PPCChat | 2026 PPC Predictions | 6th January 2026

Posted January 7th, 2026 by Amita & filed under PPCChat.

During this week’s PPCChat, industry experts shared their perspectives on how PPC evolved in 2025, what changes are likely on the horizon in 2026, and which upcoming developments feel both exciting and concerning. Below is a screencap from the discussion hosted by Julie F. Bacchini.

Q1: What do you think the biggest changes were in PPC in 2025? And do you think those changes or shifts were generally positive or negative?

AI in everything was biggest shift. And I do not think it is a positive for the most part. @NeptuneMoon

AI in everything, but especially in the SERPs. AI Overviews and the resulting AI Max targeting are probably the most substantial. Once again glad I am not in SEO. @Chriskostecki

Agreed – AI, especially AI Overviews/AI Mode, resulting in lower CTRs and decreased traffic for clients. @beyondthepaid

Seriously @Chriskostecki we should pour one out for our SEO friends. @NeptuneMoon

With such a strong push into PMax (since before 2025) and with the advent of AI Max in 2025, I think we’re finally seeing what we’ve all predicted with trepidation… The end of keywords. I’m still making my peace with it. So long as advertisers have the ability to “steer” with negative KWs and have insights into search queries, I can live with it. @teabeeshell

I would say the biggest change besides the AI increase is increased visibility. Google did give us a good amount of visibility into these AI channels. Channel reporting being a big one. @Breannebartlett

I agree, @teabeeshell . Google starting to deliberately use the term “keywordless” is a big clue that keywords as we know them are on borrowed time. Although this has been true for some time, I think the end is much closer now. @NeptuneMoon

@teabeeshell agree – we’ve been telling clients to prepare for the end of keywords & match types. @beyondthepaid

Agreed that more AI was the biggest change – there are good and bad aspects, so I’m going to go “neutral chaotic” @revaminkoff

To me, 2025 was less about “the end of keywords” and more about the end of predictability. PPC now rewards adaptability over optimization playbooks and that’s a massive mindset shift for teams and clients alike. What do you think? @Shivendrarawat

In hindsight, due to AI, 2025 would be the year which started the consolidation of agencies, upgrading skills & questioning of whether agencies should be paid only for execution or is strategy more important. And we are gonna see this conversation accelerate a lot more this year. @alimehdimukadam

@Shivendrarawat – I understand where you’re coming from and tend to agree. It’s about the arm wrestle for “control,” and advertisers always lose that battle. Adaptability has always been the name of the game with any platform. Google Ads has always been predicted on: Advertiser inputs steer performance outputs. With the advent of AI-charged campaign types/products, the shift moves from campaign build (ad elements, advertiser inputs) to the intrinsic quality of the root asset…the website itself. @teabeeshell

IMO keywords have been “gone” for a loooooong time, Google’s just being more up front about it. IMO the big push into visual ad formats is the biggest (potential) change going forward! @Aaronlevy

@Aaronlevy – Agree with the visual ad formats, seeing that with Demand Gen for sure, rivalling Meta and placements in terms of performance. I don’t agree with KWs being gone for a while. Match types have “evolved” to a situation where that’s the conclusion Google Ads wants advertisers to believe. Done well, an intelligent blend of Exact + Broad Match KWs (same ad group) still pulls its weight. I don’t believe advertisers have (ever) paid enough attention to negative KWs, and that’s been the recipe for Google to push out KWs entirely. It’s in their best interest to do so to demonstrate revenue growth. @teabeeshell

My argument is they shouldn’t have been called “keywords” for a while now – heck, the use of the phrase dates back to literally AOL! Keywords have been a proxy to find a person since close variants came out. I’ve called them zombies before. keywords died but then came back to life as something wayyyy different, even if the “source material” is still there @Aaronlevy

Q2: What do you think the most likely changes or shifts in PPC will be in 2026?

I think the most likely change will be AI campaigns improving to the point we reconsider traditional strategies. @Breannebartlett

As platforms automate more in 2026, I think the biggest advantage will come from what advertisers control outside the UI – first-party data, creative strategy, and business clarity. @Shivendrarawat

I think Google Advertisers will (finally) embrace YouTube as the social platform it’s always been. Its inventory is already semi-forced through PMax and Demand Gen, so I think many will finally take it seriously as a viable exposure layer within overall account structures. @teabeeshell

People are going to use the ChatGPTs of the world to come up with PPC strategies and I look forward to working with their competitors on their PPC. @NeptuneMoon

More AI in everything, but I think we’ll see some big legal changes that affect performance media. Canada just announced our foreign influence law, and ways of engaging on these platforms in new, compliant ways. @JuliaVyse

@NeptuneMoon totally!! That is already happening! @Breannebartlett

And as always, what happens with TikTok???? @JuliaVyse

Also, I see with Google doubling down on asset libraries and video, and Meta’s Andromeda update, 2026 will reward advertisers who can produce and refresh creatives consistently creative velocity will matter more than targeting tweaks. What do you think? @Shivendrarawat

I also foresee a lot more use of AI in ad creation, and to me, that means a lot of ads and creative is going to start to look the same. Again, opportunities for differentiation. @NeptuneMoon

Agreed. @Shivendrarawat

A lot more talk on – profit, performance-based fees, agencies being a growth partner, and acting like consultants a lot more than before at a strategy level. @alimehdimukadam

Will 2026 be the year that platforms try to more fully push folks like us out of the equation? I could see that happening too. @NeptuneMoon

Definitely more AI – and it sounds like potentially some controls will become available on the AI to allow it to better create assets that are on brand, which would be interesting. @revaminkoff

@alimehdimukadam in that spirit – more holdco drama. @JuliaVyse

@JuliaVyse Unfortunately, yes….@alimehdimukadam

@NeptuneMoon I don’t think (yet) that Google Ads experience is obsolete. There is value in knowing where Google Ads came from (its evolution), which helps spot potential risks/pitfalls in current/future campaign setup. @teabeeshell

@NeptuneMoon I don’t think they’ll push us out entirely, it’s less about pushing practitioners out and more about shifting our value. Platforms may automate execution, but strategy, creative direction, and measurement still need humans, So we all need to adapt few things. Those of us who evolve beyond optimizations into strategy and creative ops will still be essential., I feel @Shivendrarawat

Meta strategy will continue being good creative with broad / adv+ targeting. @williamhboggs

I also don’t think Google will push us out entirely – if anything the strategy part is becoming even more important. And frankly, performance backs that up. @revaminkoff

I suspect 2026 will be the year that we start to see in-channel, gen-AI ad creation features become intelligent enough to make ad creative that’s actually decent enough to use in their campaigns (let’s say end of Q3 to be safe) & mostly aligns w/ their brand. By the end of 2027, I suspect the majority of brands will be generating creative with built-in gen AI tools – either partially (with brand guidelines, seed content baked-in) or completely (start to finish). @timmhalloran

Perhaps I am more cynical, but I think platforms have always thought they would rather have the dollars spent on agencies and consultants go to them. I am not saying that I think it is smart for businesses to fully abandon outside insight for any kind of PPC. But platforms’ would also like to have advertisers do what the platforms want. @NeptuneMoon

At a broader level, I see budgets being allocated to IRL events and offline more. When everything is AI and people don’t believe what is real or fake anymore, there is an opportunity to grow elsewhere. Offline in % growth & spends may grow more than online. @alimehdimukadam

More automation means your ad copy/creative will have to do the heavy lifting; less reliance on targeting and settings. Designers beware: more design jobs being outsourced overseas and to AI (speaking from experience, lots of agencies are making this move) @williamhboggs

If you are not well-versed in competitive research/strategy or landing pages, now would be a good time to expand your skillset! @NeptuneMoon

“I think platforms have always thought they would rather have the dollars spent on agencies and consultants go to them.” @NeptuneMoon – I don’t think this is cynical, and I agree. Google Ads homepage was touting that “anyone can do it” (paraphrasing), back in 2012-2013. I should go into the Wayback machine and see if I can find it. @timmhalloran

@timmhalloran “It just takes 5 minutes” to set up Google Ads. I know many of us remember that from Google… @NeptuneMoon

This feels like the natural evolution, PPC expertise expanding into CRO, positioning, and strategy as platforms handle more of the mechanics. @Shivendrarawat

*It just takes 5 minutes to waste money on Google Ads. @teabeeshell

Or a simple default opted in feature 😉 @alimehdimukadam

To those chattin’ about creative, for those who haven’t played with nano banana yet it’s REALLY good…. if anything I think these pushes into AI (both creative and optimization-y) are going to create a bigger gap in people who are good at ppc vs. those who are bad at it. “best practices” are pretty easy now and getting easier but standing out will come down to advertiser creativity and product/value propositions @Aaronlevy

@teabeeshell of course, but…2026 is probably going to be an economic shitshow, so businesses will be all the more willing to let the siren song of AI and automation and millions of invisible data points lure them away from good decisions and into ones that on their face seem to be “smart” and save money. I would also love, love, love to see more businesses really diversify where they are advertising. @NeptuneMoon

Q3: Do you have a kind of “out there” or “off the wall” prediction for PPC in 2026?

I am not sure if it’ll happen in 2026, but I believe at some point, cost per click as a metric will go away unless we can figure out whether it was an agent/browser automation or an actual human that clicked the ad. And with all data – things may move towards CPM or Cost per Conversion type models. @alimehdimukadam

Google will announce the following: Just plug in your website URL, and Google will manage 100% of your advertising for you. @teabeeshell

The increased proliferation of AI slop is going to significantly impact the more visual platforms. The platforms will try to obfuscate it, but performance is going to go downhill. @NeptuneMoon

ROAS as a metric to judge performance will loose it’s standing a lot more. @alimehdimukadam

Targeting and bidding might get almost fully invisible. @Shivendrarawat

@alimehdimukadam, I answered a question in another forum recently about a ROAS fixated client. Those types are in for some rough sledding…@NeptuneMoon

@alimehdimukadam – I question anyone (today) who looks at CPC. It’s meaningless is most contexts. I also don’t see value in CPM unless there is scrutiny on average impression quality. ROAS is only as reliable as attribution is strong, which time has showed to be an impossible equation to solve. MER and holdout tests should be the guiding lights. @teabeeshell

We’ll see a lot more Agency slop with AI slop. The ones which give agencies a bad name (sometimes for no fault of theirs) – that’ll increase too. @alimehdimukadam

Most businesses are not looking at true ROAS, though. Or they have a made-up figure in their head on what it “should” be. When in reality ROAS is highly platform dependent and also kinda what the platforms allows it to be. And we have less insight into why ROAS might be shifting in one direction or another. What businesses really need to decide is this: is the amount we are spending bringing in enough current or projected future revenue to justify continuing in the current campaign? That’s it. But so many don’t look at it like this, but instead it’s well, ok, but we want a ROAS of 3. Drives me insane. @NeptuneMoon

Ready for really off the wall? I think OOH is going to make a big, BIG comeback. It’s the right medium to ride the wave of handcrafted, analogue media in a world filled with slop. Hand-painted murals and premium billboards are already keys to luxury, and those able to ‘unplug’ and will scratch the itch of wanting tangible brand formats in a saturated digital world. @JuliaVyse

@JuliaVyse – Every artist/designer’s dream! @teabeeshell

@JuliaVyse Experiential is making a huge comeback, too. Heck, those weird influencers assaulting people in Times Square are just “guerilla marketing” for the 21st century. Great call. @Aaronlevy

Oh god guerilla! That takes me back! @JuliaVyse

Being part of a street team was like a dream internship in college I’M OLD MY KNEES HURT GET OFF MY LAWN. @Aaronlevy

Let’s not sleep on recommendations from people you know carrying more weight, as more and more fake influencers and commenters and reviewers proliferate. Getting your word-of-mouth game strong is also a solid 2026 investment! @NeptuneMoon

Ugh, don’t even get me started on AI influencers…. https://www.404media.co/hack-reveals-the-a16z-backed-phone-farm-flooding-tiktok-with-ai-influencers/ @Aaronlevy

@NeptuneMoon – Part of me wonders if referral programs have never been done well/right. There remains a massive amount of weight in WOM, so that could be spot on. @teabeeshell

OMG @teabeeshell companies WASTE so much great data. Can we talk loyalty programs? @NeptuneMoon

@Aaronlevy exactly!!! people are so disillusioned and annoyed by all this crap, there’s a big surge back in handmade, papercraft, and I think swag and tangible branding is going to increase. It’s a real actual billboard you can really actually see, and worth doing well. @JuliaVyse

@NeptuneMoon That’s what I mean. What’s the point of “10% off your next purchase if a friend buys”? Make the incentive match the value of a new customer. Give away your full CPA threshold in terms of value to a current customer. @teabeeshell

My bold prediction?? Ironic given my statement before about keywords but…. I expect a lot of older things are going to come back “into fashion.” Gen Z/Gen Alpha seem to be rebelling against “omg screen time forever” and are looking more towards trusted sources. agree with @teabeeshell that referral programs are a hugely underutilised (or misused) tool. I see Google having a shockingly GOOD year for search volume as younger ppl go back to “old stuff.” (I spent a lot of time grilling my 14-year-old cousin over xmas. Apparently, Nirvana and Green Day are cool again) @Aaronlevy

@alimehdimukadam I agree with that. I see this all going the way of qualification. Once AI agents are running the show and determining which brands are qualified to show up in the auction (chat thread) it’ll stop being about the initial persuasion (clever copywriting), and more about what qualifies you to be showing on the query at all. I see it as compressing the auction so it’ll be less about leadgen and more about becoming one of the pre-qualified brands in said auction. Once you’re there, once you’re showing up in the top 3 of ChatGPT or Claude, then your chances have increased to the point where you’re 1 in 3. Also, it goes without saying that pre-qualification within these auctions will never be neutral – there’s always a $ decision that can change your position. So it’ll be who can deconstruct that qualification framework. Just the olden days where we’re breaking down quality score to find efficiencies, it’ll be similar. Except not contained to paid: semantic, technical, site accessibility, content discoverability, core web vitals, clean/thorough/complete metadata within product feeds, etc. That’ll all be factored into that pre-qualification. And I think those who will be able to decipher it, or at least capitalize on it will be on top. @timmhalloran

Let me tell you something about loyalty programs (old lady yells at cloud) I do NOT need to give you my personal location and blood type in order to get 30c off a burger once a month! App and Loyalty fatigue is coming! @JuliaVyse

@Aaronlevy so, from a middle school in suburban Philly… Kids are using AI for EVERYTHING. And they are still all over socials and YouTube. To where our district is banning, from a network and device level, YouTube starting in 2 weeks. @NeptuneMoon

@timmhalloran – It seems like quality website build should be the equalizer. I don’t see value (or longevity) in pre-qualification. That runs a huge risk for the qualifiers/platforms. Build a better foundation, play by XYZ rules, get promoted with greater ease. @teabeeshell

@JuliaVyse I’m already therrrrrrrre. Monopoly doesn’t need to know my Nearby Devices or LOCATION. What the ACTUAL @timmhalloran

@NeptuneMoon ok that’s actually really interesting – I heard the opposite from cousin and it SEEMS like university students are getting taught on how to use it effectively…. but all depends on which “trend” wins out. @Aaronlevy

@Aaronlevy Oh, the school is trying to teach kids to use and recognise AI but the kids are all about shortcuts in a lot of instances. It is disheartening. You know I’m teaching my mini me all the good stuff, but it’s wild. @NeptuneMoon

@teabeeshell In a perfect/fair auction I’d agree with that. And I don’t even think that’s wrong the majority. But I do think it’s going to feel like you’re a B2B PPC marketer selling enterprise SaaS in the same auction with a bunch of $100 heated blanket ecom ppc’ers. That analogy probably doesn’t make sense. But if I’m able to find common threads to pull that result in greater efficiencies I’m going to use them. Especially with GTM brands that don’t have historics to give them a leg up (site presence or 1st p data to build audience cohorts) – VC/PE brands will win out against start-ups all things being equal. Unless there’s a “trick card” you can play. @timmhalloran

@NeptuneMoon It’s funny, at my alma matter students get annoyed with the professors/grading because THEY don’t understand AI usage/what it’s good for. They seem to be using it responsibly (e.g. not too far off how we used to use Wikipedia to write papers and Grammarly to make sure we sound okay) but then the profs take the shortcut and just drop it into an AI sniffer grader thing. Heck I read somewhere that AI “evaluators” flagged the constitution as AI….@Aaronlevy

@timmhalloran analogy tracks, path of least resistance to success. I’m just advocating for a clearly better way. I don’t think platforms want that risk on their shoulders, but I get where you’re coming from. @teabeeshell

Q4: What do you WISH would be a change or shift in PPC in 2026? And how likely do you think it is that your wish could come true?

Stealing this from a friend at Tinuiti (Michelle Merklin, she’s a good follow!) – I wish Google (and others) would stop calling our job simple. AI is not simple. Conversion tracking is not simple. It’s simple to hit a button or a checkbox, but everything that makes that an “okay thing to do” takes a tremendous amount of work. @Aaronlevy

Breaking down of siloes (SEO/PPC/CRO/Retention) & integration of teams/data to form a cohesive strategy. Lack of attribution, automation & reliable metrics will force this. @alimehdimukadam

Huge +1 to @alimehdimukadam – I think a lot of the issues tie down to bad incentives (e.g. someone gets a performance bonus for growing Google conversions by 10%) which in turn discourages them from shifting budget to another channel. I don’t see that breaking down any time soon but I wish it would. @Aaronlevy

I wish we as an industry, including clients, and our partners, would move together towards more trust. Not the buzzword, but honesty, accountability, transparency where it makes sense (HIPPA Violation Memorial Hospital doesn’t need me as a patient) and overall togetherness. Clients need certain things to move their businesses forward. We need information and clarity to help them in the media space. Partners need our budgets and incentives to help us succeed. Perhaps a bit wishful, but I really want us all to move towards inherent quality and trust. @JuliaVyse

I wish AI would get regulated. I am not holding my breath but it is like a tyrannosaurus raging through a goat enclosure right now. @NeptuneMoon

Maybe it’ll happen in Europe, but certainly don’t expect regulation in @Aaronlevy

Won’t be surprised if GDPR becomes GDAI @alimehdimukadam

I WISH brands/companies would boost their financial knowledge…and patience in advertising.

Test budgets never work, unless expectations are floor-low. Understand what you need to invest to move the needle. Save up until you can get there. Be okay with growing “organically” until then. Unless you’re financially backed with stakeholders breathing down your neck, be patient with growth. Understand market share and what it takes to effectively penetrate. Concentrate efforts; don’t spread a teaspoon of peanut butter over an entire loaf of bread. @teabeeshell

Q5: What are you most excited about or most worried about in PPC in 2026?

Erosion of trust between brands & agencies as the industry adjusts to new reality be it technological or economic @alimehdimukadam

Increased power concentrated in platforms concerns me. @NeptuneMoon

I’m excited that brands will finally better understand what we do as advertisers. I worry that this same knowledge will breed hubris or false confidence, and jobs will be temporarily lost. @teabeeshell

Businesses truly wanting to explore new ways to find customers excites and intrigues me. @NeptuneMoon

You hear it from me every year: I worry about consolidation. OpenAI wants to buy Pinterest. Oracle has a stake in TikTok. pretty soon: Amazon – we’re the only website now. @JuliaVyse

@JuliaVyse Don’t forget all the people who “own” slices in OpenAI @Aaronlevy

Might be a weird one, but I’m worried about top-down pressure from agency owners (specifically P.E. but really any ownership group). It seems every agency who got acquired around the pandemic is facing lots of top-down pressure as their owners are ready to sell. In turn leading to layoffs, over-use of AI to reduce headcount (when it’s not there yet) and other things trying to make the asset sale-able. Methinks this’ll create a lot of friction between agencies and clients, aiding the erosion of trust that’s already happening.@Aaronlevy

@Aaronlevy Yes, those who exited till last year would be happy as multiples are falling fast now. But there are a few who are growing. Indie agencies will have their moment in this cycle. Circle of life @alimehdimukadam

Agreed Aaron. I’m seeing this quite a bit too: “over-use of AI to reduce headcount (when it’s not there yet)” Reality is it’s not there yet for 90% of use cases. But even with new biz dev / pitching we’re seeing brands factor in AI when deciding whether to do anything nowadays. Especially tech overhead. @timmhalloran

@timmhalloran it’s not just us. We get feedback on pitches, and we’ll hear ‘not enough AI’, it’s a bizarre cycle of incentives to use these things that are NOT great (yet). @JuliaVyse

I have no complaints about prospects wanting AI in the pitch (because hey, it IS the future so agency better know it). but the whole “oh we should pay less bc AI” thing is harming…. everybody. it’ll probably get there eventually, but not any time soon. @Aaronlevy

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