PPCChat | Summertime PPC | 1st July 2025

Posted July 3rd, 2025 by Amita & filed under PPCChat.

Summer can bring both challenges and opportunities for PPC professionals. How are things shaping up this season? Are experts seeing any new features? Are they testing anything interesting in their account? These questions and more were explored in this week’s PPCChat session, hosted by Julie F. Bacchini.

Q1: How is summer looking for your accounts? Are you doing or not doing anything special this time of year?

My active account client load is very light right now. Which is not the worst for summer,.@NeptuneMoon

Just the standard campaigns + sales, but outside of that, no. Clients are vacationing, so is my team, so everyone is very okay with a chill few months. For me personally, nothing is really changing. I have no real commitments outside of my dogs, so I can get up & leave whenever I feel. @adwordsgirl

Summer has always been a slower time as far as client demands, with vacations and such happening. @NeptuneMoon

I’ve started offering integrated services like Landing Page Development with account management for lead gen clients. Had a lot of experiences where results were throttled due to poor landing pages. @alimehdimukadam

@alimehdimukadam We should do a landing page-themed chat. I will make a note to myself on that. @adwordsgirl Maple keeps trying to lay on my laptop. @NeptuneMoon

I’m allowing myself to be a bit lazy for the next 2 months. Will still keep working but at a slighly less guilt-driven pace. @Pete_Bowen

I would not call it lazy @Pete_Bowen– as I said in a comment on Twitter if you can’t change the intensity of your business as life needs, then what is the point? @NeptuneMoon

@NeptuneMoon I was literally about to DM you to ask how she’s been!! @adwordsgirl

Today is also my 26th anniversary as an independent business person, so I am in my feelings about that, as the kids say! @NeptuneMoon

CONGRATS ON 26 YEARS!! @adwordsgirl

It’s easy to forget to enjoy the good about being independent. @Pete_Bowen

We take on all of the risk as independent contractors, we should also get the reward of flexibility when we want or need it! @NeptuneMoon

I’m coming up on my 26 years in a month. @AlexMakarski

Wow. Congrats on almost 26, Alex! @adwordsgirl

Q2: How is business going this summer (sorry in-house folks!)? Is this feeling like a typical summer season or is it different?

It is quieter than a normal summer. Now I have been away for the last 2 weeks, but I did not miss much of anything. @NeptuneMoon

It doesn’t feel very different to the last few months. Maybe it’s early. @Pete_Bowen

@Pete_Bowen I think the slowdown started in early spring. All the tariff stuff set it off @NeptuneMoon

The guy in office has been making a lot of decisions that make our clients a little uneasy so some have made rash decisions which has sucked but it is what it is. Add on the fact that lead flow has been a little slow for us, and yeah, it gets scary for us pretty fast. @adwordsgirl

I spent a lot of time in early spring hand-holding anxious clients and trying to fix tariffed campaigns. @Pete_Bowen

I shared this with our clients today, but it definitely feels slower than a typical summer. Looking at that KnoCommerce survey that dropped this week, everything makes sense. Consumer sentiment is the lowest it’s been in 2 years. I’ve also noticed that sale periods seem to be doing well, even better than YoY but that non sale periods seem to be a lot slower @HarrisonPhillips

Hope to come out of hibernation and back on Social Platforms soon. The new CA firm is off to a start, working on positioning and AI. Thinking on how to ‘productize’ PPC services, but I don’t think it can be done effectively coz human touch and client relationships trump tools and strategies. Ecom has slowed down Lead gen – not really. @alimehdimukadam

I saw some consumer data that is not reassuring too – the numbers of people using buy now pay later and also defaulting or being behind on them is going up kinda fast. Not a good sign for consumer goods or services. @NeptuneMoon

One other thing I’m seeing in my small part of the world is that we’re seeing this trend of sales going from Shopify to Amazon or 3rd party retailers. Maybe price-conscious or convenience-focused this year. @HarrisonPhillips

I heard that DoorDash is piloting BNPL options for customers. @adwordsgirl

@NeptuneMoon that tweet + the credit card debt being at all time highs. not a great recipe @HarrisonPhillips

Nasdaq at an all-time high. Consumer confidence at lows. The divergence of sentiment and markets is something to see. @alimehdimukadam

Yes on the CC debt. And defaults are on the rise. All signs are pointing to an economic problem brewing. @NeptuneMoon

All eyes on things that are big and beautiful with the art of deal making…..July 9 is an important date. @alimehdimukadam

It’s been a mixed bag. Some clients are down, others are smashing records. Most are same-same. But everyone seems to be nervous. @AlexMakarski

Whoops… answered in the wrong thread. We’re very busy, not all of it for a good reason. Turned several larger clients earlier this year, now going hard on prospecting/follow-ups and activating new accounts. The red queen moment, gotta run fast to stay in the same place @AlexMakarski

Q3: Are you seeing any of the new features that were announced recently in any of your accounts? If so, are you using/testing any?

I don’t have any PMax running so I don’t know if I’d have access to the new reporting/data there or not. @NeptuneMoon

Haven’t tried AI Max yet – wanting to. Waiting for some early reviews and feedback. @alimehdimukadam

I am also curious about how AI Max will perform for different types of businesses. @NeptuneMoon

I’m not in accounts as much anymore, but I’ve seen some of the pmax features roll out. I’m curious about ai max too – Anthony works with lawyers, and some of his clients were in the Beta. He noted that ai max basically just turned into a competitor campaign…@adwordsgirl

A lot of what is new/coming is not geared toward lower conversion level accounts and/or budget-limited accounts. Google has been iterating for businesses who have plenty of budget runway to let the machines “figure it out over time” and my clients are not typically in that category. @NeptuneMoon

Starting to see new features. Asking our reps to enable them wherever we can. @AlexMakarski

Q4: How do you handle taking time off – PPC can be a very demanding job?

Ok, so I just took 2 weeks off… If your accounts don’t need a lot of attention, you can just go and let clients know you’re not available regularly. If accounts need more hands-on management, I would suggest developing relationships with some other independent PPCers who you can trade off babysitting accounts. @NeptuneMoon

I don’t take days off, but in exchange for tha,t I take hours off quite frequently (although I often feel guilty about not working.) I select for clients where I’m not likely to be needed at short notice. @Pete_Bowen

Until recently, I took a lot of work vacations, but now, with a team, I’m able to turn the computer off for a few days, which has been really nice. The goal is to be able to leave for a month (if I ever wanted to)! @adwordsgirl

And use an MCC if you’re not already, because that makes giving access to someone else easier. Also be sure to include in your contracts that you may assign work to trusted and vetted team members, even if you are a shop of one. Gives you the flexibility in your work terms to have someone else work in the accounts. And have E&O (errors and omissions) insurance in place. @NeptuneMoon

Q5: Anything interesting you’re testing this summer in your accounts?

We’re doing an Audience + vs without Audience + test for a B2B client of ours on Meta, which I’m keen to see the results for. @adwordsgirl

I am leaning into writing this summer with my light account load. Working on ideas for a book on what I call “the business of PPC” so how to do it on your own, deal with clients, etc. @NeptuneMoon

Testing some automation and MCP features with Claude and exploring how it can be deployed to make lives easier with human in the loop. @alimehdimukadam

PPCChat Participants