Search Engine Land’s year-end roundup of the top PPC expert columns highlights how pay-per-click advertising evolved through 2025 — and what matters most as we head into 2026. Danny Goodwin’s recap catalogues the ideas that resonated with practitioners: automation, cleaner attribution, headline-generative AI, tighter search term controls, and a renewed focus on unified search strategies.
What topped the list
Goodwin’s roundup (“PPC didn’t stand still in 2025. It adjusted.”) points to ten columns that together map the most pressing challenges and opportunities for advertisers. The most-read pieces covered topics advertisers are grappling with right now: whether small businesses can still compete in Google Ads, how to adapt bidding and match strategies amid automation, CPC inflation, performance differences between Performance Max and standard Shopping campaigns, and best practices for ad copy using generative AI.
Key themes advertisers must address
Across the ten columns, several consistent recommendations emerged. First, automation and Smart Bidding require reliable, high-quality input signals — clean conversion tags, well-structured product feeds, and clear audience definitions. Second, campaign structure and channel control matter more than ever: Performance Max can drive scale, but standard Shopping and segmented brand campaigns still provide visibility and attribution clarity. Third, creative and copy remain differentiators; generative AI speeds production, but human review is essential to maintain relevance and compliance.
- Automation and Smart Bidding: Automation is now table stakes. Many columns recommend providing higher-quality signals (conversion tagging, audience signals, and clean feed data) so automated systems can perform better.
- Channel and campaign control: With tools like Performance Max taking broader sweeps across placements, marketers are re-evaluating where to keep branded traffic, when to run standard Shopping, and how to segment campaigns to measure incrementality.
- CPC inflation and efficiency: Rising click costs require smarter filters — more precise search term filtering and stricter negative keyword hygiene.
- Generative AI for ad copy: Writers and advertisers are using AI to scale ad creative, but authors warn against blindly trusting generator outputs without brand and compliance checks.
- Data accuracy and conversion tracking: Several experts cautioned against relying on delayed or misaligned data sources as primary signals for Smart Bidding — a point echoed in practical guidance about GA4 and native Google Ads conversions.
Why these trends matter
These recurring themes are not just observations — they directly affect ROI. When bids and budget allocation are left to automated systems, the marginal value of manual bidding declines. Instead, teams win by improving the inputs: better tagging reduces signal delay; cleaner product data reduces wasted spend in Shopping; focused creative increases relevance and Quality Score signals. The combined effect of better inputs is more predictable automated performance and lower wasted spend.
For example, CPC inflation has forced many advertisers to focus less on volume and more on profitable conversion rates. Columns that examined CPC trends offered benchmarking approaches and immediate tactics — like shifting more budget to lower-funnel audience segments and tightening search term filters to exclude high-cost, low-value queries.
Practical campaign structure changes
Practical takeaways from the top columns include: separate brand campaigns for clear incrementality measurement; test standard Shopping against Performance Max with product-level attribution; and avoid over-pinning RSA assets so that Google has room to combine headlines and descriptions effectively. These are not theoretical changes — several contributors shared case studies and test results showing measurable lift when these structural adjustments were made.
Actionable next steps
Use this checklist to operationalize the year’s lessons:
- Audit your primary conversion source. If your Google Ads account uses imported GA4 events as the main conversion, test running the native Google Ads tag or a server-side solution for more timely signals. Delays in conversion import can materially harm Smart Bidding performance.
- Segment branded terms. Keep brand traffic in a separate campaign when measuring incrementality to avoid over-crediting broad automation-driven campaigns.
- Clean up search term noise. Apply the top search term filters and negative keyword rules to reduce wasted spend quickly. Start with the highest-spend queries and work backward.
- Standard Shopping vs Performance Max test plan. Run controlled experiments to compare cost-per-acquisition and attribution clarity at the product-group level.
- Use generative AI as a drafting tool, not the final asset. Implement a review checklist for compliance, brand voice, and landing page relevance to prevent poor-performing or non-compliant copy from running live.
- Invest in feed and tagging hygiene. A clean Merchant Center feed and server-side tagging are high-leverage investments; they reduce friction for automation and improve the signal-to-noise ratio for Smart Bidding.
Analysis: organizational shifts and staffing
The expertise that drives PPC success is shifting. Expect fewer manual optimizers and more roles focused on data engineering, feed management, creative ops, and measurement. Team structures that emphasize cross-functional collaboration between paid search, analytics, and product teams will find it easier to provide consistent inputs to automated systems. That shift is why uniting SEO and PPC strategies — another theme on the list — has practical merit: shared intent signals and aligned landing pages improve both paid and organic outcomes.
As Danny Goodwin summarized, “PPC didn’t stand still in 2025. It adjusted.” That adjustment requires organizations to do the same.
Attribution and further reading
This post synthesizes Search Engine Land’s roundup: “Top 10 PPC expert columns of 2025 on Search Engine Land” by Danny Goodwin. For deeper tactical guidance, see Sarah Vlietstra’s “5 Google Ads tactics to drop in 2026,” which provides a practical list of outdated tactics and alternatives.
Direct quotes used here are attributed below.
Quote from the Search Engine Land roundup: “PPC didn’t stand still in 2025. It adjusted.” — Danny Goodwin, Search Engine Land, https://searchengineland.com/top-10-ppc-expert-columns-2025-466637
Quote from an additional source: “Don’t fight the machine — feed it.” — Sarah Vlietstra, Search Engine Land, https://searchengineland.com/google-ads-tactics-to-drop-464123
Original roundup: https://searchengineland.com/top-10-ppc-expert-columns-2025-466637
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