Google released version 25.2 of its Ads API on September 23, 2026, adding a way to generate a Performance Max draft from an existing Smart campaign. The resulting campaign begins paused and incomplete, according to the release notes. Developers must complete and activate the new campaign before it can serve advertisements.
The method also has a validation-only mode. In that mode the response identifies validation warnings or conversion issues without creating a campaign. A normal response includes resource names for the generated campaign, budget, asset group and assets, as well as validation information. Two request options have an explicit limit: enabling either gbp_enabled or image_enabled is not yet supported and returns a corresponding error. The release describes a bounded draft-generation operation, rather than an unconditional migration of every Smart campaign configuration.
Google also extends URL controls to individual asset groups. Developers can specify a tracking template, custom parameter mappings and a final URL suffix at that level. The suffix supplies parameters for landing-page URLs using parallel tracking, while the parameter mappings can substitute values in the relevant templates or destination fields.
Performance Max also gains settings for automated video crawling. Each entry can carry a crawl URL, identify whether its source is a landing page, social platform or YouTube, and record whether that entry is opted in. This provides a separate configuration surface from the method that generates campaign drafts, even though both appear in the same release.
The benchmarking changes have their own conditions. Google adds percentile tiers describing a customer's position among other advertisers. A request receives those values only when it asks for percentile data, selects the all-advertisers benchmark source and specifies a category filter. The additional output is not included merely because a caller uses the benchmarking service.
Date coverage also varies by metric. The update permits percentile information for quarters still in progress, alongside customer aggregates and customer rate measures. Customer share measures and rate measures for the comparison group are unavailable for those open quarters. Google identifies a narrower supported date range for the full set of metrics and adds a specific error for input combinations that yield no metrics. An incomplete response in an open quarter therefore has a documented scope limit.
Other additions include creator-insight searches using YouTube handles beginning with the @ character, and exposed Firebase conversion-action types for Android and iOS app advertising impressions. An in-app advertising revenue category accompanies those conversion types. Google classifies v25.2 as a minor version containing no breaking changes.