Observed Signal · Jun 23, 2026 · Deprecation · Source: https://www.blogger.com/feeds/7815614485808579332/posts/default?category=google_ads_api&orderby=published · Impact: 4/5 · Sentiment: Negative
Google Ads API Blocks New Smart Campaign Creation
Google announced that starting August 3, 2026, the Google Ads API will no longer allow creation of new Smart Campaigns. Existing Smart Campaigns can still be updated and will continue to serve ads. Google recommends migrating to other campaign types such as Performance Max, Search, or Demand Gen depending on business goals. Technical guidance notes how to detect Smart Campaign creation (advertising_channel_type=SMART and advertising_channel_sub_type=SMART_CAMPAIGN) and describes the API errors callers will see: v24 returns SmartCampaignError.CREATION_FAILED while v23 and earlier return OperationAccessDeniedError.CREATE_OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED. The post points developers to Google Ads API Support and the Google Advertising and Measurement Community Discord for questions. Author: Ben Karl, Google’s Advertising and Measurement Developer Relations team. Published 2026-06-23.
A policy/technical change from Google (a major self-serve ad platform) alters API behavior and will require developers and advertisers to change integrations and migration plans; affects campaign creation workflows and error handling starting Aug 3, 2026.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Starting August 3, 2026, the Google Ads API will no longer permit creating new Smart Campaigns.
- Existing Smart Campaigns can still be updated and will continue to serve ads.
- Google recommends using other campaign types such as Performance Max, Search, or Demand Gen instead of Smart Campaigns.
- API behavior: in v24 attempts to create Smart Campaigns return SmartCampaignError.CREATION_FAILED; in v23 and earlier they return OperationAccessDeniedError.CREATE_OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED.
- Detect Smart Campaign creation by checking campaign fields advertising_channel_type=SMART and advertising_channel_sub_type=SMART_CAMPAIGN.
Connected Companies & Entities
1 Entity mapped“If you have any questions or want to discuss this post, please reach out to us on our “Google Advertising and Measurement Community” Discord...”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
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Google Ads automigrates legacy Search features to AI Max
Google announced an automated migration of legacy Google Ads Search features to its new AI Max configuration. Phase 1 (Campaign-level Broad Match and Automatically Created Assets) will run progressively from September 1–30, 2026; legacy creation of those features has been blocked since August 3, 2026. New Google Ads API versions released after September 1, 2026 will remove legacy entities, while older API versions will temporarily continue to support them until their scheduled sunset (around September 2027). Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) automigration has been rescheduled to February 2027 with in-account banners in September 2026 and reminder notifications in January 2027. The post details default migrated settings, SQL to detect migrated campaigns, API lifecycle guidance, and a developer action plan.
Google Ads API v24.2 Released
Google announced the v24.2 release of the Google Ads API (published 2026-06-25). The minor release includes security updates, multi-party approvals (MPA) to require secondary admin approval for sensitive account actions, and AI-transparency features that expose SyntheticContentInfo and SyntheticContentAttestation on Asset and Ad resources so advertisers and Google systems can attest to AI-generated creatives. Reporting and asset enhancements include Performance Max placement segmentation by ad_network_type, YouTube brand channel links, automatic landing-page text generation, and new experiment types (Campaign Mix Experiments and Performance Max feature testing). Google also published updated client libraries, revamped release notes and deprecation guidance, and released minor versions v23.3, v22.2 and v21.2 with early interfaces for synthetic content attestation.
Google Ads API v22 Sunset Set for October 7, 2026
Google has announced that version 22 of the Google Ads API will sunset on October 7, 2026. After this date, all requests made to v22 will begin to fail, impacting advertisers, agencies, and ad tech platforms that rely on the API. Google advises users to migrate to a newer version prior to the sunset date to ensure uninterrupted access. The announcement provides resources such as upgrade guides, release notes, and Google Cloud Console usage metrics to help identify which methods and services are being called. The notice was published by Ben Karl on behalf of the Google Ads API Team on September 2, 2026.
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