Lisa Raehsler

Welcome to The Paid Media Mix, where I cover AI-driven paid media strategy, Google Ads insights, and real-world analysis on PPC. This edition is about another search shift. Technical changes are speeding up the breakup with keywords. People stopped typing short words and started typing full questions that a keyword list can’t keep up with. Google and OpenAI now read intent from the language itself. While you’re here, subscribe to the newsletter so the next edition lands in your inbox.

Your bid strategy is a critical lever for PPC success, and the right bid type tells Google’s AI exactly how to spend your budget to hit your specific business goals. Bidding technology has evolved fast, and adapting to each shift can be a competitive advantage in 2026. Google Ads bidding has moved from manual, keyword-by-keyword control to auction-time bidding that reads millions of real-time signals the moment a search happens.

Every advertiser, from small businesses to enterprises, can struggle with knowing if their budget is allocated for the best results. Budget allocation used to be more straightforward, but campaign spend has shifted, and a lot of accounts could use a second look. Performance Max has disrupted how budget flows through accounts in new ways over the past few years.