Latest Google Ads Updates — And What They Mean for You

With all the updates coming in from Google Ads it’s easy to get lost. Most of them don’t really impact you, and the others are in beta. But let’s take a few recent updates that, in my opinion, can help you out a lot.

You might have heard about them; at least, I hope you have.

 

RSA’s as Sitelinks

You know how you can have up to 14 headlines, but not all are used all the time. So, Google decided to show some of them as sitelinks.

 

 

For the most part, it’s self-explanatory. But let’s talk about a few things here.

First, the headlines will be shown only if they are predicted to improve performance. So you don’t have any control over that.

Second, only two headlines will be used.

Third, the link for that “sitelinke”, will be the main URL you provided with the ad.

 

It all seems good. However, there is one thing you have to have in mind. Since now the headlines can appear as a sitelink, you have to rethink your headlines. Your headlines have to make sense with them displayed as sitelinks.

Even in the example above, Google ads a headline “Free shipping on Laptops” as a sitelink. That headline makes total sense as a headline, but as a sitelink you would expect it to go to a page, that sort of is about free shipping. Like a policy page, or a landing page with all the laptops that have free shipping.

I maybe reaching too far. But you can see where it might become a problem.

In general, headlines are a sort of marketing text, whereas sitelinks are more of additional information with a dedicated link. In most cases, it won’t matter. But my recommendation is just to go over your headlines, and just imagine them being a sitelink and think if that makes sense.

In other words, be more mindful when creating headlines.

 

 

Negative keywords in PMax

This is an amazing update. First, Google said it will have up to a 1000 keywords. Now it’s up to 10 000.

The downside is that you can’t use negative keyword lists (for now).

Here’s what you should do as soon as possible if you have Performance Max campaigns running.

• Exclude your brand keywords
• Go through your search campaign’s negative keyword list and copy the keywords that also apply to PMax. Add them to your campaigns
• Go through search campaigns on the campaign or ad group level and also pick the ones that can be applied to Pmax
• Go to PMax search terms and check if there are keywords that can be excluded. Use scripts to find more.

 

PMax can drive a lot of traffic from your Search themes signals. You have to make sure that all that search traffic is relevant.

 

 

Update to Google Display ads

Google Dosplay Network or GDN was for most part crap. It’s mostly used as a remarketing campaign. Just for cold audience it does not produce good results, most like due to a lot of spam and bot traffic. However, Google is not giving up on it.

• New inventory added → including Connected TV (CTV) partners like:

  • TelevisaUnivision

  • MLB

  • FOX News

• GDA now also available within Demand Gen campaigns → early testers saw +16% lift in conversions.

It also updated its AI image generation to help any businesses that don’t have designers quickly create images.

 

If you have additional budget and have already tested PMax and Demand Gen, you could run a display campaign as well. The only thing I ask is to exclude certain placements, like apps, sensitive content, and maybe even some YouTube channels. I have a separate blog post about placement exclusions.

 

Performance Max gets smarter with customer lifecycle features

Google Ads is rolling out new customer lifecycle tools in Performance Max — giving you more control over how you bid for new vs. existing customers.

 

What’s new?

→ Retention Goals are now available to everyone. This means you can bid more aggressively to win back lapsed or high-value former customers.

→ Customer Acquisition Reporting is also expanding. In “new customer only” or “new customer value” modes, you’ll now see a dedicated column showing Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) directly in your reports.

 

Why it matters:

For lapsed customers: Target and prioritize high-value past buyers more effectively.

For new customers: Track acquisition costs with more precision and optimize accordingly.

For creatives: New image editing tools in PMax make it easier to test and customize your ad visuals.

 

I think these changes will definitely affect many advertisers, and for now, I think Google is heading in the right direction.

There are also other things in the pipeline for PMax (sorry for the poor quality). If all will see the daylight it could be a great year for PMax.