Starting October 12, 2026, Google began auto-enrolling some Search and Performance Max advertisers — specifically those with linked location assets — into a new feature called “Automated Promotions,” according to Search Engine Roundtable. The system scans your website for anything that looks like a deal and attaches it to your ad as a promotion asset, without a human reviewing the wording first. If you run Google Search Ads or Performance Max for a law firm or professional services business, you are very likely enrolled right now, by default.
What Is Google Actually Turning On Here?
Per Search Engine Roundtable’s October 5, 2026 report, Google’s own advertiser email describes Automated Promotions as a feature “designed to improve your ad’s performance by providing users with valid offers without requiring any manual setup on your part.” In practice, that means Google’s crawler reads your website, looks for language it interprets as a promotion, deal, or coupon, and inserts it into your ad as a promotion asset — automatically, continuously, and without a review step on your end.
Why Should A Law Firm Care More Than A Retailer Does?
A retailer auto-surfacing “20% off” is a pricing question. A law firm auto-surfacing fee language is a regulatory one. Most state bars regulate exactly how firms can advertise fee arrangements, guarantees, and free offers — required disclaimers on contingency fees, restrictions on words like “free” or “guaranteed,” rules on what a “no fee unless we win” claim has to say nearby. None of that nuance travels with an automated scrape. Google’s system is matching patterns that look like offers, not applying your bar’s advertising rules.
What Might Google’s Crawler Flag As A “Promotion” On Your Site?
This is the part most firms miss, because they don’t think of themselves as running promotions at all. Common website language that could read as a “deal” to an automated system includes:
- “Free consultation” or “free case review”
- “No fee unless we win” or other contingency-fee framing
- A flat-fee offer for a specific service (uncontested divorce, simple will, etc.)
- Seasonal or limited-time discount language on a services page
- Any banner or callout mentioning a reduced rate, waived fee, or percent off
Any of these, pulled verbatim into an ad asset with no disclaimer and no review, is the exposure here — not that Google built the feature, but that it can go live unreviewed.
Is This Opt-In Or Opt-Out — And Did Everyone Get Notified?
Search Engine Roundtable reports that Automated Promotions is opt-out, not opt-in: advertisers are enrolled by default unless they turn it off in account-level Automated Assets settings. The rollout is also phased — only some advertisers have received Google’s notification email so far, which means plenty of accounts are already enrolled with no notice at all. One built-in limit: campaigns that already have promotion assets manually attached are excluded from auto-enrollment, per the same report.
Where Do You Actually Turn This Off?
The control lives at the account level, in Google Ads’ Automated Assets settings — not inside an individual campaign. That’s worth knowing before you go looking for a per-campaign toggle that doesn’t exist. If you or your agency manage Search or Performance Max campaigns with location assets attached, that settings page is where this gets decided, one way or the other.
Should You Panic About This?
No. This is a settings-check story, not a crisis. The feature isn’t malicious, and Google isn’t targeting law firms specifically — it’s a broad ad-performance feature that happens to collide with a regulated industry. The move is simple: go look at your Automated Assets settings, decide deliberately whether to opt in or stay out, and if you do leave it on, check what it’s pulling from your site on a regular basis rather than assuming it’s fine.
Does this apply to Local Services Ads too?
The reporting specifically describes Search and Performance Max campaigns with linked location assets — not Local Services Ads directly. If your firm runs LSAs, it’s still worth confirming with whoever manages your account whether any linked Search or Performance Max campaigns are in scope.
Will an auto-added promotion get my ad rejected, or put my bar license at risk?
There’s no indication this triggers ad rejection on its own. The exposure is advertising-compliance risk if the auto-pulled language runs afoul of your state bar’s rules on fee advertising — not a platform penalty. Check your own state bar’s advertising rules, and talk to your own counsel if you’re unsure where a specific phrase lands. This article is informational commentary, not legal advice.
Can I switch this off for one campaign and leave it on for others?
Based on current reporting, the control is account-level, not per-campaign. If any of your Search or Performance Max campaigns carry linked location assets, the account-wide setting will govern all of them.
What if I’m already running promotion assets on my ads?
Per Search Engine Roundtable, campaigns that already have promotion assets manually attached are excluded from auto-enrollment — so firms that already manage this deliberately are, for now, in the clear on those specific campaigns.
If you’re checking your Google Ads settings anyway, it’s worth checking what’s actually living on your website, too — because that’s the raw material Google’s crawler is reading. SiteScan, a free tool from GrowthAgents, grades five pages of your site, rewrites your weakest page, and shows you a before-and-after score in about two minutes, no card required. It won’t tell you what Google’s ad crawler will do with your copy, but it will tell you what that copy is actually saying — which is the first thing worth knowing either way.
