This week’s news: between October 14 and 18, 2026, Google and Meta changed several things that affect a small business owner’s money. We picked five and gave a date and a source for each. We left out “US only” stories and announcements that change nothing in your account yet. We checked every fact on October 18, 2026 against Google and Meta pages; where the original text is missing, we say so.
1. Google Ads: you can cap spend on partners and Display (October 14)
On October 14, Google announced two new settings on its advertiser blog: channel prioritization and budget allocation. A channel (for a Search campaign: Google Search, search partners and the Google Display Network, a network of partner websites) can be marked “high priority” or “low priority”. Google funds high-priority channels in full first and spends what is left on low-priority ones. For low-priority channels you can also set a share of the daily budget.
What this means in practice. Before, if search partners or Display were switched on in a Search campaign, you could not say “no more than 10% of the money there”. Now you can. The setting works for Search, Shopping and Performance Max, and according to Google’s blog soon for Demand Gen too (other sources say it is already rolling out, so the reports differ).
Caveat. Google itself says money is allocated “on a best-effort basis”, so this is not a hard limit. And the rollout takes “the coming months”: your account may not have the option yet. We have not yet found the names of the interface items in Google’s help, so the quotation marks above are approximate.
What to do: open your campaigns and check whether search partners and Display are on. If you do not remember turning them on, that is a reason to look at the placements report.
2. Google Ads: in February 2027 the Display allocation in Search campaigns changes
From the same Google post: if the Google Display Network is on in a Search campaign, the current way spend is split between channels goes away in February 2027, and your spend may shift. To keep things as they are, Google advises setting Display to “low priority” with a 50% budget share.
Where accounts differ. Google’s post says February 2027. In an episode of Google’s Ads podcast covered by trade media (October 15), a Google representative spoke of “February, March”. We go by the post, but it is better to keep some margin in your calendar.
What to do: in every Search campaign, check whether Display is on. If you did not plan it, now is a good moment to decide: switch it off or keep it on purpose. It is not urgent before February, but after the change you could miss that part of the money went to partner sites.
3. Meta: new Commercial Terms apply from October 30
What is known for certain. At the top of Meta’s Commercial Terms page there is a notice: the updated terms take effect on October 30, 2026. The version currently on the page is dated March 6, 2024 and the new text is not there yet, so we cannot quote it ourselves.
What is known from the press. According to Nieman Lab (October 15) and PPC Land (October 16), the new terms include a clause: Meta may automatically visit websites linked to a business, store their content and train its products on it. Agreement is simply continuing to use Meta’s advertising products. PPC Land adds that there is no partial opt-out and the terms do not mention robots.txt (the file with rules for search robots).
The other side. A Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone, replied on October 16 that the clause is meant to let Meta pull accurate product information from third-party sites for ads and recommendations, not to scrape news sites. The lawyers Nieman Lab quotes advise assuming such terms are enforceable, though court practice is unknown.
What to do: before October 30, find the new version on the terms page and read the clause about access to websites. If you sell through a website and Meta already shows your products, it most likely concerns you. Whether to agree is your decision; we do not make it for you.
4. Merchant Center: a blurry photo no longer blocks a product from showing
Google rewrote its help page about the “Low image quality” warning. The help page in English now says your product will continue to show in ads and free listings. According to Search Engine Roundtable on October 12, 2026, the page used to say the product might be prevented from showing until quality improved. Google gives no date for the change: the page has no change log, so “October 12” is the day it was reported.
This is not permission to use poor photos. The same page says image quality correlates with engagement and clicks, and gives no figure for what that is worth in money. So a blurry photo is not banned, but the buyer will notice it and the click may not happen.
What to do: in Diagnostics in Merchant Center, open the products with this warning. Start with your best sellers and replace their photos with sharper ones.
5. Merchant Center: product photos at least 500×500 pixels from January 31, 2027
This is a reminder of a date Google announced earlier. The help page on product images says the requirements start on January 31, 2027, the minimum size is 500×500 pixels and the recommended size is 1500×1500 or more. An image that does not meet the requirements will not be shown on Google platforms.
Sources differ on when warnings began: the quality help page says “from July 2026”, while the trade site PPC Land wrote in August about April 14, 2026. So do not assume “no warnings yet means no problem”: check yourself. For how to find small photos and what else gets images rejected, see our separate article: from January 31, Google won’t show products with small photos.
What to do: in Diagnostics, look for image size warnings and make a list of products with small photos. There is time until January, but you will not want to replace hundreds of photos in one week.
What we left out and why
There were stories we left out on purpose:
- Meta: “product browsing” in existing ads from October 28. There is a notice Meta sent to advertisers, but in the trade media it appears second-hand: we found no official Meta help page. The “+3% conversions” in the notice is Meta’s own figure from its own experiment. If your Ads Manager shows this notice with an opt-out button, read it yourself.
- Google Ads: the business name in an ad may differ from the domain. Trade media report a policy change in October, but we did not see it on the Google policy page we opened.
- “Changing a target or budget does not start learning”. This is a Google representative’s remark in a podcast, and it conflicts with the help page on the learning period. We still give a campaign time after changes.
Summary
What changed this week: Google lets you cap the share for partners and Display (October 14) and changes the Display scheme in Search from February 2027; Meta works under new terms from October 30; in Merchant Center a blurry photo does not block a product, but photos under 500×500 will stop showing from January 31, 2027.
You can read how we work with product advertising in the Merchant Center and Shopping sections. For other things Google does in your account without your say-so, see our article what Google Ads turns on by itself.
Want a free audit of your Google Ads account? Send us a request — we will look at your account and Merchant Center and tell you which of these changes affects you.