If you run Performance Max campaigns for a small business, your own account may now contain a setting you never chose. Google Ads has a “Sourced videos” option that lets Google find videos from places you approve and add them to your campaigns. This guide is for small advertisers, freelancers and agency owners who want to know what the setting does, where to find it, and whether to leave it on.
Contents
What sourced videos are
According to Google’s help page, sourced videos use Google AI and automated video crawling to find relevant videos from sources you approve and add them to your Performance Max campaigns. The stated aim is to save you from choosing, formatting and uploading videos yourself, and to help your campaign use more video inventory.
The help page lists three kinds of source Google can pull from:
- Social media platforms
- Your campaign’s landing page
- Your linked YouTube channel
Google says it picks videos based on relevance to the campaign, performance potential and best-practice adherence, such as aspect ratio. Videos are refreshed on a recurring basis, and a video removed from its original host (your YouTube channel, for example) is automatically removed from Google Ads.
Enjoying this? Get our best tips by email
Practical SEO, link building and content strategies, straight to your inbox.
Two details matter for brand control. First, videos have to live on YouTube to serve, so the help page says sourced videos are uploaded to a dedicated Google-owned YouTube channel that carries your logo and business name and directs viewers to your landing page. Second, the page says up to 10 crawled videos can be added automatically to an asset group, and they can run alongside videos you uploaded and videos made with Google’s video generation tools.
What is default and what is only reported
Google’s page states that the feature is “enabled by default for all new campaigns” and that it may have been turned on automatically for some existing campaigns as part of a recent platform update. The word “may” is important: Google does not say which accounts were affected, so check rather than assume.
The timing comes from industry coverage. Search Engine Roundtable reported the toggle on October 23, 2026, and PPC Land, citing PPC News Feed, said the help page change was spotted a couple of days earlier. PPC Land also notes that Google has not announced a rollout date and that the feature is rolling out in stages. Treat those dates as reported by those sites, not confirmed by Google. Google’s own page adds that the feature “is rolling out in sequences and may not be available to you yet,” and that Performance Max campaigns need a daily budget above $5 USD.
Where the toggle lives
It is a campaign-level setting, so you check it campaign by campaign. Based on the steps on Google’s help page:
- In Google Ads, open Campaigns from the Campaigns menu.
- Click the gear icon next to your Performance Max campaign to edit it (or use the plus button when creating a new one).
- In the Asset group section, find the video option.
- Open the Asset optimization dropdown.
- Check or uncheck Sourced videos.
- Click Manage sources to review and approve the URLs Google may use.
- Click Apply, then save your changes.
Menu labels in Google Ads change often and the feature is staged, so your screen may differ. If you cannot see the option, it may not have reached your account yet.
How to review what was added
Be realistic about what Google documents here. The help page does not describe a way to approve or reject individual crawled videos before they serve, or to remove a single video. What it does describe is control at two levels:
- Sources: use Manage sources to see and edit which URLs Google can use. You can return to campaign settings at any time to change them.
- The whole feature: uncheck Sourced videos under Asset optimization.
To see results, go to Assets in the Campaigns menu and open your Performance Max campaign. Google says sourced videos appear in the asset list and can be evaluated like any other asset. A sensible routine is to open that list, play each video that is shown, and compare its performance with the videos you supplied. If you find a clip you would not want attached to your brand, the documented fix is to tighten your approved sources or turn the feature off, so it is worth knowing that before you leave it running unattended.
Keep it on or turn it off?
There is no universal answer. The trade-off is reach against control.
| Situation | Leaning | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You have no video at all and little time to make any | Consider keeping it on, with tight sources | Gives the campaign video inventory it might otherwise lack |
| Strict brand guidelines, regulated claims or legal sign-off on creative | Turn it off | Individual videos cannot be approved before serving, per Google’s page |
| Social channels contain user-made or off-topic clips | Narrow the sources or turn it off | Google can crawl social platforms you approve |
| You already upload videos in every orientation | Test carefully | Sourced videos would compete with assets you control |
If you do want to test it, change one campaign rather than all of them, note the date, and review the Assets list after a few weeks. Performance Max already gives you limited visibility, so keep the experiment simple enough to read. For related reading on automation settings that were added to existing accounts, see our guide to Google Ads automated promotions, and our overview of the Google AI Max updates.
The better option: upload your own videos
Google’s own video guidance points the same way. Its best-practices page advises uploading at least one video yourself even though Google can generate videos automatically, and recommends at least three videos in each orientation, including vertical and square, each between 10 and 60 seconds long. Its video asset page lists 1 video per orientation as the minimum, up to 15 per orientation, and says a vertical video of 10 to 60 seconds is needed to be eligible for Shorts.
Google also warns about auto-generated videos: they may show a product that differs from the one on your landing page. Own footage avoids that problem. You do not need a studio. A short product demo, a customer-facing explainer or a clip of the service in use, trimmed to the three shapes (16:9, 1:1 and 9:16), is enough to start. Keep file names and YouTube titles accurate, because the video must be on YouTube to run.
Common mistakes
- Assuming the setting is off because you never touched it. Google says it may have been enabled on existing campaigns.
- Approving broad sources, such as a whole social account, without checking what is posted there.
- Turning it off in one campaign and forgetting the others, since it is a campaign-level setting.
- Judging results after a few days. Sourced videos refresh over time, so compare over a longer window and keep other changes minimal. If you are also adjusting bids, read our note on the Smart Bidding learning period first.
Key takeaways
- Sourced videos let Google crawl approved sources and add up to 10 videos per asset group, according to Google’s help page.
- Google says it is on by default for new campaigns and may have been switched on in some existing ones. Exact dates come from industry sites only.
- Find it under Asset optimization in the Asset group section of each Performance Max campaign.
- Google documents control over sources and the feature as a whole, not over single videos.
- Uploading your own videos in all three orientations gives you the most control.
FAQ
Is Sourced videos on in my account?
Check each Performance Max campaign under Asset optimization. Google says it may have been enabled automatically on some existing campaigns, and also that the feature is rolling out in stages, so you may not see it yet.
Can I approve each video before it runs?
Google’s help page does not describe that. It documents approving source URLs through Manage sources and turning the whole feature off.
Where can I see how sourced videos perform?
In the Assets view for your Performance Max campaign, where sourced videos are listed and can be evaluated like other assets, per Google.
Does turning it off hurt my campaign?
Google has not said. Its help page does not publish any performance comparison, so measure your own results instead of relying on claims either way.
Sources
- About sourced videos in Performance Max campaigns – Google Ads Help
- About video assets for Performance Max campaigns – Google Ads Help
- Best practices for video assets in Performance Max campaigns – Google Ads Help
- Google Ads Asset Optimization Sourced Videos On/Off Toggle – Search Engine Roundtable (industry news, secondary)
- Google can add up to 10 crawled videos to PMax asset groups by default – PPC Land (industry news, secondary)
