2024 has been a fascinating year in the technology space in general, as we continue to see almost every conversation dominated by AI. Google Ads are no exception here, and we’ve seen big changes from 2023, when many of these AI assisted options were hastily rolled out and unimpressive. Several things have started to improve as more users input data, and there’s no doubt these things will continue to improve.

AI Recommendations in Google Ads 2024

AI bidding recommendations are improving. This is important because last year they were almost comically bad, suggesting things like upping your $10 a day budget for your HVAC company to $2000 a day to generate more leads. The long-term forecasts seem to be improving as well, which is good news for those who like to plan ahead.

The flip side here is that AI generated copy and images are still quite poor and clearly not human. There is a segment of the digital marketing community (mostly the people on YouTube telling you that you can make $1M in three months with minimal work) that leverages these heavily, but they’re just a poor product. The copy is clearly not written by a human.

Further to the point, Google scans your website and tries to pick out important stuff, but doesn’t necessarily piece it together in the right way. For example, if you write websites and also offer a free quiz as a lead magnet, your AI copy might look something like “My business offers free quizzes and writes websites.” While technically true, that sounds insane, and no normal person would write that.

AI generated keywords rely on your website’s existing SEO, so if you don’t have your SEO house in order, you’ll get bombarded with clicks from the wrong place. This is your nightmare as a Google Ads customer, because you’re paying for the wrong clicks.

Brand New Interface

Google has rolled out a new interface for users in 2024. It’s simpler to use and navigate, but experienced Google Ads vets will find themselves getting frustrated trying to find things. Google has grouped a bunch of things together to make the appearance less complex.

For instance, audiences and keywords have been combined to one single button (Audiences, Keywords and Content), and reports and insights have also been simplified to access. One of the biggest changes is the giant Create button, which is similar to that seen in most other Google tools (Gmail, Docs, etc.). This allows you to create a new campaign, ad group, keyword plan, etc. all with a single click.

Probably my favorite change is moving the conversion measurement to the left-hand toolbar. Previously, this was somewhat buried in the Tools and Settings menu at the top of the page. As a marketer, you’re accessing this constantly, so minimizing the navigation and number of clicks is great for me.

Fortunately, if the new layout frustrates you, or if you just hate change, you can adjust to the previous design with ease. However, you will need to do this every time you log in and out, and I assume at some point this will be disabled.

Customer Search Habits Changing in Google Ads 2024

With the rise of AI coupled with shifts in the way consumer use technology, Google is seeing a rise in longer search terms. The company reported earlier this year that the volume of searches with five or more words grew 1.5x as fast as shorter queries.

This means that more and more people are trying to get more specific in what they seek. Where a few years ago someone may have searched “Atlanta date night ideas,” now people are searching for things like “Atlanta date nights with live music and outdoor dining”

Google has also spent years trying to better match a customer’s searches with their intent. Leveraging AI helps process this data quicker and implement changes to the algorithm a lot faster.

For Google Ads users, this means that Broad Match keywords have gotten significantly more effective from 2023 to 2024, which allows you to leverage fewer overall keywords in your ad campaigns. Instead of spending time researching dozens of keywords, cross-referencing those against search terms, adding more keywords, etc. to target the ideal traffic, you can reference longer broad match keywords and capture a lot of the same data.

Note that this process isn’t perfect and still requires daily and weekly management to ensure you aren’t attracting the wrong traffic or blowing your budget on ineffective search terms. However, it is a lot simpler as Google’s own algorithm continues to improve.

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