Google writes your ads for you, and you approved nothing
A setting that is on by default allows the platform to compose headlines and descriptions from the content of your landing page. The text being served is then not the one you wrote, and nobody in your organization read it before it was published.
The intent is good and the mechanism often works well. The platform takes a sentence from your page, rewrites it to headline format, and shows it when it judges it answers the query better. On an offer that is simple to describe, the gain is real.
In a regulated sector, it is another exercise. A business whose page mentions a standard, a certification, a warranty or a delivery time sees those elements become advertising claims taken out of context. A sentence that is accurate on a page can become an inaccurate headline once shortened to thirty characters.
What follows makes it worse. These texts change, they are not obviously archived, and a business challenged on an advertising claim has no reference version to produce. Legal then discovers it approved the ads but not what was actually served.
Where the setting lives and what to do with it
It sits at campaign level, in the settings, under wording about automatic creation of ad content. It appears in no performance report, which explains how it survives years without being seen.
The decision is made by product line rather than for the whole account. On a commoditized offer, leave it on and measure. On anything touching a standard, a certification, a price or a delivery promise, turn it off and write the variants the platform would have produced yourself.
A dedicated report shows the texts that were generated and how they performed. Consulting it once a quarter is enough to know which side you are on.
The two-minute check
- Open the settings of a search campaign and note whether automatic creation of ad content is active.
- Open the assets report and read the generated texts, line by line, as if a client were quoting them back to you.
If a single one of those headlines claims something you would not put in a signed quote, the setting has to be off for that line.
Reviewing those texts with the people who carry responsibility for claims is part of what we cover in a paid audit.
The same principle applies to elements pulled automatically under your ads, sitelinks and callouts included. They also come from your site, and they answer to the same requirements as the rest of your advertising.
The framework for choosing and concentrating budgets is set out in how to choose an advertising platform.
Account structure and the order of settings are detailed in Google Ads, structure, exclude, measure, and continuity between ad and page in the arrival page of a campaign.
- Google Ads, documentation on automatically created assets and the associated report, help centre, accessed February 2027.
Gabriel almost always takes your first call and carries out your audit. He builds the strategy starting from your growth goal: where to put your budget, which market to test and how to connect each lead to a real sale in your CRM. He mainly leads engagements for three goals: Optimize the profitability of your digital campaigns, Develop a new market, and Generate demand and growth. With Geneviève, he also works on organic search (SEO), AI visibility (GEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO). The sales a Google Ads or Meta Ads campaign brings in depend on the page that receives the click. He writes mainly about marketing strategy, paid advertising and measurement.
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