Two changes landed on August 12 that both arrive the same way, as a setting that flips rather than a product anyone launched. The first is a Google Ads bidding update that starts rolling out this Monday and will change what budget capped campaigns actually deliver. The second is Twitch switching on generative AI training for every channel by default, with the off switch buried a couple of clicks away.
Neither came with an announcement post. The Google Ads bidding news arrived as a clarification on a podcast, and the Twitch news as a support page and a single message from a support account. That is increasingly how the changes that actually touch your business show up.
The Google Ads Bidding Change Starts Monday, August 17
If a campaign is marked Limited by budget and uses Target CPA or Target ROAS, it will begin performing closer to the target you typed in rather than the better number it had been returning. Google frames it as separating the two controls: your budget governs spend, and your target governs efficiency.
In Google’s own words, campaigns limited by budget that use a target based bid strategy “will more consistently perform toward your bid target, including when you make budget adjustments.” The practical effect catches people off guard. A campaign that has been quietly beating its target has been giving you a bonus, and the Google Ads bidding system is about to stop treating that bonus as the goal. The number in the field becomes the instruction.
Scope matters here. Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen, Display, Hotel and Travel campaigns are covered, though Google says Display and Hotel already behaved this way. App campaigns, Video reach campaigns and Video view campaigns are excluded and keep their current behavior. The rollout starts August 17 and continues over several weeks, so this is not a single overnight switch.
The Detail Google’s Documentation Does Not Mention
Here is the part that surfaced on August 12 and is worth acting on. Google’s published help page describes the Google Ads bidding change at campaign level and says nothing about ad groups. On a Marketing O’Clock episode released that day, Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads product liaison, confirmed that targets set at ad group level are in scope as well, telling host Greg Finn that Google wants advertisers to set targets that actually mean something.
Marvin also narrowed the blast radius. The update only reaches campaigns that carry a target, are limited by budget, and are currently overachieving that target. If a campaign is not budget constrained, its Google Ads bidding behavior already worked this way and nothing changes for it on Monday.
That combination is why a quick review of your Google Ads bidding setup beats waiting. A small advertiser who set a Target CPA a year ago, capped the budget, and left it alone is exactly the profile this lands on. The target was never revisited because the results were fine.
What To Check Before Monday
Open your Google Ads bidding settings, filter campaigns for the Limited by budget status, then compare each target against what the campaign has actually been returning over the last month or two. Where the real result is meaningfully better than the target, the target is stale and should be brought closer to reality before the Google Ads bidding update reaches your account. Google has put a Bid Target Adjustment Tool in the interface that will propose updated targets from recent performance, reachable from the notification banner or campaign settings.
Do not judge the outcome in the first few days. Advertising practitioners covering the update, including the team at Optmyzr, suggest waiting one to two full conversion cycles before reading anything into the new numbers, then setting a standing review of your Google Ads bidding targets rather than treating this as a one time reset. Also check your ad group targets, since those are the ones the documentation never told you about.
Twitch Turned On AI Training For Every Channel
Twitch has added a setting that lets streamers stop Amazon from using their channel content to train generative AI models. It is on by default. Every channel is in the training pool unless the owner goes and turns it off.
Switching it off covers streams and their on demand recordings, clips, highlights, chat, and other text and images on the channel, for models that generate text, audio, images or video. It does not remove your content from every automated system at Twitch. Captions, recommendations, growth and monetization tools, and safety systems such as AutoMod keep working on your content regardless.
The toggle is labeled Training for Generative AI and sits in account settings under Security and Privacy, not in the creator dashboard where most people manage their channel. The placement is a large part of why the reaction was loud. Within hours, a comment on Twitch’s own support forum asking the company to make the setting opt in rather than opt out had gathered close to fourteen thousand upvotes.
This one is narrow but concrete. If your business streams, and plenty do, including game shops, musicians, makers, trainers and coaches, your voice, your likeness and your recorded sessions are covered by that default. Five minutes in settings settles it either way. The wider point applies well beyond Twitch: platforms are shipping AI training permissions as defaults, and the decision is yours only if you go looking for it.
The Pattern Worth Noticing This Week
Both stories are the same shape. Nobody has to opt in, nobody gets an email that demands a decision, and the change takes effect whether or not you noticed. The Google Ads bidding update rewrites what your capped campaigns spend against a number you may have set long ago. The Twitch setting decides what happens to work you already published.
The habit that protects you is unglamorous. Once a month, open the settings screens of the platforms your business actually depends on and read what has changed. That is a short job for a Google Ads bidding target or a privacy toggle, and it is the only reliable way to catch these. Defaults are where the real decisions are being made now.
Google Ads Bidding and Twitch AI Training: Frequently Asked Questions
What is changing in Google Ads bidding on August 17, 2026?
Campaigns marked Limited by budget that use a target based strategy will be steered toward the target you entered rather than the better number the system had been quietly delivering. Google Ads bidding treats your budget as the spend control and your target as the efficiency control, and the two now behave as separate levers.
Does the change affect campaigns that are not limited by budget?
No. Google’s product liaison confirmed the update only touches campaigns carrying a target that are limited by budget and are beating that target. Campaigns without a budget constraint already behave this way, so nothing about their Google Ads bidding behavior is expected to shift on Monday.
Are ad group level targets included in the August 17 rollout?
Yes. Google’s published help documentation describes the Google Ads bidding change at campaign level and does not mention ad groups, but the company’s Ads product liaison confirmed on August 12 that ad group targets are in scope too. If you set targets below campaign level, review those numbers as well.
Which campaign types are excluded from the update?
App campaigns, Video reach campaigns and Video view campaigns keep their previous behavior. Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen, Display, Hotel and Travel campaigns are in scope, although Google notes Display and Hotel campaigns already worked this way and need no action.
How do I stop Twitch from using my channel to train Amazon’s AI?
Open your Twitch account settings, go to the Security and Privacy tab, and switch off the setting labeled Training for Generative AI. It lives in account settings rather than the creator dashboard. Twitch says the toggle is off going forward, and it does not cover every machine learning feature.
Stay Ahead of Platform Changes
Getting the targets right is only useful when the measurement underneath them is sound, which is why setting up conversion tracking properly matters more this week than usual, and why quality score and negative keywords still decide how far a capped budget travels. If you are not sure whether your account is about to be affected and you would rather not find out on Monday morning, our SEO and analytics team can look at it with you, or you can get in touch and tell us what you are seeing. For a short read on what changed each day, subscribe to the Demur Design newsletter in the footer below.
This recap is researched and drafted with AI, then reviewed, fact-checked, and published by Demur Design.
Sources
- Google Ads Help, Changes to target based bid strategies
- Google Ads Help, Frequently asked questions about changes to target based bid strategies
- PPC Land, Google puts ad group targets in scope for the August 17 bidding change
- Optmyzr, Google’s August 17 bidding change and what advertisers need to do now
- Engadget, Twitch streamers can now refuse to let Amazon train its genAI models on their content
- AppleInsider, Twitch will train Amazon’s AI on your streams unless you opt out
