Hello budget babysitters and ROAS romantics!

Remember when AI campaigns were the media equivalent of handing your credit card to a toddler and hoping for the best? Well, Google’s finally letting you peek behind the algorithmic curtain – just a little – and shock horror, you can now see what’s actually working.

Let’s talk about segmentation.
No, not your therapist’s side hustle.

We’re talking audience segmentation. Creative segmentation. Product segmentation. Region-by-bloody-region segmentation.

All baked into Google Ads’ AI Max like it’s 2016 and manual reporting is back on the menu.

What’s New – And Why You Should Care (Even If You Pretend You Don’t)

Google’s AI Max campaigns, previously the “black box” mystery meat of digital advertising, are now serving up breakdowns by:

  • Audience type

  • User signal

  • Creative asset

  • Product line

  • Region or market

Finally, we get to see which Frankenstein combo of headline, image, and audience group is actually pulling its weight, and which one’s eating your budget like a late-stage VC.

You can now:

  • Attribute conversions to specific creative and audience combinations (no more guessing if that “Sale Ends Tonight” variant actually did anything).

  • Compare AI Max against traditional match types—because let’s face it, sometimes old school still slaps.

  • Break down ROAS, CPA, CPC, and revenue by segment like a proper media analyst, not a digital clairvoyant.

This isn’t just nice-to-have—it’s billable-hours-worthy.

Coming Soon – Because Control Freaks Deserve Hope Too

Later in 2025, Google will be rolling out:

  • Negative keyword management – aka the “stop showing my ads on ‘free stuff for students’” feature.

  • Custom reporting dimensions – because the only thing better than data is filtered data.

  • Landing page diagnostics – finally, a way to blame the web team with empirical evidence.

Combined, this is Google finally admitting: “Fine, we’ll let you sort of steer.”

Strategic Moves for Agencies (Yes, That Means You)

Here’s your playbook, media gladiators:

  1. Restructure your campaigns to make the most of segmentation. Stop chucking all your assets in one pot and praying.

  2. Budget-shift like a boss – now that you actually know which segments convert, act on it. Quickly.

  3. Be first in line when negative keywords and custom dimensions drop. The early birds will eat the CPAs.

Why It Matters – For Anyone Not Sleeping Through 2025

This move isn’t just a UI update. It’s Google admitting that full automation needs checks and balances. And if you’ve ever tried to explain to a client why their twenty-grand disappeared into “learning phase purgatory,” you’ll know how big this is.

AI Max is no longer just a blind faith campaign type.

It's finally acting like a grown-up.

Reporting back with receipts, owning its mistakes, and giving you the data to course-correct before your boss asks why the Canada budget tanked.

Google’s finally giving us the keys to the self-driving car… just don’t expect to touch the brakes yet

Until next time,
David