Google Ads July 2026: New Shopping Click Metrics and AI Image Upload Every Ecommerce Brand Should Know About

On July 28, 2026, Google Ads rolled out two new features that directly affect how ecommerce brands measure Shopping campaign performance and produce ad creative. The product clicks and non-product clicks metrics now split your click data into 2 distinct signals, telling you whether a shopper engaged with a specific product in your ad or clicked somewhere else. Alongside that, advertisers can now upload a reference image when generating AI-powered ad visuals, giving your creative team a concrete style anchor instead of a blank text prompt.

What Do Google's New Product Click Metrics Mean for Your Shopping Campaigns?

Two distinct clicks now appear in your reporting. Product clicks capture when a user clicked directly on a specific product within your Shopping ad. Non-product clicks capture everything else: clicks on your store name, headlines, or other elements in the same ad unit. That split matters because it shows you which part of your ad is actually driving purchase intent versus general curiosity. A campaign with strong non-product clicks but weak product clicks may signal that your imagery or pricing is missing, not your copy or bidding.

For ecommerce brands running Shopping campaigns or Performance Max with Shopping feeds, this metric gives you a new lens on ad anatomy. If shoppers are regularly clicking outside the product listing, your product images, prices, or titles may need work before you adjust bids or budgets.

Both metrics are rolling out to some reports according to Google's announcement, so check your Shopping campaign columns today to see if they're live on your account. You can add them through the column selector in the Campaigns, Ad Groups, and Products views.

How Does the AI Image Upload Feature Change Google Ads Creative?

Google Ads has added an image upload option to its AI image generation flow. Previously, you would describe a style in text and the model would interpret it. Now you can upload a reference image and the AI uses it to generate new visuals in the same aesthetic direction. This closes a gap that made Google's creative tools harder to use for brands with established visual identities.

Practically speaking, this means your design team can provide a single brand-aligned image and ask Google's model to generate variations on it for different formats, aspect ratios, or seasonal angles. That is a faster path to on-brand creative at scale than writing detailed prompts for every asset.

It also aligns with Google's push to have Demand Gen, Performance Max, and Shopping campaigns share asset libraries. The more efficiently you can feed the system brand-consistent images, the better Google's AI can distribute the right creative to the right audience without you manually managing every variant.

How Do These Updates Fit Into Google's Broader July 2026 Campaign Strategy?

These two updates land in the same week that Google activated Local Inventory Ads by default for all Shopping campaigns, a change that takes full effect August 31. That change means physical store inventory is now showing up in ads automatically for brands with local feeds connected. The product click metric gives you a way to see whether those local inventory appearances are driving actual product engagement or just impressions.

At the same time, Google's AI Max for Shopping campaigns continues to expand, with the system automatically applying query expansion, headline generation, and creative optimization across eligible campaigns. The AI image upload feature feeds directly into this system: the visuals you generate become training signal for what Google's models serve across formats.

The through-line across all these changes is Google moving its ad stack toward AI-managed execution with human-controlled inputs. You set the creative direction, the budget, and the targets. Google's models handle the rest. Understanding where clicks are coming from in your ads, and giving the AI better style references, are two ways to keep that execution aligned with your brand.

For 7 to 9-figure ecommerce brands running high volumes of Shopping campaigns, both of these updates have immediate value: sharper measurement and faster creative iteration. You can use our full Google Ads 2026 update tracker to stay current on every change as they roll out.

What Should You Do Now with Google's New Click Metrics and Image Upload?

1. Check your columns today. Go into your Shopping or Performance Max campaign, click the column selector, and search for product clicks and non-product clicks. Add both to your report view. Not all accounts have them yet, but check now and flag the date you gain access so you establish a baseline.
2. Run a 30-day product click audit. Once live, pull product click rate alongside ROAS by product group. Products with low product click rates relative to impressions are worth examining for image quality, pricing competitiveness, and title optimization before making bid changes.
3. Use the AI image upload for your top 3 campaigns. Pull your highest-spend campaigns in Demand Gen or Performance Max, identify your best-performing creative asset, upload it as a style reference in the AI image generator, and create 5 to 10 variants. Test one variant per campaign over 2 weeks.
4. Connect the product click data to Local Inventory Ads. If you are running LIA (now on by default), segment by store location and check whether in-store product clicks are converting at a different rate than online product clicks. This tells you whether your local inventory feed needs price or availability cleanup.
5. Audit your AI-generated creative against brand guidelines. With the new image upload feature, brief your design team to select 1 to 2 reference images per campaign that represent your brand visual identity, and make it a standard step in your campaign setup checklist before AI images go live.

Related Reading

• Google Shopping Campaigns Are Getting Local Inventory Ads by Default on August 31
• Google AI Max for Shopping Campaigns Is Expanding
• CTC's Google Ads Agency Services

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CTC's media team works with 7 to 9-figure ecommerce brands across every Google Ads campaign type. If you want a fresh set of eyes on your Shopping strategy or creative testing approach, reach out here.