Google Ads API enforces new EU political advertising declarations

Google announced on August 7, 2025, that its Ads API and Google Ads Scripts will implement mandatory enforcement of European Union political advertising declarations starting September 3, 2025. The technical changes require all new campaigns to declare whether they contain EU political advertisements before creation or modification.

According to the announcement from the Google Ads API Team, the updates introduce a new field called contains_eu_political_advertising in the Campaign object across API versions v19.2, v20.1, and v21. This field accepts three specific values: CONTAINS_EU_POLITICAL_ADVERTISING for campaigns with EU political ads, DOES_NOT_CONTAIN_EU_POLITICAL_ADVERTISING for campaigns without such content, and UNSPECIFIED for campaigns missing the declaration.

The enforcement represents a technical implementation of Google's broader withdrawal from EU political advertising, announced in November 2024 ahead of the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation taking effect in October 2025. Major digital platforms have abandoned European political advertising citing complex compliance challenges under the new TTPA regulation.

API validation changes take effect September 3

The September 3, 2025 enforcement date will trigger automatic validation checks across Google's advertising APIs. All new campaigns created through the Google Ads API or Google Ads Scripts must set the political advertising declaration field. API calls to create campaigns using CampaignService.MutateCampaigns will return a FieldError.REQUIRED error if the field remains unset.

Existing campaigns face targeting restrictions without proper declarations. The API will block proximity, location, or location_group targeting changes at campaign or ad group levels for undeclared campaigns. CampaignCriterionService.MutateCampaignCriteria and AdGroupCriterionService.MutateAdGroupCriteria methods will fail with CriterionError.MISSING_EU_POLITICAL_ADVERTISING_SELF_DECLARATION errors.

Additional technical restrictions affect experiment scheduling and bulk operations. ExperimentService.ScheduleExperiment will throw ExperimentError.MISSING_EU_POLITICAL_ADVERTISING_SELF_DECLARATION errors if treatment draft campaigns lack declarations. Google Ads Scripts bulk upload features require spreadsheet template modifications to accommodate the new requirements.

The enforcement extends beyond basic campaign creation. Batch Jobs and GoogleAdsService.Mutate operations for creating and updating entities must comply with the declaration requirements. Google emphasized that version v21 of the Ads API already enforces these checks, with earlier versions following suit on September 3.

Political campaigns face advertising shutdown September 22

Any campaign declaring EU political content will cease serving advertisements in the European Union on September 22, 2025. The shutdown date occurs three weeks after the API enforcement begins and one month before the TTPA regulation officially takes effect in October 2025.

Campaigns without declarations remain unaffected temporarily. However, Google recommends updating existing campaigns with appropriate declarations immediately. The company provided a specific GAQL query for identifying undeclared campaigns: campaigns where contains_eu_political_advertising values exclude both positive and negative declarations.

The technical implementation reflects Google's systematic approach to political advertising compliance across multiple jurisdictions. Similar withdrawal patterns occurred in other regions where political advertising regulations created substantial compliance challenges or legal uncertainties.

Regulatory compliance drives technical requirements

The EU's Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation requires platforms to maintain detailed records for seven years after advertisement publication. The European Commission released implementation guidance in 2025, establishing harmonized standards across the EU internal market for political advertising services.

The regulation addresses increasing complexity in cross-border political advertising and growing concerns about foreign information manipulation in democratic processes. According to the guidance, political advertising encompasses "preparation, placement, promotion, publication, delivery or dissemination, by any means, of a message" under specific circumstances.

Google identified several technical obstacles preventing TTPA compliance. The regulation's broad definition of political advertising extends beyond explicit campaign messaging to encompass issue-based advertising, making reliable identification "difficult to reliably identify at scale." The company cited challenges tracking election-related data across 27 EU member states and the "lack of reliable local election data permitting consistent and accurate identification of all ads related to any local, regional or national election."

Identity verification requirements, targeting restrictions, and transparency obligations would necessitate substantial modifications to Google's existing advertising infrastructure. The compressed timeline between final guidance and October 2025 enforcement created additional implementation risks for technology platforms.

Developer implementation requirements

Developers using Google Ads API client libraries may need updated versions to access the new functionality in API versions v19 and v20. The declaration status can be retrieved using Search or SearchStream methods of GoogleAdsService, with Google Ads Scripts supporting AdsApp.search or AdsApp.report methods.

Technical implementation requires specific query syntax: select campaign.id, campaign.contains_eu_political_advertising from campaign for basic retrieval. More complex queries can filter campaigns lacking declarations by excluding specified values from the political advertising field.

Google Ads Scripts enforcement affects multiple methods including AdsApp.mutate, AdsApp.mutateAll, AdsApp.Campaign.addProximity, and AdsApp.Campaign.addLocation functions. Bulk upload features require adherence to updated spreadsheet template requirements detailed in product documentation.

The API changes complement existing transparency infrastructure through Google's Ads Transparency Center. For European Economic Area advertisements, the platform provides targeting data, recipient counts, and subject matter labels. API access enables regulatory and self-regulatory organizations to access transparency data for oversight purposes.

Market implications for advertising ecosystem

The technical enforcement represents part of broader regulatory pressure on digital advertising across European markets. Industry associations have challenged overlapping regulatory frameworks, arguing existing digital regulations already address consumer protection concerns through the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Digital Services Act, and General Data Protection Regulation.

Privacy enforcement actions against EU institutions demonstrate the complex regulatory environment surrounding political advertising. The European Data Protection Supervisor ruled the European Commission violated privacy laws using targeted advertising on social media platforms to promote proposed regulations.

Google's systematic withdrawal from political advertising markets follows similar decisions in multiple jurisdictions where regulations create substantial compliance challenges. The pattern suggests consistent corporate strategy prioritizing operational certainty over market access in highly regulated political advertising segments.

Platform operators face increasing operational burdens implementing transparency requirements across different regulatory frameworks. The TTPA includes specific provisions addressing foreign interference, restricting political advertising services to EU citizens or qualifying entities during the three months preceding elections or referendums.

Support resources for affected developers

Google provides dedicated support channels for developers navigating the political advertising declaration requirements. The Google Ads API support and Google Ads scripts support teams offer assistance with implementation questions and technical issues related to the September 3 enforcement date.

Documentation updates accompany the API changes, including detailed spreadsheet template modifications for bulk upload functionality. The company emphasized the importance of updating applications before the enforcement deadline to prevent campaign creation and management disruptions.

The Help Center provides additional guidance on EU political advertisement definitions and compliance requirements. Developers can access comprehensive query examples and implementation guides through official documentation channels.

Google's announcement, signed by Anash P. Oommen from the Google Ads API Team, includes specific labels indicating the scope: campaign_management, google_ads_api, and google_ads_scripts. These categorizations help developers identify relevant content within Google's extensive technical documentation library.

Timeline

• November 2024 - Google announces withdrawal from EU political advertising ahead of TTPA regulation
• December 13, 2024 - European Data Protection Supervisor rules Commission violated privacy laws in targeted political advertising campaign
• 2025 - European Commission publishes implementation guidance for political advertising transparency regulation
• July 25, 2025 - Meta confirms withdrawal from EU political advertising citing operational challenges
• August 7, 2025 - Google announces API enforcement of EU political advertising declarations
• September 3, 2025 - Google Ads API and Scripts begin enforcing political advertising declarations
• September 22, 2025 - Campaigns declared as containing EU political ads stop serving in Europe
• October 2025 - EU Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation takes effect

Summary

Who: Google's Ads API Team implemented technical changes affecting developers using Google Ads API and Google Ads Scripts for campaign creation and management. The changes impact political advertisers, campaign managers, and advertising technology providers operating in European markets.

What: Google introduced mandatory self-declaration requirements for EU political advertising in campaigns through a new API field called contains_eu_political_advertising. The system enforces declarations before allowing campaign creation or targeting modifications, with campaigns declaring political content ceasing EU service on September 22, 2025.

When: Google announced the changes on August 7, 2025, with API enforcement beginning September 3, 2025, and political advertising campaigns stopping service in the EU on September 22, 2025, ahead of the October 2025 TTPA regulation effective date.

Where: The technical enforcement applies to Google Ads API versions v19.2, v20.1, and v21, affecting campaigns targeting European Union markets. The implementation spans all 27 EU member states covered by the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation.

Why: The API changes implement Google's broader withdrawal from EU political advertising markets due to compliance challenges with the TTPA regulation. Technical obstacles include difficulty identifying political content at scale, complex identity verification requirements, and compressed implementation timelines between regulatory guidance and enforcement dates.

Key terminology explained

Google Ads API: The programmatic interface that allows developers to interact with Google's advertising platform to create, manage, and optimize campaigns at scale. This API enables advertisers and agencies to automate campaign operations, access reporting data, and integrate Google Ads functionality into third-party applications. The API supports multiple versions simultaneously, with v19.2, v20.1, and v21 currently receiving the new political advertising declaration requirements.

TTPA Regulation: The Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation represents the European Union's comprehensive framework for governing political advertisements across all 27 member states. This regulation requires platforms to provide detailed transparency about political ads, including sponsor identification, targeting criteria, and spending amounts, while restricting cross-border political advertising during election periods.

Campaign declaration: The mandatory self-identification process requiring advertisers to specify whether their campaigns contain European Union political content through the contains_eu_political_advertising field. This binary declaration system enables platforms to apply appropriate restrictions and compliance measures based on campaign content, with three possible values covering political content, non-political content, and unspecified status.

API enforcement: The automated validation system that prevents campaign creation or modification when required fields remain incomplete or incorrectly configured. Starting September 3, 2025, Google's APIs will automatically reject operations attempting to create campaigns without proper political advertising declarations, returning specific error codes to guide developers toward compliance.

Political advertising: Content designed to influence electoral outcomes, voting behavior, or legislative processes, encompassing both direct candidate promotion and issue-based messaging related to political actors or electoral contests. The EU regulation defines this broadly to include preparation, placement, promotion, publication, delivery, or dissemination of politically influential messages across any medium or platform.

Targeting restrictions: Limitations on how advertisers can specify audience segments for their campaigns, particularly affecting location-based, proximity-based, and demographic targeting options. Under the new enforcement, campaigns lacking political advertising declarations cannot modify targeting parameters, preventing potential circumvention of political advertising oversight mechanisms.

European Union: The 27-country political and economic union implementing harmonized digital advertising regulations across member states, creating a single regulatory framework for political advertising transparency. The EU's approach to digital regulation increasingly influences global platform policies, with the TTPA representing the latest attempt to address cross-border political communication challenges.

Compliance challenges: The operational and technical difficulties platforms face when implementing complex regulatory requirements across multiple jurisdictions with varying local election schedules and legal frameworks. For Google, these challenges include reliable political content identification, multi-state election tracking, identity verification systems, and compressed implementation timelines.

September enforcement: The implementation date when Google's automated systems begin rejecting non-compliant API operations, marking the transition from voluntary compliance to mandatory enforcement of political advertising declarations. This date precedes the actual advertising shutdown by three weeks, providing a buffer period for technical adjustment and campaign management.

CampaignService operations: The specific API methods responsible for creating and modifying advertising campaigns within Google's system, including MutateCampaigns for campaign creation and various targeting modification functions. These operations now require political advertising declarations before execution, with detailed error responses guiding developers toward proper implementation of the new requirements.