Google Ads changes: IP matching skips the EU and YouTube alcohol ads skip Poland

Two features Google added to its ad platform in September do not work for people in the European Union. Customer lists matched by IP address skip 32 European countries, and YouTube’s new alcohol ad rules leave out Poland. At the same time, Google Ads changes and a Microsoft rule from 1 October take three manual settings away from advertisers. We checked six September changes from our archive against the help pages of Google, Microsoft and Meta.

Google drops IP matching for users in 32 European countries

Customer Match lets a company upload a file of people it already knows, such as email addresses, and show them ads. Since late September the upload file can also hold two new columns: the visitor’s IP address and the time of the visit. Both are sent unhashed, and a time cannot be sent without an IP address.

Google’s help page adds a limit. IP matching does not work for users in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland. That covers the 27 EU states plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the UK and Switzerland. A European retailer that adds IP addresses to its lists gains nothing for its home market. The same page names the time column in two ways, “User Engagement timestamp” and “User Interaction timestamp”, so teams should check the template before uploading. We covered the first reports when Google began taking raw IP addresses.

YouTube opens alcohol ads to personal targeting on 30 October

From 30 October, brands can show personalised alcohol ads on YouTube where local law allows it. Google’s policy page lists four countries where the update will not apply yet: Egypt, India, Indonesia and Poland. Poland is the only EU member on that list.

Two limits stay in place everywhere. Advertisers still cannot target people by health interests linked to alcohol. Ads are still not personalised for minors. In other EU states, national alcohol rules decide whether the new targeting can run at all.

Google, Microsoft and Meta changed three rules in September

Google started removing the language setting from Search campaigns in September. Google now looks at the language of the ad and the landing page. It also checks the language of the search, says the help page. For searches with no clear language, such as a brand name, it uses the language the person prefers. In Performance Max, the campaign type where Google picks placements and formats, only Search placements change. The language setting still applies on YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail. Shopping ads are not affected, and Google says no action is required.

Microsoft removed the maximum cost per click, known as Max CPC, from new automated bidding campaigns on 1 October 2026. The rule covers new campaigns that use Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value or Maximize Clicks on their own. Campaigns created before that date keep their cap, and so do portfolio bid strategies shared by several campaigns. Microsoft’s August announcement suggests managing costs through budgets, targets, conversion value rules and seasonality adjustments. We reported the plan when Microsoft dropped Max CPC.

Meta tightened checks in one EU market rather than removing a setting. On 28 August it said every advertiser of financial services that targets Poland must verify its identity. Before, Meta asked for this only in some cases, such as suspicious account activity. Its Polish newsroom post gives no exact date, only “the coming weeks”. Globally, Meta wants 90% of its ad revenue to come from verified advertisers by the end of 2026. In 2025 the share was 70%.

Google moves Dynamic Search Ads to AI Max by February 2027

Dynamic Search Ads build a headline from the content of a company’s website. Google is replacing them with AI Max, a set of features that matches search terms, writes ad text and picks the landing page. The switch comes in two waves.

The first wave ran in September. It covered campaigns that used automatically created assets and campaign-level broad match, and Google expected it to finish by the end of the month. The second wave covers the remaining Dynamic Search Ads campaigns. The Dynamic Search Ads help page now says they will be upgraded automatically starting in February 2027. That date was September 2026 until Google pushed it back in June. Upgrade tools have been available since April, and Google suggests testing them in an experiment first. Our earlier report explains how the migration to AI Max works.

Microsoft added the Romanian leu to its currency list in September

Not every September change took control away. Microsoft’s developer release notes show that the Romanian leu joined its list of currency codes in September. The same notes warn that multi-factor authentication checks for API users start in early October 2026. Microsoft’s August announcement also set 8 September for age and gender targeting in Performance Max to reach all advertisers.

For European teams, the September changes split into two groups. Language, Max CPC and Dynamic Search Ads apply in every EU market. IP matching and personalised alcohol ads stop at the borders of the EEA or of Poland. “In October we start with an account review: ad and landing page language, dynamic campaigns and customer lists,” says Grzegorz Kubicki, CEO and founder of iMarketing. “Google and Microsoft automation takes over more settings, so control moves to the ad copy and the data we feed it.”

The next fixed date is 30 October, when personalised alcohol ads open on YouTube outside Poland. After that comes February 2027, when every remaining Dynamic Search Ads campaign moves to AI Max.