PPC 2026: The Expert Predictions
The role of PPC has changed dramatically over the past few years – and 2025 accelerated that shift faster than most businesses expected.
Automation, AI-driven campaign types, and reduced data visibility have transformed how PPC is planned, managed, and measured. As a PPC agency working across multiple industries and platforms, we’ve seen first-hand which advertisers adapted – and which struggled to keep up.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, successful PPC won’t be about chasing every new feature (though understanding new features will be paramount). It will be about strategy, creativity, and understanding how PPC fits into wider business growth.
In this post, our PPC agency experts share their predictions for what will matter most in 2026.
2026 PPC Predictions from Our PPC Agency Experts
To understand where PPC is heading next, we asked our PPC agency specialists one question: what do you think is going to change within the PPC landscape in 2026?
Inny Vaiciute, Senior PPC Manager:
“Google Ads will improve reporting and performance visibility for Demand Generation campaigns which will help us understand how to best use Demand Gen to support overall marketing activity.”
What this means for brands: Clearer reporting will help brands use Demand Gen more intentionally to support awareness, consideration and performance goals. It should also make it easier to optimise creative and budgets based on real impact rather than assumptions.
“Next year, Google is likely to push its integrate AI or ‘Ads Advisor’ in Google Ads, particularly for creative development – making asset generation and optimisation a bigger part of PPC strategy in 2026.”
What this means for brands: This could help brands improve creative consistency and performance without significantly increasing production costs. It also places more importance on strong brand inputs and messaging frameworks to guide AI outputs effectively.
Ahmed Chopdat, Chief Strategy Officer:
“First party data is going to be gold dust. With it comes clearer insights that will allow advertisers to make much better decisions around account optimisation.”
What this means for brands: Access to high-quality first-party data will allow brands to optimise accounts with greater confidence and precision. It also increases the value of investing in data infrastructure beyond paid media alone.
“In 2026, winning PPC will start earlier than the search. Upper funnel and demand gen investment will drive cheaper CPCs, warmer audiences, and more efficient performance than ‘traditional’ search alone.”
What this means for brands: Building demand earlier should make search activity more efficient by lowering CPCs and improving conversion rates. It also encourages brands to think beyond search as a standalone growth lever.
Chloe Tetmajeris, Senior PPC Manager:
“Phrase Match is finally going to be sunset by Google, and we’re just going to have access to Broad Match and Exact Match.”
What this means for brands: Simplifying match types could streamline account management and testing. However, brands will need to be comfortable trusting automation while tightening safeguards elsewhere.
“Google will continue its expansion of ad placements across more than traditional search ads.”
What this means for brands: Broader placement expansion could support discovery and consideration alongside traditional search. Brands that adapt creative and measurement accordingly are likely to benefit most.
“Advertisers will see a bigger spike in cross-network conversions from video ads, especially if Google continue to push the likes of video shopping in YouTube Shorts.”
What this means for brands: Video ads could play a bigger role in driving downstream conversions across Google’s network. This gives brands more reason to invest in video earlier in the funnel to support performance.
“Old school PPC strategies will be left in the dust when ads come to the AI overview.”
What this means for brands: This shift could favour brands that already think beyond search as a conversion-only channel. It also creates new opportunities for those willing to experiment early.
Paid Search In 2026: The Key Takeaways
We don’t want to state the obvious, but AI is going to continue to be a BIG player during 2026 and beyond.
Not only are brands seeing the effects of AI-driven changes to the search engine results page, but also how Google is pushing the AI agenda with campaign types, agentic features, and more.
The buyer journey will only become more complex, meaning that it’s more important than ever for brands to focus not only on driving conversions, but reaching those earlier on in the journey with focused upper funnel activity and brand awareness campaigns.
Data is, of course, another huge topic that will continue to be at the forefront of strategy moving forward. First-party data will become hugely important for brands and advertisers, not just for targeting, but for giving platforms better signals to optimise against as automation continues to increase.
As Google takes on more of the decision-making within accounts, the role of PPC will shift away from manual levers and toward strategic input – from defining the right audiences and conversion signals to feeding platforms with strong creative and brand messaging.
Winning in 2026 won’t be about finding loopholes or clinging to legacy tactics, but about understanding how paid search fits into a wider marketing ecosystem and using it intentionally to support long-term growth, not just short-term results.
Ready to future-proof your PPC strategy for 2026 and beyond?
