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The Top Google Ads Trends for 2025 (+How to Take Action Now!)


What will be the big thing in online advertising this year? Everyone has a different forecast and it can be hard to cut through the noise and figure out what’s really important to prepare for. But one thing’s for sure: Google Ads is constantly changing, and it’s our job as advertisers to keep up with the times and make sure we’re getting the most out of our accounts.

For this article you need to know two things about me. First, I am a daily practitioner of Google Ads accounts. I manage them, hands-on, and I always have to make sure I’m pulling the right levers to see good performance for my clients’ accounts.

Second, I never win when I go to the casino. Because of this, I will not make specific predictions because they will probably be wrong. Instead, I’m going to talk about the things you should pay attention to and note in your accounts to make sure 2025 is a strong year for your Google Ads accounts using the tools and trends that have been developing over the past few years.

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Three main Google Ads trends that every advertiser should know for 2025

Here are three Google Ads trends you shouldn’t miss when considering your strategy for this year.

1. Google Ads Smart Bidding will become more important

There are two main ways that Google automation will affect your account in 2025. The first thing we’ll cover is Google’s Smart Bidding. Their machine learning algorithms are constantly becoming more complex and nuanced to make automated bidding better and better. You’re most likely already using some form of smart bidding, but in 2025 I suggest you pay attention to making those algorithms work as well as possible for you.

For example, are you currently using a conversion strategy? Can you test setting your target cost per acquisition (CPA) to better cost per conversion? Or, what about adding revenue or potential value to the system? That way you can take advantage target ROAS bidding not only do they generate conversions, but they do so with a certain level of profitability built in. Make sure you give Google as much information as possible to maximize performance.

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2. Advertisers will take advantage of AI-powered creative optimization

Another way Google’s automation will affect accounts in 2025 is through Powered by artificial intelligence creative optimization. Google continues to make many adjustments to help advertisers create compelling assets for their campaigns.

During 2024, they released a bunch of new features. For many types of campaigns, you can now let Google create all your elements for you, including text for titles and descriptions, but even images and videos with just simple text instructions like you’d use in other AI platforms.

google ad trends - AI ad generationgoogle ad trends - AI ad generation

Now in addition, advertisers have more control over their ads provided by AI.

For images, you can provide reference images that Google’s AI will use when creating new assets to help the system generate something consistent with your brand.

google ad trends - AI images google ad trends - AI images

For Performance Maxalthough not yet available on all accounts, you can now provide brand guidelines to tell Google which fonts and colors to use for everything brand-related in your campaigns to ensure a consistent look and feel.

Google Ads Trends - Screenshot Guidelines for Maximizing Brand PerformanceGoogle Ads Trends - Screenshot Guidelines for Maximizing Brand Performance

They even rolled video ad improvements which can help your ads fit into new spaces on the web. But be warned about this. While the image below looks great, not all videos will crop so easily to fit every space. My advice would still be to create new videos for each location, but if that’s not possible, you can at least try this option.

google ad trends - videogoogle ad trends - video

3. Privacy, compliance, cookies and first-party data will continue to be trending in Google Ads

Several years have passed since then GDPR made headlines in the advertising world, but that doesn’t mean privacy isn’t still top of mind at Google.

Although Google withdrew about its position to get rid of third-party cookies, this does not mean that the strategies resulting from that change are no longer relevant.

One of the biggest strategies to get out of that shift was the push for first party data (FPD). FPD was the best answer we could come up with for disabling third-party cookies, and it’s still valuable even with those cookies still in place.

First-party data is collected by the company directly from its customers when they engage with the brand. No intermediaries. This direct relationship makes the information provided by the user “clean” for the advertising business. The generation and use of this first-party data should still be on your mind as we move into 2025, I think we’re going to get more and more ways to leverage that not only in Google Ads but across all other platforms.

types of customer data sources, including first-party, second-party, and moretypes of customer data sources, including first-party, second-party, and more

In the same sense, consent method for cookies will be a priority and I expect we will get additional controls from Google to secure ours cookies are only set when legally permitted based on the user’s location and individual settings.

4. More insights and controls could emerge to meet advertiser demands

Google Ads has always been known as a platform with a lot of control and insight, but after launching new types of campaigns like Creating demand and Performance Max together with canceling match typessentiment has weakened slightly over the past few years. And for a reason.

With all that said, 2024 has seen many changes in Google releases to provide insights and controls that weren’t available before. Don’t get me wrong, they are nowhere near what we had in the past, but they are better than nothing.

In Performance Max alone, Google has provided a lot more performance insights such as audience affinity (seen below), as well as insight into asset performance.

google ad trends - screenshot of the insights reportgoogle ad trends - screenshot of the insights report

Additionally, we’ve gained the ability to not only see where our ads are appearing across all Google products and search partner networks, but we can now exclude specific placements at the account level.

Looking at search campaigns, we also got controls like brand inclusion and exclusion lists along with an updated function for spelling errors in negative keywords.

The common thread to all of this in my opinion?

User demand.

And I don’t mean user demand in Field of dreams the feeling of “If Google makes it, we’ll use it.”

I mean this in the sense that advertisers have been demanding that Google bring back insights and controls and, to our pleasant surprise, they are doing just that.

I think 2025 should be the year that we advertisers need to continue to make our voices heard and say what we want, and Google might pay attention to us.

How to act on these Google Ads trends in 2025

It’s good to talk about what we think will happen, but it doesn’t provide any specifics about how your daily life should change or stay the same. Below are the things I think advertisers should be doing in 2025 based on these four big trends.

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1. Invest in AI

No, I don’t mean to go out and buy shares in AI companies. I mean invest your time in testing new AI options it can help you work smarter, not harder. Test the toolsand see what works and what doesn’t. Use what you can and do the rest yourself. Don’t get stuck in 2005 and fight the computer. They are constantly getting better, and there is no doubt that your competition is also testing these tools and they are becoming more effective every day.

2. Prioritize your customer relationships

In a world of privacy concerns, first-party data will be king, and first-party data is only acquired with trust. Build a solid brand and make something your customers want to engage with. The information you get from them will help you communicate better with them, but it will also help you teach the machines (which you must be using based on the first suggestion) to find new customers and expand your base.

3. Remember: more data = better results

In the same way as investing in artificial intelligence, the more information you have in the Google Ads platform itself, the better Smart Bidding and other systems will be able to optimize for you. This includes using value for your conversions and opt-ins offline conversion data where possible. These algorithms are simple machines: good data in, good data out.

Use these Google Ads trends to your advantage in 2025

While the push for artificial intelligence, first-party data, more platform insights, and more may not be the most surprising Google Ads trends, these popular strategies for 2025 can be a reminder of how important it is to keep your account flexible. Your campaign priorities should change and adjust to stay ahead of what other advertisers in your industry may already be implementing. For more help managing the latest and greatest from Google Ads, see how our solutions can maximize your campaign performance regardless of emerging trends!



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