When it comes to Google Ads, advertisers have to make sure they remain current on its constantly changing nature, to determine its implications on their business.
We’ll be covering some of those changes, including stricter regulations on Meta Business Tools, shifting to new AI-driven strategies, and Google’s concealing of advertisers' search term spend.
Keep on reading for more insight into the latest PPC updates.
Meta Restrictions Expected To Complicate Ad Targeting
Meta will be implementing new regulations that limit advertisers access to user data. In an update given by Meta, PPC expert Navah Hopkins claimed that these changes are to “reduce the potential for information prohibited by our Businesses Tools Terms” from being disclosed.
What are the changes?
Some of these changes include modified monitoring in Events Manager, a higher chance of pausing ads with highly targeted UTMs, and restrictions on specific URL parts.
Implications for advertisers
Advertisers should be aware of these changes and review their use of Meta Business Tools. This can be done by reviewing data used by your current customer audience, checking for restricted data.
Moreover, advertisers should ensure they have a sufficient customer audience to avoid their ad sets from being paused.
Lastly, advertisers should avoid including restricted data in Events Manager monitoring as it could limit displaying full URLs and parameters.
The End of Enhanced CPC: Google’s shift to AI-Driven Bidding
Starting from October 2024, Enhanced CPC bidding will no longer be available to use in search and display ad campaigns. From March 2025, all remaining search and display ad campaigns using this strategy will be switched to manual bidding CPC.
Google’s Motive
Enhanced CPC bidding strategy was Google’s first ever bidding scheme, making it 10 years old; since then, it has evolved its bidding strategy utilizing advanced machine learning. The new strategies include Maximize Conversions with an optional target CPA and Maximize Conversion with an optional target ROAS.
Implications For Advertisers
Advertisers currently utilizing the CPC bidding strategy are encouraged to examine the different strategies; this will help you get acquainted with the new strategies and prepare for possible implications on your search and display ad campaigns.
Although these adjustments may initially present a challenge for advertisers, Google maintains that the newly developed strategies have a strong likelihood of enhancing campaign performance and effectiveness.
Google Ads Conceals Search Data From Advertisers
By analyzing keywords on Google Ads accounts, a review showed that a large number of search term spend was hidden from advertisers.
Investigating further, it was shown that most of the keywords that were hidden were phrase matches, whereas exact and broad match phrases had a much lower percentage of hidden data.
What this means for advertisers
For advertisers, this means a large amount of the search terms they spent money on are not displayed on Google’s search engine. This makes it harder for advertisers to determine the efficiency of their ad spending as well as who their right audience is.
While Google has claimed that it only includes search terms that are widely utilized by users, the amount of search term data being removed is unusually large.
Is there a solution?
Fortunately, there are different actions advertisers can take to avoid having their search data being hidden.
Advertisers can switch to exact match keywords where possible, this will lower hidden search terms to under 20%. They can also perform a similar check on their google ads accounts, and review their spend on hidden search term data.
Key Takeaways
- Advertisers should review their use of Meta Business Tools and ensure their practices are in line with the new changes.
- Advertisers should check the new bidding strategies in order to see how this will impact their search and display ad campaigns.
- Advertisers should regularly audit their Google Ads accounts to identify hidden search terms.
Get in touch with the AdPilot team to find out more
Whether you need assistance understanding the new bidding strategies, making sure your use of Meta Business Tools complies with their guidelines, or help with Google Ads auditing. The AdPilot team can provide you with the guidance you need, so don’t hesitate to call us on 01225 618 030.
For more in-depth insight into these changes, visit
Google is hiding search data from advertisers and profiting
Meta to restrict data in Business Tools, impacting ad targeting
Google Ads To Phase Out Enhanced CPC Bidding Strategy