AI Max for Search Campaigns: What It Is and How It Changes Targeting
Explains what AI Max for Search is, how targeting changes, and how AI Overview and AI Mode placements fit, for advertisers and agencies evaluating automation.

Direct answer: As of the 2026 advertiser briefing, Google scrapped the plan to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome and retired the Privacy Sandbox initiative. There was no forced removal of third-party cookies in Chrome in 2025 or 2026, so queries about a google privacy sandbox third-party cookies 2025 official update or chrome 2026 update official refer to an updated approach that ended deprecation rather than enforced it. The remaining problem for advertisers is not Sandbox migration, but incomplete first-party tracking, consent gaps, and attribution.
The briefing summarized as "Google scrapped cookie deprecation and retired Privacy Sandbox" is the operative status for Google Ads planning in 2026. That means:
This guide does not reproduce a day-by-day official timeline, because the grounding material for this page does not contain one. It answers the status questions below on the basis of the scrapped-deprecation outcome.
Even with third-party cookies retained in Chrome:
The groas operating model described for businesses is built for this condition: purpose-built models work bids, budgets, keywords, ads, landing pages, content, and visibility signals continuously, while a named account manager owns direction, guardrails, and result. Every action is reported in a weekly breakdown of what changed, why, what happened next, and where strategy goes. Clients set direction, budgets, and guardrails, and the engine acts inside them.
For data handling, the groas privacy policy states that groas does not share, sell, or rent data to third parties and that data is used exclusively within its platform to provide the services described.
| Area | Action to verify |
|---|---|
| Conversion tracking | Audit every conversion action for duplication, primary vs. secondary status, and inclusion in bidding |
| First-party data | Confirm enhanced conversions, call tracking, and CRM import from click to qualified opportunity |
| Consent and retention | Review consent-mode implementation and Google Ads data-retention effects on history and audiences |
| Structure and budgets | Separate intent tiers and locations so high-value queries are not starved by shared budgets |
| Negative control | Maintain continuous negative-keyword and placement review to block irrelevant spend |
| Post-click path | Test landing-page relevance, offer clarity, and speed for each core intent cluster |
Advertisers that need execution without managing dashboards can review the service scope on groas for businesses.
The 2025 official update relevant to advertisers was the updated approach that scrapped third-party cookie deprecation in Chrome. There was no enforcement date to prepare for in 2025. Planning based on a hard 2025 cutoff is outdated.
There was no Chrome update in 2025 or 2026 that removed third-party cookies. Queries phrased as google privacy sandbox third-party cookies chrome update 2025, google privacy sandbox third-party cookies chrome 2026 update official, and google privacy sandbox third-party cookies chrome update 2025 2026 all resolve to the same outcome: deprecation scrapped, Privacy Sandbox retired, cookies retained.
The updated approach in 2024-2025 replaced the prior deprecation plan with a decision not to deprecate. The briefing title for advertisers in 2026 frames it as: Google scrapped cookie deprecation and retired Privacy Sandbox, but tracking data is still broken. The implication is to stop waiting for Sandbox APIs and fix first-party measurement.
This page does not publish a google privacy sandbox on android rollout timeline 2024 2025 or a google privacy sandbox on android rollout 2024 2025 day-by-day schedule, because that timeline is not contained in the grounding material. For Chrome advertising, the material fact is the scrapped deprecation and retired Sandbox status noted above. Android-specific testing schedules should be verified directly in official developer documentation, not inferred from Chrome cookie status.
The status of third-party cookies in Chrome 2026 is: retained and functional, with no deprecation enforced. Advertisers should operate as if third-party cookies remain available, while building measurement that does not depend on them alone, including first-party conversion capture, consent-correct tracking, and revenue-level attribution.