Inside Google Ads podcast: Episode 89 - Deprecated

There is a certain Google Ads experience that is near universal, and yet I've never really spoken about it here before. 

You know the feeling: you log into Google Ads like you always do, and you go to create that call ad or add that combined segment, except something's changed. The interface looks different, and that thing you want to do just isn't there anymore. 

We all know that Google Ads is constantly changing. And while Google Ads is introducing a lot of new features, they are also deprecating or getting rid of older features. So for today's episode, I want to talk about three Google Ads features that are going away or have recently gone away and what you can do to get the same capabilities out of Google Ads using different features instead.

We're talking about Call-only ads, Video campaigns for conversion and Combined segments.

I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. I spent six years working for big brands at Google, and now I work for you.

This Inside Google Ads: Episode 89, Deprecated.

1. Call Ads

First, let's talk about Call-only ads. When you create a Search campaign, you are probably creating something called a Responsive Search ad because this is the default. But for many years, there's been another option in Google Ads to create a Call-only ad, now called a Call ad. This type of ad will show your phone number as the main headline, and as someone clicks on it, it will open up your phone number in their phone app. So it's really a way to get people to just call you directly rather than visiting your website.

Now, Google announced earlier this year that Call ads are going to be deprecated, but we just got more details recently. We now know that starting in 2026, you won't be able to create new Call ads anymore and by 2027, they'll be fully deprecated. While that may seem like it's a long time away, when Google announces a feature deprecation, I always think it's a good idea to start testing now.

Yes, you can still use Call ads for at least a year, but you know that they're going away. So if your business is reliant on them, as many service-based businesses are, you should start testing alternatives now so that when the deprecation does happen, you are ready. You are not blindsided. 

So what should you do if you're a heavy Call-only ad advertiser? 

First things first, make sure that you have the call asset enabled with your proper phone number in Google Ads, and have call tracking turned on. You'll need to check this in your account settings, and that you are tracking those calls as a primary conversion action.

The call asset, like all assets in Google Ads, is eligible to show with Responsive Search ads, but not guaranteed to show with Responsive Search ads. However, there are a few things you can do to make it more likely that you'll get phone calls.

Of course, it all starts with the foundation, which is your conversion tracking. You'll want to make sure that calls from ads or calls from your website are set as the primary conversion action and that everything else is set to secondary. That tells Google that your goal out of your RSAs is phone calls. 

Next, you'll want to make sure that you're using a conversion-based bid strategy to really nudge that algorithm to know that the thing you want is phone calls. Start with Maximize Conversions if you need to, transition to Target CPA once you're averaging about one phone call a day. Episode 34 of this podcast from September 2024 is all about how to change bid strategy, if you want to go check that out.

Then, start adding Responsive Search ads to your ad groups with Call ads if you don't have them already. You can still run RSAs alongside your Call ads, but starting to test Responsive Search ads now is going to give you the time and runway you need to have plenty of opportunity to optimize and get them working for you.

I actually just wrote an article for Search Engine Land all about how to create great Responsive Search ads, so I will include that link in the episode description.

I also have some amazing lessons on this topic in my Inside Google Ads course, including guest lessons from Amy Hebdon, who, if you're not familiar with, is the RSA queen. If you are a current or aspiring Inside Google Ads course member, I'll include that link in the episode description as well. 

The moral of the story is that if you're currently running RSAs and Call ads, then you're well positioned. But if you're only running Call ads now, start launching those RSAs so you're not blindsided in 2027.

2. Video campaigns for conversion

The next Google Ads feature that was recently deprecated is Video campaigns for conversion. At any given time, these may have been called TrueView for Action, Video Action Campaigns, VAC, or Drive Conversions Video Campaigns.

So the bad news is now, if you're running a Video campaign in Google Ads, you can only run it on a reach objective or a views objective. However, we have Demand Gen campaigns now. So if you want to run your Video ads on a conversion objective, you just need to select Demand Gen instead of Video, make sure you choose conversions as your goal, and then add video assets, and you're ready to go.

There are some pros and cons to this transition.

One of the biggest pros is that now you can exclude Video Partners. When you run a Demand Gen campaign, you have the option for your Video ads to serve on YouTube, Discovery, and Gmail, and the Google Display Network. So make sure you don't do the Google Display Network. Definitely do YouTube. And I recommend if you're just getting started, leave Discover and Gmail on as well, because video assets are eligible to show there.

When Video Conversion campaigns were an option, you were forced to be opted into Video Partners. So it's great to have that choice to opt out of them, because if you want to run Video ads for conversions, you have to do it through Demand Gen. That also means you can use Lookalike segments for video, which is pretty nice. 

Now, one of the potential downsides of this living in Demand Gen versus living in Video is that Demand Gen campaigns only support audience targeting, whereas Video campaigns let you use audience targeting or content targeting. However, Conversion Video campaigns, when they existed, didn't let you use content targeting anyway. So in my opinion, that's not a huge loss. 

All in all, I actually think Demand Gen is a true upgrade, unlike a lot of other times that Google likes to use that word. But if you want to use content targeting, for example, picking specific video placements, then you're going to have to run a Video campaign instead on views or reach objectives.

I will usually recommend running a Video Views campaign rather than a Video Reach campaign because at least with a view, someone is watching or engaging with your video in some way. And that means you can build a remarketing list of video viewers and target that out of your other campaign types to potentially drive conversion.

Also remember that even if you do run a Demand Gen video campaign on a conversion objective, it's unlikely that someone who has never heard of your business before and sees your video ad for the first time is just going to magically convert. You should definitely think about what your expectations are from your video ads versus image ads versus search ads.

Search ads on a conversion objective, virtually always. But Video ads on a conversion objective, virtually never. I recommend either a Video Views campaign to try to engage people, or putting video ads in a Demand Gen campaign, but then putting it on a click-based bid strategy. Because even getting someone to click from your video ad means they are choosing to leave YouTube or Discover or Gmail and come to your website instead. That is a huge win. And then again, they'll be part of your website remarketing and you can try to engage them later on via other campaign types or formats.

However, if you do still want to be running Video campaigns with a conversion goal, just choose Demand Gen instead of Video in the campaign setup and you're good to go.

3. Combined segments

Last but not least today, we will talk about Combined segments. A Combined Segment is that part of Google Ads where you can stack or layer different audiences together with an and, or, or not relationship.

Episode 24 of this podcast from July 2024 is all about audience layering if you do want to go deeper on this topic. And of course, I cover it in my bestselling book about audience targeting as well. I'll include both those links in the episode description.

While Combined segments do still exist in Google Ads, you can barely use them. As of right now, you can only use a Combined Segment in a Display campaign or in a Search campaign. Now, the use case for layering a Combined Segment on top of Search is pretty limited. So essentially, practically, Combined segments are only available for Display campaigns. 

So what if you want to do really specific targeting for a Demand Gen campaign or a Video campaign?

Your best bet is going to be Custom segment. In a Demand Gen campaign, I recommend starting with a Custom segment based on search terms. You're going to build that Custom segment and put in the top 20 to 30 search terms from your existing Search or Shopping campaigns, and then target those same people as they're doing other things online. It's essentially a way to create your own In-market Segment or create your own Affinity Segment based on your exact needs. 

Now, in a Video campaign, if you want to do this exact same thing, you can, but it's called a custom search term. Why? Who knows why, but you're going to go in your Video campaign, whether it's a reach- or views-based campaign, and then you're going to enter custom search terms. Again, I recommend 20 to 30, maybe up to 50 of your best search terms from your Search or Shopping campaigns and target those exact same people on YouTube as they're watching videos and doing other things online.

You can also create Custom segments based on the types of websites people visit or the types of apps they use, but I find the search term capability in a Custom segment is generally the best starting point and the best performing.

Another option you have in Video campaigns, but not Demand Gen, is placements. It's the only kind of content targeting I'll regularly use. You can look up your competitors or your complements in your industry and place your ads on their YouTube videos. You have to select at least 10 videos or channels. So I generally recommend choosing at least 10 channels, if not 20 to be in there as content targeting.

And then if you add both audience targeting and content targeting to a Video campaign, that has an OR relationship. So for example, if they have to be on the business professionals Affinity Segment AND you're placing ads on 10 specific YouTube channels you want. However, within audience targeting, it's an OR relationship, and within content targeting, it's an OR relationship. So let's say you add two Affinity segments, “avid investors” and “business professionals.” That means the user has to belong to “avid investors” or “business professionals,” and then meet one of the content targeting requirements. So that really is the closest capability we now have in Google Ads to a Combined Segment outside of using a Combined Segment in a Display campaign.

While it may feel like a big loss to not be able to use Combined segments anymore, I'm confident that you can get similar or even better results by building your own search term-based Custom segment.

The moral of the story is this: Google Ads is constantly changing. We're getting new features, they're taking features away, but the ability to use Google Ads to drive results for your business, that's still there. 

As I've said many times before, and I'll repeat again, the key is to figure out how to work with the system rather than against the system so that both you and Google can get great business results. Because remember, yes, Google obviously wants you to spend more, but Google only makes money when people engage with your ads.

So work with the system, leverage the features that are available to you to reach your ideal customers with an ad that's engaging to them. So they will engage with it. Google makes money. You get new customers. Everyone wins.

Today's Insider Challenge is this. One popular Google Ads feature that was deprecated a few years ago now is Similar Audiences. Now, there are a lot of different ways to get similar results, but not the exact same. So tell me, what's your favorite similar segments replacement?

I'll share a few of my ideas in the next episode.

Last Episode's Challenge, Episode 88, was this. Let's say you have a client you've been working with for some time and you just have not been able to get good results for them no matter what. After looking at the framework I shared in the last episode, analyzing their CPC, conversion rate and actual conversion rate, you look at their CAC and you now know what the issue is. The customer acquisition cost that you're getting is about three times what the business owner would need in order to be profitable. What do you do? How do you communicate this to the client? Do you try to solve the problem or do you maybe fire them as a client? 

I said when I introduced this challenge in Episode 88, this is as much a Google Ad skills challenge as it is a client communication challenge.

So the first thing I would do is communicate to the client. I would show them very clearly what the CPC is, the conversion rate, the CAC and how that relates to their goals. I would then use my judgment to determine if I think we could lower CPCs enough to meet their goals and/or increase conversion rate enough to meet their goals.

If you don't have a good feel for what CPCs could or should be in the industry, you can use Keyword Planner in Google Ads to get a sense of that.

And then if you don't have a good sense of what conversion rate can or should be, some general benchmarks I can give you for e-commerce businesses, you're looking for at least 2%, ideally more like 4% to 5%. For service-based businesses where a conversion is a lead and not an actual purchase, I would say your goal should be about a 10% conversion rate for a form fill or a phone call. For best in class I usually see more like 15%.

So let's say that given current CPCs your client would need a 25% conversion rate. That's just not going to happen. 

Or let's say given the current conversion rate, CPCs need to be $0.10, that's also not going to happen. 

So, if I just don't see it happening that CPC and conversion rate put together are going to equal an affordable customer acquisition cost, then I would fire them as a client and let them know what I think they need to work on. If I knew someone I could refer them to to help them, maybe I'd do that.

If I do think, however, that it's possible to pull these levers and get things working the way they need them to, I would share that with the client, but let them know there's no guarantees and see if they're on board to ride that wave with me, or if they prefer to replace me with someone else who can make a bigger promise than I can.

Knowing when to say no and turn down a client is just as important to your business as knowing when to say yes and take on a new client. 

What about you? Would you do something similar or something different? 

I'm Jyll Saskin Gales and I'll see you next time Inside Google Ads.