to check: review recent actual CPA or CPC, and confirm conversion events are arriving, before you switch a campaign you need to spend.
A short recurring check will catch more than a once-a-year audit: backend conversions versus the platforms, and brand Search volume.
If you want a second pair of eyes on these checks before Black Friday, book a demo and talk to Kuma.
