• by Laurie Sullivan , 7 hours ago

Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven insights are making search performance more predictable and fundamentally changing what search can do.

Google says this shift is largely attributable to user curiosity, as people move beyond simple keywords toward complex, highly specific queries.

On Monday, the company rolled out updates, which include expanding “Smart Bidding Exploration” to Performance Max and Shopping campaigns, a new “Promotion Mode” now in beta, as well as altering bidding target updates to better optimize for campaigns where budgets are controlled.

“Smart Bidding Exploration” will expand to help advertisers discover new search categories and find new customer segments to convert users and set a return on ad spend (ROAS).

By setting a ROAS tolerance, a Google Ads setting that defines the percentage by which a target ROAS can be lowered, advertisers have an opportunity to reach new users not reachable in the past who may convert.

Smart Bidding Exploration is being expanded to all Performance Max campaigns without a product feed, giving Performance Max campaigns the same ability to capture new unique users.

“Promotion mode” will allow marketers to temporarily adjust bidding strategies during high-traffic seasonal events or sales.

Starting August 17, and rolling out during the next few weeks, “Bidding target optimization” will be updated to deliver more predictable performance campaigns with fixed spending limits.

If campaigns need adjustments or need additional guidance, advertisers will see notifications in Google Ads starting July 6 where they can review historical campaign performance and quickly apply updates.

Ginny Marvin, Ads product liaison at Google, mentioned the announcements on LinkedIn, as well as a post on the Accelerate with Google blog.