Autumn 2026 edition, written October 2026. Next review: January 2027.
Google and Microsoft both changed how small accounts bid, match and measure in 2026, and several of those changes switched themselves on. If your Irish business runs Google Ads, and maybe Microsoft Ads, this is the short list that matters, with sources, dates and what we would do.
Five changes that matter for a small account
Each change carries a recommendation. Do means act now, Watch means check again at your next quarterly review, and Ignore means it is not worth your time at small-business scale. Our Google Ads tips for small budgets cover the everyday set-up.
17 August 2026: budget-limited targets now bid to the target
Google's help page Changes to target based bid strategies sets 17 August 2026 as the date when a Target CPA or Target ROAS campaign that is "Limited by budget" started aiming at its target rather than beating it. In Google's words, campaigns that previously beat their targets "may now move closer" to them. It covers Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen and Travel campaigns, and Google will not change your targets or budgets for you.
It affects any account on a fixed monthly budget with a CPA or ROAS target, which describes most small Irish accounts we see. As an illustration, a €10 target that was quietly bringing in enquiries at €5 can drift towards €10.
Do: open every campaign that has a target. If it shows "Limited by budget", pick one of the two clean set-ups Google's page lists: remove the target and steer cost by budget, or set the target at what the campaign actually delivered over the last 30 days and give the budget enough room that it is no longer limited.
From September 2026: two old settings move to AI Max
Google's blog post upgrading Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max (15 April 2026, updated 11 June 2026) says that from September 2026, Search campaigns using automatically created assets move to AI Max with search term matching and text customisation on, and campaigns using the campaign-level broad match setting move with search term matching on. Search term matching widens the searches that can trigger your ads beyond your keywords; text customisation lets Google write ad text from your website. Google emailed advertisers on 5 August 2026, as the trade site Search Engine Roundtable reported.
It affects anyone who accepted either setting, often through a recommendation or a rep's call. The move runs from September; we have not seen confirmation that every eligible campaign has been migrated yet.
Do: check each Search campaign's settings now. If AI Max is on and you did not choose it, decide deliberately; for a small local lead-gen account our default is off. If you keep it, filter the search terms report by the "AI Max" match type weekly, as Google's AI Max reporting page describes, and add negatives. Google notes this filter leaves out "Other search terms", so it can understate what AI Max spent.
15 June 2026: Consent Mode became the only control
From 15 June 2026, according to Google Analytics Help, Updates to Google Analytics Data Controls, the ad_storage signal in Consent Mode is the single control over Google Ads cookies and identifiers collected through your GA4 tag. The Google Signals setting no longer limits that data. The same page announces, without a date, that later in 2026 ad_personalization will become the sole control for using linked GA4 data to personalise ads, and collected IP addresses will be encrypted and passed to linked Google Ads accounts.
It affects every Irish advertiser running GA4 alongside Google Ads.
Do: make sure your cookie banner sends all four Consent Mode signals, defaulting to denied until the visitor chooses. Microsoft needs a signal of its own, covered below.
Call-only ads: none new since February 2026, none showing from February 2027
Google's help page Transition from call ads to call assets, dated 3 October 2025, says no new call-only ads can be created from February 2026, and existing ones stop receiving impressions in February 2027. The replacement is a call asset on a responsive search ad, which Google's how-to page walks through.
It affects trades and local services that live on the phone, which describes many small accounts. Any ad group whose only ad is call-only will simply stop serving.
Do: before February 2027, give every ad group a responsive search ad with a call asset. It is a short job now, and an expensive one to discover in a quiet February.
27 August and 1 October 2026: Microsoft turns on AI Max and removes the CPC cap
Microsoft announced AI Max for Search on 27 August 2026: search term matching, text customisation and final URL expansion, enabled by default for new Search campaigns and switchable off at creation or later. AI Max settings carry over through Google Import, so a campaign Google moved to AI Max can arrive in Microsoft with it on.
Microsoft's product roundup of 31 August 2026 adds that from 1 October 2026, new non-portfolio campaigns using Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value or Maximize Clicks cannot set a maximum CPC. Portfolio bid strategies and existing campaigns keep the cap. Trade press, including Search Engine Journal (20 August 2026), reports that this extends to Target CPA and Target ROAS, and that a cap removed after 1 October cannot be added back.
It affects anyone creating or importing a Microsoft Search campaign, and small accounts that relied on a cap to stop runaway clicks.
Do: check AI Max on every new or imported Microsoft campaign and switch off what you did not choose. Leave existing CPC caps alone. If a new campaign needs one, use a portfolio bid strategy (a portfolio of one campaign is fine) or manual or enhanced CPC.
Other changes, in brief
- Dynamic Search Ads, February 2027. Google's 11 June 2026 update to the same blog post says DSA campaigns will be upgraded automatically from February 2027, with search term matching, text customisation and final URL expansion all on. Watch: if you use DSA as a catch-all, plan its replacement before then.
- Display moving into Demand Gen. Google's blog of 26 May 2026 says standalone Display campaigns are moving into Demand Gen, expected to complete by 2027. Watch: keep a working Display campaign running until you are moved, then recheck its placement exclusions.
- Offline conversion uploads. From 15 June 2026, offline conversion imports and enhanced conversions for leads uploads moved to the Data Manager API, per Google Ads Help. Do, if you upload CRM outcomes: confirm your tool or developer has moved.
- Microsoft autogenerated assets. Since January 2026 they are on by default for new responsive search ads. Do: check the asset report and turn them off if the text is off-brand or inaccurate.
Should a small Irish business run Microsoft Ads?
StatCounter measures page views referred by search engines on sites that use its tracker, not people or searches. On that measure, Bing had 4.21% of search engine referrals in Ireland across all devices in September 2026, against 93.47% for Google. On desktop alone, Bing had 14.54%.
The honest answer has two halves. Four referrals in every hundred is a small pool, and for a mobile-heavy consumer trade it may be too little volume to learn from. On desktop it is roughly one in seven, which favours B2B, professional services and buyers who search from a work PC. In our experience competition on Microsoft is thinner, but we have no Irish cost per click data to put a number on that.
Our recommendation: run it only once Google Ads is tracking conversions properly and paying its way. Start with one import from Google, then check what arrived: exact and phrase keywords, deliberate budgets, AI Max and autogenerated assets reviewed. Third-party guides warn that scheduled imports can overwrite edits you make in Microsoft, so keep a recurring import only if you never edit there.
Consent needs its own set-up. Microsoft has required a consent signal on its UET tag for visitors from the EEA, the UK and Switzerland since 5 May 2025, as the trade site Search Engine Land reported. Google Consent Mode does not cover it.
What you can safely ignore for now
- Ads in AI Overviews. As of October 2026 we could find no confirmation that ads in Google's AI Overviews run in Ireland; trade press in December 2025 listed 12 English-language markets, without Ireland or the UK. Chasing them buys broad traffic with no proven benefit.
- Copilot ads. Trade press reports that Microsoft shows some ads inside Copilot answers through its normal campaigns. We found no Microsoft source on Copilot ads in Ireland or a separate control for them.
- Google Marketing Live 2026 announcements. Tools announced in May 2026, such as Gemini asset studio, have unclear availability, and none fixes weak tracking or a weak landing page.
- Financial services verification. Google's June 2026 policy covers financial advertisers targeting 24 named EEA markets. Ireland is not on the list, so Watch only if you advertise into other EEA countries.
- The "cookieless future". Google said in April 2025 that Chrome will keep third-party cookies, as widely reported. In Ireland the real constraint on measurement is consent.
A quarterly check routine
Every January, April, July and October, set aside 30 to 45 minutes.
- Auto-apply. Every auto-apply recommendation is off unless you chose it.
- Campaign settings. Decide AI Max, automatically created assets, the broad match setting and final URL expansion deliberately.
- Targets. Any CPA or ROAS target showing "Limited by budget": remove the target or give the budget headroom.
- Search terms. Sort by cost, filter by AI Max if it is on, add negatives.
- Ads. Replace any call-only ads before February 2027.
- Microsoft, if used. AI Max and autogenerated assets on new campaigns, CPC caps where you want them, scheduled imports, and the placement report.
- Consent. In a private window, decline cookies and confirm the Google and Microsoft tags send "denied"; accept and confirm "granted".
- Conversions. Compare platform conversions with your own enquiries or orders. A big gap means fixing tracking before touching bids.
- Deadlines. Reread this page and the platform announcements for anything due in the next 90 days.
If you would rather hand these checks to someone, our Google Ads management service runs them every quarter and tells you in plain words what changed in your account and why.
Clicks only pay off if the page they land on does its job, and our web design service builds landing pages that turn ad clicks into enquiries.