A series of new developments have been announced by Google recently, including small changes to the look of their main search results page, as well as new reports in Google Ads for the Performance Max campaigns, which will be a welcome addition for advertisers.
Firsty, to make navigation easier and clearer, Google is updating how it displays advertisements on its search results pages. Text ads will now appear under a single, prominent heading labelled “Sponsored results”, rather than each ad having this label shown by the listing. This new heading remains visible as users scroll down the page and ensures that sponsored content is clearly distinguished from organic search results.
Alongside the label change, Google is introducing a “Hide sponsored results” control. With one click, users can collapse the sponsored text advertisements if they prefer to focus solely on organic listings.
This change potentially makes the sponsored listings (ads) harder for users to identify, but apparently in testing, Google found that this design adjustment helps people navigate the top of the page more easily, without increasing the number or size of ads, they will still see no more than four text ads per grouping.
The new “Sponsored results” header also applies to other ad formats such as Shopping ads. These changes are rolling out globally on desktop and mobile, and by improving clarity and offering users control over sponsored content, Google aims to uphold its commitment to transparency and a streamlined search experience.
The second recent development has been in Google Ads, where the Performance Max campaigns have introduced powerful reporting enhancements designed to give advertisers deeper insights and more control.
These upgrades make it possible to segment asset performance by device type, time, conversion criteria and network, unlocking greater understanding of which creative elements work best across Search, Display, Discover, Gmail, YouTube and Maps.
On the channel-performance side, advertisers can now leverage bulk account-level downloads, see cost data directly in channel visualisations and add ROI columns into reporting tables.
Additionally, segmentation by conversion action and ad-event type (for example, engaged-view conversions) is now supported.
These enhancements respond to user feedback and aim to provide clearer visibility into what’s driving results, where spending is going and how different channels contribute to success.
As transparency improves, marketers are better equipped to optimise asset mixes and channel allocation. If Performance Max campaigns are being used, now is a smart time to revisit the reporting setup by enabling the cost toggle, adding conversion-action segmentation and exploring which networks and devices deliver the strongest returns.
Google has confirmed more updates are coming in response to user feedback as they refine the channel-performance report further. These updates are welcomed by marketers who have been calling for increased transparency from PMax campaigns.
If you want to know how this enhanced reporting can help your business get better results from PMax Ads campaigns, please get in touch.