The Future of PPC: Why Paid Search Now Means Much More Than Google Ad

The Future of PPC: Why Paid Search Now Means Much More Than Google Ad

Paid search has changed. What used to be a simple keyword + text ad on a search engine is today a far broader set of media channels, formats, and strategies. As the article points out, the concept of “search marketing” is evolving into a broader “biddable-media” mindset.

The Traditional Era of Search

Not too long ago, think back to the 2000s and early 2010s, paid search was fairly straightforward: you bid on keywords, you wrote text ads, and they appeared on search engine results pages (SERPs) like on Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing). For example, a search marketer might use exact match, phrase match keywords, write a headline and description, set CPC bids, geo-targeting, and possibly device modifiers, and then optimize.

Back then, the world of paid search didn’t have dozens of ad types, feeds, AI automation, product catalogs everywhere, and multi‐platform placements. As the author says, “Literally everything” has changed.

What Has Changed — Why Search Isn’t Just Search

Here are the key shifts:

1. Beyond keyword + text ad

The article observes that nowadays “half your ‘search’ campaigns don’t even have keywords.”

 Instead:

• Product feeds show your catalogue in search engines or social media, triggered by behavior, even when you didn’t bid on that query.
• Unified ad units like Google Performance Max campaigns that optimise across many placements.
• Email ad-units, mobile app feed letters, video ads, and social placements are treated like search-bidding campaigns.

In short, paid search now lives across many media formats (search, social, display, video, retail media), even though at root it remains “people searching for something”.

2. Audience/behaviour targeting is central

The article states that much of what appears as paid ‘search’ is actually behaviour/audience‐based targeting: someone took many actions online, got categorised into an audience, and then got targeted. The key is that behaviour is often searched or search‐adjacent.

So search marketers must now think beyond keywords and text ads, and shift toward audience definition, feed triggers, and multi-platform optimisation.

3. The term “search” is outdated; “biddable media” is the new mindset

The article argues that “Search has started to become an antiquated term. In reality, search is biddable media, which is not just search but a search style of management that is across many more ad units and platforms.”

Here, “biddable media” means any ad inventory you enter an auction for: search, display, video, social, and retail media. If you manage campaigns on auction‐based platforms, your search skills transfer.

That means a paid search marketer’s job is now bigger: they are not limited to just Google/Bing keyword campaigns, but oversee many paid channels, optimization levers, audience builds, and cross-platform creative.

4. Transparency & control have changed

With more automation, AI bidding, and complex placements, there’s less manual lever control. The article notes: “…you have less transparency, and the levers you pull are more directional than definitive (because let’s face it, odds are you aren’t doing much manual CPC bidding anymore).”

This requires search/PPC professionals to adapt: you still need strategy, insight, and decision-making — but you may not be manually tweaking every bid anymore.

Why This Matters for Paid Marketers

• Broader skillset = more value. If you come from paid search, you already have bidding logic, measurement mindset, ad copy optimisation, and landing page testing; that foundation is highly applicable across many media. The article emphasizes that those managing paid search “just became much more valuable”.
• Efficiency and synergy across channels. When search insights (like query reports or audience behaviour) feed into display, social, video, and retail-media campaigns, you create synergy rather than silos. For example: search query data → audience build → display or video retargeting.
• Future-proofing your career. The article warns: if you only know old-style search management (keywords + text ads + manual CPCs), you might fall behind. Ad platforms are moving rapidly. Knowing how to apply search skills to multi‐channel biddable media is essential.

How to Adapt Your Paid Search Skill Set

Here are actionable steps drawn from the article:

• If you already are running campaigns like Performance Max, audience campaigns on GDN/Bing Audience Network, YouTube/biddable display + video, then you’re mostly there.
• If not:

1. Learn audience targeting & feed strategy – How to build remarketing lists, custom audiences, and in-market segments.
2. Understand cross‐platform creative reuse – Ad assets (headlines, descriptions, videos) that work across search, display, and social. The article notes “video creatives (the raw file) are interchangeable between LinkedIn, YouTube, Meta, Criteo, Bing, and many more.”
3. Learn unified bid strategies – TROAS (target return on ad spend), Max Conversions, Max Clicks, CPM, CPC – these concepts now apply across many channels.
4. Utilise query/audience data to inform other channels – Example: search query reports give you insight into what people are looking for, which helps build audiences for display/social/retail media.

• The article provides an equivalency chart you can use as a reference:
• Non-skippable YouTube targeted to TV ≈ CTV placements programmatically.
• GDN / Audience ads ≈ display placements bought programmatically.
• Performance Max ≈ multi-ad unit social placements.
• Google/Bing Shopping ≈ social shopping placements / retail media via product feed.

So the search marketer becomes the multi‐channel paid media marketer.

What This Means for PPC Strategy in 2025

From a strategic vantage point, here are implications for campaigns, teams, and KPIs:

• KPIs evolve beyond clicks and impressions on search. You’ll need to measure across channels: cross‐channel attribution, audience lifetime value, incremental conversions, feed performance, return on ad spend (ROAS) across social/display/video.
• Media buying decisions get more complex. You don’t just pick keywords and bids; you decide which platforms, which ad formats, how feeds tie into product or service catalogues, how audiences layer across channels.
• Creative & messaging matter more holistically. The creative might start as search text, but then scale to video, to feed listings, to social ads. So your creative process must be built for reuse and adaptation.
• Automation & AI become unavoidable. Manual bid tweaking is less common; instead, you’ll rely on AI/automated bidding, target‐ROAS, performance max (or equivalents). But you can still guide it with strategy and measurement.
• Team roles shift. A “search marketer” now needs to liaise with display, video, social teams; feed specialists; analytics teams; maybe even retail media. Your role becomes more integrated.
• Campaign structure becomes more unified. Rather than separate silos (search vs. social vs. display), you’ll build campaigns that draw on multiple placements, feed triggers, and audience layers all working toward a common goal.

A Word of Caution

While this evolution opens many opportunities, there are also challenges:

• Less manual control = less transparency. As the article warns: you may have less visibility into exact bid logic, placements or keyword triggers. That means you must rely more on measurement, testing and trust in data.
• Conversion attribution gets harder. With multiple channels, devices, touch points, and feeds, you’ll need robust attribution models and data infrastructure to truly measure performance.
• Skills gap risk. If you stick to only keyword/text-ad skills, you may fall behind. The article stresses that your paid search skills are applicable to all paid media, so you must continue learning.
• Creative complexity increases. You’ll need to produce multimedia assets, product feeds, audience creatives—not just ad copy. That may require cross-functional coordination.

Final Takeaway

In summary: yes, you still manage “search,” but the meaning of search has broadened. Your role as a search/PPC specialist now spans what the article refers to as “biddable media” auctions across many placements, formats, and goals. When you think of “search” as a skillset (bidding strategy, ad optimisation, audience logic) rather than just keywords in a search engine, you unlock much more value.