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Google Ads

Google Ads is Google’s advertising platform. You pay to show ads across Google, including Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps, and on Search you are charged for a click rather than for appearing. Every search runs an auction that weighs your bid against the quality of your ad and landing page, and in 2026 Google’s AI does more of the targeting, bidding and ad writing, steered by the conversion data you send back.

By Gareth Puckey Google Ads and GA4 certified Updated 23 sources 3 guides

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads is where a business buys advertising on Google. You start with a goal, such as sales, leads or website traffic, and choose a campaign type to match it. For lead generation, three parts of the platform do most of the work: Search campaigns, Performance Max and, since 2025, AI Max for Search. All of them run on the same auction. Online shops add Shopping ads, which run in Shopping or Performance Max campaigns and are built from a Merchant Center product feed rather than keywords, showing a product photo, title, price and shop name before anyone clicks.

How the auction works

When someone searches, Google runs an auction for each ad location on the page and calculates an Ad Rank for every ad that could show: first to decide whether it is eligible at all, then to decide where it sits. Google lists six inputs: your bid, the quality of your ad and landing page, minimum Ad Rank thresholds, how competitive the auction is, the context of the search (the words used, location, device, time) and the expected impact of assets such as sitelinks and phone numbers.

Two consequences matter for your budget. Your bid is the most you will normally pay for a click, and you usually pay less: only what is needed to clear the thresholds and beat the Ad Rank of the advertiser below you. Quality also changes the price, because Google says higher quality ads can often lead to lower costs per click.

According to Google Ads Help, the Quality Score shown in your account is a 1 to 10 diagnostic built from expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Google states that it is not an input in the auction. The quality judgement that counts is made at the moment of each search, so treat Quality Score as a pointer to weak ads or pages rather than a target.

Search campaigns

Search campaigns show text ads on search results to people looking for what you offer. You choose keywords, and match types control how closely a search has to match them. Broad match is the default and can reach related searches that do not contain your words at all, while phrase and exact match are narrower. Google says it is critical to use Smart Bidding with broad match, because every query needs its own bid. Negative keywords do the opposite job: they stop your ads showing on searches you do not want.

Performance Max

Performance Max is a goal-based campaign type that reaches all Google Ads inventory from one campaign. You supply conversion goals, text, images, video and audience signals, and Google’s AI decides where each ad runs and who sees it. It works alongside Search: when a search is identical to an exact match keyword in a Search campaign, the Search campaign takes priority. In April 2025 Google announced channel performance and full search terms reporting for Performance Max, so you can now see which channels the spend and conversions came from.

AI Max for Search

Google launched AI Max for Search in May 2025 as a one-click set of features for ordinary Search campaigns. It has three parts. Search term matching extends your keywords with broad match and keywordless technology. Text customisation (formerly automatically created assets) writes extra headlines and descriptions. Final URL expansion can send people to whichever page on your site best fits their search. The controls include brand settings at campaign and ad group level and locations of interest for each ad group.

Google says advertisers who switch AI Max on typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar cost per acquisition or return on ad spend, based on its internal data for non-retail advertisers. That is Google’s average across its own customers, so test it on your account before you rely on it.

Smart Bidding

Behind all of this sits Smart Bidding: Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximise conversions and Maximise conversion value. These strategies use Google AI to set a bid in every auction, using signals such as device, location, time of day and the exact words searched. They aim at whatever you have told Google counts as a conversion. That one fact explains most of what follows on this page.

Why businesses still need Google Ads

People are already searching

The first reason is intent. Search ads reach people while they are searching for the products and services you offer. For a business that sells through enquiries, a search is about as close as you get to a customer putting their hand up, and you can be in front of them the same day.

Most UK searches happen on Google

The second is reach. In October 2025 the Competition and Markets Authority gave Google strategic market status in general search and search advertising, noting that more than 90% of searches in the UK take place on its platform. If your customers search before they buy, most of them are searching on Google.

Search is still growing

The third is that search is still growing while AI features spread through it. On 28 October 2026 Alphabet reported that Google Search and other revenue rose 12% year on year to $63.35 billion in the third quarter of 2026, and Sundar Pichai said query growth was the highest it had been in five years. Those are global figures and say nothing about your own results, but businesses are clearly still putting money into search.

It can be measured against sales

The fourth, and for lead generation the most important, is that Google Ads can be measured against sales rather than clicks. You can import offline conversions, such as a signed contract, and tie them back to the ad click that started the enquiry. I connect CRM data so that revenue can be traced back to marketing, and I have set out the method in getting offline sales back into Google Ads. Once sales flow back, you can judge each campaign on cost per sale and revenue.

My view is that this is why Google Ads still earns its budget. Few channels let you see what a specific search, ad and landing page produced in revenue.

Where Google Ads is heading (2026 onwards)

Everything in this section has been announced by Google or documented in its help pages. Where I give an opinion, I say so.

  1. AI Max becomes the standard for Search

    Google is folding older Search features into AI Max. Its April 2026 announcement, updated on 11 June 2026, says campaigns using automatically created assets and the campaign-level broad match setting are upgraded to AI Max automatically from September 2026. Dynamic Search Ads were originally on the same timetable, but Google moved the Dynamic Search Ads sunset and auto-upgrade to February 2027. Google also says AI Max campaigns using the full set of features see an average of 7% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS than those using search term matching alone (its internal 2026 data, non-retail advertisers).

    On 30 April 2026 Google announced AI Brief, which lets you steer AI Max in your own words, with guidelines for messaging, for which searches to prioritise or avoid, and for audiences. It is rolling out first to English-language AI Max for Search campaigns, with Performance Max and AI Max for Shopping to follow.

  2. Conversion data becomes the main input

    Measurement has changed as much as the campaigns. Google’s help centre says that since April 2026, enhanced conversions for web and for leads have been combined into one on/off setting. Google now calls GCLID-based offline conversion import a legacy feature and recommends enhanced conversions for leads, which also matches hashed customer data such as email addresses, ideally set up through Google Ads Data Manager. Google’s developer documentation says that from 15 June 2026, these uploads moved to the Data Manager API and fail in the Google Ads API unless the developer token was already sending them.

    For value-based bidding, Google asks for real values such as revenue, or a proxy such as a lead score, at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days at account level, and daily uploads for offline conversions. There is a deadline too: Google says offline conversions uploaded more than 90 days after the last click are not imported, and the limit for enhanced conversions for leads is 63 days.

    My view is that as targeting and creative become automated, the gap between two advertisers using the same tools will come down to the quality of the sales data each one feeds back.

  3. Ads inside AI search

    On 20 May 2026, Google said it is testing new ad formats in AI Mode, including ads that answer a person’s specific question and ads within AI Mode’s recommendation lists, all labelled “Sponsored”. Its advice was to build a foundation with AI Max for Search, AI Max for Shopping and Performance Max. On 28 October 2026 Google said it plans to expand ads in AI Mode to the United Kingdom in the fourth quarter of 2026, and that AI Mode queries are on average three times longer than traditional searches (its US data). The CMA has confirmed that AI Overviews and AI Mode are within the scope of its designation.

    My view is that longer, conversational searches will be harder to cover with keyword lists alone, which pushes more advertisers towards broad match and AI Max whether they like it or not.

  4. The controls are changing shape

    Manual levers still exist, but they are moving. Performance Max now has channel prioritisation: Google’s own surfaces are grouped together as “Google channels”, while Search partners and the Display Network can be given separate priority tiers and optional daily budget allocations. Negative keywords and brand exclusions are available at campaign level. Even the bid strategy names are following goals: Google says that from June 2026, “Maximize conversions with a Target CPA” is being relabelled simply “Target CPA”, with no change to how it bids.

    My view is that the day-to-day work is shifting from setting bids and keyword lists to setting inputs: which conversions count, what each is worth, which assets and pages the AI may use, and where it must not go.

Common Google Ads mistakes

Optimising to form fills

Smart Bidding optimises for conversions or conversion value, so it finds more of whatever you count. If every form fill counts the same, it has no way to tell a buyer’s enquiry from one that will never buy. Count the stages that lead to revenue, give them values and upload the sales.

Running broad match or AI Max without reading the search terms

Broad match and search term matching reach searches that do not contain your keywords, so read the search terms report every week. My weekly report lists terms that spent without converting, with suggested negatives, and checks for keywords blocked by conflicting negatives, because a negative in the wrong place can quietly block your best keyword.

Not checking where Performance Max shows your ads

Performance Max can serve on Display, which covers millions of websites and apps, as well as on Search and YouTube. My placement blocker reviews where Performance Max and display ads ran, Monday to Friday, and blocks junk apps, sites and videos on one shared list. The method is in blocking junk Performance Max placements.

Chasing Ad Strength and leaving AI text unchecked

Ad Strength rates the variety of your assets, and Google says it isn’t used to calculate Ad Rank, Quality Score or auction wins. Write from what has already sold, and check what Google writes for you: generated text is marked “Google AI” in the “Added by” column of asset reports, and with final URL expansion Google says you remain responsible for the accuracy of the landing pages and generated assets. I cover the process in writing ads from what already worked.

Showing ads outside the area you serve

Google recommends “Presence or Interest” location targeting as best practice on Search, which can reach people outside your target area who have shown interest in it. Google itself suggests “Presence” when you only want people in your chosen locations. If you can only deliver in one region, check this setting first.

How to get started with Google Ads

  1. Decide what counts. Work out which actions lead to sales (a qualified enquiry, a booked appointment, a signed order) and what each is worth. Set those up as conversions with enhanced conversions switched on.
  2. Capture the click and the customer. Make sure your forms pass the click ID and contact details into your CRM, so sales can be imported later through Data Manager.
  3. Start with Search. Build a Search campaign around searches with clear buying intent, write ads that answer what customers ask, and set locations to match where you can deliver.
  4. Review every week. Read the search terms, add negatives, look for conflicts and check placements if you run Performance Max. My automations run these checks every weekday, and a person checks the output.
  5. Move to value-based bidding when the data supports it. Once you have the 15 conversions in 30 days Google asks for, with values attached, try Maximise conversion value or Target ROAS, then test AI Max or Performance Max with your exclusions already in place.
  6. Judge on cost per sale. Upload sales from the CRM daily and compare campaigns on cost per sale and revenue rather than cost per lead.

Guides on Google Ads

Sources

23 sources, all opened and checked
  1. About Performance Max campaigns, Google Ads Help
  2. Choose the right campaign type, Google Ads Help
  3. About Ad Rank, Google Ads Help
  4. Actual cost-per-click (CPC): Definition, Google Ads Help
  5. About Quality Score for Search campaigns, Google Ads Help
  6. About keyword matching options, Google Ads Help
  7. About Smart Bidding, Google Ads Help
  8. Target ads to geographic locations, Google Ads Help
  9. About offline conversion imports, Google Ads Help
  10. Upgrade offline conversion import to enhanced conversion for leads, Google Ads Help
  11. Guidelines for importing offline conversions, Google Ads Help
  12. About Smart Bidding using value-based bidding for Search, Google Ads Help
  13. About Ad Strength for responsive search ads, Google Ads Help
  14. View reporting for text customization, Google Ads Help
  15. Manage offline conversions, Google Ads API documentation
  16. Introducing AI Max for Search campaigns, Google (6 May 2025)
  17. Channel performance reporting coming to Performance Max, Google (30 April 2025)
  18. Google’s Dynamic Search Ads are upgrading to AI Max, Google (15 April 2026, updated 11 June 2026)
  19. Steer performance with new AI Max features, Google (30 April 2026)
  20. New ad formats built with Gemini coming to Google Search, Google (20 May 2026)
  21. Ads in AI Mode expand to 10 new countries, Google (28 October 2026)
  22. CMA confirms Google has strategic market status in search services, Competition and Markets Authority (10 October 2025)
  23. Alphabet third quarter 2026 results (Form 8-K, exhibit 99.1), Alphabet Inc. via US SEC (28 October 2026)