The PPC landscape in 2025 shifted faster than ever, with updates arriving at a pace unmatched in the industry’s 20-year history. At SMX Next, a panel of industry experts broke down what’s working, what’s failing, and what advertisers should prepare for in 2026 and beyond. The state of PPC The panelists agreed that 2025 marked a major shift, especially in how quickly Google responded to advertiser feedback. Ameet Khabra, founder of Hop Skip Media, called the year “interesting” and said he was genuinely surprised by Google’s willingness to listen to advertisers, especially on channel reporting for Performance Max. “It was really cool to see the people who were in that room sit there and be like, this is exactly what we asked for,” she noted, referring to discussions at Google Marketing Live. Chris Ridley, head of paid media at Evoluted, said 2025 wasn’t just about Google listening — it was the year AI and AI search truly took off. “Everyone is now talking about the different platforms available, like Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, and they just seem to be dominating. AI Overviews have kind of taken over as well.” Reva Minkoff, founder and president of Digital4Startups, called 2025 “the year of the max,” pointing to Performance Max, AI Max, and the growing list of “max” campaign types. She said more features launched this year than at any other time in her 20-year search career. “It’s just every day there’s a new thing, which is really exciting. But there’s definitely a lot…
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