Google today sent publishers a mandatory service announcement confirming the final deactivation schedule for the Ad Manager legacy Reports tool, leaving just over two and a half months before the platform removes it entirely. The email, dispatched from [email protected] on February 17, 2026, marks the formal beginning of what Google describes as "the end of the migration period."

The shift was not a surprise. PPC Land reported in May 2025 that Google had announced plans to retire the legacy Reports tool and replace it with Interactive reports across all Ad Manager accounts before the end of 2026. What today's communication adds is the specificity of three hard dates - and the urgency that accompanies them.

Three dates that define the transition

The migration checklist distributed today sets out a sequence that grows progressively more disruptive with each milestone.

The first arrives on March 2, 2026. According to the announcement, clicking "New Report" in the legacy tool will, from that date, default directly to the Interactive reports interface. The Reports tool can no longer be used to create new reports after that point. Publishers who have not yet tested Interactive reports as their primary creation environment have less than two weeks from today to do so before the option is removed.

April 6, 2026 marks the second and arguably more operationally painful cutoff. On that date, all reports scheduled inside the legacy tool will be set to "Unscheduled" and will stop running. According to the official Help Center documentation attached to the announcement, publishers "will be able to temporarily reschedule reports in the Reports tool" for a brief period - but the message's underlying intent is clear: any publisher relying on scheduled legacy reports for daily or weekly data delivery faces a gap if migration is not completed before April 6. The announcement describes this as a potential "lapse in data delivery."

The third and terminal date is May 4, 2026. According to the Help Center document, on that date the Reports tool is turned off completely. All functions - creating, editing, scheduling, sharing, exporting, and copying reports - will become unavailable through the web interface. The announcement states plainly: "Complete your migration before this date."

What Interactive reports actually offers

The replacement system has been available to all Ad Manager publishers since at least mid-2025, and Google has spent much of the past year expanding its capabilities based on publisher feedback. The feature set that Interactive reports brings to the table is substantially different from the legacy tool's architecture.

Publishers can create and view reports on a single page within Ad Manager, modifying selections and reviewing updated results without navigating between screens. Metrics and dimensions are selectable through a search bar or a dedicated "View all" window. An AI-assisted report generation feature is also present - publishers can prompt the system to suggest appropriate measurements and generate a report automatically, a capability that Google highlighted in November 2025when it introduced generative AI tools across Ad Manager, AdSense, and AdMob.

Additional capabilities include comparisons with percentage change, pivot tables, hierarchical or flat data formats, filtering and sorting, charts, and the ability to scroll through an entire report's results within Ad Manager - without needing to export data first. Flags allow publishers to set metric thresholds and receive alerts when conditions are met, enabling more proactive performance monitoring.

The Help Center document confirms that as of the current period, Interactive reports "includes all legacy report types, dimensions, and metrics being migrated." Deprecated metrics and dimensions from the old tool will not be carried over. That is a meaningful distinction for publishers who have historically relied on fields that Google has since removed from active support.

The cumulative scope of feature additions

The volume of fields and dimensions added to Interactive reports throughout the migration period is considerable. A review of the update history appended to the Help Center documentation illustrates how rapidly the system has grown since the migration was announced.

In Q1 2026, Google added the ability to generate Interactive reports directly from orders and line items by clicking a "Run report" button within Ad Manager. In December 2025, the platform received 17 audience segment fields - including device size breakdowns and user list cost - along with 19 partner management and finance fields, 5 video delivery fields covering continuous play, stitcher, and request duration, 19 Active View metrics covering total, AdSense, and Ad Exchange viewability, and 5 total GRR revenue metrics. Mediation type dimensions, mediation chains filled metrics, user choice dimensions, custom event dimensions, header bidder integration type, creative vendor fields, content source name, revenue verification ID, carrier ID, and ad speed metrics were also among the December additions.

November 2025 brought Future sell-through, Reach, and Privacy & messaging report types to Interactive reports. October 2025 introduced Exchange bidding deal dimensions, inventory share dimensions and metrics, creative policies filtering, app tracking status, mobile app SDK version attributes, rich media metrics including interaction rate, average display time, total expansions, and manual closes, and rich media custom event tracking.

September 2025 additions included rich media video metrics such as mutes, pauses, and interactions; publisher provided signals dimensions; browser category; total page views; and additional line item attributes such as salesperson and trafficker.

Going back further, August 2025 saw the launch of a two-part video series alongside additions of serving restriction dimensions, predicted viewability bucket, bidder and bidder encrypted ID, brand (classified), content and content ID, native style, native ad format, secure signal delivery and presence dimensions, and ad server total revenue and CPM/CPC metrics.

July 2025 added Ad speed, Real-time Video, and YouTube Consolidated report types, most analytics dimensions through the Historical report type, report migration tools, and Excel file attachments for scheduled reports. June 2025 introduced geographical dimensions including city, metro, region, postal code, continent, and country code, along with extensive Ad Exchange metrics. May 2025 added app SDK version, auction package deal, child network dimensions, and invoiced impression metrics.

The development pace across these months reflects a systematic effort to achieve parity - though publishers with highly customized legacy report configurations should independently verify that the specific dimensions and metrics they depend on have been included.

Technical continuity via SOAP API

One element of the transition that matters significantly for larger or more technically integrated publishers is the SOAP API. According to both the email announcement and the Help Center document, read, run, and export functionality through the SOAP API will remain available even after May 4, 2026, when the web interface shuts down. This accommodation means publishers with automated systems or third-party tools built on the SOAP API are not immediately forced to rebuild integrations - but the provision covers only read, run, and export. Write capabilities will not continue.

A new API for Interactive reports is also available, though the documentation notes it remains in beta testing. Publishers building new integrations would be working with an interface that is not yet considered stable. The distinction between the preserved SOAP API functionality and the beta-status new API represents a real planning consideration for ad operations and engineering teams at publishers with programmatic reporting infrastructure.

Google's pattern of platform API lifecycle management - seen most recently with the Google Ads API v19 sunset on February 11, 2026 - suggests that SOAP API continuity for the legacy Reports tool is likely a transitional accommodation rather than a permanent parallel. Publishers should treat it as a bridge, not a destination.

Migration mechanics: how the process works

The migration from legacy reports to Interactive reports is not automatic for saved or scheduled reports. According to the Help Center document, "saved" or "scheduled" reports in the Reports tool "will not be migrated automatically to Interactive reports." Publishers must initiate migration themselves through the Ad Manager interface.

The process requires signing in to Ad Manager, navigating to Reporting and then Reports, and checking the status column for each report - labeled "Migrate" if eligible, "Open" if already migrated, or "Not yet eligible" if compatibility issues remain. Clicking "Migrate" creates an equivalent report in Interactive reports. An important technical note: if a report is subsequently updated in the legacy tool and migrated again, an additional copy is created in Interactive reports rather than overwriting the existing one. Deleting duplicates is then a manual step.

Reports with frequency or date settings that are unavailable in Interactive reports trigger a notification asking publishers to update those settings before migration can proceed.

The announcement encourages publishers to "sign in to Ad Manager and verify that your most critical legacy reports have been migrated and re-scheduled in Interactive reports" as an immediate next step.

Context for the marketing community

For ad operations teams at publishers, the April 6 date for scheduled report deactivation is the one that carries the most immediate practical risk. Reporting workflows for revenue monitoring, yield management, and advertiser delivery verification frequently depend on scheduled reports delivered to inboxes or connected systems. An unexpected "Unscheduled" status applied to all legacy scheduled reports on April 6 - without prior migration - would interrupt those workflows overnight.

The broader trajectory of this change fits within a pattern of Google consolidating and upgrading its publisher-facing tools. The introduction of AI-assisted reporting in November 2025 was accompanied by brand safety automation and live CTV monetization tools, signaling that Interactive reports is positioned as a foundation for further capability expansion, not merely a cosmetic update to the existing interface.

From a competitive standpoint, the shift toward AI-generated report configurations and on-page, interactive data exploration reflects changes visible across the industry. Google Analytics underwent significant interface and capability changes throughout 2025, rebuilding its reporting surfaces after criticism of the GA4 migration. The Interactive reports transition in Ad Manager follows a similar logic: consolidate reporting infrastructure, add AI features, and retire legacy architecture on a fixed timeline.

Publishers who have not yet begun migration should note that Google has made resources available including a video series titled "Learn from a Pro," a Skillshop e-learning certification course, a downloadable "Getting Started" guidebook, and Help Center articles covering report creation, AI generation, export and sharing, charts, flags, and scheduling. Account managers and Ad Manager Support can be contacted for extensions, according to the announcement.

Timeline

  • May 18, 2025 - PPC Land reports Google's initial announcement that the legacy Reports tool will be replaced by Interactive reports in 2026
  • May 2025 - Interactive reports gains app SDK version, auction package deal, child network dimensions, and invoiced impression metrics
  • June 2025 - Geographical dimensions (city, metro, region, postal code, continent, country code) added to Interactive reports
  • July 2025 - Ad speed, Real-time Video, and YouTube Consolidated report types added; report migration tools and Excel scheduled attachments introduced
  • August 2025 - Two-part video tutorial series launched; serving restriction, predicted viewability bucket, bidder, and secure signal dimensions added
  • September 2025 - Rich media video metrics, publisher provided signals, browser category, and salesperson/trafficker line item attributes added
  • October 2025 - Exchange bidding deal dimensions, inventory share metrics, creative policies filtering, app tracking status, and rich media interaction metrics added
  • November 2025 - Future sell-through, Reach, and Privacy & messaging report types added; Google Ad Manager introduces AI-powered reporting tools
  • December 2025 - 17 audience segment fields, 19 partner management fields, 5 video delivery fields, 19 Active View metrics, and 5 GRR revenue metrics added
  • February 11, 2026 - Google Ads API v19 sunset takes effect
  • February 17, 2026 - Google sends mandatory email to Ad Manager publishers confirming final migration timeline
  • Q1 2026 - Run Interactive report directly from orders and line items added
  • March 2, 2026 - "New Report" button defaults to Interactive reports; legacy tool can no longer create new reports
  • April 6, 2026 - All scheduled reports in legacy tool set to "Unscheduled"; scheduled delivery stops
  • May 4, 2026 - Legacy Reports tool fully deactivated; all web functions disabled; SOAP API read/run/export continues

Summary

Who: Google Ad Manager and all publishers using the platform's legacy Reports tool for campaign performance reporting.

What: Google today confirmed a three-stage deactivation schedule for the legacy Reports tool, with new report creation ending March 2, scheduled reports deactivating April 6, and the full tool shutdown occurring May 4, 2026. Interactive reports - which includes AI report generation, pivot tables, in-platform scrolling, and a substantially expanded set of dimensions and metrics built up since mid-2025 - replaces the legacy tool as the sole web-based reporting interface. SOAP API read, run, and export access continues after shutdown.

When: The email announcement was sent February 17, 2026. The three key milestones are March 2, April 6, and May 4, 2026.

Where: Google Ad Manager's web platform, accessible to all publishers globally. The deactivation applies to the web interface; SOAP API access is preserved.

Why: Google is consolidating its publisher reporting infrastructure around Interactive reports, which it has developed since mid-2024 and considers feature-complete relative to the legacy tool. The retirement follows Google's wider pattern of phasing out older platform interfaces once successor tools reach functional parity, adding AI capabilities as part of the transition.

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