Google Ads’ July 2026 Terms of Service update is more than legal housekeeping. It reflects where paid media has already been heading: more campaign setup, asset generation, targeting, and optimization handled through AI-powered tools. Google’s…

Google announced new Performance Max steering and reporting updates in March, and the direction is worth paying attention to. Performance Max has always promised efficient reach across Google inventory, but advertisers have often asked for…

In February, Google expanded beta access to text guidelines for advertisers using AI Max for Search and Performance Max campaigns. The update gives advertisers a way to steer AI-generated ad text using plain-language rules, exclusions,…

June 30, 2022 marked the end of creating or editing expanded text ads in Google Ads. Existing expanded text ads could continue serving, but responsive search ads became the main path for new search ad…

In February 2021, Google announced changes to phrase match and broad match modifier that reshaped how many advertisers built search campaigns. Broad match modifier behavior was folded into phrase match, and advertisers were pushed toward…

In September 2020, Google Ads began limiting search terms reporting for queries that did not meet a threshold of significance, citing privacy. Advertisers quickly noticed that some paid search spend became harder to inspect at…

In February 2019, Google Ads announced that average position would be retired later that year. For many advertisers, average position had been a familiar shorthand for where ads appeared. The replacement metrics, such as top…

In September 2018, Google Ads expanded exact match close variants to include searches with the same meaning or intent. Exact match was no longer simply about matching the precise words in a keyword. Google’s machine…

On July 24, 2018, Google AdWords became Google Ads. The new name reflected a platform that had expanded far beyond search keywords into display, video, shopping, app campaigns and automated campaign types. Google also introduced…