PMax will pull images from your landing page on Dec 4

Check two things: which images sit on your landing pages, and whether you own the rights to them. From December 4, 2026 Google turns on landing page image extraction for every new Performance Max campaign, and it overrides your account level off switch. Existing campaigns keep their setup. One thing decides how far this reaches you, and that is where your store images come from.

What changes in Performance Max on December 4, 2026?

What changes is where the decision lives. Image extraction becomes opted in by default on every Performance Max campaign created after that date, whether you build it in the Google Ads interface, in Editor, or through the API. Google says this new campaign level default applies even when the setting is turned off at account level.

Until now, a campaign with no explicit setting inherited its status from the account. Anyone who switched dynamic images off at account level switched them off for every new campaign in it. That inheritance is what breaks on December 4. The account level switch stops affecting whatever you create after it.

What the setting does is let Google read the landing page you gave it, pick high resolution images from it, and add them to your campaign assets. Google says those images are eligible to serve on Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps. That is six surfaces, not one.

Existing campaigns keep their current configuration, so nothing shifts in them on its own. Opting out is available per campaign by setting image extraction to OPTED_OUT. Google warns that this field is an array replaced in full on update. Send the image setting alone and you wipe the rest of the automation in that campaign.

What is different in a Saudi account?

The difference is that in most Saudi stores the images do not come from the store. A product page on Salla or Zid usually carries supplier photos or licensed stock. Google asks you to confirm you own the rights to the images on your pages and allow commercial use. What gets pulled may be what you do not own.

A second difference is images carrying Arabic text. The Saudi product page is full of banners with the discount and the season slogan written inside the image itself. Google picks the image as an image, not as an offer that is still valid today. The banner you left from a past season becomes a live asset in your campaign.

A third difference is cropping. The pulled image is cropped to fit six surfaces of different sizes. An image where the Arabic line sits near the edge comes out cut at a point you did not choose. This happens most with seasonal creative, where the text is half the image rather than its trim.

A fourth difference is that agencies run their clients from one manager account. The control here is per campaign, not per account, so every new campaign in every client needs its own setting. This is the same pattern as automated promotions earlier this month, where the setting opened by default and the exit was left to you.

When does this not apply?

This does not touch you if you do not run Performance Max. Google limits the change to that campaign type in its own text, and names no other type alongside it. A pure Search account, a Snapchat account, and a Meta account sit fully outside the subject. This news asks nothing of you there.

A second limit is that opting out does not undo what was already pulled. Create a campaign after the date, let it run, then switch the setting off, and the images did serve during that window. Google publishes no figure in this announcement on how extracted images affect performance. So I have no evidence that they raise or lower cost per sale.

A third limit is that reading what was pulled is indirect. Google says you query the automation setting on your campaigns with Google Ads Query Language, and that a campaign with no image extraction entry is inheriting its status from the account. So you read the setting, not the image it picked.

A fourth limit is that Google names no countries and no languages in this announcement. It neither mentions Arabic nor excludes it, and I have no evidence on how well it picks from an Arabic page. The only check available is to look inside your account after the date, rather than assume it did not read your page.

The test I run

In front of an account running Performance Max for a Saudi store, I do not switch the setting off everywhere. I open the assets page and read the dynamic images status. I note which campaigns carry an explicit setting and which inherit the account.

Then I open my highest spending product pages the way a new visitor sees them. I separate supplier and licensed photos from the images I own. After that I set new campaigns to opt out, which means Google stops pulling page images in those.

I keep the exit to new campaigns because an existing one keeps its setup. I leave one campaign open and compare what a sale cost me in each. Anyone who lets a licensed supplier photo reach an ad may pay for it in a claim, not in clicks.

Frequently asked questions

Does anything change in my existing campaigns on December 4?

No. Google says existing Performance Max campaigns keep their current configuration. The new default applies only to what you create after December 4, 2026. If you want an existing campaign opted out, set it explicitly on that campaign.

Is switching dynamic images off at account level enough?

Not after December 4. Google says the new campaign level default applies even when the setting is turned off at account level. A new campaign needs an explicit opt out of its own, not an inherited one.

Where do I read this setting in my account?

Under account level automated assets. Open Campaigns, then Assets, then the three dot menu, then account level automated assets, then advanced settings, and check whether dynamic images is on. A breakdown of the accounts I manage sits on the work page.