The performance marketer’s guide to search advertising

Things are always changing in search advertising, but right now, the ‘shifting landscape’ feels more like an earthquake. Performance marketers face rising costs with CPC inflation, stricter ad rank thresholds and hidden ad spend inefficiencies. These things are likely draining your budget.

AI-powered search interfaces and declining ad inventory are reshaping how your ads appear (or don’t appear). Changes to the search user interface (UI) mean a query like “marketing analytics” might now show AI-driven summative answers at the top of search results, leaving organic results (and potentially your paid ads) in the dust.

Shrinking SERP real estate and rising competition

It’s not just AI summaries pushing you down the page. The number of top-of-page ad slots is shrinking, and Google is increasingly populating SERPs with rich formats: product listing ads, sitelinks, image extensions and other features that eat up real estate. Performance Max campaigns often prioritize these surfaces, but to actually appear there, your ad assets need to be strong. In highly competitive SERPs, even placement quality matters, so make sure your headlines, descriptions and creatives are optimized to win top visibility. It’s not enough to just show up. You need to show up well.

As Google experiments with AI Mode (where users engage in longer, more conversational queries), advertisers should consider how their copy, headlines and extensions align with this more exploratory search behavior. If your assets aren’t built to echo the structure and tone of these deeper, intent-driven queries, you risk becoming irrelevant, even if your ad is technically served.

Those are just a few of 2025’s biggest challenges. The real question: what can you do about them?

Take back control in a machine-learning-driven platform

Before we dive into tactics, let’s get a clear view of the road ahead. Today’s search landscape is full of landmines, from blurry match types and sloppy placements to questionable bidding defaults, data gaps and neglected landing pages. If you’re not steering carefully, it’s easy to overspend and underdeliver.

In the sections that follow, we break down the biggest challenges performance marketers face in search advertising today and how to take back control where it counts.

How to navigate the major challenges in search 

Whether it’s change or increasing complexity, your search campaigns have a few obstacles to overcome before they can achieve the results you want. These are some of the biggest challenges in search advertising that should be on your radar right now.

1. Google Ads match types 

Here’s the deal: match type updates are changing how search engines interpret queries from online users, favoring broader intent. While that might seem fine, after all you've been dealing with algorithm changes for years, these changes reduce your control over ad triggers. The risk? Spending on ad groups that don't lead to conversions.

Google Ads match types define how search queries will trigger ads. These existing match types are: 

• Broad match: With this type, ads show for related searches, including synonyms and loosely connected terms, which can increase your reach but at the risk of relevance.
• Phrase match: Ads appear for searches that contain the keyword’s meaning, giving you moderate control.
• Exact match: Designed to give you the most control with ads displaying for queries with the exact meaning as the keyword, giving you the most precision.

Changes to match types mean you’re spending more money for search traffic that won’t convert. 

So, what’s changing? 

Phrase match has drifted closer to broad match, meaning your ads may now show for queries with only a loose connection to your intent. That adds risk and can lead to higher spend without results.

Here’s how that plays out in practice: you might have noticed recently that, for example, Google might prioritize terms like “Hubspot Report” when you’re targeting something like “marketing reporting tool.” 

This happens because their algorithm is leaning more heavily on the query intent of internet users, focusing on broader relevance. 

Why is this a problem? While this might get you clicks, it often mismatches what a prospect is looking for versus what you're offering. That disconnect hurts your ad quality and means lower click-through rates (CTR), poorer Quality Scores and potentially higher costs per click (CPC). 

It’s a reminder that search is getting trickier to control and demands more precise strategies to stay relevant. A standard understanding of how to navigate a Google Ads account and unexamined search campaigns isn’t going to cut it. 

What can you do about it? 

• Analyze search terms reports to uncover which queries trigger your ads and spot wasted spend.
• Better yet, try N-gram analysis (sheet AND script) to break down search terms and find patterns linked to high-converting intent so you can better match for those terms.
• Adapt to match type changes by identifying costly, irrelevant traffic through actionable insights.
• Refine your keywords and use negative keywords to exclude search terms.

Focusing on insights will help you avoid spending a lot of money on non-converting traffic.

That’s not the only area where control is slipping through the cracks: your ad placements may be quietly wasting budget, too.

2. Display placements

With display network opt-in, you’re letting Google decide where your search ads appear. Here’s the problem: search ads perform best on search engine results pages (SERPs). When you opt into the display network, Google often places your ads outside of search results, on websites or apps with minimal relevance.

Sure, it might broaden your reach slightly, but at what cost? You’ll end up paying more for low-quality placements and audiences that don’t engage.

You’ve got to take control here to avoid issues. Monitor where your ads are showing and prioritize relevance to protect your budget.

Think we’re exaggerating? We’ve seen Google spend the majority of our budget on app placements during limited periods, amounting to huge costs without any ad performance at all.

Imagine your ad is placed in an irrelevant app during the hours people typically don’t use it. It’s enough to make your stomach drop — and your ROAS. 

Watch for hidden spend in Search Partners

And while you’re reviewing placements, don’t forget about Google Search Partners.

Which tools can you use? 

To get your hands back on the steering wheel, tweak your Google Ads setup:

• Use custom columns to track spend distribution and identify ineffective placements.
• Do the same for ad spend distribution between ad networks.
• You can also create custom formulas and make the most of available functions to optimize your data on-platform.

Small Google Ads account changes can put you back in control. 

Here are some examples of what you can do:

• Create custom columns to track CTR, conversion rate or ROAS specifically for display placements
• Use custom columns to identify low-quality placements that drain your budget.
• Measure engagement metrics like time on site or bounce rate from display traffic.
• Optimize your placements, bids and targeting based on the insights you gather from custom column data.

The way you stay ahead of the changes is to keep on top of the numbers as if your entire budget depends on it. Because it does.

3. Data 

Third-party data is losing its reliability. With cookie depreciation and tightening privacy regulations, tracking has become a major challenge. That leads to data gaps, weakened algorithms and underperforming campaigns.

It’s tempting to think this means you have less data to work with. But in reality, you still have data; you just need to use it better.

That said, not all first-party data strategies are created equal. If your CRM and conversion tracking aren’t fully integrated, even first-party data can fall short. To make it truly actionable, you need to ensure clean tagging, server-side tracking (like Meta’s CAPI) and offline conversion imports are part of your setup.

One tool that’s becoming central in this ecosystem is Google Analytics 4 (GA4). As Google phases out older models of attribution and measurement, GA4 gives you the framework to connect your owned data to ad platforms in a privacy-compliant way, with stronger cross-device tracking and event-level detail.

What you can do now:

• Audit your data integrations: Are you feeding conversion signals back into your platforms?
• Ensure your CRM, analytics and ad platforms are linked and communicating clearly.
• Use tools like GA4, HubSpot and CAPI to build a durable measurement foundation in a post-cookie world.
  
  

Privacy doesn’t have to mean less performance, just smarter strategy.

Even with cleaner, privacy-safe data in place, you still need to make sure that traffic lands somewhere built to convert. That’s where landing pages come in.

4. Landing pages

Let’s face it: landing pages are often the neglected stepchild of paid search. But here’s the problem: if your landing pages don’t align with the intent behind your keywords, i.e., commercial versus informational, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Ads drive the clicks, but landing pages close the deal.

Even if you don’t directly own the landing page experience, you can’t afford to ignore it. Partner closely with your content, web and UX teams to make sure each page supports the campaign’s goals. If you’re targeting commercial intent, the page should be optimized to convert, featuring clear CTAs, compelling offers and focused copy. If you’re targeting informational intent, deliver value first — build trust, demonstrate relevance and guide the next step.

Leaving this to another team without strategic alignment is a sure way to waste spend and frustrate your audience. Make it your job to connect the dots between campaign strategy and what users actually experience post-click.

Here’s a quick checklist to guide landing page collaboration:

• Does the messaging match the keyword’s intent?
• Are CTAs clear and conversion-ready?
• Is the page mobile-optimized and fast-loading?
• Are the value props above the fold?
• Do stakeholders know the goal of the campaign?
  
  

When your landing pages support your targeting and ad creative, your entire funnel gets stronger, and your ROI shows it.

How to respond to recent Google ad changes

If that weren’t enough, Google has been tinkering a lot lately. Here are the best practices and strategies you can use to ensure the search engine’s latest moves work in your favor.

1. The PMax black hole

From the beginning, PMax has been a black hole where you insert assets, budget and targeting and lose most insights. Recently, Google has been adding more control to PMax in response to user requests.

Google’s new Performance Max updates offer up some handy new tools like asset-level conversion tracking and impression share reporting, giving you clearer insights to optimize smarter over time.

Google has also rolled out more granular channel-level reporting for PMax, allowing you to see how each surface (Search, Display, YouTube, Shopping) performs. Use this to reallocate budget more effectively and focus on what drives actual results.

But don’t just set it and forget it. Automation can still go rogue, wasting budget on mismatched placements if you’re not watching closely. Check your campaigns regularly, clean up underperforming placements and keep them aligned with your goals.

These updates are useful, but they’re not a silver bullet. Stay sharp, keep tweaking and make them work for you. 

Of course, automation isn’t limited to campaign types. Google’s bidding strategies have also evolved, and they’re pushing advertisers toward even more reliance on machine decisions.

2. Bidding strategy 

Google’s been busy reshuffling bidding strategies, nudging advertisers toward automated options. Target ROAS and Target CPA have been folded into Maximize strategies, and Enhanced CPC (eCPC) is being phased out. Starting in October 2024, new campaigns can’t use eCPC — and by March 2025, existing ones will be forced into Manual CPC or automation.

There’s no question: automation simplifies campaign management. It uses machine learning to adjust bids in real time based on signals like user intent, device and time of day. And when you’ve got strong, accurate conversion data feeding the algorithm, strategies like Target ROAS and Maximize Conversions can outperform manual bidding.

But that’s a big if.

Automation is only as smart as the data you give it. If your conversion tracking is patchy or if your campaigns are structured too broadly, it’ll optimize based on flawed or incomplete signals. That often leads to inflated costs, irrelevant clicks and missed goals.

How to stay in control:

• Test automated bidding against manual CPC or hybrid setups to benchmark performance.
• Feed the algorithm clean signals: track conversions accurately and integrate offline data if relevant.
• Segment your campaigns logically so automation can find meaningful patterns.
• Set clear bid caps and return thresholds to avoid runaway spend.
  
  

Use automation as a tool, not a shortcut. When it’s fed the right data and structure, it can drive serious performance. But left unchecked, it’s just another way to lose control.

3. Account structure: simplified ≠ smarter

Google’s been nudging advertisers toward simplified, consolidated account structures: broad match keywords, fewer campaigns and blended audience segments. That might work for machine learning, but simplification isn’t always your friend.

Take SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups), for example. While they’ve fallen out of favor, there’s still value in tight segmentation, especially when your goal is message control, funnel mapping or intent-based optimization.

Even if you’re moving toward automation, your structure should still reflect how your audience buys. Segment by funnel stage, value prop or keyword intent — not just by campaign budget or ad type.

Simplify for scale, but don’t flatten your funnel. Smart segmentation still delivers sharper insights, better relevance and more meaningful control, even in an automated world.

4. Settings Google doesn’t want you to notice

Google Ads loves to make things look simple, but simplicity often comes at the expense of control. Many default or tucked-away settings are designed to broaden your targeting, loosen your guardrails and quietly siphon off your ad budget.

Take geo-targeting, for example. By default, Google shows your ads to “People in, or who show interest in, your targeted location.” Sounds helpful, right? But it often backfires. Someone researching travel could trigger ads meant for locals, wasting your budget on irrelevant clicks. Instead, switch to “People in or regularly in your targeted locations” to tighten your reach and preserve relevance.

It doesn’t stop there. Hidden under layers of UI “helpfulness,” you’ll also find broad match defaults, auto-applied recommendations, search partner opt-ins and max bidding strategies all quietly working in the background. Each one hands over a little more of your control — and a little more of your spend — to Google.

These settings aren’t just fine print. They shape how your ads are served, where your money goes and how effective your campaigns really are.

What to do about it:

• Manually review your campaign settings; don’t assume the defaults are working in your favor.
• Switch to presence-based geo-targeting for tighter local control.
• Disable search partner opt-ins if they’re not delivering ROI.
• Opt out of auto-applied recommendations that don’t align with your goals.
• Revisit bidding strategies and confirm whether they match your campaign intent.

Small tweaks here can plug massive leaks in your budget. Don’t let convenience trade away your control.

How to overcome B2C and B2B search advertising differences

The differences between B2C and B2B search advertising couldn’t be clearer.

Here’s the challenge: using the same platform for both can feel like fitting a square peg into a round hole. 

Google’s automation and defaults are geared toward B2C, with broad targeting and streamlined settings that often fail to meet the nuanced needs of B2B. 

Heavy customization, essential for B2B campaigns, becomes frustratingly tedious. And in B2B, every missed target matters more, making the lack of granular control even more painful.

If you’re running B2B campaigns, you can’t rely on defaults. Push past the platform’s limitations, customize aggressively and focus on targeting the accounts that contribute to growth. It’s more work, but it’s the only way to be sure your strategy will deliver.

Take control of your ad spend with insights

Google is applying more and more machine learning under the guise of increasing your marketing efficiency. With that said, a lot of functions and settings are nudging advertisers (especially inexperienced ones) toward spending more money, but they’re not squeezing out more performance.

That’s why active campaign management isn’t optional anymore. If you’re not regularly reviewing placements, match types, bidding strategies and data integrations, machine learning will spend your budget, but not necessarily in your best interest.

Stay in the pilot’s chair. Take advantage of the available settings and tools so you can stay in control of your budget.

Start today by auditing your campaigns: review your match types, search term reports, placements and bidding strategies. The sooner you fine-tune what’s working (and cut what’s not), the more you’ll protect performance and regain control in a platform that’s built to take it away.