Performance Max will pull images from your site from 4 December, even if you turned it off

What changes exactly

Image extraction is the feature where Google AI scans the landing pages you have given it, looks for high-resolution images and uses them as creative assets across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps.

Until now, a Performance Max campaign that said nothing on the matter inherited the account setting. If you had dynamic images off, new campaigns started off.

From 4 December 2026 that ends. Google's own announcement puts it plainly: the new campaign-level default applies even if dynamic image extensions are disabled at account level. It covers all three places campaigns get created: the Google Ads interface, the Editor and the API.

Who it actually hits

Nobody who already has campaigns running and is not going to create any more. Google confirms existing campaigns keep their configuration.

It hits two profiles, and hits them hard. First, anyone who had the account setting off and assumed that covered everything built afterwards: from December, every new campaign arrives switched on. Second, anyone creating campaigns through the API or from Editor templates, because there the change passes with nobody seeing it on screen.

And a third, less obvious one: agencies and teams replicating a campaign structure across client accounts. If your template does not declare the opt-out, you propagate it switched on to every new client.

Why this is not a technical detail

Because it changes who decides which image represents your brand.

With extraction on, an ad can carry an image nobody on your team chose or reviewed: a header photo, a stray image from an article, a shot of a discontinued product. It is an image from your site, yes, but the context it sat in came from the page, and in an ad that context does not exist.

For an ecommerce site with a well-kept image library it is usually harmless or even useful. For a site with stock photos, screenshots or old material never cleaned up, it is not. And some sectors have a real problem: if your site shows prices inside images, expired offers, or photos of people without consent for advertising use, those images can end up in an ad.

This is not a performance change. It is a control change, and control is lost quietly. Meta is moving the same way with Advantage+ enhancements, which its commercial terms from 20 November leave as the advertiser's responsibility.

How to check where you stand today

In the Google Ads interface the account setting sits where nobody finds it first time:

• Campaigns → Assets.
• Three-dot menu → Account-level automated assets.
• Three-dot menu again → Advanced settings.
• Check whether Dynamic images is On or Off.

That setting still exists and still governs campaigns that say nothing. What changes is that new campaigns, from December, will say something: they will say yes.

If you work with the API, this query tells you where each campaign stands:

SELECT
  campaign.id,
  campaign.name,
  campaign.asset_automation_settings
FROM campaign
WHERE campaign.advertising_channel_type = 'PERFORMANCE_MAX'

If a campaign has no entry for GENERATE_IMAGE_EXTRACTION, it is inheriting the account setting. Those are the ones worth reviewing.

How to opt out, if you decide to

There is no global button. It has to be declared on each new campaign. Through the API, at creation:

{
  "name": "My Performance Max Campaign",
  "advertisingChannelType": "PERFORMANCE_MAX",
  "status": "PAUSED",
  "assetAutomationSettings": [
    {
      "assetAutomationType": "GENERATE_IMAGE_EXTRACTION",
      "assetAutomationStatus": "OPTED_OUT"
    }
  ]
}

And here is the trap worth not walking into. The asset_automation_settings field is a list, and when you update a campaign the new list replaces the previous one entirely rather than merging with it. Send only the image opt-out and you wipe every other automation the campaign had, for example TEXT_ASSET_AUTOMATION.

The right way is to read the campaign's current configuration first, add the new entry to that list and send it complete. It is the classic failure that throws no error and surfaces weeks later, when somebody notices automated headlines stopped being generated.

What we would do before 4 December

This does not call for panic, but it does call for deciding on purpose instead of letting the default decide.

• Check how the account setting stands and write it down. If it is off, somebody turned it off for a reason.
• Decide by account type, not in the abstract. Ecommerce with a curated catalogue: probably leave it on. Services, health, legal or a site with old imagery: turn it off and upload your own creative.
• Review your campaign creation templates, in Editor and in the API, and add the explicit opt-out if that is your call. That is where the change slips through unseen.
• If you opt out through the API, read the current configuration first and resend it complete. Do not send only the new entry.
• Go through the images on your landing pages. Even if you leave extraction on, whatever sits there is what can end up in an ad.

That last point is the one most often skipped and the only one that serves both decisions. If you run Performance Max campaigns and want somebody to go through this with you, we cover it in campaign management.

Frequently asked questions