Watch This BEFORE You Start Google Ads in 2026

Is Google Ads just continuing to eat up your budget while you see no quality leads or less sales coming into your business? If that's the case, in 2026 you need to understand that the old rules of keyword targeting are officially dead. For decades, not even years, decades, with Google Ads, the key to success was by finding out the lowest CPC, targeting those keywords, having really super high-intent ad copies, and then sending them over to high-converting landing pages, and you could literally just watch the money come into your business. However, that has fast changed, and the reason for that is because keywords are not working like keywords used to work. And that's because Google is now moving more and more to what it's calling its inferred intent. And essentially what's happening there is Google is now using more and more of its AI features to actually decide who gets to see your ads. And the AI is not only working on that side because the actual user who are searching your terms, they are searching in a different way. And more and more users aren't going going straight to tools like Gemini or AI mode rather than going through and typing out an individual keyword or an individual keyword phrase in order to find your products. So in this video, I'm going to take you through the 3 shifts that you need to make in your account now in order to see continued success with Google Ads in 2026 so that you can stop wasting your money. And also too, if you stick around to the end of the video, I will also be showing you a roadmap of what you need to put in place in order for success with Google Ads. Number 1, let's start with the reality that yes, Google Ads is still an auction, but it is very, very different. As I said at the start of this video, for so long, decades, one of the great things with Google Ads is that as a small business, not only could you compete against competitors who had way more budget than you, but if you're prepared to put in the work, target the right keywords, get some really good ad copy, and really work on your landing pages, you can not only compete, but you could actually beat them. Yes, that is still true, But what you do need to understand, it's not just about keywords anymore. I would argue, and many would argue, it has never only just been about keywords because that extra targeting around demographics and audiences and devices, locations, all of those things have always been really, really important inside of Google Ads. And they're all the things that would go into your ad rank and they are still relevant. But what is true now inside of Google Ads is it's not just the words that they are typing, it's also the intent and the meaning and the extra context that Google is using in order to choose which ads even see the light of day. And there is two core things that Google is really looking at with this intent. And the first thing is the contextual signals. And this is where Google is now not only looking at what the user has searched, it's also looking at other inputs such as the user's location, their past behavior, what have they been searching not only in the current session but in the days and weeks leading up to that. And it's using those extra inputs to actually decide whether your ad is relevant. And then the second key thing, and this is more on the user front, many more searches are now becoming longer tail. And what I mean by that, becoming conversational. So rather than just typing a one keyword phrase or two different keywords, they're having a conversation with Google through AO mode, or even in the Google search bar, which is then automatically leading them into AO overviews or AO mode, which we spoke about before. And then on top of that, Google has got other features like its Lens searches and its voice searches, which are becoming more and more popular. And then this becomes more relevant for the business. How do you target multiple 10, 20, or even 30-word different keyword searches in order to stay relevant for your business? And this is why it's so important that you start utilizing some of these extra features inside of Google Ads that we're going to be talking more about. For example, broad match and also different smart bidding tools. But before we get there, I do want to also talk about and just give a really, really strong reminder that for success in 2026, you still need to remember that your account structure needs to match your business goals. Many people, when they get inside of Google Ads, they just go to start setting up a campaign and they don't take a step back to first think about what does their business actually need and what is success for them, and why are they even spending some money on Google Ads in the first place. Now, previously you could argue that it used to be in reverse, in that you would first go through and do a long list of keyword research. You would find all these different individual keywords, and then you would go, oh, I think my product or service would match those keywords. And you kind of retrofit the business goals into the keyword targeting. It's now completely the opposite, and which the way it should be, is that you need to firstly go in and really, really think about the services and the products that you really want to market, and then make sure your website is set up for that. And then you set up your campaigns to match those products and services which are going to be most relevant for your customers. Don't stress, because I know this may sound complicated, but there's a really, really simple framework which we use which will really, really help you think about your account structure. And we do it just by asking these 3 questions. And the first one is, what are the most important products or services that you want to advertise within your business Google Ads account. Number 2, I want you to think about what would someone search or what questions would they ask if you were trying to find that product or service. And that's a really easy way to normalize it. If you're looking for your products or services that your business offers, what would you search in order to find that? And then from there, when you're building out your structure, you then just start to make a decision and you go for your campaigns. If, say for example, you've got 2 core products or services, does it make sense to have them into separate campaigns, or should you have them in a campaign and different ad groups. Now I do want to point out here as well that if you are just new to Google Ads and you would like to use some of the frameworks that we use for not only optimizing your Google Ads campaigns but also setting up your Google Ads campaigns for the first time, if you follow that link in the description below, you can get access to my free product which is called Start and Scale with Google Ads. And it gives you access to my Google Ads optimization checklist which has been downloaded now well over 120,000 times. And not only do you get those frameworks on how to optimize your Google Ads campaigns and how to set them up, but you also get access to some different masterclasses about How to use Google Ads the right way to grow your business in 2026. If you want all of that, just follow that link in the description below. And then the third key point you need to understand for success with Google Ads is that AI is changing the way that people search. For so long, when people would do a Google search, you'd have your ads appear at the top of the page, and then the organic results would be below that. But now it's actually getting merged into one, and it's becoming a really, really different experience. And so that we can make this as practical as possible, let's jump into a screen share so I can walk you through how it looks and the implementations for how you can see success with Google Ads in 2026. All right, so as I said, I want to take you through how Google Search works now and how this is going to change more and more as we go through 2026. Given that I'm based in Australia, Mother's Day is coming up, not straight away but fairly, fairly soon. And so I've just put in a search here of Mother's Day gifts in 2026. You still see the sponsored results up here at the top, but what you're starting to see more and more is two things. Obviously we've got the AI view through here, which we'll go into, and there is also AI mode, which can run over here to the left. So let's just go into the AI overview, and you can see from here that as it links into AI mode, you've, you've got some ad positions down the bottom here, but it's more of a conversational style search. And this is gonna become more and more common as we move more into 2026, that people are getting more and more used to these conversational-based searches. For me, this is why Google has made all the changes. A lot of the complaints from people who've been running Google Ads for a while has been, you know, why is Google messing around with this keyword targeting? Why is it pushing things like Smart Bidding, Broad Match Keywords, AI, and Performance Max? And it really comes down to the external features outside of Google Ads and the way that people are actually now searching and utilizing search inside of Google Ads. What I do want to make clear, and this is why I'm really, really recommending that you do start using Broad Match Keywords, is because At the moment, there's only 3 ways that you can appear inside AI mode results or AI overview results. First one, AO Max. I've been on the record saying that I do think AO Max has some potential, but it's not something I'm recommending at the time of recording in early 2026. I do believe that'll change over the next 6 to 12 months, but right now it's not something I recommend. The second one is Performance Max. Now, if you're a new business just starting in Google Ads, Performance Max is not a campaign you want to start with. So then that leaves you with the third option, which is broad match keywords. I do want to give a warning with broad match keywords is you do want to make sure that you set this up right. It's not just a matter of adding in one or two broad match keywords. There is some definitely rules that you need to be using. Because that's quite a big topic, at the end of this video very soon, I'll give you some, an extra video where you can watch full teaching about broad match keywords. So the first thing I want you to think about for success with Google Ads in 2026 is the user experience and remembering It's not just about the placements at the top of the Google search anymore. More and more people are going to be going into chat-based search inquiries. That then really brings you to the, the next step, which is how to actually go through and structure your campaigns. I'm going to use the example of one of our businesses, which was the first campaign I ever ran for Google Ads, which was for our villa resort in Bali. And when we first started, we would have up to 5 to 10 different ad groups inside of our campaigns. And the reason for that is because What we would do is that we would break out these different search terms, would have ad groups with single keywords in each ad group, and that just doesn't work now in 2026. So the question we get is, you know, how should I be structuring my Google Ads campaigns? And what it really comes down to is it really comes down to your core markets and how you structured your website. For us, that means that we've got two campaigns running: a one-bedroom villa in Seminyak campaign and a two-bedroom villa Seminyak campaign. Now let me explain why we've broken them out into two different campaigns. And the reason for that, not only do we have our internal business reasons, because we've got different marketings for the two types of accommodations, but they do reach out to two different groups of people. Our one-bedroom villas are very much targeted at honeymooners, couples traveling without kids, and professional couples. Whereas our two-bedroom villas have a market to families. And that is the core distinction between those two services. You know, we've got one market, which is people traveling with kids, and then we've got another market, which is people traveling without kids. And that's why we separated them out. Into different campaigns. So that's what I really want you to think about when you're looking at structuring your accounts with Google Ads in 2026, is not only thinking about the keyword traffic, but also thinking about the audience or the people who are going to be buying your products or your services. And you're more looking at grouping them together as opposed to just purely thinking about your keyword targeting. Finally, as promised, I said I would give you an action point checklist of what you need to do in this new era of search. Because remember, I want you to see success with Google Ads in 2026. And the first thing, and this is going to be for people who are currently running Google Ads, I want you to go through and audit your current account and campaign structure. And if you've currently got campaigns set with really regimented single keyword ad groups, you need to go through and start merging some of those ad groups together. Now, the way that you would go through and do this is it's going to be highly likely that when you go into your ad groups inside of your campaign, if you've got 10, 12, 15 different ad groups it's highly likely only about 2 or 3, or about 30% of them, are getting any real level of traffic. So they're the ones that you'd want to be focusing on. And then from there, what you also want to do is a search term report and look to see what are the ad groups which are triggering the same search terms. And quite often you can merge them together. So the big thing to think about there is you want to be focusing on single theme ad groups, not single keywords. Grouping those themes together, making sure that when you group those themes together, the ad copy and the landing page is going to be relevant. The example I was giving before about the villas. We've got two really, really clear themes: people traveling without kids, people traveling with kids. And then I want you to also think about is what problem is your products or services solving. And that's the other thing you need to be thinking about. And from there is as well, let's just say for example you are a local service business and you offer installation services and maintenance services. It makes a lot of sense once again to separate out those services by campaigns. Why? Because you're solving two very different problems there. One's about installation, one's about maintenance. So two real different audiences who are looking for different things. So that's once again the thing that you need to be thinking about— what problems am I solving? And then that way you can group them together. And then finally, let's start talking about how you actually structure this inside of Google Ads, especially when you want to be layering different types of campaigns. As I said at the start of this video, I don't recommend that you start straight away with Performance Max. You want to Firstly, getting some real success with your search, and if you're an e-commerce brand, you're searching your shopping campaigns. And then when you start getting those 30 conversions in 30 days, that's when you can start really reaching out and going two ways. You may want to start adding in some remarketing campaigns, which you could do through Demand Gen or Shopping, and then you may want to start adding in some Performance Max or video type campaigns. And so what I want to do right now is, if you would like to know more about how we're structuring our Google Ads campaigns to see the best results, I want you to go through and watch this video right here. And remember, if you want to learn more about broad match keyword targeting, go through and watch this video right here. Hey, thanks for joining me. My name's Aaron Young from Defined Digital Academy. And remember, if you want to get access to Start and Scale, just follow that link in the description below. See ya.