2025 will bring about many changes in the Google Ads landscape that will significantly impact how Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns perform, especially for home improvement contractors looking to generate qualified leads. These changes bring both challenges and opportunities that will need to be addressed in order to continue to drive value with your digital marketing efforts. Here’s 8 changes that will likely impact your campaigns in the coming year and what you can do to adapt.
1. Smarter Bidding Algorithms
- What Changed? Google’s Smart Bidding has become more sophisticated, using Machine Learning to predict the likelihood of conversions based on signals like user behavior, past search history, time of day, and device.
- Impact on PPC
- Enhanced bidding strategies can improve ROI but require robust conversion tracking and accurate data to work effectively.
- Campaigns without properly defined goals or clear conversion tracking may see wasted spend or underperformance.
- What to Do
- Use Conversion Value Tracking when possible to assign a monetary value to leads, ensuring Smart Bidding identifies & prioritizes high-quality leads.
- Test automated strategies like Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) or Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) to optimize for your specific goals.
- Monitor and adjust campaigns frequently to ensure Google’s algorithms align with your lead quality expectations.
2. Local Targeting Gets an Upgrade
- What Changed? Google continues to refine local targeting features, using AI to better understand user intent and physical location.
- Impact on PPC
- Ads are shown to users who are highly likely to engage with local businesses, increasing competition for localized keywords.
- Contractors can better reach homeowners in their specific service areas.
- What to Do
- Use geo-targeting to narrow your campaigns to neighborhoods, ZIP codes, or cities with the highest demand.
- Leverage Location Extensions and ensure your Google Business Profile is optimized.
- Consider dynamic location insertion in ad copy and on your landing pages to make your ads more relevant to local searchers.
3. More Competitive Landscape for High-Intent Keywords
- What Changed? As search results become more AI-driven, high-intent keywords are attracting more advertisers, driving up costs per click (CPC).
- Impact on PPC
- Contractors must bid more aggressively to maintain visibility for critical terms like “bathroom remodeling estimate” or “door replacement near me.”
- The cost of acquiring a lead may increase unless campaigns are optimized for conversion.
- What to Do
- Expand the use of Broad Match keywords where appropriate. This will help you identify top performing keywords with less competition (lower CPCs), and reach qualified searchers based on the intent of their search, rather than the specific keywords they may have used.
- Consider using things like portfolio bidding strategies, which allow you to set max CPC cost caps to prevent excessive bids.
- Regularly test ad copy and landing pages to improve Quality Score and lower CPC.
- Don’t overlook the importance of your ad assets and extensions like sitelinks, promos, and structured snippets. In addition to enriching your ads with additional information, assets and extensions can also have an impact on your CPC
4. Expanded Role of Visual Ads
- What Changed? Google is emphasizing visual and video content across platforms, including YouTube, Discovery ads, and Performance Max campaigns.
- Impact on PPC
- Visual content (e.g., project photos, videos of installations) can be leveraged to influence users before they even search, generating demand or warming up an otherwise cold audience.
- Video ads on YouTube offer cost-effective ways to reach homeowners researching home improvement projects and build trust or establish credibility.
- What to Do
- Create video ads showcasing your work, such as time-lapse videos of projects or customer testimonials.
- Use Performance Max campaigns to display ads across Google’s entire network, including Search, YouTube, and Display.
5. Greater Focus on First-Party Data
- What Changed? Privacy updates are limiting the effectiveness of third-party cookies, making first-party data (your own customer data) increasingly valuable.
- Impact on PPC
- Retargeting and lookalike audiences rely more on your CRM data, making integration crucial for campaign success.
- Contractors who actively collect and utilize customer data have a competitive edge.
- What to Do
- Sync your CRM (e.g., MarketSharp, LeadPerfection) with Google Ads to create custom audiences.
- Build email lists and use them for retargeting or customer match campaigns.
- Develop lead magnets (e.g., free estimates, eBooks) to gather first-party data for ongoing remarketing efforts.
- Setup offline conversion imports to report back to google when a lead turns into closed/won business.
6. Enhanced Attribution Models
- What Changed? Google Ads now offers more precise data-driven attribution to show which touchpoints contributed most to a conversion.
- Impact on PPC
- You can develop a more holistic picture of the customer journey and which touchpoints influenced them along the way.
- You can better understand which campaigns, keywords, or devices generate the best leads.
- Greater transparency into how PPC supports broader marketing efforts.
- What to Do
- Switch to data-driven attribution to capture insights about customer journeys.
- Use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) along with Google Ads to understand the post-click experience, and how users are interacting with your site.
- Measure call conversions and integrate phone tracking into your campaigns to track offline leads.
7. AI-Powered Ad Optimization
- What Changed? Google Ads’ responsive search ads (RSAs) use AI to test different combinations of ad headlines and descriptions, automatically identifying best performing copy combinations.
- Impact on PPC
- AI helps identify which ad variations drive the most clicks and conversions.
- Contractors can save time but must still ensure ad copy resonates with local audiences.
- What to Do
- Write ad copy that emphasizes social proof (e.g., “50+ 5-Star Reviews in Denver”).
- Leverage dynamic insertions in ad copy to help make your ad as relevant as possible to each individual user.
- Test out different messages that address different pain points (ex: quality, affordability, etc.) to discover what resonates most with your target audience.
- Use A/B testing to compare manual and AI-assisted ad copy.
8. Renewed Emphasis on the Post-Click Experience
- What Changed? As CPCs continue to rise and competition on high-intent keywords continues to grow, maximizing the value you get from each click will be essential to remaining profitable and maintaining high performance.
- Impact on PPC
- High-quality landing pages that are relevant to both your target keywords/topics and ad copy can help improve ad quality scores and lower CPCs.
- Landing pages that address customer concerns and pain points exhibit a better understanding of their audience, and result in more leads
- What to Do
- A/B Test different landing page designs, messages, and images.
- Utilize dynamic content to tailor your messaging to each specific user that visits your site based on details like their location, or the keyword they used.
- Provide clear, specific CTAs in multiple areas on each page that give users directions and communicate the value they will receive (what they will be getting in exchange for their info)
- Leverage testimonials and customer reviews to build trust & establish credibility.
- Highlight past projects in galleries and on-site imagery to show off your work.
Final Takeaways
The new, highly-competitive Google Ads landscape challenges home improvement contractors to adapt their PPC strategies to a more data-driven and privacy-focused digital environment. By leveraging automation, developing a deep understanding of your audience and how to connect with them, and integrating first-party data, you can more effectively generate high-quality leads.
Need help optimizing your PPC campaigns? FatCat Strategies specializes in creating high-performing PPC strategies tailored to home improvement businesses. Let us help you turn clicks into qualified leads!
