Google Ads now applies a visible AI disclosure overlay to ads in three more places: California, South Korea, and Vietnam. Google's help page Use AI content label settings and disclosures lists those three alongside the European Union, India, and New York as the locations where, for campaigns that target them, ads built with assets you designate as AI-created or AI-edited also carry a label on the creative itself. Search Engine Roundtable's Barry Schwartz reported the expansion on November 5, 2026, writing that Google had already updated several documents with the change, including the Google Ads help page and the Merchant Center product data specification.

For US small businesses, the disclosure rule hinges on targeting. The overlay is tied to the locations a campaign targets, not to where your business is registered. A plumbing company in Phoenix running a nationwide Performance Max campaign serves impressions to people in California, so its AI-labeled assets fall inside the same rule as an advertiser based in Los Angeles.

Which regions require AI disclosure labels on Google Ads?

Google Ads shows a visible on-ad AI disclosure overlay for campaigns that target the European Union, India, New York, California, South Korea, or Vietnam when the ad uses assets the advertiser designates as AI-created or AI-edited. Before this update, that list covered the European Union, India, and New York.

Google's Merchant Center product data specification ties the list to law rather than to Google policy preference.

Google does not spell out on these pages which statute drives which region, so treat the list as Google's operational map, not as a legal summary. Recent state laws give context:

• On September 30, 2026, the California Governor's office announced that Governor Gavin Newsom had signed a package of AI bills, including AB 2713 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (California AI Transparency Act: system provenance data) and SB 1000 by Senator Josh Becker (California AI Transparency Act). The announcement describes the package as prohibiting the deletion of a digital watermark and allowing access to metadata to make it easier to determine whether content was AI- or user-generated. SB 1000 took effect immediately when it was signed.
• On September 16, 2026, Governor Newsom signed SB 1050 by Senator Angelique Ashby. The Governor's office says the law requires explicit disclosure on any video or audio advertisement that uses AI-generated performers to sell a product or service, and prohibits the continued use of any advertisement found to violate it. Of the California laws here, it is the one written directly about advertising.
• In New York, Senate bill S8420A, sponsored by Sen. Michael Gianaris, is law. Governor Kathy Hochul signed it on December 11, 2025, and it took effect on June 9, 2026. It amends § 396-b of the New York General Business Law. Under the law, a person engaged in the business of dealing in any property or service who produces an advertisement respecting that property or service must conspicuously disclose that a synthetic performer appears in the advertisement, where that person has actual knowledge. The law carves out advertisements and promotional materials for expressive works, including motion pictures, television programs, streaming content, documentaries, and video games, provided the synthetic performer's use is consistent with its use in the expressive work, among other exclusions. It sets a civil penalty of one thousand dollars for a first violation and five thousand dollars for any subsequent violation.

Schwartz also flagged that he does not expect the region list to stop here.

What counts as an AI-generated or AI-edited ad asset?

Google's help page describes two cases: you can use generative AI "to create entirely new realistic assets from simple prompts, or to meaningfully enhance existing assets."

The page does not go further and define "meaningfully enhanced." That leaves everyday edits unresolved on the face of the document. If a landscaping company runs a photo of a finished patio through an AI tool to remove a parked truck from the background, is that meaningful? Google's page does not answer it. The setting itself is binary: for each asset you choose either "Label this asset as created or edited with AI" or "Don't label this asset."

Two situations take the choice out of your hands. Google may apply AI labels on an advertiser's behalf when fully-automated creative features are used or when Google is legally required to label, and those labels cannot be overwritten. Google's page also says it may label assets when it gets signals to do so from other platforms.

The automated-creative case is the one most small advertisers will hit without planning for it. Google's own example of built-in AI is using it to animate a set of still product photos into an optimized product ad. If you hand Google raw photos and let its automation assemble the creative, the label decision can be made for you.

Google's page on generated images adds two constraints worth knowing. Google restricts which advertisers have access to manually prompted image generation, and images you create in Google Ads automatically remain in your Asset library for 14 days unless they are used in a campaign. Google also states that all advertising content is subject to Ads Policy regardless of how it is created, and that generative AI content is held to the same content standards, reviews, and enforcement.

Where does the Google Ads AI disclosure appear?

The Google Ads AI disclosure appears in three distinct places.

Every ad containing an asset designated as AI-generated or edited includes a disclosure in the "How this ad was made" section of My Ad Center, which users reach through the three-dot menu on Search, YouTube, and Discover ads. Google describes this as accessible globally, with details on whether the assets used in the ads were AI created or edited.

The visible overlay on the creative is the regional layer, and it applies to campaigns targeting the six listed locations.

The third place is a YouTube upload prompt. Uploading a video to YouTube from inside Google Ads triggers a separate question about whether AI was used, tied to YouTube's AI disclosure policies for organic videos. That is a different policy from the ads label, asked at upload time, and it applies to the video as a YouTube upload rather than to the asset as an ad component.

If you sell products and feed them through Merchant Center, read that platform's page before you label in bulk. Google's Merchant Center help states that labeling with this feature might impact whether the content appears on some experiences, and that if an AI label is detected, automatic image enhancements like overlay cleanup from Merchant Center Automations won't run.

How do I add AI labels to Google Ads assets?

Google documents three entry points in Google Ads itself.

In your Asset library. Find asset label statuses in your Asset library and in your asset reporting by reviewing the "AI label" status column. If that column is not showing, add it. You can then use the asset filter to filter by "AI label" and sub-filter based on your preferences, which is how you find assets with no designation set.

During campaign creation. You receive an in-product prompt to "Review assets" if ads in your campaign may require an AI label. Select the assets you want to manage, select Manage AI label, choose "Label this asset as created or edited with AI" or "Don't label this asset," then select Done.

For existing campaigns. Go to Asset studio within the Tools menu, select Asset library, select an asset to open its details page, choose the labeling option, and select Save.

When generating new AI assets. The same "Review assets" prompt appears, with a table of assets whose "AI label" column is undesignated. Check the box next to an asset and pick a label option in the pop-up. If the asset already carries an AI label that was not created within Google Ads, Google offers a link to the page where the asset was created so you can manage the label there.

The same AI label setting exists in Google Ads, Search Ads 360, Display & Video 360, Campaign Manager 360, Merchant Center, and Google Ads Editor. In Google Ads Editor you get a notification if ads in your campaign may require an AI label, and you can select all assets that need labeling and handle them in bulk. In Campaign Manager 360 the choice appears as an AI labels dropdown when you upload a creative. In Search Ads 360, AI label updates you make through a template apply the next time the template is evaluated. Assets from other engines such as Yahoo! Japan and Baidu show "Unknown" as the default status in the "AI label" column, and Google says that even if those assets are set to "label" or "don't label," it can't apply that label for that engine.

Applying your own AI label on creative made outside Google

If you produce creative in your own design tools, you can burn the disclosure into the image yourself. Google's page says these labels will not be in violation of Google policies prohibiting text overlays and watermarks, which removes the usual reason advertisers avoid putting type on an image asset.

Two practical cautions from the same page:

• Do not place labels in the very corners or edges of your image asset, to reduce the risk of the label being trimmed during content rendering. Google says that given the variety of rendering formats, it cannot fully guarantee the label won't be trimmed.
• Opt out of image enhancements, which can crop your label. The controls Google names are Asset Enhancements in Display campaigns, Asset Enhancements in Performance Max campaigns, and Adaptive Layouts in Demand Gen campaigns.

There is a machine-readable layer underneath all of this, invisible to the viewer.

SynthID came out of Google DeepMind, which launched it in beta on August 29, 2023. DeepMind describes the technology as embedding a digital watermark directly into the pixels of an image, imperceptible to the human eye but detectable for identification, and says the watermark stays detectable after modifications like adding filters and changing colors and brightness. On September 17, 2024, Google wrote that it had joined the C2PA as a steering committee member and that its ad systems were starting to integrate C2PA metadata.

Google Ads AI disclosure compliance checklist for small businesses

Decide your account standard before the in-product prompt forces an ad-hoc choice during campaign creation.

1. Audit the creative you are already running. Open Asset library, add the "AI label" column, and filter for assets with no designation. Pay closest attention to Performance Max and Demand Gen asset groups, where automated creative features touch the most assets.
2. List which tools touched which assets. Background removal, upscaling, generative fill, and AI video assembly all live in different places. Write down what was used on each asset while you still remember.
3. Write down the rule you will apply. Pick a standard you can apply consistently across the account. The template below gives you a starting structure.
4. Check whether your campaigns target the six listed locations. Any nationwide US campaign includes California, so assume the overlay applies and decide whether that changes which assets you let AI touch.
5. If you apply your own label, turn off the enhancement that can crop it. That means Asset Enhancements in Display and Performance Max, and Adaptive Layouts in Demand Gen.
6. Get legal advice on your actual obligations. Google states that using the AI label setting does not guarantee compliance with specific regulations, and tells advertisers to seek legal guidance.

Here is a plain-text policy you can fill in and keep with your ad account documentation.

AI ASSET LABELING STANDARD — [BUSINESS NAME]
Owner: [name, role]          Last reviewed: [date]
Ad accounts covered: [Google Ads account IDs / Merchant Center ID]

1. TOOLS WE USE ON AD CREATIVE
   Tool / feature              Used for                 Our label decision
   [Google Ads image editor]   [generated backgrounds]  [Label as AI]
   [Photo editor, AI remove]   [removing objects]       [Label as AI]
   [Crop, resize, color]       [standard editing]       [Do not label]
   [Other (describe)]          [                     ]  [            ]

2. ASSETS WE ALLOW AI TO CREATE OR EDIT
   [ ] Product / job photos       [ ] Lifestyle imagery
   [ ] Backgrounds only           [ ] Video assets
   [ ] None — human-made only     [ ] Other (describe): ______

3. CAMPAIGNS THAT TARGET LABEL-OVERLAY LOCATIONS
   (European Union, India, New York, California, South Korea, Vietnam)
   Campaign name            Targets a listed location?   Overlay expected?
   [                    ]   [ Yes / No ]                 [ Yes / No ]

4. SELF-APPLIED LABELS
   Wording we use on creative: [ ]
   Placement rule: never in the corners or outer edges of the image
   Enhancements switched off: [ ] Asset Enhancements (Display)
                              [ ] Asset Enhancements (Performance Max)
                              [ ] Adaptive Layouts (Demand Gen)

5. REVIEW
   Who checks the "AI label" column in Asset library: [name]
   How often: [monthly / before each launch]
   Legal review of disclosure obligations by: [firm / attorney, date]

Paste that block into an LLM such as ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to build the working file you want, with the campaign table set up as a real spreadsheet. A prompt that works: "Turn this AI asset labeling standard into a Google Sheet with one tab for the tool decisions and one tab for campaigns, add a column that flags Yes when the targeting column lists California, New York, the EU, India, South Korea, or Vietnam, and leave every bracketed field blank for me to fill in."

How Novo fits into your Google Ads workflow

Google Ads bills the business account your other operating costs run through, so what that account charges you affects what is left for media spend. Novo business checking has no monthly fee and no minimum balance requirement, so your monthly ad budget is not competing with a maintenance charge before it reaches Google. An account that ends the day at $0 for 130 consecutive days may be closed.

Novo integrates with QuickBooks Online, and there is no cost to connect, though QuickBooks has its own pricing plans. Once connected, you can view your profit and loss and expense categories in Novo. You connect integrations from Apps in the Novo dashboard. Novo Reserves is a budgeting feature within the Novo checking account, and you can create up to 20 Reserves, which is one way to set next quarter's ad spend aside from operating cash.

Novo does not provide tax, legal, or financial advice. Everything above about labels, regions, and settings comes from Google's own documentation and the reporting named in each section. Google itself tells advertisers to seek legal guidance, and a lawyer who knows your market should decide what your disclosure obligations actually are. Your next step today is a small one: open Asset library, add the "AI label" column, and see how many of your live assets have no designation set.

Sources: Use AI content label settings and disclosures, support.google.com; Google Ads Expands AI Content Label Disclosure To California, South Korea & Vietnam, seroundtable.com; Product data specification, support.google.com; Senate Bill S8420A, nysenate.gov; Governor Newsom signs new law to protect workers, require disclosures on AI-generated advertising, gov.ca.gov; Identifying AI-generated images with SynthID, deepmind.google.

Disclosures

Novo Platform Inc. ("Novo") is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services provided by Middlesex Federal Savings, F.A., Member FDIC. Eligibility subject to final Novo determination.

Novo Reserves is not a separate account. Novo Reserves is a budgeting feature within the Novo checking account. All funds within Reserves remain a part of the overall balance of the Novo checking account.

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