8 Google Ads Predictions for 2026

Here are my predictions for Google Ads in 2026. For those of you new to the channel don't know me. My name is Austin leclair. I am co founder of Grow My Ads. We are an agency that manages millions of dollars in Google Ads spend each month and I've got over a decade of experience. Now let me state, I don't like a lot of prediction posts or videos, but I was asked to do one so I'm going to do it. You give the people what they want. Most people are wrong and somehow they talk very conf about their predictions as if there's some profit of the future. Correct. I know everything. So let me preface and say I might be completely wrong on all of this, but as someone who runs a multimillion dollar Google Ads agency and has millions of dollars per month in ad spend under management, these are my thoughts. Living and breathing this industry each day. In regards to what could change in 2026. Let's dive in. Okay, prediction number one. I believe Google is going to push even harder on the adoption of AI Max inside of accounts. AI Max is already in accounts today. Google's already pushing it. I just think this is going to be something that they continue to push harder on in 2026. If you don't know what AI Max is, I have an entire video on it already. So that will be in the description below, the link to that video. But simply, AI Max is what appears to be a lot of technology that already exists. They've just made it very simple in one little toggle in the campaign settings. But it's broad match expansion, it's final URL expansion, and it also will do like text customization, asset customization for you. So again, if you want to go in the weeds of AI Max on what it is, I have a full video breakdown for you all on that. But I do believe Google is going to push further into this. Now that leads me into my second prediction then and that is we could potentially see now. Again, I could be absolutely wrong and I'm not going to bet money on this, but we actually could see dynamic search ads go away. Maybe not in 2026, but maybe in the future. And I say that because AI Max and DSA seem to be very similar in how the technology is. And I think Google wants to move more into this AI Max versus simple dynamic search ads which have been around for a while. I say simple, they're not simple, but the technology of it. So I do believe that we could see AI Max just kind of take over Dynamic search ads completely and then dynamic search ad campaign setups and all of that just go away. Could be wrong. But I don't understand or see the need for performance max, AI max and dynamic search ads all to exist and sort of override each other. So there appears to be a bit of overlap in their technologies or features and I don't see the need for all three of them. So I could see Google moving with just getting rid of dynamic search ads. Okay, prediction number three. I believe we will see more ad placement inside of the AI overviews and then also AI mode. So AI overviews will be on a Google search page. Now they currently exist, you see them a lot for informational type searches. Not as much on the commercial side, but I have seen a few pop ups. So I'm assuming Google's just constantly testing. But it's essentially that it's like you ask something or search something in Google and Google's giving you just an AI answer already within an AI overview without you needing to go click and go to websites to go get that information. Now you also have AI mode. AI mode is basically like chatting with ChatGPT, except it's Google, so it's like a full Google LLM conversation experience that exists today as well. If you've never used AI mode, allegedly millions of users are already using it. I believe we will continue to see more ad placement within both AI overviews and AI mode. How that all works, I don't know yet. Right. Technically today ads are eligible to show within both, but as an advertiser you have absolutely no control of that currently. You can't say I want to bid more aggressively with an AI overview placements or AI mode or you want to target certain conversational intent that doesn't exist. Right. So within your campaigns today you still have the current structures as they are towards the end of 2025. And Google just is able to show your ads within AI overview or AI mode. I think this will continue to evolve in 2026. I do hope and think that we're going to get more clarity with what searches we're showing or conversations we're showing within both of those AI overview or AI mode. So I predict and hope that we will have more clarity and control within AI overview and AI mode ad placements in 2026. Okay, prediction four. And I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this one. Still, it makes sense. I just don't know how this would all roll out. But I believe with the evolution of AI overview, AI mode searchers having More conversations. So searching is very conversational now versus just like keyword based. So moving more and more into intent based searching that Google will come out with new ad types specifically or targeting. I don't again I don't even know what that would look like or mean. But I do see that in the Future, maybe not 2026, I could be totally early on that or totally wrong completely. But I do see the potential for a new ad type being created or again targeting. So maybe it's not within keywords. Again this is where kind of AI max is trying to play a role order to show on you know, AI mode and maybe even further on AI overview. Again right now I don't really see much from that because they don't give you the, the, the clarity on reporting in regards to that or the targeting specifics. It's mainly like have AI max or broad keywords on sort of to get some of those placements. But I do think there could be this evolution of even the ad creative process within the interface in order to show specific ads within AI overview or AI mode or at least being able to change the targeting in regards to targeting conversations with intent. Maybe not. So again, maybe all of this just still exists within the keyword based targeting since it is moving to intent based. A lot of keyword targeting is already. Maybe there's no dramatic change, but I could see some changes there. Or it's just going to evolve from the existing features already in the account. But as searches become more conversational, Google Ads will have to evolve with it. And so there definitely will be continued changes in regards to capturing that as an advertiser. Okay, prediction five. First party data continues to be very important. Now in 2025, first party data is already very important. I'm just rolling that over into how important it is still in 2026. So that means utilizing customer match, utilizing enhanced conversions and importing important offline conversion data that isn't auto imported or tracked within native Google Ads tracking. Now that also leads me to prediction six and that is attribution will continue to become a bit messy. So even today attribution is just a bit muddy, right? So what used to be five plus years ago you were super confident in what Google Ads showed. Today you're a little less confident also, especially in the E commerce world we see that Google over targets on a lot of repeat customers, especially if you're in a business like supplements or cosmetics where you get a lot of that repeat. So we've had to utilize tools like Wicked Reports or Move into certain third party tracking, server side tracking or tools like blowout or audience os which goes even further with this like edge tag technology. I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole on this, but we've had to go utilize all these third party tools to try to piece together a clear picture of attribution and the customer journey. I think attribution is just always going to get harder and messier in the future and that's why I think solid back in data infrastructure is crucial for any business and relying more on that back end data versus just what in app metrics are telling you. But but I do think it's just going to continue to get harder and messier on the attribution side even in 2026. Prediction 7 Google will continue to push on Video Ads so do not be surprised in 2026 when Google or your Google rep continues to talk about YouTube ads, YouTube shorts and how it's the greatest thing in the world. If you listen to Google's quarterly earning reports they talk about the growth of YouTube advertising dollars. So I'm never surprised like when performance max came out and they forced a video on you within the campaign that that happened. If you just listen to how Google talks to shareholders, you know sometimes where they're going to start trying to get increases in YouTube ad dollars has been a place they've been focused on for many years. That does not mean YouTube ads are bad. I just do not believe every advertiser should be using YouTube ads, especially at different stages that businesses are in or where they're at within their own Google Ads account. And so yes I think it's greedy when Google forces things on advertisers like video ads inside of a performance max campaign. But I'm not surprised and I won't be surprised in 2026 if they continue to push video ads as hard as they have been over the last few years. Prediction 8 and my final prediction is actually Performance max adoption decreases so the amount of advertisers spending on performance max will decrease. Now I could be completely wrong on this, but I have seen within our own portfolio that we are actually spending more back on shopping campaigns versus performance max. This is something that is not 100% but does work with a lot of our E commerce clients on actually growing more new customers which was moving away from PLATO performance max structures and pushing harder back into standard shopping campaigns. I have videos on this. This was a strategy called the feeder strategy coined by a wizard OG in the space named John Moran. This is something we've been testing significantly in 2025 with tons of success. I have many of those video success stories on this YouTube channel. I'll have some of those probably in the description below as well if you want to go check those out. But I do believe smart advertisers, especially running e commerce accounts or e commerce businesses themselves, will actually pull away from Performance Max and start pushing more into standard shopping and further standard even search. So we'll see. I could As a whole, I can't speak for the entire ecosystem of every advertiser on Google, but in the nerdy little inner circle of advanced Google Ads practitioners, I am seeing more and more pull away from Performance Max, still using it with a hybrid approach, but pushing further back into standard shopping, standard search. There you go. Those are my predictions for 2026. Like I said, I could be absolutely wrong on all of those predictions, so don't take them to the bank. Those are just my thoughts on what could be happening next year. But you know, right or wrong, it doesn't really matter. You're going to have to continue to adapt as things change, and I do think there will be changes made. I could just be completely wrong on all of the ones that I'm predicting for for next year. So hopefully got some value or entertainment out of this. I'll see you on the next video.