Google announced new AI-powered bidding and budgeting innovations for Search and Shopping campaigns ahead of its Marketing Live event, including journey-aware bidding (in beta) that helps Google AI optimize Search Ads by learning from both biddable and non-biddable conversion goals across the full lead-to-sales journey. The company is also expanding Smart Bidding Exploration, which has helped Search campaigns see 27% more unique converting users on average, with betas for Performance Max launching now and Performance Max with product feeds and Shopping campaigns coming in a few weeks. Google is also rolling out demand-led pacing for budget management in Search and Shopping, which will let Google AI better optimize spend to follow consumer demand by capturing more demand on peak days and reducing spend on slower days. The updates build on campaign total budgets launched earlier this year, which advertisers used to reduce manual budget adjustments by an average of 66% compared to daily budgets.
