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Welcome to the Google Ad Manager release notes, your destination for staying informed about our latest platform updates, system enhancements, and new feature rollouts.
These announcements are usually published every other Monday, so we recommend bookmarking this page and checking back bi-weekly to see what's new. For previous releases, you can review the archive.
Manage inventory
Target pricing rules to remnant line items and Header Bidding Trafficking
You can now target pricing rules to specifically apply to remnant line items and/or Header Bidding Trafficking when selecting "Set pricing for specific items."
Default protections behavior for Private Auctions
Private Auctions now respects publisher-level blocks for specific advertisers, brands, and buyers by default. To prevent unintended delivery interruptions, review active Private Auction deals where blocked buyers or brands are permitted to serve, and ensure Override blocks is enabled by navigating to Sales, then Private Auctions, and selecting the relevant Deal ID.
Learn more about override blocks in Private Auctions.
Traffic and deliver ads
Update terms now to continue use of Open Bidding Direct Pay (Beta)
Updated Open Bidding Direct Pay terms are available to (re)accept in the "Advanced features" tab for all Ad Manager 360 partners. Publishers that accept the updated terms in September will see the new terms become effective on October 1. Partners that do not accept the updated terms will see their Open Bidding Direct Pay connections revert to classic Open Bidding on or shortly after October 1.
Learn more about Open Bidding Direct Pay (Beta).
Report and optimize
Standard OpenRTB contextual categories sharing
Beginning October 15, 2026, Ad Manager will populate standard OpenRTB contextual category fields (site.cat, site.pagecat, app.cat, and app.pagecat) in bid requests sent to Authorized Buyers, Open Bidders, and SDK Bidders. Aligning our exchange with these industry-standard fields helps buyers drive more demand. For now, OpenRTB contextual category fields will only be sent in bid requests outside of the EEA, UK, and Switzerland. You can access the "Share contextual category signals" toggle in your Ad Manager network settings by navigating to Admin, then Global settings.
Learn more about using OpenRTB parameters in bid requests.
Legacy Reports tool sunsets
As of September 21, the legacy Reports tool has been sunset. While you can still access the legacy Reports landing page to migrate your reports to Interactive reports, the reports themselves will no longer run in the Reports tool. If a report can’t be migrated (such as those with deprecated metrics or a time range older than three years), you can still view the report definition on the Reports tool landing page to recreate it manually in Interactive reports.
Learn more about the migration to Interactive reports.
Coming soon
Ad podding for mobile app inventory
Ad Manager is launching ad podding, a new optimization designed to increase competition and drive higher revenue for your mobile app inventory. This feature allows multiple ads to be combined and compete collectively for a single ad placement. By default, ad podding will be automatically enabled for all inventory where High Engagement Ads are currently active. Publishers have the flexibility to manage these preferences for specific segments of their inventory at any time by navigating to Inventory, then Inventory rules, then Format settings. Learn more about ad podding.
Upcoming shift to begin-to-render impression counting for web display
Starting in February 2027, Google Ad Manager will transition its web display impression counting methodology to the begin-to-render standard. This change ensures more consistent reporting by counting an impression only when the creative has successfully loaded and starts to render on the user's device. No immediate action is required, but publishers should be aware of potential changes to reported impression volume following the update. To learn more, visit Begin-to-render impression counting for Display ads.