A missing aspect ratio is not empty inventory. It is an invitation for Google to invent the cut your brand did not approve.
Today Google cuts your spot for you.
Google Ads told Performance Max advertisers it will use generative AI to create missing aspect-ratio versions of existing video assets, including horizontal into vertical and square for Shorts and Display (Search Engine Land, Common Thread Collective). The upgrade is on by default. The form-based opt-out window closes September 4. After today, settings can still change inside the account, and generated assets can be paused one by one. That is recovery after the twin already had a chance to run.
This is not a resize convenience. It is a creative-control deadline with a calendar.
The Default Is The Decision
If a live PMax video is missing 16:9, 9:16, or 1:1, Google can invent the missing frame from what you already uploaded.
That matters most when the spot is brand-locked, regulated, or built around edge-framed product and on-screen text. A center-weighted lifestyle clip may survive an automated vertical. A disclaimer that lives in the lower third will not. A product that sits on the left edge will not.
The CMO question is simple. Which of your live videos are allowed to have a machine-made twin, and which are not?
Inventory Before Noon
Pull every Performance Max campaign with video today.
For each asset, name the owner, the ratios present, and the failure mode if Google invents the missing one. Regulated claims, edge products, and locked brand frames go on the do-not-invent list. Center-framed footage with no critical text can stay on the default if you choose that on purpose.
Then pick one honest move before the day ends:
- Cut and upload the native missing ratios for every video on the do-not-invent list.
- Change video settings in account so generative aspect-ratio creation stays off for those campaigns.
- Submit the opt-out path Google documented while that window is still open.
Waiting is also a choice. It just hands the cut to the platform.
Recovery Is Not Ownership
After September 4 you can still pause an AI-generated asset and you can still change video settings. Do not confuse that with control.
Control is shipping the cut you would show a client or a compliance lead. Recovery is cleaning up after a generated twin already served. Paid creative fails when a platform notice becomes the production plan.
Name the owner. Name the videos. Name the ratios you will not let Google invent. Today is the day those three lines matter.
