February 2025 Paid Search Industry Updates

Let’s be honest: 2025 is already proving to be a year of rapid change in the paid search landscape. AI-driven automation, creative enhancements, and new audience targeting capabilities are reshaping the way advertisers approach campaigns. If keeping up with the latest industry updates feels like a full-time job, don’t worry — we’ve got you covered. Here’s everything you need to know about the most impactful changes this month and, more importantly, what they mean for your brand.

Expanding Reach with Google Display and Demand Gen Ads

Google is doubling down on Display and Demand Gen campaigns, making it easier for advertisers to scale their reach beyond traditional search. Some of the key updates include:

• Auto-Generated Short-Form Videos – Demand Gen advertisers now get automatically created short videos for better engagement.
• Expanded Inventory – Demand Gen campaigns now have access to Google Display Network (GDN), broadening their reach beyond YouTube and Discover.
• Standalone YouTube Shorts Placement – Advertisers can now target YouTube Shorts separately, allowing for more strategic use of short-form video.

What This Means for Advertisers: If your brand is running Demand Gen campaigns, you now have more inventory to tap into and more control over where your ads serve. If you’ve been missing out on Shorts inventory, you can leverage AI to create videos for that inventory now.

New Performance Max Features from Google & Microsoft

Both Google and Microsoft rolled out updates to their Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, with a focus on balancing automation with advertiser control. Google’s PMax Updates:

• More Control Over AI Optimization – Campaign-level negative keywords are now available for all advertisers.
• New Customer Acquisition Goal – A ‘high-value’ mode prioritizes customers who are likely to drive long-term revenue.
• Brand Exclusions for Different Formats – Exclude brands on Shopping placements without affecting Search and vice versa.
• Improved URL Filtering – “URL contains” rules allow for better product feed targeting.
• Deeper Search Reporting – A new ‘Search themes usefulness indicator’ helps advertisers better understand the impact of adding new search themes. Search term insights will also now show whether queries came from Pmax keywordless targeting or an ad was triggered from your search themes.
• Better Asset Group Reporting – More granular insights into asset group performance.

Microsoft’s PMax Updates:

• LinkedIn Profile Targeting – Advertisers can now use LinkedIn’s professional targeting data, including company, industry, and job function signals. This expands beyond in-market audiences for job title and company size, providing more precision in B2B targeting.
• Enhanced Reporting – New audience segment performance analysis and asset tracking features provide deeper insights into what’s driving results. Future updates will offer even more audience insight reporting.
• Conversion Value Rules – Advertisers can now adjust conversion values in real time based on factors like location and device usage, refining automated bidding strategies across all campaign types, including PMax.
• New Customer Acquisition Goal Strategy – A new pilot allows advertisers to prioritize new customers by either increasing bids for them or focusing exclusively on acquisition. Advertisers can request access via their account team or Support.

What This Means for Advertisers: Google and Microsoft’s PMax updates offer greater control, better reporting, and improved audience targeting. These updates make PMax more strategic and effective, helping advertisers balance automation with control for stronger results.

New Tools for Google Ads Asset Management

Google introduced several enhancements to help advertisers manage assets more efficiently:

• Asset History Tracking – Easily analyze past creative performance and see when assets were added.
• More Flexibility in RSAs – Google's AI now can take unused headlines and automatically serve them as sitelinks if it is predicted to boost engagement. This approach aims to maximize the impact of your creative assets while improving user experience.
• AI-Generated Backgrounds for Shopping Ads – Faster creative production for e-commerce brands.

What This Means for Advertisers: These tools streamline creative management, making it easier to iterate and optimize ad messaging at scale. The paid search industry is evolving at breakneck speed, and staying ahead means understanding these changes and adapting your strategy accordingly. Whether it’s leveraging new AI tools, refining campaign automation, or testing emerging ad formats, the key to success in 2025 is staying agile.