Two significant developments stand out in notifications landing in Google Ads accounts. YouTube is fully retiring Video Action Campaigns (VAC) and auction-based Outstream ads.

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When do they shut down?

According to the company's announcement, new VAC campaigns can no longer be created in August 2025; existing campaigns will keep running until September 30, 2025. The picture is similar for Outstream ads: new auction-based campaigns can be created until the end of the year, while existing ones will stop in the first quarter of 2026. The change covers auction-based buying only; reservation buys are exempt for both formats.

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Why are they being removed?

Google says VAC's core promise is now the default behavior for every ad campaign, so there's no longer a need to manage a separate campaign budget and goal. For Outstream ads, the performance gap is clear: Google notes that more than 85% of video views now happen on Shorts, and auction-based Outstream campaigns can't reach Shorts.

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How will the migration work?

The bottom line: VAC campaigns using target CPA (tCPA) will be automatically converted to Demand Gen, while those using target ROAS will convert to Maximize Conversion Value. The migration tools will carry over the same targeting, bidding and budget values; ad assets, view metrics and Spend reporting will be preserved. Google is asking advertisers to download their reports before the transition. For details, see Google's help page.