Inside Google Ads podcast: Episode 49 - Future of Google Ads & AI
What is the future of Google Ads with AI?
Happy New Year, by the way. This is a question that you all have been asking me pretty much ever since I started this podcast. So, today, I am finally ready to share my perspective.
I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. I'm a Google Ads coach, the founder of the Inside Google Ads course, and the creator of this podcast. I spent six years working for big brands at Google, and now I work for you.
This is Inside Google Ads, Episode 49: The future of Google Ads.
Instead of our usual format where I answer three of your burning Google Ads questions, I'm first going to share with you four questions you've asked me, four different people on four different platforms, and then my four-part answer.
So first, Stella on TikTok asked, what's the future for Google Ads with AI?
Then, sjjmarketingdigital on Instagram asked, what is the future of Google Ads? So many people are saying that Search will disappear.
Next, Gabriella Acosta on Threads said, I would love an episode on your thoughts about how Google Ads and SERP in general is shifting with the rise in LLM Search.
And finally, Mike Rhodes on LinkedIn suggested, maybe an episode on where you see it all going, the role of the cyborg marketer a couple of years from now.
So, by popular request, here's my perspective on the future of Google Ads, and more specifically, what you can do now to ensure you can sustain great performance in 2025 and beyond.
First, the coalescence of SEO and PPC. Generative AI tools, chat tools specifically like Gemini or Claude or Perplexity or ChatGPT, will incorporate advertising.
Google's AI Overviews already incorporate some shopping ads, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
We are all fighting for that prime top of SERP real estate. And what impacts both SEO and PPC and these large language learning models? Your website. Make sure your website is well optimized so that Google and LLMs can understand it.
We've already started to hear more about AIO (AI optimization) and due to the much looser way that keywords and audience signals and other PPC features work now, optimization for AI will only continue to grow.
Remember, though, the ultimate thing you should be optimizing for is not some Googlebot crawling your website or some faceless large language learning model. Optimize for your target customer, real people with real problems who need real solutions, which hopefully you can offer them. That has not changed.
Second, I see more of this further moving away from targeting to signals. Although it's true, I do still recommend Exact Match keywords for budget strapped businesses, we already have so much less control over our ads today than we did even three years ago. That trend will continue. Those who can successfully leverage automation now, and specifically, automated targeting, will be better equipped to survive in the future.
Broad Match keywords, Optimized Targeting, Performance Max. This will be the only way into AI where user queries are longer, more unique, and often multimodal, not even a “query” in the traditional sense of that word.
Control? We can't have her.
Transparency? Not happening.
First-party data? Even more important. And I have been beating this drum for as long as I've been a content creator. How important your first-party data is, your customer data is. That only continues because your customer data is the most important signal that you have to guide the automation, guide the giant AI brain towards finding you new customers.
Third, is moving from intent to audience. Google Search was really magic for the last 20 plus years. People type in exactly what they want, and if you offer that, you show them an ad.
Intent is beautiful, but it's all changing. We need to be more predictive, anticipate needs before the user even knows what they want. We need to understand who our customers are and what drives them, not just what they happen to need in one moment. That means moving from intent-based marketing, where people search for what they want, to audience-based marketing, proactively showing ads to people who are most likely to benefit from our products and services.
My first book, Inside Google Ads, Everything You Need to Know About Audience Targeting, is in production right now, coming out soon! And I feel very fortunate that this topic I started writing about three years ago has only become more important and relevant, as I finally finish writing, and not less.
Search marketing was so dang easy. Pick some keywords, write a text ad, print money. We got spoiled. We have to work harder now and going forward understand our customers and craft compelling creative to attract them.
Which brings me to fourth: creative becomes even more important than ever this year and going forward. Google Ads becomes more like Meta advertising where content is king, brand is king, creative is king.
Or shall I say content is queen, brand is queen and creative is queen. I like that.
When bidding is fully automated and targeting is fully automated, the lever you still have left to drive better results in the competition is your ad creative. While AI can absolutely help you in this process, we can all sniff out AI generated text. “Unlock”, “Unleash”, “Supercharge”. We can spot the 11 fingers and the uncanny valley blank expression on AI generated images and videos.
Will fully AI generated creative ever get there? Maybe, maybe not. But at least in the foreseeable future, this is where you still need to shine to stand out in a more crowded marketing environment.
Four thoughts to get you going on the future of Google Ads and AI this year. Now, I'm speaking about this stuff at a few upcoming conferences, some virtual, some in person, some free, some paid. So if you'd like to hear me speak in more detail about some of these Google Ads topics, here are three things you should check out and then we'll wrap up the episode with the new Insider Challenge.
First, is the Paid Search Association Conference. This is free. It's virtual on February 12th, 2025, all day. It's my second time being chosen to speak at this conference, and this year I'll be speaking about “Advanced Audience Targeting Strategies.” Again, this is free to attend on February 12th, 2025, but you do need to register at paidsearch.org.
Next, I'll be hopping over to Europe to meet you in the Netherlands and in Germany. I'm speaking at the Friends of Search Conference in Amsterdam on March 13th, 2025, and I'll be speaking there about “Advanced Audience Targeting Strategies.” I'm also on the jury for the Friends of Search awards. If you are in or near Amsterdam, you can buy your tickets now at friendsofsearch.com to come see me on March 13th, 2025 in Amsterdam.
And then a few days later, I will be in Munich for SMX Munich. And I'm actually doing two different things at this conference. I'll be speaking about "Seeing is Converting: A Data-backed Approach to Image Assets,” which really ties into that fourth point I shared in this episode, on March 18th, 2025. And then the next day, March 19th, 2025, I'll be leading an interactive session where I walk you through a real-life Google Ads case study, and you need to solve it. It's going to be a lot of fun and we're really excited for that part, especially. You can buy tickets now for SMX Munich at, please excuse my German, smxmuenchen.de or just Google SMX Munich. And if you'd like to attend my interactive workshop, you do need to pre-register for that when you buy your ticket, but there's no additional charge. [Editing note: I forgot to say this in the episode, but you can use code JyllSMX15 to get 15% off your SMX Munich tickets!]
All right, let's wrap this thing up.
The platforms, they keep changing. AI is wreaking havoc on our world in so many ways. So I will leave you today with this:
The marketing fundamentals have not changed.
And I'll go so far as to say they will not change. Understand your customer, craft a valuable offer, convey your message clearly, and create value. Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme. We have a plethora of new and changing tools at our disposal, but our core task, our goal, our mission as marketers is unchanged.
Today's Insider Challenge is this. What's one way you're going to use AI this year to help you manage Google Ads more effectively?
This is a little different than the usual Insider Challenge, but hey, this has been a different kind of Inside Google Ads episode. The beauty of the Insider Challenge is there's no right or wrong answer, just an opportunity to stretch your brain on real life Google Ads problem solving. And I'll share some of my thoughts in the next episode.
Episode 47's Challenge was this. You are a one-product business. You sell one really great thing. For example, a shoe cleaning gel or a special kind of toothpaste. (These are both real examples from previous clients, by the way.) In your product feed, you have a handful of products because you sell a bundle of two, a bundle of four, a bundle of eight, etc. Do you advertise all of these variants or just one variant? How do you decide?
So, I would start by advertising just one variant, the single variant. And this is based on quite a few accounts I've seen in this scenario or a similar scenario. Their feed has so few products anyway, so they put the whole feed into Shopping or PMax and see what happens. And inevitably, if you're targeting new people who aren't familiar with you, you waste a lot of money on those other variants. No brand new customer is buying four of your product on the first purchase.
Some things I might think about though are, can I create a special feed that has my one product, but in a few different variants of itself? Maybe my product helps a few different kinds of people or helps solve a few different kinds of problems. So I'd want different title, description, et cetera, to be able to show up on those different kinds of searches.
And then if I have a more established user base, maybe I run a Shopping Remarketing campaign that only targets existing customers, or maybe just website visitors, with all the various bundles.
The big deciding factor here for me is whether we are a well established business with a large customer base, in which case we might advertise the whole feed, or if we're a newer business who is still really just getting discovered by most of our customers, in which case I'd err for the one product feed.
What about you? How would you handle this challenge?
I'm Jyll Saskin Gales and I'll see you next time Inside Google Ads.