Why Is Google Ads Showing a Discount I Didn't Add? Automated Promotions Explained

If your Google Ads have started showing a discount, coupon or deal that nobody in your team set up, the cause is almost certainly a feature called automated promotions. Google Ads now scans the landing pages on your website, picks out offers it finds there, and attaches them to your Search and Performance Max ads as promotion assets. Google told eligible advertisers it would switch this on by default from October 12, 2026, so many accounts are running it without anyone having made a decision.

That can be a useful shortcut or a real problem, depending on how tidy your website is. An old banner promising 20 percent off, a members-only code or a single-location deal can end up in front of every searcher. This guide explains what the feature does, which campaigns it touches, how to see exactly what Google has added, how to switch it off, and when it makes more sense to keep control with your own promotion assets instead.

What Are Google Ads Automated Promotions?

Automated promotions are one of Google's account-level automated assets, the same family as dynamic sitelinks, dynamic callouts and automated location assets. Instead of you creating a promotion asset by hand, Google's systems read your landing pages, identify deals such as percentage discounts, money-off offers or buy-one-get-one-free, and show them as a promotion line under your ad.

Google's help documentation says the system is designed to show only offers that are currently active and visible on the site. Each automated promotion serves for less than 24 hours at a time, and is only switched back on if Google can still find the offer on your page. Google also says it plans to add extraction of start and end dates later, which tells you that today it is relying on what is visible on the page rather than on a structured expiry date you control.

The help documentation first appeared in early September 2026. Search Engine Roundtable then reported on October 5 that Google had emailed advertisers saying eligible accounts would be opted in by default from October 12. That left about a week of notice, which is why so many advertisers only noticed when the promotions started appearing.

Which Campaigns Are Affected

The feature does not apply to every campaign. According to Google's help center, a campaign is only eligible when all of these are true:

• It is an active Search or Performance Max campaign: This includes campaigns used for local advertising. Display, Video and Shopping-only campaigns are not part of this feature.
• It has location assets attached: This is the detail that surprises most people. If you link a Google Business Profile to your account for location assets, your campaigns become eligible. Online-only businesses without location assets are not affected.
• It has no manual promotions running: If you have already added your own promotion asset to the campaign, Google skips it. Manual setup always takes priority.
• It complies with Google Ads policies: Offers still need to meet the normal rules, including the unavailable offers policy, which requires prices and deals to be accurate and easy to find on the landing page.

In practice, this means the businesses most exposed are local service businesses and multi-location brands: plumbers, HVAC companies, dentists, gyms, restaurants, retailers with physical stores and franchises. These are exactly the businesses whose websites often carry old seasonal offers, location-specific deals or conditional coupons.

How to Check If Google Is Showing Promotions in Your Ads

Before deciding anything, look at what Google has actually added. It only takes a couple of minutes:

1. Open Assets: In your Google Ads account, go to the Campaigns menu and select Assets.
2. Filter to promotions: In the filter bar, select Asset type and choose Promotion.
3. Look at the Added by column: Anything Google created automatically shows Google AI in the Added by column. Promotions you created yourself show your own account or user.
4. Hover for details: Hover over Google AI to see where Google sourced the offer, and hover over the promotion name to see the exact headline and details being shown.
5. Check the source page: Open the landing page Google pulled the offer from and confirm the offer is current, applies to everyone, and matches what your sales team will honour.

One limitation to be aware of: assets that have not received any impressions may not appear in this view. So an empty list does not guarantee Google has not attached an offer to an eligible campaign. If you want certainty, check the account-level setting described in the next section rather than relying on the report alone.

How to Turn Off Automated Promotions

The switch sits at the account level, so one change covers every campaign in the account. Google's current path is:

1. In the Campaigns menu, select Assets.
2. In the filter bar, click the three-dot More icon and choose Account level automated assets.
3. Click the three-dot icon again and select Advanced settings.
4. Open the Automated promotions dropdown and choose Off.
5. Select a reason if Google asks for one, then save.

There is no campaign-level switch for this feature at the moment. If you want automated promotions in some campaigns but not others, the practical workaround is to add a manual promotion asset to the campaigns you want to protect, since Google skips any campaign that already has a manual promotion running.

If you manage several accounts, repeat this in each one. The setting does not cascade from a manager account.

Should You Keep Them On or Turn Them Off?

Promotions do tend to make ads more eye-catching, and Google's documentation suggests judging them on overall campaign impressions and conversions rather than only on clicks on the promotion itself. So this is a judgement call, not an automatic yes or no.

• Consider keeping them on if: your website only ever shows offers that are live right now, the same offer applies at every location, you have no conditional or members-only deals on landing pages, and nobody has time to manage promotion assets manually.
• Turn them off if: your site has old banners, footer coupons or blog posts mentioning past sales, offers vary by location or customer type, discounts need sign-off before they are advertised, or you are in a regulated industry where every advertised claim needs approval.
• Turn them off for now if you are unsure: You can switch the feature back on at any time. Leaving it running while you audit your website is the riskier order of operations.

A discount shown in your ad is a promise to the customer. If Google pulls an expired or conditional offer from your website, your front desk is the one who has to explain it, so decide deliberately rather than leaving it on by default.

In the accounts we manage at Luceds, the most common problem is not a bad offer but a stale one. Websites built a year or two ago often still carry a seasonal banner or a first-time customer discount on an old landing page. Google has no way of knowing which of these your business still stands behind.

The Better Option for Most Businesses: Your Own Promotion Assets

For most advertisers, the best of both worlds is to create promotion assets manually. You keep the visual benefit of a promotion line in your ads, you control exactly what it says, and your campaigns are excluded from automated promotions at the same time.

• Create it in Assets: Go to Assets, click the plus button, select Promotion and choose whether it applies at account, campaign or ad group level. The most specific level wins, so an ad group promotion overrides a campaign one.
• Set the offer precisely: Choose a monetary or percentage discount, the product or service, the final URL, and any requirement such as a promo code or minimum spend.
• Control the timing: Pick an occasion or set your own start and end dates, and use days and hours if the offer is only valid at certain times.
• Know the costs: Promotion assets are free to add. A click on the promotion costs the same as a click on the headline, and Google does not charge for more than two clicks per impression.

Timing matters right now. Google's Black Friday occasion runs from October 15 to December 15, and Black Friday itself falls on November 27 this year. If you are planning a holiday offer, set it up as a dated promotion asset so it starts and stops exactly when you want, rather than letting Google decide based on what it can see on your homepage.

Also keep in mind that occasion-based promotion assets need to be created or edited within six months of their start date, and promotion assets left untouched for six months can stop serving. Put a reminder in your calendar to review them each quarter.

Do Not Confuse This With Merchant Center Automated Promotions

Google Merchant Center has a separate feature with the same name. That version pulls promotions from your product pages into Shopping ads and free listings, and it is managed inside Merchant Center under Marketing and then Promotions, not inside Google Ads. It is currently a closed beta in a limited set of countries, including the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

If you run both Search or Performance Max campaigns with location assets and Shopping ads, check both places. Turning off the Google Ads setting does nothing to Merchant Center, and the reverse is also true.

When to Get Help

If you only run one or two campaigns, the steps above take ten minutes. It is worth getting a second pair of eyes if you manage multiple locations or several accounts, if your website has a lot of legacy offer pages, or if you are not sure which of Google's other automated assets are switching on in the background. Automated promotions are one of several default-on features Google has introduced this year, and each one shifts a little more control away from the advertiser.

At Luceds we review automated asset settings as part of every Google Ads audit, alongside conversion tracking and search terms. If you would like us to check your account before the holiday season, get in touch through our contact page.