TL;DR: Top PPC Trends of 2025 and Actionable Insights for Entrepreneurs
The PPC advertising world in 2025 was reshaped by AI, automation, and major player exits, offering lessons for 2026 strategies.
• Amazon and Temu exited key markets, disrupting CPC dynamics and highlighting the need for diversified ad strategies.
• Google introduced crucial updates, such as Placement Exclusions API, geo-targeting for Demand Gen campaigns, and Search Terms reports, empowering advertisers with better control and transparency.
• AI and automation dominated, with Google leveraging generative AI to optimize ads and monetize AI search summaries.
Prepare for 2026 by focusing on video ads, CPA-based optimization, and AI-driven tools, while staying adaptable to trends. Experiment now to stay ahead! What change will you make to your advertising strategy? Let us know!
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Top 10 PPC News Stories of 2025: An Entrepreneur’s Perspective
The PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising landscape underwent drastic changes in 2025, making it a defining year for digital marketers. As a serial entrepreneur with a vested interest in how businesses adapt to new trends, I kept a close eye on the latest PPC trends and strategies that emerged, particularly the groundbreaking updates featured on Search Engine Land. These shifts offer valuable insights to entrepreneurs, business owners, and marketers gearing up for 2026. Here’s a deep dive into the most impactful developments and what they mean for your business strategies going forward.
What Were the Major PPC Updates in 2025?
From high-profile advertiser exits to AI-powered tools taking center stage, the PPC world didn’t hold back in disrupting status quos. Below is a comprehensive list of the top stories that shaped PPC marketing in 2025, along with insights you can apply to your own advertising strategies. Let’s go through each key headline in detail.
- Amazon exits Google Shopping Ads in key markets
- Temu drops its U.S. Google Shopping campaigns
- Google rolls out Search Terms report for Performance Max campaigns
- Automatic Marketing Content Extraction: Love it or hate it?
- Major update to Google Tag Manager for better conversion tracking
- Google enables Placement Exclusions API for Performance Max
- Generative AI Overviews get monetized
- New geo-targeting customization for Demand Gen campaigns
- Google adds Ads in AI search results
- Predictions: Focusing on CPA and video ads for 2026
How Did Amazon and Temu Reshape Google Shopping Ads?
July 2025 marked a pivotal moment when Amazon paused its partnership with Google Shopping Ads, disrupting ad auction dynamics. For years, Amazon had been a major driver of higher cost-per-click (CPC) prices globally. Its sudden withdrawal gave smaller brands breathing room, as competition from this giant temporarily disappeared. While Amazon later re-entered the market, the U.S. stayed off its radar.
Likewise, in April 2025, Temu ceased its U.S. Google Shopping Ads campaigns, resulting in a sharp drop in its App Store ranking from #4 to #58. Tariff increases and stricter regulations hindered its imports-based model, showing just how reliant the company was on paid search. These events underline one key lesson: diversifying advertising strategies is crucial to withstand market and regulatory shifts.
What Changed in Google Ad Campaign Functionality?
- Placement Exclusions API for PMax: In a surprising reversal, Google allowed API-based exclusions in its black-box Performance Max campaigns in January 2025. Marketers finally gained better control over where their ads appeared, addressing previous concerns about wasted ad spend.
- Search Terms Report for PMax: Released in March 2025, this feature granted advertisers visibility into what queries triggered their ads. Pairing this with negative keywords accelerated optimizations, leading to more cost-effective campaigns.
- Geo-Targeting in Demand Gen Campaigns: Hyper-local advertising just received a boost. Google Ads now offers customizable location-based options for Demand Gen campaigns, which is fantastic news for smaller startups targeting niche markets.
Each of these updates signals an ongoing trend: empowering advertisers with more transparency and enhanced control, which is no small feat in an otherwise automated PPC ecosystem.
How Is Google Embracing Automation in Advertising?
2025 was the year of automation, largely driven by advancements in AI. At the Google Marketing Live 2025 event, “AI Max” was unveiled. This cutting-edge feature enhanced search campaigns by auto-generating headlines, descriptions, and more, based on vast data processed in real time. The goal? To maximize campaign performance with minimal manual input from advertisers.
Meanwhile, Google started introducing ads within their AI-driven search summaries (known as AI Overviews). This move signifies a potent blending of paid advertising and generative AI, forcing marketers to strategically rethink ad placement within this new realm of search behavior.
What Are Experts Predicting for 2026?
The consensus among PPC experts is that 2026 will be a year of continued focus on AI and video ads. According to predictions on Search Engine Land, we’re likely to see a major shift in Google’s advertising priorities, with less emphasis on clicks and more on cost-per-acquisition (CPA) metrics.
Additionally, video ad formats will continue their rise, particularly shoppable video ads that pair seamlessly with eCommerce. For entrepreneurs, now is the time to experiment with video to stay ahead of this trend.
How Entrepreneurs Should Prepare for 2026
- Diversify your spend: Avoid over-reliance on any single platform, no matter how effective.
- Leverage video ads: Begin testing short-form and shoppable video formats to understand what engages your audience best.
- Focus on metrics that matter: Optimize for CPA and ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) to measure profitability effectively.
- Adopt smarter tools: Use AI-based optimization tools, but don’t let the black box blind you.
- Stay adaptable: Keep an eye on trends like generative AI and experiment early.
Remember, agility and continuous learning are key to leveraging PPC opportunities, and staying ahead of industry disruptions.
What changes in PPC strategy will you implement as we enter 2026? Let’s discuss actionable ideas in the comments below.
FAQ on Top 10 PPC News Stories of 2025
1. How did Amazon’s withdrawal from Google Shopping Ads affect the market?
Amazon's pause in Google Shopping Ads significantly altered auction dynamics, reducing cost-per-click (CPC) prices and allowing smaller advertisers to compete more effectively. Learn more about Amazon's withdrawal
2. Why did Temu cease its U.S. Google Shopping Ads campaigns?
Temu stopped U.S. Google Shopping Ads due to increasing tariffs and tighter import regulations, which led to reduced visibility and a drop in App Store rankings. Explore Temu’s challenges
3. What updates were made to Google Tag Manager in 2025?
Google Tag Manager received an update that enhanced conversion tracking accuracy and simplified event tracking setup by prioritizing seamless data collection. Learn more about Google Tag Manager changes
4. What is the Placement Exclusions API for Performance Max campaigns?
The Placement Exclusions API allowed advertisers to control where ads appeared in Performance Max campaigns, addressing concerns about wasted ad spend. Discover details about the API
5. What did Google’s Search Terms report offer for advertisers?
Google’s Search Terms report for Performance Max campaigns granted advertisers visibility into queries triggering ads, enabling faster optimizations using negative keywords. Learn more about the Search Terms report
6. How did Google integrate ads into AI-driven search summaries?
Google started placing ads within generative AI-powered search summaries (AI Overviews), merging search ads with the evolving AI search experiences. Discover ads in AI Overviews
7. What advancements did Google introduce for Demand Gen campaigns?
Google added advanced geo-targeting options to Demand Gen campaigns, enabling businesses to effectively target hyper-local audiences. Learn about Demand Gen targeting
8. How did AI impact Google Ads in 2025?
Google unveiled AI Max, an AI-driven optimization tool for campaigns, which auto-created headlines, descriptions, and improved overall performance. Check out AI Max capabilities
9. How did generative AI influence PPC strategies?
Ads incorporated within AI Overviews signaled a shift towards merging search behavior with paid strategies, requiring marketers to rethink placements. Explore generative AI and PPC
10. What PPC trends are predicted for 2026?
Experts predict a focus on cost-per-acquisition (CPA) over clicks, and the growing prominence of shoppable video ad formats in PPC strategies. Discover PPC predictions for 2026
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the “gamepreneurship” methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the point of view of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.