In this solo commentary, the speaker examines a rumored Google Ads feature called “Search Max,” which was reported in a Search Engine Land article and discussed on LinkedIn by a user named Adrian. He explains that Search Max appears to be a new match‑type or intent‑based targeting option that combines search term matching with text and URL optimization to expand reach and drive conversions. The speaker references the concept of “smart matching,” an older keyword match type mentioned by industry expert Mike Ryan, and notes that while similar features have surfaced sporadically since 2021, he has never observed Search Max in any of the roughly one‑hundred client accounts he manages. He speculates that Google may be moving away from traditional keyword targeting toward AI‑driven, intent‑based models—especially as Google integrates Gemini into its search products—and that such a shift could increase Google’s revenue while reducing advertiser control, similar to the impact of Performance Max. The speaker treats the information as a rumor, emphasizing the lack of official confirmation, and invites viewers to comment if they have seen or tested Search Max, positioning the discussion as an exploratory look at possible future directions for Google Ads.
Chapters
All right, check this out. Someone asked me about this Google Ads Search Max. This is an article from Search Engine Land. I'll have the URL in the description below. This is a new feature that combines search term matching and text and URL optimization to increase, increase reach and drive higher conversions. This was seen I guess in an account. There's a guy on LinkedIn, I believe Adrian's his name. I guess I already had his LinkedIn pulled up. I am not logged into mine. I do not like LinkedIn. But he kind of posted about this. It got a little buzz. So anyways, someone asked me about it. The reality is and a guy named Mike Ryan who I've, I've heard him talk, respect him a lot. Head of E Commerce over at Smarter E Commerce seems like a very smart guy. He mentioned that something called smart matching used to be seen back in the day. This would be like actual keyword match types basically. And so instead of using a broader an exact or phrase match here you're, you're using smart matching or at least that that came into play on match types at some point since 2021 I guess. And this is what search max looks to be. If you look at this image closely, this is obviously in a different language but you see broad match and exact and etc. And then you see search max. So this doesn't look like a campaign type, like an actual you go build a search max campaign. It looks more to be like a match type of targeting. Now here's the thing. I have not seen this in any of my accounts. If this smart matching has been popping up on accounts randomly since 2021, I've never seen it and I've seen a lot of accounts since 2021. We have a portfolio of about a hundred clients currently today. So this is not something I've actually ever seen. I wouldn't be surprised if Google comes out with a search max. So someone was trying to get my like opinion on that. I, I do believe in time, yes, Google is more than likely going to want to get away from like keywords especially as AI develops and you know that continues to influence how people search. You know how even Google search is being used then and how they're using and baking in Gemini now into that. So I do believe in the future we could see where keywords go away and it's more intent based targeting. It'd be sad because I, I that just allows unfortunately Google to mil advertisers more in my opinion. We've seen that with like performance max for sure, they feed you a lot of ad inventory that there's no way, if you were manually building standard shopping and standard display remarketing campaigns and standard search campaigns that you would be showing on a bunch of this garbage inventory. But they black boxed it, hit it and grew their revenue. So this is going to obviously be an increased revenue play for Google. But here's the thing, you know, a lot of people get like sort of doomy and gloomy in this. They see some Google doing something and everyone freaks out and like the world's gonna end or Google's no longer is what it is. I'm not seeing this in accounts right now. This to me is a rumor right now. And it, it allegedly did show up in an account here in the screenshot. I don't think anyone's lying about that. But I haven't heard anything from Google's mouth in regards to it. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried launching something like this. But you know, any of the other search sort of, you know, smart search campaigns, if any of you have ever tested those, you're gonna, you're gon terrible. Those are so. I don't, I don't know, I don't, I don't think it's going to have a major impact. But you know, this could indicate this is the future that Google's headed towards. You know, just like performance max, they want to, you know, really dial in search max now and move away from keywords entirely and move more into intent based targeting. So could that happen? Maybe. Could this be a sign? Maybe. But for now this is a rumor. I'm not seeing any accounts. If any of you are, comment below. I would love to know. And if you've somehow been able to test it, I would love to know what it really is and what it's like. Again, I haven't seen anything. This article was January 20th when this came out. For now, I'm not thinking too deep into it. I don't really think it's a big concern, but it could be, it could shed some light into what Google's trying to move to in the future.
