Three unrelated changes landed within about eight weeks of each other this summer, and each one removes a piece of control marketing teams used to have. Google is forcing Search advertisers off manually configured broad match and onto its AI Max system starting September 1. Meta has retired the setting that let people wall off their off-platform activity from ad targeting, folding that data into three products instead of one. And three states rewrote what counts as consent for targeted advertising, effective July 1. None of the three developments references the others, but together they narrow what a marketing team can explain about a campaign's performance.
Google forces Search campaigns onto AI Max, and keyword-level reporting narrows with it
Google stopped letting advertisers create new campaign-level broad match settings or legacy Automatically Created Assets on August 3, 2026 (Google Ads Developer Blog, 2026). Starting September 1, any Search campaign still running on those settings will be automatically upgraded to AI Max, Google's AI-driven search matching and asset system, with search term matching and text customization turned on by default (Google Ads Developer Blog, 2026). Advertisers who do nothing get migrated on Google's terms rather than their own.
A second phase covering Dynamic Search Ads campaigns was originally set for September 2026 but Google pushed it to February 2027, to avoid the migration colliding with Q4 (PPC Land, 2026). Search Engine Land reported the same two-phase structure and dates (Search Engine Land, 2026).
What this changes for a marketing team: AI Max campaigns match search terms and generate ad text more broadly than the settings they replace, narrowing the query-level detail that attribution models and CDPs ingest for paid search unless someone manually configures the migrated campaign afterward. Teams still running campaign-level broad match or ACA should migrate on their own schedule before September 1 rather than accept Google's default configuration, and should re-check what search term data actually reaches their attribution stack once the migration runs. DSA advertisers have until January 2027 to do the same before the second automatic upgrade.
Meta retires the off-platform opt-out and expands what the data feeds
Meta announced on June 9, 2026 that it is retiring "Your activity off Meta technologies," the setting that let a person disconnect activity businesses share with Meta, such as through the Pixel or Conversions API, from their account (Meta, 2026). It is replaced by "Activity from other businesses," a single control that now governs three products instead of one: ad targeting, Feed recommendations and Meta AI responses (Meta, 2026). Meta says no new data is being collected; existing signals are simply being applied to more surfaces. The rollout began in July 2026 in the US, UK, Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, Turkey, South Korea, Ecuador, Nigeria and Kenya (Meta, 2026). Two independent outlets confirmed the same rollout list (Social Media Today, 2026; The Hacker News, 2026).
What this changes for a marketing team: business-shared signals flowing through Pixel and Conversions API integrations now influence organic reach and AI-generated responses, not just paid targeting. The value and the risk of that data pipeline both went up, with no new data collection agreement to review. Teams running CAPI integrations should confirm their consent language still accurately describes what the data is used for, since the underlying control changed shape even though Meta says the inputs did not.
Connecticut, Arkansas and Utah change the baseline for targeted advertising
Three state privacy law updates took effect July 1, 2026. Connecticut cut the threshold for coverage under its privacy law from 100,000 residents to 35,000, and removed any consumer minimum for businesses that process sensitive data or sell personal data, meaning far smaller companies now qualify (Clym, 2026). Connecticut controllers must also now disclose whether personal data is used to train large language models, and its definition of sensitive data was expanded to include additional health, disability, gender-related, biometric and financial categories (ComplianceHub.Wiki, 2026). Arkansas became the first state to extend targeted-advertising consent requirements to teenagers up to age 16, with no consent exception for collecting their data for that purpose (ComplianceHub.Wiki, 2026). Utah added a consumer right to correct inaccurate personal data, with a 45-day response window, alongside new data portability rules under its Digital Choice Act (ComplianceHub.Wiki, 2026). Venable's mid-year roundup confirmed all three dates and the broader 2026 pattern toward tighter sensitive-data and minor protections across states (Venable LLP, 2026).
What this changes for a marketing team: any CDP or consent management setup built around a 100,000-user threshold in Connecticut needs to be re-scoped now, since a much smaller customer base can trigger coverage. Campaigns targeting audiences aged 13 to 16 need age-gating built into ad platform targeting for Arkansas users specifically, not just the under-13 protections most stacks already handle. Teams training models or personalization systems on first-party data from Connecticut residents need an LLM-training disclosure in place, and correction-request handling needs a defined workflow for Utah consumers within the 45-day window.
What to watch next
Google's own migration runs through September 30, 2026, so the first concrete signal will be whether advertisers who did not manually migrate see match-type and query reporting shift in early Q4 results. The next scheduled test of the same trend is Google's February 2027 automatic upgrade of remaining Dynamic Search Ads campaigns, which gives Search advertisers until the end of January 2027 to migrate on their own terms.
Sources
- Google Ads Developer Blog. "Migrate Campaign-level Broad Match and Automatically Created Assets to AI Max." August 2026. https://ads-developers.googleblog.com/2026/08/migrate-campaign-level-broad-match-and.html
- Search Engine Land. "Google sets AI Max migration timeline for Search campaigns." 2026. https://searchengineland.com/google-sets-ai-max-migration-timeline-for-search-campaigns-485006
- PPC Land. "Google delays DSA-to-AI Max automigration to February 2027." 2026. https://ppc.land/google-delays-dsa-to-ai-max-automigration-to-february-2027/
- Meta. "Better Personalization and Changes to Controls for Your Activity From Other Businesses." June 2026. https://about.fb.com/news/2026/06/better-personalization-and-changes-to-controls-for-your-activity-from-other-businesses/
- Social Media Today. "Meta will use off-site activity to customize feed and AI responses." June 2026. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-will-use-off-site-activity-to-customize-feed-and-ai-responses/822442/
- The Hacker News. "Meta to Use Off-Site Business Data for Feed and AI Personalization." June 2026. https://thehackernews.com/2026/06/meta-to-use-off-site-business-data-for.html
- Clym. "Connecticut Cut Its Privacy Law Threshold by 65%." 2026. https://www.clym.io/blog/connecticut-arkansas-utah-privacy-law-changes-2026
- ComplianceHub.Wiki. "July 1, 2026 State Privacy Deadlines: Connecticut's LLM-Training Disclosure, Neural Data, and New Rules in Arkansas and Utah." 2026. https://compliancehub.wiki/state-privacy-laws-july-1-2026-connecticut-arkansas-utah/
- Venable LLP. "2026 Mid-Year State Privacy Law Update: New Consumer Privacy Laws and Key Deadlines." July 2026. https://www.venable.com/insights/publications/2026/07/2026-mid-year-state-privacy-law-update