What an exciting start to the year we have had in the performance marketing world….
1. Google Ads added campaign mix experiments in Beta
2. Google Ads added audience exclusions to PMAX
3. Open AI announced chat GPT ads
4. Google announced UCP
1. Google Ads: Campaign Mix Experiments
Have you ever wondered whether your Google campaign strategy was right? Do you have the right mix of campaign types? Is your PMAX cannibalising your search presence? Should you change your budget mix?
Well, your prayers have been answered with Campaign Mix Experiments which will allow you to hypothesise and test all of the examples above.
You will now be able to identify the most effective strategy for your business goals.
This aligns with Google’s “modern search” approach. Google strategies require utilising a combination of campaign types to drive growth and performance. With this beta, you can find out which is the right mix for your business.
2. Google Ads: Audience Exclusions
In 2026, Google continue to evolve the visibility and control mechanisms available within Performance Max. You can now use data exclusions to exclude your first party data customer lists (e.g. website and customer match lists) from your PMAX campaign.
This means that advertisers can have increase control over their remarketing and prospecting strategies.
3. Open AI: Chat GPT Ads Read more in our previous blog: https://houseofperformance.co.uk/its-time-ads-are-coming-to-chatgpt/
In short, ads are coming to chat GPT starting in the US.
What we know so far, is that ads aren’t going to be disruptive for the user and need to be centred around relevancy. Interestingly, it has been reported that pricing is three times higher than typical meta ads with a $60 per 1000 impression cost and limited reporting.
4. Google: UCP & Agentic Commerce moves Google released their answer to agentic commerce with their Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) product. This enables shoppers to showcase their products or services to consumers across the consumer journey with one common language.
So what does all of this mean for advertisers and what should we think about the continual releases?
It means change is coming. That is a good thing. The way we all consumer media is changing at a fast pace. Think about how you personally seek information, are you looking in the same places and in the same way you did 12 months ago?
Bain reported that 60% of searches are ending without visiting another website and McKinsey reported that 50% of Google searches already have AI summaries showing (set to rise to 75% by 2028).
As advertisers we need to adapt to reflect this, and the platforms are adapting alongside us. What is clear, is that relevant content is becoming increasingly important. You need to have a good content strategy to maximise LLM’s, PMAX and other features. Alongside this, your first party data is becoming essential. For example, the content and data you put into your merchant centre is going to have a significant impact on how you utilise agentic commerce in the coming months.
If you have 2 things on your agenda in 2026 make them content and data!