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PMax image extraction goes on by default Dec 4
New Performance Max campaigns will have image extraction on from Dec 4, even in accounts with Dynamic Image Extensions turned off. Existing campaigns keep their settings.
Jerry Quin2 min read1 source
Illustration: The Keywordless.
The short answer
What changed
Image extraction is the Performance Max setting where "Google AI scans provided landing pages for high-resolution images to enrich creative assets and expand reach across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps." Starting December 4, 2026, it will be on by default for newly created Performance Max campaigns, even if Dynamic Image Extensions are turned off at the account level.
Who has it
Anyone creating new Performance Max campaigns from Dec 4, in the Google Ads UI, Google Ads Editor or the Google Ads API. Existing Performance Max campaigns keep their current settings.
What I'd do this week
Advice, not from Google: find the accounts where Dynamic images is off at the account level, because those are the ones this changes. Then plan to opt out each new campaign that shouldn't use landing page images. Details below.
What's different from today
Until now, a Performance Max campaign without its own image extraction setting inherited the account-level Dynamic Image Extensions setting. Turning that off for the account covered new campaigns too.
From Dec 4, that stops working for new campaigns. They start with image extraction on, whatever the account setting says. The post says this applies "across Google Ads interfaces," naming the Google Ads API, the Google Ads UI and Google Ads Editor.
Turning it off
The setting lives on each campaign. The post spells out the API route: set GENERATE_IMAGE_EXTRACTION to OPTED_OUT in the campaign's asset automation settings when you create it. It does not describe where the campaign-level switch sits in the Google Ads UI.
One trap for anyone editing campaigns through the API: asset automation settings are a list, and an update "replaces the entire array rather than merging with existing values." Include the other settings you want to keep, such as text asset automation, or they get cleared.
Checking where you stand
A Performance Max campaign with no image extraction entry of its own is relying on the account setting today. To see the account setting in the Google Ads UI, the post gives this path: Campaigns, then Assets, then the More menu, then Account-level automated assets, then the three-dot menu, then Advanced settings, where Dynamic images shows On or Off.
Google also reminds advertisers to confirm they own the rights to the images on their landing pages and allow Google to use them for commercial and advertising purposes.
What I'd do with it
This is my advice, not Google's.
Make a list of accounts where Dynamic images is off at the account level. Someone turned it off for a reason, usually brand or image rights, and from Dec 4 that choice no longer carries over to new Performance Max campaigns.
Add an image extraction check to your Performance Max build checklist, so every new campaign after Dec 4 gets a deliberate on or off.
If you build campaigns with scripts, tools or templates that use the API, add the opt-out to the create request before Dec 4 for any account that wants images off. When you update existing campaigns, send the full list of asset automation settings, not only the one you are changing.
Look at what's on your landing pages. If a page carries images you only licensed for the site, or old product shots, those are what extraction can pick up.
Jerry Quin
Jerry Quin is the pen name of a paid media practitioner who has managed Google Ads accounts at an agency for 10 years. He writes about Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, ChatGPT Ads, and the rest of paid media and digital marketing, from what's rolling out to what he'd actually do about it.