Google’s AI Content Labels and What Advertisers Must Disclose

Google now gives advertisers a built in way to label image and video ads that were created or edited with AI. For UK businesses the change raises two questions. Do you have to use it and what happens if you do not? Priority Pixels is a Google Partner providing Google Ads management for UK advertisers with certifications across Search, Display, Shopping and Video advertising. The short answer is that UK law does not demand a label on every AI asset. Campaigns that reach the EU are a different matter. AI disclosure is also becoming a question in organic search, so the same thinking applies to SEO for B2B advertisers who publish content made with AI.

Search Engine Land reported that Google is rolling out AI content labels across its advertising platforms, with the setting appearing in Google Ads, Merchant Center and Ads Editor. PPC specialist Hana Kobzova spotted the rollout early. In affected accounts a new AI label column shows whether labelling has been switched on for each asset.

What Google Has Changed

Google has changed its rules so that AI disclosure labels no longer count as banned text overlays or watermarks. Its policy update on AI labelling requirements, posted on 9 July 2026, says advertisers can add text or visual labels directly to image and video creatives that were generated or modified using AI. Google Ads may also apply labels automatically to some assets made with Google’s own AI tools.

The same update introduced an AI label setting. It rolled out gradually through July across Google Ads, Display and Video 360, Campaign Manager 360, Merchant Center and Ads Editor. The setting lets you mark an asset as AI generated or edited without changing the creative itself.

Google described the wider aim in a post on expanding AI transparency in ads. A new section called How this ad was made now sits in the My Ad Centre panel, which people open from the three dot menu or info icon on ads across Search, YouTube and Discover. That panel shows whether an ad was created or edited with AI. Ads made with Google’s generative AI tools get that disclosure added automatically.

Programmatic buyers have a matching change. Google’s announcement of Structured Data Files v10.1 for Display and Video 360 added a way to state whether a YouTube video asset contains content created or edited with AI. Teams that manage campaigns in bulk can now record AI use at the point of upload.

Where Labels Appear on the Ad Itself

Labels appear on the ad itself only for campaigns that target places where the law requires them. Google’s help article on AI content label settings and disclosures lists the European Union, India and New York. In those locations, ads with assets you mark as AI created or edited also carry a visible overlay. Everywhere else the disclosure sits in the My Ad Centre panel.

The automatic labels are worth noting for any account that leans on Google’s own creative tools. The help article says Google may label assets on your behalf where it is legally required to. It may also do so when it receives signals from other platforms. Once Google applies a label you cannot remove it.

In practice this means two sources of labels can sit side by side in one account. Some come from your own choices in the asset library. Others come from Google, so it pays to check the AI label column before assuming an asset is unlabelled.

Google is also clear about the limits of its own tool. It says that using the AI label setting does not guarantee compliance with specific regulations. Advertisers are told to seek legal guidance where needed.

What UK Advertisers Must Disclose

UK advertisers are not legally required to label every ad that uses AI. The Committee of Advertising Practice set this out in its article on disclosure of AI in advertising. It says there is no blanket legal requirement in the UK to disclose the use of AI in ads. The CAP and BCAP Codes contain no rules written for AI, but the existing rules apply however an ad is made.

That means the test is the same one every UK ad faces, which is whether the ad would mislead people. An AI generated image that shows a product doing something it cannot do breaks the rules whether or not it carries a label. The same article points to an industry principle from ISBA and the IPA that advertisers should be transparent about AI where it features prominently in an ad and is unlikely to be obvious to consumers.

Responsibility also stays with the advertiser when Google builds the ad. In June 2026 the ASA published advice on AI and deepfakes in advertising. It cites the Stripe and Stare ruling, where an ad was produced using Google’s automated tools. The ASA said the advertiser was still primarily responsible for making sure the ad complied with the CAP Code.

AI generated endorsements carry their own risk. The ASA warns that a celebrity endorsement made with AI that looks real enough to mislead consumers is likely to breach the Code. Using a real person’s likeness without permission raises legal questions that sit outside the ASA’s remit as well.

Campaigns That Reach the EU

UK businesses that advertise into the EU face firmer rules than they do at home. The European Commission confirmed that it would start enforcing the AI Act and its new transparency rules from 2 August 2026. Deepfakes, meaning images, video or audio that have been edited or generated using AI, now have to be labelled. AI generated or altered content also has to carry machine readable marks so it can be detected more easily.

This is the main reason Google shows visible overlays on ads served in the EU. If your campaigns target Ireland, France, Germany or any other member state, your asset labels decide whether the right disclosure appears. Getting them wrong could leave an ad without a label it needs.

Election advertisers have a separate duty. Google’s policy update says they should keep disclosing election ads that contain synthetic or digitally altered content through the altered or synthetic content box in campaign settings. The new AI label setting does not replace that step.

For B2B advertisers the practical risk is lower than for consumer brands, because most B2B creative relies on product shots, diagrams and plain messaging. That changes once AI is used to create realistic people, workplaces or customer scenes. Those are the assets most likely to need a label in the EU.

A sensible default is to treat any AI generated person or realistic scene as something to label whenever a campaign reaches the EU. Simple graphics and text changes are far less likely to count as deepfakes. Where the line is unclear, the Google guidance and the ASA both point to legal advice.

How to Manage AI Labels in Your Account

Managing AI labels comes down to knowing which assets were made or edited with AI and recording that in the account. Google’s help article explains that you can see each asset’s status in an AI label column in the asset library and in asset reporting. When you build a campaign that may need labels, Google prompts you to review the assets first.

For existing campaigns, you open Asset Studio from the Tools menu and select the asset library. Each asset has a details page where you can choose to label it as created or edited with AI. You can also choose to leave it unlabelled. Filters let you see every labelled or unlabelled asset at once.

The bigger job sits outside the account. Creative teams need to log which tools touched each image or video so the account manager can label it correctly. Our PPC workflows include sector specific compliance checks across Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Meta. AI labelling now belongs in that same set of checks for any account that runs AI made creative.

An account review is a good point to catch gaps. Our audits identify inefficiencies in existing Google Ads accounts. A Google Ads audit is a natural moment to check asset labels against where each campaign serves. Our Google Partner accreditation gives clients access to advanced platform features, beta testing opportunities and dedicated support channels. That helps when a policy change like this one rolls out unevenly across accounts.

AI labelling rules will keep developing, both in Google’s platforms and in the laws behind them. Businesses that track how their creative is made today will find each new requirement far easier to meet.