PPCChat | Old School vs. New School PPC | 21st April 2026

Posted April 23rd, 2026 by Amita & filed under PPCChat.

This week’s PPCChat discussion was a lively one. Host Julie F. Bacchini sought PPCers’ views on an old-school PPC practice and strategy, what a new-school PPC practice or strategy marketers swear by and what experts’ hottest “old school” vs. “new school” PPC take?

Q1: Do you consider yourself old school, new school or some combination of both when it comes to PPC and why? And how long have you been working in PPC?

I am probably more old school than new school, as I have been working in PPC since it literally began (and in marketing since before the internet!) That being said though, I am not stuck in my ways and do dig into all the new things and new thinking about PPC and evaluate and test new things all the time. @NeptuneMoon

Probably old school, but always learning, always trying something new. @JuliaVyse

Pretty New School, I would say. I started 4 years ago, but have seen a lot of change in a short amount of time! @grantdouglas

Old school. Been working in PPC since Overture was around. @JeffreyHain

I find myself saying ‘back in the old interface’ a LOT @JuliaVyse

@JeffreyHain let’s not forget Looksmart! @NeptuneMoon

Mix of both here, although I suppose it depends on how we are defining these. 18+ years in PPC for me. @KurtHenninger

8yrs now, so mostly new, but still old enough to call it AdWords every now and then just for fun. @Ryansappington

We should do a PPC nostalgia chat one of these weeks too… @NeptuneMoon

15+ years… Im Old School! @Liorkrolewicz

I got my start in the old school (2002), but I do test things all the time. I would say “cautiously adapting.” Much of my reluctance comes from the fact that Google and Bing are not designed for B2B more so than “this is new so it automatically sucks” @beyondthepaid

Love having so many 10+ years people here! @NeptuneMoon

I’ve been in the game for 10 years, so I guess old school by default. That said, it’s a game of adapt or die, so we all have to adapt new school ways…eventually. @teabeeshell

Can’t we be both? @navahhopkins

Sometimes some old school pushback is good though. Without it, PMax would still be a very black box! @NeptuneMoon

@navahhopkins Yes you can absolutely be both! @NeptuneMoon

Yes @navahhopkins ! old school = fundamentals. @Liorkrolewicz

@navahhopkins that’s what I was trying to say in my answer haha @beyondthepaid

14 years old school when it comes to basics/fundamentals – what is marketing type questions. New in terms of tools, tactics, testing @alimehdimukadam

I am with @NeptuneMoon on this. I have been using Google Ads/Adwords since 2002. So long that I can pretty much say to the tech support people from Google, “I have been using Google Ads longer than you’ve been alive” LOL. I am solidly mostly old school, but willing and trying to learn new things. @EronCohen

I am a hybrid of both. Can’t be completely old school due to playing the Google Ads testing game. As much as I don’t want to give Google more control, testing is still good. Plus a lot of old practices are obsolete now. @AmberDeedler

It’s been 19 years, so I suppose that makes me old school. But I’m still doing new school stuff too. A lot of the old school things continue to work and make more sense. @revaminkoff

@NeptuneMoon … and what about Ask Jeeves!!! @JeffreyHain

@JeffreyHain A shame and missed opportunity for Anthropic not naming Claude, Jeeves @Ryansappington

I got started 11 years ago & I still consider myself “new school” @DiiPooler

Q2: What is an “old school” PPC practice, strategy or tactic that you still swear by?

I still think landing pages really matter for that through line from idea to query to click to landing page. @NeptuneMoon

Aggressively and actively control search terms management. @Liorkrolewicz

Use of negative search terms. @NeptuneMoon

was just going to say aggressive SQR review and adding negatives. @beyondthepaid

Keywords still matter. They may not function on the front end the same way the ever have, but negative KWs are powerful when you take cues from the SQR. @teabeeshell

And we don’t use a lot of Pmax or AI Max. still pretty much standard search campaigns. @beyondthepaid

I also think ad copy matters and that humans can be better at putting the pieces together than a machine. @NeptuneMoon

I’d still use ETAs if I could. @beyondthepaid

Ad copy and message testing. I will die on this hill, probably because I came to search from a writing background. @JuliaVyse

Search Terms…..and more general direct marketing practices like personas, pain points mapping, USPs, etc. Also..never ever run Display in the same campaign as Search Campaigns…I will die on that hill. @KurtHenninger

Oh, audience data for sure! know who is asking the question you’re answering. @JuliaVyse

Another one is to fully build out ads. You have X headlines, X long headlines, X descriptions, X videos, whatever – use them all. It drives me crazy when I see Ads/Asset Groups with < half of assets utilized. I know this “impedes” copy testing, but Google does that anyway. You may forfeit A/B message testing, but you also produce weaker ads with less standing in a given auction. @teabeeshell

Have solid foundations – stick to the basics, have some sort of naming structure for what you are doing. @alimehdimukadam

Bid to budget ratios (clicks shouldn’t cost more than 10% of daily budget because that’s asking for a better than 10% conversion rate) @navahhopkins

@alimehdimukadam Naming conventions – you are speaking my language. @NeptuneMoon

@teabeeshell I attended Brad Geddes & Jyll Saskin Gales training last week… was interesting to hear their take a bit against that… though I always do/did?!? @Liorkrolewicz

Agree with @alimehdimukadam .. a universal campaign naming structure is key to analyzing and optimizing … finding what’s not working and fixing it. @JeffreyHain

Negative search terms, Campaign Group budgets with bid modifiers. Unfortunately, this can’t be done with Pmax campaigns. @AmberDeedler

@alimehdimukadam yes, account structure is for HUMANS to manage. It also helps when you are adding search terms, you can quickly know where to put the kw in exact. Should be intuitive. @Liorkrolewicz

And a good account structure helps you better place negative KWs. @JeffreyHain

@Liorkrolewicz – I think there are certainly cases to be made for (plus some rebuttals):

We only have 2 videos produced (but you can make cutdowns…)
There are only X ways to say Y message (but good writers can…)
We only want these select assets in rotation together (but Google can/often will make assets for you if you don’t produce them…)

I’d be curious for some of the cliff notes from that training if you’re willing to share/DM! @teabeeshell

Proactive negative keywords are still really important. Also, search still works. @revaminkoff

@NeptuneMoon I’m shocked that prioritizing landing page relevancy is considered an “old school” ppc tactic lol. @DiiPooler

Ahhh! Gotcha, that makes sense @DiiPooler

I feel like lately it’s “let the platform pick” the landing page or use more general ones. So having them more designed to be specifically relevant feels older school…@NeptuneMoon

Q3: What is an “old school” PPC practice, strategy or tactic that you wish you would never hear about or be asked about again?

SKAGs. @beyondthepaid

Obviously SKAGs (single keyword ad groups) @NeptuneMoon

Beat me to it. SKAGs…bleh @KurtHenninger

SKAG (still worth noting for the 4th time!) @Liorkrolewicz

And most of the time, manual bidding. It works in select cases but is unnecessary 99% of the time. @beyondthepaid

SKAG it up! @AmberDeedler

I am honestly surprised manual bidding still exists. Its days must be numbered? @NeptuneMoon

I miss manual bidding when it was easier to control. @AmberDeedler

SKAGs @alimehdimukadam

Remember separate bids for search vs search partners? @beyondthepaid

Well, that’s a quorum. resolved: SKAGs are to be banished from our town! @JuliaVyse

I’m so torn on manual bidding….still have tiffs with automated, but the training last week may have pushed me over the edge. @Liorkrolewicz

Remember when you could see competitors’ bids and bid like you were on The Price Is Right???? @NeptuneMoon

Yeah….manual bidding. I don’t miss that. Bid buckets anyone? @KurtHenninger

No, I don’t actually! Remember Adwords Express campaigns? @AmberDeedler

@AmberDeedler they renamed them “smart” campaigns lol @beyondthepaid

I think any strategy that pulls you away from the core objective is a way to waste money. The biggest one I hear is Target IS bidding. Sure, it’s a clear “signal” but it doesn’t ladder up to business success. @teabeeshell

I have a natural reflex against anything Google calls “smart” @NeptuneMoon

Hahaha yep. Sneaky. Sneaky.@AmberDeedler

A new way for Google to make more money = “Smart” @Liorkrolewicz

@NeptuneMoon or “enhanced” @beyondthepaid

Well, every time they sunset something we are told it is an upgrade too…@NeptuneMoon

@beyondthepaid Why does that give me a nervous twitch when I think of that? @KurtHenninger

Someone should write a book called “Gaslit by Google” @beyondthepaid

Enhanced was my favorite. @alimehdimukadam

Omg smart campaigns… I forgot about those… never again. @revaminkoff

I need somewhere to talk about the rug-pull that was custom intent audiences, they were great!
I’d take converting keywords and meet the demand outside of search! then pmax came and google turned a blind eye to the content network and those audiences were thrown to the wolves. bogus leads followed by phantom leads created audience waste lands. Is it better to have custom intent audiences and lose them, or to never have them at all? @Chriskostecki

@revaminkoff we had a client who was running those recently. Needless to say we shut them off post haste. @beyondthepaid

@beyondthepaid I know of someone that is still trying to build them to stack the map results for different home services in large markets. nor a recommended practice, but he swears by it. @Chriskostecki

Q4: What is a “new school” PPC practice, strategy or tactic that you swear by?

Offline conversions. A must-have for B2B paid search @beyondthepaid

First party data in general, whether offline conversions or just customer match. Better signals = better results IMO @KurtHenninger

broad match signals @Chriskostecki

Migrating to the Google Tag, in lieu of hard-coded conversions, Analytics imports, or GTM conversions @teabeeshell

Data – signals, integration, consolidation. Garbage in / Garbage out. Applies more to conversion tracking & biz numbers than prompts. @alimehdimukadam

Always running on Microsoft Ads when running Google Ads… kinda old school, then fell off, but Microsoft ads made easier to do in recent years. @Liorkrolewicz

We also love custom segments for video campaigns. And we’re getting good results with AI Max when used without ad expansion or LP expansion. @beyondthepaid

@Chriskostecki Say more? @teabeeshell

Moving more and more to video – while Video Action is now Demand Gen, seeing a lot of good things from video assets and incorporating them more. @revaminkoff

Does portfolio bidding count? Because it can be helpful for accounts with low conversion volumes. @NeptuneMoon

@NeptuneMoon Definitely…super helpful and we use that all the time. @KurtHenninger

We’ve seen a lot of good things from Performance Max and Demand Gen – AI oriented campaigns can do well and do work as long as they have the right tracking and signals coming in to tell the platforms what is good traffic and what isn’t. revaminkoff

revaminkoff do you offer video editing/production or something you started with AI? (also Hi!) @Liorkrolewicz

+1 for Demand Gen. Give it a more advantageous bid than PMax, opt out of Display, and possibly separate YouTube + Gmail from Discover-only @teabeeshell

@teabeeshell 5 years ago I would’ve been hard pressed to use broad match targeting, now I i leverage a few within my phrase builds, usually my core term for the ad group, and for my most core ad groups, so then it gets in front of more queries. I need to spend some time training it with negatives, but it can make sure my ads continue to be seen by the right searches. @Chriskostecki

@Chriskostecki do you aggressively add the search terms in exact as you learn/discover? Liorkrolewicz

Honestly using Google for awareness/top of funnel is a newer school concept, at least in my mind. Obviously PMax wants the full funnel experience. I am still only lukewarm on PMax for the types of accounts I tend to work on. @NeptuneMoon

@Liorkrolewicz Hi! We’ve done less with the direct production, but we have partners we use when we need them. That said, we’ve found that it’s less about having a well produced brand video and more about a straightforward influencer video / this is what the product does and why I love it, etc. which makes the barrier to entry lower. @revaminkoff

@Liorkrolewicz aggressively no, but if the volume is there I will add them in. @Chriskostecki

IMHO Pmax only works with offline conversions optimizing toward lower-funnel actions like MQLs @beyondthepaid

New customer campaigns are a cool new feature. @revaminkoff

Q5: What is a “new school” PPC practice, strategy or tactic that you wish you would never hear about or be asked about again?

AI Max @NeptuneMoon

AI @beyondthepaid

I wish the technical lift to get things live wasn’t so high. Not every client has first party data at the ready. Not every client has a dev team who can put in place whatever new container Google is asking for or new pixel from FB etc. @revaminkoff

Audience/Targeting Expansion @teabeeshell

I’d have to say AI Max…haven’t seen it perform well at all. But clients LOVE to ask about it. @KurtHenninger

My Google reps push it constantly. @grantdouglas

@KurtHenninger Well it has both “AI” and “Max” in its name, so it has to be good, right @NeptuneMoon

@NeptuneMoon I used that EXACT line as a joke in a client meeting when it was first announced. Haha @KurtHenninger

“Optimized targeting” that offers no transparency. It’s nice AI can do things but please tell us what it did so we can learn from it and build accordingly. @revaminkoff

I am bracing myself for all the AI and maxing we are going to hear about at this year’s GML . I am still not recovered from the “Power Pair” honestly…@NeptuneMoon

THE POWER PAIR @beyondthepaid

They made that phrase musical to make it sound better @KurtHenninger

Things I’ve managed to conveniently “forget.” @revaminkoff

GML is on May 20th this year @NeptuneMoon

AUTO APPLY RECOMMENDATIONS need to go away. @revaminkoff

Auto generated optimized assets. Haven’t seen it work even once on any platform/account @alimehdimukadam

Creating assets to then bill the client for on the hopes they drive some business from it does seem self serving from the outside looking in @Chriskostecki

Well to be fair, platforms like to give themselves credit for knowing what works to get conversions. And I think they do for part of the equation, but not the whole equation. @NeptuneMoon

Like charging 10X CPCs every so often… @Liorkrolewicz

I am so tired of talking about learning periods for search advertising too @NeptuneMoon

This discussion is oddly therapeutic lol. @revaminkoff

take it one click at a time….@Liorkrolewicz

Showing ads in completely irrelevant geographies because the tightest setting still allows this if Google thinks it’s a good click @NeptuneMoon

I know I’m late, but I’m sick of hearing “privacy concerns” as Google’s excuse for obscuring data transparency. Like, I’m all for actual privacy protections, but don’t lie to me that 70% of my search queries contain personally identifiable information or anything else that could violate “privacy”. Sure, Googe. Whatever you say..@AnthonyMcDaniel

Q6: What is your hottest “old school” vs. “new school” PPC take?

There’s still room for both. @revaminkoff

Broad Match / AI Max “match” is not superior to Exact Match, and BMM should be brought back. @teabeeshell

Use any/all/whatever to get the best results for your clients. What works for one practitioner doesn’t necessarily work for another. @KurtHenninger

No matter what is offered, never give up messaging or targeting control while you are paying for traffic. @Chriskostecki

Your landing pages matter more than ever. AI is only going to keep marching further into all pieces of PPC and your landing pages are going to be massive signals and data sources for that. @NeptuneMoon

Fundamentals won’t change. Tools, tactics, channels will continue to @alimehdimukadam

Start with the basics when building a campaign (old school). Test and layer in new school opportunities once they prove effective in that specific account. @JeffreyHain

The line between PPC and SEO is increasingly moving closer together. @revaminkoff

“Automated strategies” ≠ “set it and forget it” @Liorkrolewicz

While networks push advertisers to the loud middle of the road, the opportunities lie on the quiet outskirts, first party data is the quickest way to cut through the noise. @Chriskostecki

Not sure if this fits here, but does anyone else feel that automated bidding is a slippery slope to not optimizing, as we did with manual bidding? Still trying to reconcile @Liorkrolewicz

@Liorkrolewicz I am a bigger fan of automated bidding to drive volume (max clicks & conv) as opposed to driving rates – rates assumes demand, while volume meets it. @Chriskostecki

Still kills me to see terms convert at $10 – $20, CPA set to $30, then random 5-10x CPCs to make sure you hit the $30 – but its “automated” *all in same ad group @Liorkrolewicz

Automated bidding, like most of the machine learning in the platform, will latch on to a type of conversion and ride it hard. Sometimes to the exclusion of other paths it might also explore. I find that part kind of annoying. @NeptuneMoon

Managing the Target CPA as if it were a manual CPC is still important. I.e. you can change it and probably should revisit it and sense check it and adjust accordingly, etc. @revaminkoff

Yes, agreed @revaminkoff but I feel that with automated bidding, its easier to not be on top of it, as we were with manual… because its “automated” and there are always unknowns or anomalies…. like in my example above, I can lower CPA to $20 but I dont know what will happen @Liorkrolewicz

The same thing happens with assets in RSAs. The system picks a “winner” SO fast and then that’s that. Again, leaving what are probably some good paths unexplored because it found 1 or 2 that convert. It doesn’t even know if it found the most efficient conversions because it decides so quickly – it’s this one! @NeptuneMoon

@Liorkrolewicz Well also a lot of settings are very well hidden in the current UX. @revaminkoff

Portfolio CPC caps help @Liorkrolewicz

Saw this in my mailbox @alimehdimukadam