Google Ads may be adding your social videos to Performance Max

Videos you’ve posted to social media could start showing up in your Google Ads without you uploading them. A Performance Max setting called sourced videos lets Google find them and add them to your campaigns. Google says it’s on by default for new campaigns.

The details are on a Google Ads Help page, About sourced videos in Performance Max campaigns. Search Engine Roundtable reported the new on/off setting on 23 October. Google hasn’t published a date for the change.

Google goes looking for your videos

Sourced videos use Google AI and “automated video crawling” to find videos from sources you approve. Google says sources can include:

• social media platforms
• your campaign’s landing page
• your linked YouTube channel.

Google’s system picks videos for their relevance to the campaign and their “performance potential”. It also checks they follow best practices such as aspect ratio. Up to 10 crawled videos can be added to each asset group. They run alongside videos you uploaded yourself and any made with Google’s video generation tools.

The selection isn’t fixed. Google says videos are refreshed regularly to keep ads fresh. If you delete a video from where it was originally posted, such as your YouTube channel, it’s removed from Google Ads automatically.

On by default, and maybe already on

“Sourced videos are enabled by default for all new campaigns,” Google’s help page says. Some existing campaigns may also have been switched on “as part of a recent platform update”. That can happen even if nobody in the account turned it on.

You approve sources from your video portfolio to give Google permission to use your videos. The page doesn’t say which sources, if any, count as approved when the setting is switched on for you.

The feature is rolling out in stages, so it may not be in your account yet. It applies only to Performance Max campaigns with a daily budget above US$5; there’s no Australian-dollar figure.

Your videos, on a YouTube channel you don’t own

Every video has to be on YouTube to run in a campaign. Google says sourced videos are uploaded to “a dedicated Google-owned YouTube channel”. That channel is branded with your logo and business name, and it sends all viewers to your landing page.

So a clip you posted on social media could end up on a YouTube channel carrying your name, owned by Google rather than you. That may suit a busy owner who never gets around to making video ads. It’s less welcome if the clip was made for a different audience or has gone out of date. And check any clip with music or footage you may not have the rights to use in ads.

It comes alongside another Performance Max default. Google will also switch on image extraction by default for new Performance Max campaigns from 4 December, using pictures from your landing pages. Our earlier story on Google moving Search campaigns to AI Max covers another automation change this year.

Where to find the switch

The setting is per campaign, so check each Performance Max campaign. Google’s steps are:

1. Open Campaigns in the Campaigns menu.
2. Select the gear icon next to a Performance Max campaign to edit its settings, or the plus button to create a new one.
3. In the Asset group section, open the Asset optimization drop-down.
4. Tick or untick the box next to Sourced videos.
5. Select Manage sources to review and approve the web addresses Google can use to find videos.
6. Select Apply, then save the campaign.

To see which sourced videos are already running, open Assets in the Campaigns menu and go to the campaign. They appear in the asset list with their performance, like any other asset.

Checklist

• Open every Performance Max campaign’s settings. In Google Ads, go to Campaigns, select the gear icon next to the campaign, then open Asset optimization in the Asset group section.
• Decide whether Sourced videos stays ticked. Google turns it on by default for new campaigns and may have switched it on for some existing ones.
• Review the list under Manage sources. Remove any social account, landing page or YouTube channel whose videos you don’t want in your ads.
• Check the asset list for videos you didn’t upload. Go to Assets in the Campaigns menu and open each Performance Max campaign.
• Delete clips you don’t want in ads at their source. Google says deleting a video from its original platform, such as your YouTube channel, also removes it from Google Ads.
• Ask your agency what it has set. If someone else runs your campaigns, ask whether sourced videos is on, and which sources are approved.