Link Building Strategies

More and more people are starting to see Google Ads within the Google AI Mode results. Google told us these ads were being tested on desktop AI Mode results back in May and over the past several weeks, more and more are starting to see them in the wild.View the full article

Initially when Google Ads released the ability to add negative keywords to your Performance Max campaigns, Google limited it to 100 keywords. We asked why only 100 back then. Well, Google listened to the ad community and increased that from 100 to 10,000 negative keywords.View the full article

Google Ads has supposedly added more integration between the main Google Ads platform and reporting and the niche Local Service Ads platform. Some can now see conversion tracking actions in the Google Ads interface.View the full article

Google Ads may be introducing a new bidding type named Journey Aware bidding in 2026. This will be reportedly for search campaigns using Target CPA.View the full article

Google Ads announced it is expanding both Smart Bidding Exploration and budget pacing. Smart Bidding Exploration beta for Performance Max with product feeds and Shopping campaigns will launch in few weeks and budget pacing in Search and Shopping campaigns is rolling out in the coming months.View the full article

Google Ads has a new feature in the keyword planner tool that will auto-organize new keywords into ad groups for you. This feature will take your new keywords and auto-organize them into keyword ideas in ad groups. View the full article

Google Ads has often used dynamic labels for some of the ad groupings. I mean, we've seen tons of variations of these and I am not sure if they mean anything specific. But here is one that caught my eye, this is titled "Sponsored options in the area."View the full article

Google has launched several new charts within the Google Ads interface. We recently saw the table tree view (which was not 100% new, I was told) and now we are seeing new stacked bar chart, stacked column chart, combo chart, stacked area chart and 100% stacked area chart.View the full article

Google has launched a new link on some search / sponsored ads named "Products at this location." Google confirmed this "relatively new feature" and can show up on listings for service businesses and other types of businesses.View the full article

Google Ads may be testing placing an ad extension button at the top right of the sponsored result on the desktop interface. This button, in this example, shows the text "Learn more."View the full article

Google Ads has updated its interface for when you select when you want your ads running in specific regions/locations. Now, it has a button to "add locations in bulk," which should help you add locations faster.View the full article

Google Ads, sometime after June 2024 and November 2024, updated the size of your data segment requirement from 1,000 active visitors in a 30-day period to 100 active visitors in the same period. This is for the requirement to serve your ads varies based on the target network, specific to the Google Search Network.View the full article

Google Ads has reportedly streamlined the selection capability of Manual CPC bidding during the campaign setup. Now the option can be found under the "Conversions" goal, labeled as "Manually set bids."View the full article

Google may be bringing channel reporting to the Google Ads Performance Max campaigns. I spotted this via Kirk Williams who posted a photo of a slide from Google Think event in Amsterdam where Arjan Schoorl attended. The slide says "Channel Reporting" will be coming to PMax and Demand Gen for increased transparency and controls.View the full article

Some Google Ads MCC, Manager Accounts, are seeing channel performance reporting. This does not seem to have been rolled out to all advertisers yet, but Mike Ryan noticed it was rolling out on some of his MCC accounts.View the full article

Google is testing a new section within the Google Ads advertising console named "Missed Growth Opportunities." This section shows you the "performance you could've achieved in the last year if you'd adjusted your bids and budgets for campaigns with growth opportunities," according to Google.View the full article

The Google Ads mixed campaign type experiment beta, which we covered the help document last month, seems to be going live for some advertisers. This feature allows advertisers to test multiple campaign types, budgets, and settings across campaigns in a single experiment.View the full article

Google is testing a new ad format that overlays more product ads when you click on a "more" button. This is different from expanding a product carousel, in that this overlays on top of the current search results interface.View the full article

Google has launched what it calls Multi-party approval for Google Ads. "Multi-party approval (MPA) is a security feature for Google Ads designed to protect your account from unauthorized activity by requiring a second account administrator to verify high-risk changes," Google wrote.View the full article

Have any of you heard of the Google Ads mystery shopping rating? Well, it may be used by Google for the overall store rating, which is calculated from customer reviews and a "Mystery Shopping Rating," according to a Google Ads rep.View the full article

Earlier this month, Google updated its Ads Transparency policy to specify that it will display the payment profile name as the payer name for verified advertisers. Well, now we are starting to see a new section that says "Ads funded by" on the "My Ad Center" section of the search ads.View the full article

Google has announced a new Google Ads search campaign feature named AI Max. Google says AI Max for Search campaigns is a "new, one-click feature suite" that brings you a "suite of targeting and creative enhancements" of "the best of Google AI to your Search campaigns."View the full article

Google announced a new ad unit for AI Mode for shopping ads which promotes retailers. Google also launched Veo 3 support in Google Ads Asset Studio. Plus Vidhya Srinivasan, VP/GM of Ads & Commerce at Google, published her annual letter to the industry on the Google blog.View the full article

Google announced a number of AI-related features to help advertisers create and manage their ads account across Google Ads and Merchant Center. These include new AI tools for creating ads and creatives and also agentic capabilities to help you with this on the backend.View the full article

Google Ads has a new help document on AI-Qualified Call Conversions. Google says AI-qualified call leads use Google AI to evaluate call recordings to determine the actual quality of the conversation.View the full article