There's something shifting in paid search this week that's worth paying attention to — and it's happening on two fronts at once. Google is quietly narrowing what it lets you see about the searches driving your ads, whilst simultaneously expanding where your ads can appear. Two developments pulling in opposite directions, and both land squarely on your desk if you're selling products online.
Let me walk you through what's actually changed and, more importantly, what it means for your business.
✓ You're Seeing Less of What People Actually Search For
Here's the development that ought to concern any e-commerce owner: Google keeps shrinking the pool of search term data it shows you.
For those who aren't living in ad accounts all day, here's the plain version. When someone types a query into Google and clicks your ad, that exact phrase used to show up in your reports. It's gold-dust — it tells you the precise words your customers use, which searches are wasting your money, and which ones you'd never have thought to target. Search Engine Journal covered this properly in their piece on optimising accounts with less search term visibility, and it confirms what those of us in the trenches have watched unfold for a while now: a growing chunk of that data is simply hidden, filed under "low search volume" or held back for privacy reasons.
What this actually means for you
You're now flying with a partially fogged-up windscreen. You can still see where you're going, but the fine detail — the specific phrases, the odd wasteful search you'd want to block — is harder to pin down.
Does this mean your campaigns are doomed? Not remotely. But it does change how the work gets done. Instead of leaning on those exact search terms to spot waste, the smart approach shifts towards:
- Watching performance patterns at the campaign and ad group level rather than hunting through individual search phrases
- Leaning harder on your product feed quality — because when Google can't tell you what people searched, your product titles and descriptions do more of the heavy lifting to make sure the right ads show for the right searches
- Building tighter account structure so that even without perfect visibility, your budget flows to the products and categories that actually convert
This is exactly the kind of thing that separates an account that's genuinely looked after from one that's left on autopilot. When the data gets murkier, structure and feed quality matter more, not less.
✓ Google Turns Travel Agent: Campaigns Expand to Things To Do and Events
The second development is Google flexing its ambitions in a different direction entirely. As reported by Search Engine Journal, Google Ads has expanded its Travel campaigns to now cover "Things To Do" and "Events" — not just hotels and flights.
Now, you might be thinking: "I sell garden furniture, not city breaks — why should I care?" Fair question. Here's why it's worth a moment of your attention.
The bigger pattern behind it
Google isn't just adding a travel feature. It's showing you the direction of travel — pun fully intended. Google is steadily carving out specialised, category-specific ad formats that plug into how people actually shop and plan. Travel is simply the testing ground because it's a huge, high-intent market.
What starts in one vertical rarely stays there. The playbook Google is running — richer formats, more automated placements, ads woven into the discovery experience rather than sitting beside it — is the same playbook that's been rolling through Shopping and Performance Max for the past couple of years.
What this means going forward for your business
If you're in a niche that touches experiences, activities, events, or anything remotely bookable, this is a genuine opportunity worth exploring now rather than later. Early movers on new ad formats often get cheaper clicks before everyone piles in.
And if you're a straightforward product retailer? The lesson is still relevant: Google is relentlessly building formats that reward businesses with clean, well-structured data feeding into them. The retailers who keep their product information tidy and their campaigns properly organised are the ones who'll slot neatly into whatever Google rolls out next. The messy accounts get left behind.
✓ The Thread Tying Both Together
Step back and these two stories tell one coherent tale. Google is taking more of the manual controls away — less search term data, more automation, more of Google deciding where your ads land — whilst handing you new surfaces to appear on.
That trade-off is the reality of paid search in 2026. You get less granular control, but more reach and more automated matching. Whether that's a good deal for your business depends almost entirely on one thing: the quality of what you feed the machine.
Clean product feeds. Sensible campaign structure. Clear conversion tracking so Google's automation actually knows what a valuable customer looks like for you. Get those right, and the loss of search term visibility barely stings — the automation works in your favour. Get them wrong, and you're handing Google a bigger budget with less oversight, hoping for the best.
✓ What To Watch For
Two things worth keeping an eye on over the coming weeks:
- Whether search term reporting shrinks further. If Google keeps tightening the tap, feed quality and account structure move from "nice to have" to "the whole game."
- Which vertical Google expands into next. Travel getting the "Things To Do" treatment is a signal, not a one-off. Retail-specific formats tend to follow wherever Google proves the model works.
The businesses that treat these shifts as prompts to tighten up — rather than problems to worry about — are the ones that come out ahead. Less visibility isn't the end of the world; it just means the fundamentals you can control matter more than ever.
If you're not sure whether your product feed and account structure are pulling their weight in this new reality, that's exactly the sort of thing worth a proper look. It's the difference between riding these changes and being caught out by them.