Google Ads API v21 Released Today

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Google has announced the launch of version 21 of its Google Ads API, marking a significant update with numerous enhancements. This release introduces features such as AI Max for Search campaigns, modifications to Performance Max, reporting improvements, and important documentation updates.

Prior to this, the API was on version 20, released in June 2025, with earlier versions including 19.1 in April 2025, 19 in February 2025, and 18 in October 2024. Additional updates trace back to version 17.1 in August 2024, version 17.0 in June 2024, and even earlier versions like 16.1 and 16 in February 2024. The API’s version history extends further back, including version 15 from October 2023, 14.1 in August, 13.1 in April 2023, with past releases such as 12.0 in October 2022, and versions 11.0 and 11.1 in June and August 2022 respectively. Notably, Google has phased out the AdWords API as of April 27th, with complete deprecation scheduled for the end of July.

A summarized video outlining the latest changes covers key points such as:

AI Max for Search campaigns: Now enabled via the ai_max_setting.enable_ai_max field in campaign settings, allowing expanded reach through search term matching. Existing automation and brand controls remain active unless AI Max is explicitly toggled off. Ad groups can disable search term matching if the parent campaign has AI Max enabled. New performance reports for search terms, headlines, and landing pages are available, including a dedicated view for combinations of search queries and ad components. An error code is introduced to prevent misconfiguration when AI Max isn’t activated properly.
Assets updates: Several new fields and controls have been added, such as terms_and_conditions_text, terms_and_conditions_uri, promotion barcodes, and QR codes within promotion assets. Automation controls for generating text assets from final URLs are introduced, along with services to remove automatically created assets when needed. Improvements also include fixing issues related to asset descriptions and the types of served assets.
Campaigns: The updates include new status reasons, specifically a MISSING_LOCATION_TARGETING indicator for location-restricted campaigns lacking targeting, overall support for third-party integrations across campaigns and video settings, and the capability to update advertising_partner_ids in existing campaigns. Advertisers can now use shared placement lists to exclude certain sites from their campaigns and specify ROAS tolerances when optimizing bid strategies. Changes also cover adjustments to product group errors and new performance metrics like location interest summaries.
Conversions: A new attribution event type, ENGAGED_VIEW, has been added. Debug modes originally available for conversions have been deprecated, improving data accuracy.
Demand Generation: An error code for minimal campaign budgets has been introduced, providing guidance on minimum spend requirements for Demand Gen campaigns.
EU Political Advertising: The API now includes a contains_eu_political_advertising field, which signals whether a campaign targets or contains EU-related political content. Campaigns flagged with this field will cease serving within the EU from September 22, 2025, and create or modify campaigns without this declaration will encounter errors. Existing campaigns should declare their political advertising status to comply with upcoming regulations.
Performance Max Campaigns: Default settings now enable brand guidelines for new campaigns. Support for a new search term report at the campaign level has been added, along with an explicit PERFORMANCE_MAX value for search term matching analysis.
Planning Tools: New methods allow advertisers to discover user interests and affinities, with support for filtering and insight generation based on in-market segments and audience insights. Tools also enhance audience targeting and trend analysis through richer metadata and audience share metrics.
Reporting Enhancements: Several new metrics and report segments have been introduced, including detailed insights into asset performance, ad network contributions, and click types related to specific ad formats like vehicle assets. These updates aim to offer advertisers more granular data for optimizing campaigns across platforms.
Video Advertising: New assets allow more precise linking between campaigns and YouTube content, including video lists and insights metadata. New click types track interactions such as related video clicks, channel visits, and product asset engagements. Features like non-skippable in-stream ad options and video ad sequencing are now available, along with a specialized content suitability report to assess ad compliance.

These comprehensive updates reflect Google’s ongoing efforts to enhance ad campaign management, targeting precision, and reporting transparency within its advertising ecosystem.