Google Ads major changes in 2024 and what they mean for Indian advertisers
Google made significant changes to its advertising products in 2024. Some improved results. Others reduced advertiser control. Here is what changed and how Indian advertisers should adapt.
Google Ads in 2024 continued its trend of replacing manual control with automated optimization. For Indian advertisers who had carefully tuned campaigns over years, several changes required significant adaptation. Some of the automation improvements genuinely helped performance. Others reduced the ability to control where ads appeared and when.
Here is what changed and what it means for your Google Ads strategy going into 2025.
Performance Max continued its aggressive rollout
Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, which run across all Google properties simultaneously using AI optimization, became the dominant recommended campaign type for most Indian advertisers in 2024.
For Indian e-commerce brands with good conversion data and well-structured product feeds, PMax has shown strong results. Google's AI optimizes across Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, and Gmail simultaneously. The efficiency gains for brands with enough conversion data (ideally 50 or more conversions per month) are real.
For service businesses and lead generation campaigns in India, PMax results have been more mixed. The opaque nature of PMax (you cannot see which placements or queries drove conversions) makes optimization difficult. Several Indian service businesses I worked with found that PMax spent a disproportionate amount on low-quality display placements while ignoring high-intent search queries.
The adaptation strategy: run PMax alongside traditional Search campaigns rather than replacing them. Use PMax's audience signals to feed it Indian customer data. Monitor search terms reports carefully (now harder to access in PMax but still partially available).
Broad match keyword expansion and smart bidding changes
Google further pushed broad match keywords in 2024 as the recommended approach when paired with Smart Bidding. The argument: Smart Bidding's AI can evaluate individual auctions and decide whether a broad match query is worth bidding on based on the likely intent.
In theory, this sounds good. In practice, Indian advertisers found that broad match without careful negative keyword management spent significantly on irrelevant queries. A campaign targeting "digital marketing services India" on broad match would appear for "digital marketing course free India" which represents completely different intent.
The adaptation: use broad match thoughtfully. For Indian campaigns with good conversion data (60 or more conversions per month), broad match with Smart Bidding can work well with aggressive negative keyword management. For smaller campaigns with limited conversion data, exact and phrase match still give more reliable control.
Changes to search term visibility
Google continued reducing transparency in search terms reports in 2024. The percentage of search queries for which conversion data is visible declined. This makes it harder to optimize based on which actual user queries are driving conversions.
Indian advertisers who relied heavily on search term analysis to find negative keywords and identify new keyword opportunities found this work more difficult. The solution is more deliberate upfront negative keyword lists based on your knowledge of the Indian market, rather than relying on search term data to identify problems after they happen.
Demand Gen campaigns replacing Discovery campaigns
Google replaced Discovery campaigns with Demand Gen campaigns in 2024. Demand Gen adds YouTube Shorts inventory to the placements available and includes more creative format options.
For Indian brands targeting younger audiences on YouTube, Demand Gen offers access to a growing platform with less saturation than Meta. YouTube Shorts specifically has seen rapid growth in India and advertising costs remain relatively low compared to Meta Reels.
The creative requirements differ. Demand Gen campaigns need both static image and video formats. Indian brands that had neglected video creative found Demand Gen results below potential because the AI allocates more budget to video placements where video creative is available.
Frequently asked questions
Should Indian advertisers switch all Search campaigns to Performance Max?
No. PMax and Search campaigns serve different purposes and work better together. Use Search campaigns for high-intent, high-value queries where you want to control messaging closely. Use PMax for broader prospecting and to capture demand across channels. Monitor both and shift budget based on performance.
How has Google Ads performance changed for Indian lead generation businesses in 2024?
Lead quality has become a bigger issue. Automated bidding optimizes for conversion events, and if those conversion events are form submissions, it will generate form submissions. Whether the leads are qualified is a separate question. Indian lead gen advertisers need to pass lead quality data (qualified, unqualified, converted) back to Google Ads to optimize for better outcomes.
Are Google Ads costs in India expected to rise further in 2025?
Indian Google Ads costs have been rising roughly 15 to 25 percent annually across most categories. This trend is driven by more advertisers competing for the same inventory. Expect continued cost increases in 2025. The response is improving conversion rates (landing page optimization, offer improvement) so that higher CPCs remain economically viable.