The Yoast SEO Bulk Editor already helps you update titles, meta descriptions, and focus keyphrases across your whole site, filter by content type, and let Yoast AI draft metadata you approve before it saves. This update builds on that: it’s now easier to spot exactly which posts need attention, catch AI suggestions that need a second look, and get started without leaving your regular post list.
Here’s what’s new.
Find weak fields in seconds
The Filters dropdown now includes “needs improvement” options for SEO title, meta description, social title, and social description. Turn one on, and the bulk editor shows only the posts where that field is empty or scoring poorly, using the same scoring your post editor already relies on.
Once you’ve found them, you don’t have to select each one by hand. New quality-based options in the Select menu let you select every post on the page that needs improvement in a single click, using that same score, so what you filter and what you select always agree.
Prefer working row by row? Shift+click in the Bulk Editor now selects a range at once, the way you’d expect from any table.
Use the Select menu to select every product with a missing or weak social title or description in one click.
Catch weak suggestions before you publish
When you generate SEO titles, meta descriptions, or social copy in bulk, the AI does its best work with posts that already have some content to draw from. Previously, posts with very little written content could still generate suggestions, even though the input was thin, so you had no way to know which ones needed a closer look.
That’s why the Bulk Editor now gives you a built-in guardrail: after a generation run, it flags exactly which generated posts had limited content, so you know which ones are worth a second look. Add a bit more content, regenerate, and you’re set.
Start bulk editing from your regular post list
You no longer need to open the bulk editor separately to get started. Select posts, pages, or products from their regular overview screens, choose “Bulk edit” from the bulk actions dropdown, and your selection carries straight into the bulk editor, ready to go.
Select your posts, pages, or products, then choose Bulk edit from the Yoast SEO bulk actions menu.
Keep working, even when your site is hard to reach (rolling out)
If Yoast AI can’t reach your site, for example because it’s behind a firewall, offline, or has the REST API disabled, you’ll now see an option to connect your site to MyYoast right from the error message, instead of a dead end. Once connected, Yoast AI keeps working even on trickier hosting setups. This is rolling out gradually, so you may not see it yet. You don’t need to do anything to prepare, you’ll be invited to connect right when it’s useful to you.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00Dubado Solutionshttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngDubado Solutions2026-09-01 08:53:202026-09-01 08:53:20What’s new in Yoast SEO 28.4: find, fix, and generate at scale
In February, we wrote that local rankings were holding steady while calls and website clicks quietly disappeared. By April, our data pointed to something much more dramatic, enough that we declared “local SEO” was dying on stage at BrightonSEO.
We were wrong about the scale.
Q1 data was revised retrospectively. After testing the corrected numbers against a full second quarter, we found a clearer, more specific story than either version suggested.
Why Q1 looked like a crisis
Sterling Sky and Jepto’s analysis of 179 Google Business Profiles found that AI-powered local packs often show just two businesses instead of three, frequently without a click-to-call button, and surface only 32% as many unique businesses as the traditional Map Pack. Most rank trackers couldn’t see any of it.
Joy Hawkins, Claudia Tomina, and Matt McGee were independently reporting the same pattern: rankings held steady while performance declined.
Our initial reading of the Q1 data, presented at BrightonSEO in April, looked even more severe. Actions and impressions appeared to have fallen by roughly half across our U.S. portfolio. The drop was dramatic enough that we advised some agency customers to invest in paid search.
It didn’t hold up.
The corrected Q1 number, and what Q2 adds
Rechecking Q1 revealed a much less dramatic picture. Year over year:
U.S. website clicks and calls each fell 15.8%, while direction requests rose 31.3%.
Desktop Search impressions increased 12.3%.
Mobile Search impressions fell 20.6%.
Desktop Maps impressions declined 17.9%.
We don’t put much weight on the mobile Maps figure alone. A small number of large advertisers can significantly shift that metric.
Q1 2026 vs. Q1 2025, corrected year-over-year Google Business Profile performance. (Source: GMBapi data)
Q2 data tests that corrected the baseline.
U.S. calls and website clicks are still falling, down 11.9% and 12.5%, and direction requests are still growing, up 21.1%, all three decelerating against Q1’s sharper moves.
The standout change is desktop Maps: down 17.9% in Q1, up 3.2% in Q2, a genuine reversal, specific to the US. Mobile Maps impressions are up 30.4%, desktop search is up 13.9%, and mobile search is down 20.1%, enough on its own to erase the other gains.
Q2 2026 vs. Q2 2025, year-over-year Google Business Profile performance across the US, EU and UK. (Source: GMBapi data)
Our read is that U.S. customers are increasingly completing the entire journey within Google Maps rather than starting on a search results page. The reversal in desktop Maps impressions suggests that the shift is no longer limited to mobile.
Two ranking systems and reviews as the connective tissue
Traditional Maps rankings still rely on proximity, relevance, engagement, and prominence. The signals behind AI Mode and Gemini differ: web context, entity matching, brand authority, and review sentiment are layered on top of the Google Business Profile.
One system determines whether you appear on the map. The other determines whether Google’s AI trusts what it knows about your business enough to answer a customer’s question directly, without a click.
Reviews are becoming the raw material for that second system. Google now prompts reviewers with structured tags such as atmosphere, price, and cleanliness, rather than relying solely on free text, and also encourages customers to review businesses they’ve visited.
It’s building cleaner data so its AI can answer questions without sending users to a website first — a plausible explanation for direction requests rising while calls and website clicks decline.
The EU and UK aren’t a slower version of the US
The picture outside the U.S. is different. In the EU, desktop Maps impressions fell faster in Q2, dropping from -16.5% in Q1 to -34.7%, even as direction requests continued to grow, slowing from +21.7% to +13.1%.
The U.K.’s smaller dataset showed the opposite reversal. Mobile Maps impressions swung from +22.4% in Q1 to -70.8% in Q2, while direction requests and website clicks continued to rise.
Neither market appears to be simply trailing the U.S. They’re following different paths.
Rank tracking alone won’t tell you this
SOCi’s 2026 Local Visibility Index found AI platforms recommend far fewer locations than Google’s 3-pack: 1.2% on ChatGPT, 7.4% on Perplexity, and 35.9% on Google. A key reason is profile accuracy, which averages 68% on ChatGPT and Perplexity versus 100% on Gemini, which pulls directly from Google Maps data. Search Engine Land covered the report in detail.
Reviews matter here, too. Locations recommended by ChatGPT average 4.3 stars, while those recommended by Perplexity average 4.2, suggesting review quality is becoming a gate for AI recommendations, not just a ranking signal.
What this means for your reporting
If your reporting still leads with call volume, you’re measuring only part of the customer journey. Direction requests deserve equal weight. Businesses with the most complete, accurate Google Business Profile data capture more of the remaining clicks, calls, and directions.
For multi-location brands, agencies, and SMBs focused on the bottom of the funnel, local SEO has grown up. It’s starting to look a lot more like SEO.
More detail on GMBapi’s Q2 Local SEO trend data is available here.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/GMBapi-Q2-YoY-performance-GBP-profiles-tables-fZbqll.png?fit=1200%2C1500&ssl=115001200Dubado Solutionshttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngDubado Solutions2026-08-31 16:00:412026-08-31 16:00:41Calls and clicks keep falling as Google Maps becomes the destination
The best pay-per-click (PPC) agencies specialize in specific verticals. NP Digital leads in data-driven omnichannel campaigns, while many agencies focus on B2B, SaaS, or ecommerce.
PPC agencies typically charge 10 to 20 percent of monthly ad spend, a flat retainer of $1,500 to $25,000 per month, or a hybrid of both. Setup fees run from $2,500 to $10,000.
Google’s AI-powered tools like Smart Bidding and Performance Max are now baseline competencies for competitive PPC. Ask any agency you’re evaluating how they configure target return on ad spend (tROAS) and monitor AI-driven campaigns.
Define your goals and success metrics before the discovery call. If you show up without clear key performance indicators, you’ll waste their time and money. You could even have less leverage at the negotiating table. Check agencies against third-party review platforms like Clutch and G2. Then pressure-test their case studies against your own industry.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising delivers an average return on investment (ROI) of 200 percent.
Marketers are taking notice. About 93 percent of them view PPC advertising as effective or highly effective, second only to content marketing.
A lot of that success depends on the PPC agency running your campaigns. Agencies aren’t interchangeable, though. The wrong partner can burn through your budget and compromise your results before you even launch.
This article breaks down the best PPC agencies of 2026. Each one is highlighted for their expertise and specific strengths, helping you find the perfect partner who aligns with your goals and drives real results.
Define Your Goals Before Hiring a PPC Agency
PPC campaigns can target drastically different outcomes, so you need to set clear goals and expectations before you start looking for an agency. Without them, you’ll have a hard time making an educated decision and could waste your time and money.
Negotiating services with your agency of choice may also be a struggle without a clear target in mind. Scoping and pricing conversations generally fall to the agency if you don’t bring clear goals to the table, putting you in a weaker position at the signing table.
So, before you get started, sit down with your team and decide what success looks like for your PPC campaigns.
Clear campaign goals matter more when you’re building a paid media strategy around AI-driven campaign types like Performance Max. Campaigns like these rely on inputs from your business, including target return on ad spend (tROAS), target cost per action (CPA), or conversion value. Only you know what those numbers should be.
If you can’t articulate what a successful conversion looks like to your business, the AI will optimize toward the wrong outcome faster than a human team ever could.
Best PPC Companies of 2026
Each of the top PPC agencies below earned its spot by delivering measurable results across a specific business type, budget range, or channel focus. Some specialize in enterprise omnichannel work, while others lean into niches such as B2B lead generation or paid social. The right fit depends on the goals you defined above, so keep them in mind as you browse.
NP Digital — Best Data-Driven Omnichannel PPC Agency
Running a successful PPC campaign involves more than placing ads on one platform.
At NP Digital, we create omnichannel campaigns that connect with your audience wherever they are, whether they’re searching on Google, scrolling social media, or shopping online. This approach strengthens brand awareness and drives engagement, turning leads into customers while maximizing ROI.
Our track record speaks volumes.
One client, ZAGG, needed to boost paid search revenue while reducing costs. Its existing campaigns had inefficient conversion rates from warranty offerings, requiring a strategic pivot to improve profitability.
As part of our process, we:
Restructured campaigns and consolidated ad groups for clearer tracking and better attribution.
Implemented tROAS bidding and Performance Max campaigns for growth while managing underperforming categories with standard shopping campaigns.
Enhanced product categorization to focus on smaller product groups, increasing visibility and profitability.
Tested ad copy in smaller environments, scaling proven combinations to maximize impact.
Expanded broad match adoption, capturing untapped long-tail queries and driving efficiency at scale.
Results:
Winner of the 2024 Online Media, Marketing, and Advertising (OMMA) Best SEM Campaign award
28 percent increase in revenue from paid search
38 percent boost in media spend efficiency, reducing cost-per-conversion by 18 percent
17 percent lift in return on ad spend (ROAS) for power products
13 percent decrease in cost-per-click (CPC)
23 percent boost in ROAS and 26 percent increase in sales per click (SPC) for the Keyboards and More product category
6 percent lift in campaign efficiency and 30 percent boost in ROAS month-over-month from broad match testing
Here’s what ZAGG Digital Marketing Director Brayden Martin praised the team’s hands-on approach and the ROI results NP Digital delivered on ZAGG’s PPC campaigns.
Our client ConnectWise needed to shift from marketing qualified lead (MQL) volume to a strategy focused on sales qualified opportunity (SQO) and pipeline growth. The challenge was a lack of visibility into campaign-level ROI.
As part of our process, we:
Mapped Power BI data to paid search campaigns, aligning investment with mid-funnel key performance indicators (KPIs) and pipeline contributions.
Identified and reallocated $180,000 per month in savings from low-quality campaigns to high-performing campaigns.
Focused budgets on campaigns driving the highest SQO conversion rates, improving cost efficiency.
Results:
166 percent increase in SQO conversion rates across regions
100 percent improvement in ROAS, with a 68 percent pipeline growth
25 percent reduction in cost-per-SQO, driving higher-quality leads at a lower cost
ConnectWise’s results came from paid search, but our reach extends further. We hold premier or select partner certifications from Google, Meta, Microsoft Advertising, and Amazon Ads, so you get certified expertise and direct platform support regardless of where your campaigns run.
NP Digital holds a 4.5 rating on Clutch, with reviewers frequently citing the team’s professionalism and project management.
Directive Consulting — Best for B2B and SaaS Businesses
Directive Consulting is the top choice for B2B, SaaS, and enterprise businesses aiming to convert ad spend into predictable revenue. It focuses on connecting with high-intent buyers through precise targeting based on deep total addressable market (TAM) analysis and detailed ideal customer profile (ICP) modeling that factors in the fragmented buyers’ journey AI answer platforms are creating.
On Clutch, Directive carries a 4.8 rating across more than 50 reviews, with B2B clients consistently highlighting the team’s proactive approach and strategic depth.
For businesses looking to scale PPC campaigns efficiently and grow their sales pipeline, Directive Consulting provides a results-driven approach tailored to your industry and goals.
Stryde — Best for Ecommerce Businesses
Ecommerce brands need PPC campaigns that bring in and convert traffic to build long-term revenue. Stryde focuses on helping ecommerce businesses stand out and grow through well-executed paid search and social strategies.
Stryde’s team specializes in crafting PPC strategies on Google and organic SEO or generative experience optimization (GEO) strategies geared toward ecommerce brands. It creates campaigns that guide potential customers from initial awareness to the final purchase, ensuring each step of the process is intentional and impactful.
Stryde carries a 4.5 rating on Clutch, with ecommerce clients praising the team’s flexibility and responsiveness.
For ecommerce businesses looking to grow their audience and revenue, Stryde offers a proven strategy that’s designed to drive results while building customer loyalty.
Disruptive Advertising — Best for Data-Driven Google and Meta Campaigns
Disruptive Advertising is one of the most-reviewed PPC agencies on Clutch, with more than 360 client reviews and a 4.8-star rating spanning a decade and a half of work across Google Ads, paid social, and search engine marketing (SEM).
It’s hard for any agency to stay in the business that long without providing real results for their clients, which is why Disruptive’s Premier Verified status on Clutch comes as no surprise.
Its model emphasizes personalized strategy and transparent ROI reporting, backed by a performance guarantee and no long-term contract requirement. Disruptive is best suited for mid-market and growth-stage businesses that want an agency with high review volume and documented results across multiple industries.
KlientBoost — Best for Landing Page Design
KlientBoost takes PPC campaigns further by focusing on what happens after the click. Its 400-plus verified reviews and 4.9-star rating on Clutch are proof that its expertise in PPC management and landing page design turns traffic into measurable results.
The agency’s in-house team of developers and designers creates landing pages that drive conversions. It focuses on A/B testing and advanced analytics to continually improve performance, ensuring campaigns deliver maximum value.
For businesses that want PPC campaigns paired with high-performing landing pages, KlientBoost delivers solutions that turn clicks into meaningful revenue growth.
AdVenture Media— Best for CRO
Campaigns start with an account audit and competitor research to establish where quick wins exist. From there, the team builds out targeted ads on Google, Meta, and LinkedIn, backed by continuous A/B testing on landing pages and creative. Every campaign gets monitored closely, with reporting centered on ROAS rather than vanity metrics.
AdVenture Media pairs experienced strategists with its proprietary AI platform, SHERPA, to sharpen conversion rate optimization (CRO) across every campaign. The platform pulls in data from Google, Meta, Shopify, and CRM tools, then flags the patterns and opportunities a team would otherwise spend days finding. This combination lets AdVenture Media catch high-intent leads early and turn traffic into real, trackable outcomes for both ecommerce brands and lead generation businesses.
AdVenture Media has built a reputation on this data-driven approach to CRO, earning recognition from Google and a spot on the Clutch 1000 list of global B2B leaders. With offices across New York, Philadelphia, and Fort Lauderdale, the agency works with businesses ranging from fast-growing ecommerce brands to established lead gen operations looking to get more out of their ad spend.
Ignite Visibility — Best for Paid Social
Ignite Visibility specializes in paid social advertising, using platforms like Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn to drive growth. Its Premier Verified status and five-star rating, based on more than 170 reviews on Clutch, prove it understands what gets its clients results.
The agency’s approach goes beyond running ads. Ignite Visibility builds funnel-based strategies that engage target audiences on the right platforms. The team runs branded challenges on TikTok and connects B2B brands with decision-makers on LinkedIn. A/B testing and ongoing adjustments help their campaigns consistently perform.
With over a decade of experience and awards for its work, Ignite Visibility has become a trusted partner for businesses looking to grow through paid social advertising.
SmartSites — Best for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses
SmartSites maintains a strong presence on Clutch, with more than 350 verified client reviews and Premier Verified status. Much of that stems from small businesses and local advertisers who emphatically back their services with a 4.9-star rating.
Founded in 2011 by brothers Alex and Michael Melen, the agency runs PPC as a core service alongside web design and other marketing channels. Client reviews cite responsiveness, transparent billing, and measurable gains in lead generation as consistent upsides to working with SmartSites.
How Much Do PPC Agencies Charge in 2026?
By now, you’ve probably spotted a few agencies that match what you’re looking for. The next question is what they’ll cost. The answer can be a little tough to find without some digging.
Many agencies quote on discovery calls rather than post rates online. Pricing transparency seems hard to come by in the industry, so here’s a general breakdown of what to expect.
Generally, three pricing models dominate the market in 2026:
Percentage of ad spend. Agencies charge 10 to 20 percent of monthly ad spend, typically landing at 15 percent. This model dominates accounts spending $15,000 or more per month.
Flat monthly retainer. Retainers typically range from $1,500 to $10,000 per month for small- and mid-market accounts, with enterprise retainers reaching $25,000 or more.
Performance-based or hybrid. Pure performance pricing is rare in 2026 due to attribution challenges stemming from iOS privacy changes and cookie deprecation. Hybrid structures that combine a base retainer with a percentage layer above a spend threshold are more common.
Enterprise: $7,500 to $25,000 or more, or a percentage of large ad spend
Clutch’s PPC Pricing Guide shows the average monthly PPC project cost across their verified client reviews at about $7,165, with most PPC projects falling between $10,000 and $49,999 in total. You’ll also need to account for setup fees, which Solid Marketing estimates at anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000, depending on the agency.
Pricing shouldn’t be the deciding factor, though. An agency that misfires on strategy could easily burn through more in wasted ad spend than you’d save on a lower fee.
What Makes a Great PPC Agency?
The path to finding the best PPC marketing agency isn’t a straight line. Your research will take some twists and turns. Some excel at specific advertising types, and others specialize in creating excellent customer experiences across every platform.
One isn’t necessarily better than the other, but it ultimately depends on what you’re looking for. Use these characteristics as a baseline for creating a list of viable options:
Extensive industry knowledge: A top-tier PPC agency understands the specifics of your industry. It knows how to target the right audiences with the right keywords based on real-world experience and proven results. Check case studies to see if the agencies you’re considering have delivered outcomes for businesses like yours. NP Digital does a great job of this, as seen in the examples above.
Advanced analytics and reporting: Clear reporting is key to understanding the success of your campaigns. The best agencies provide detailed performance data, showing where your money goes and what it brings back. They use this information to fine-tune campaigns and cut waste.
Intent-driven keyword strategy: Keyword strategy can make or break a PPC campaign. Effective campaigns target transactional keywords, the terms people search for when they’re ready to take action. Great agencies avoid keywords that generate traffic without meaningful results and use intent-based research to guide their strategy.
First-party data and partnerships: Agencies with direct access to platforms like Google and Meta, along with first-party data, deliver stronger campaigns. These connections allow them to stay ahead of trends and tap into audience behaviors others might miss.
Mobile optimization: With mobile devices accounting for 58.3 percent of paid clicks, agencies must prioritize mobile-friendly campaigns. This means creating ads and landing pages that look great and perform well on smaller screens.
Multi-channel PPC services: Running ads across multiple platforms helps you reach a wider audience. The ideal scenario is to have the agency managing your Google Ads campaigns also manage social media, programmatic advertising, and more, so your campaigns stay consistent across channels. NP Digital offers a wide range of services and makes it super easy for anyone to find what they need.
AI bidding and automation expertise: Smart Bidding, Performance Max, and tROAS configuration are now baseline competencies for competitive PPC. Ask how the agency structures Performance Max campaigns, sets bidding targets, and monitors AI-driven optimization to catch drift before it burns through budget. NP Digital’s ZAGG campaign above shows what tROAS bidding and Performance Max produce when applied with proper human oversight.
Well-versed in all things digital marketing: The best PPC agencies work to create effective campaigns and PPC strategies to support your overall business goals. The strategies they use should fit nicely into your broader digital marketing strategy. Great agencies understand the big picture and can often help improve other parts of your digital marketing system because they’re great marketers themselves.
How AI Is Changing PPC in 2026
Campaign management has shifted from keyword-by-keyword control to setting inputs for machine learning systems. Three shifts define how AI is reshaping paid search in 2026:
Consolidated campaign management.Performance Max rolls multiple Google platforms into one campaign optimized by AI. You provide goals and creative assets, and the algorithm decides where each ad serves and to whom.
Automated bidding. Google’s bidding framework now runs on AI. Strategies like Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value optimize bids in every auction based on your conversion signals.
Machine-assembled creative. Responsive Search Ads and Performance Max asset groups both feed headlines, descriptions, images, and video into machine-learning systems that assemble and test combinations in real time.
As you interview agencies, ask specifically how they structure Performance Max campaigns and monitor AI-driven optimization. It’s critical to set up Google Ads Manager with clean conversion tracking and make sure there’s human oversight. That’s what will keep your ad spend from going to waste.
NP Digital’s ZAGG results earlier show what AI advertising can do when the inputs are set correctly.
How to Work With a PPC Agency
Working with a PPC agency can reshape how you approach paid advertising. Here’s what to expect at every step of the process:
Discovery and Onboarding: Your agency will start by learning everything about your business. You’ll discuss your budget, goals, target audience, and what sets you apart. Sharing details about your audience, like their habits and preferences, helps your agency develop a strategy tailored to your needs.
Planning and Testing: Next, your agency creates a roadmap and identifies key performance indicators (KPIs). Pilot campaigns often follow, testing audience segments, ad creatives, and copy. These tests provide valuable data to guide full-scale campaigns and improve targeting.
Execution and Monitoring: Once the campaign launches, the agency tracks performance and makes adjustments. Expect regular updates on key metrics like impressions, click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and CPA. This feedback keeps you informed and helps refine the strategy.
Measuring Results and Next Steps: At the campaign’s end, the agency reviews the data with you. They’ll highlight successes, explain what could be better, and suggest ideas for future campaigns. This phase is about learning from the results to achieve even better outcomes next time.
To avoid confusion, designate a single point of contact for communications from your agency. This ensures there are no miscommunications or wasted time from several people managing that relationship.
The best PPC agencies are experts in their space, and their advice usually reflects patterns they’ve seen work across dozens of accounts. This could be advice on improving your home page for conversions or redesigning landing pages to increase sales. Perhaps it’s a suggestion to improve your ad copy or headline.
Always remember they’re experts, and you hired them for a reason. Take the time to listen and keep an open mind throughout the process. Working with a PPC agency should feel like a partnership, with clear communication and results-driven strategies leading the way.
How to Choose the Right PPC Agency for Your Business
There are hundreds (if not more) of PPC agencies to choose from. Choosing the right one is often the hardest part of getting started.
But the best PPC agencies for you specialize in the types of campaigns you’re interested in. They should also have in-depth knowledge of your specific industry and be proficient in the AI paid advertising focus areas I mentioned earlier.
An agency that’s been around for a while and uses savvier tactics, such as analyzing your competitors’ paid ads, also helps. Ultimately, every brand’s needs are unique, but some combination of these characteristics should provide your best results.
It may also help to make a list of your expectations and requirements before starting your search.
From there, list the companies you’re considering. Be sure to include:
Their specialty areas
What makes them stand out to you
Why they seem like a good fit
Pricing if it’s available online
Any negatives about their business
Then, when you hire a PPC manager, you can use your requirements and expectations to cross off agencies that don’t match what you need. Client reviews on the top PPC agencies of 2026 from platforms like Clutch or G2 can help you narrow the field even further.
Once you’ve narrowed down your short list, schedule calls with those agencies. This is your chance to interview them just as much as it’s their chance to interview you. Ask all your questions and take notes throughout the meeting so you have all the information in front of you when making your final decision.
FAQs
What should I expect from a PPC management agency?
A PPC management agency handles paid campaigns all the way from strategy to post-campaign reporting. The process should start with a discovery call, with ongoing communication about ad performance and creative testing throughout.
How much do PPC agencies charge?
PPC agencies typically charge 10 to 20 percent of monthly ad spend, a flat retainer of $1,500 to $25,000 per month, or a hybrid of both. Pricing will vary by agency and depend on your business size or the complexity of your campaign.
How much is PPC with a marketing agency?
Monthly PPC costs range from $1,500 for small businesses to $25,000 or more for enterprise accounts, plus setup fees of $2,500 to $10,000. You’ll typically have to speak to the agency you’re interviewing about their pricing model for your business size and campaign goals.
How do I avoid wasting money hiring a PPC agency?
Define your goals and KPIs before signing, and require a monthly reporting cadence tied to business outcomes rather than vanity metrics. It’s also smart to check the agency’s case studies against your industry and avoid long-term contracts without performance clauses.
What should a transparent PPC agency monthly report include?
A transparent monthly report should include spend by campaign and channel, conversions and conversion value, cost per acquisition or return on ad spend, click-through and quality score benchmarks, and specific optimization actions taken during the reporting period.
Conclusion
Hiring a top PPC company is a smart choice if you’re looking to save time, strategize with experts in your industry, and get short-term results (when compared to something like SEO).
However, choosing a PPC agency you can trust is harder than it sounds. If you’re looking for someone to manage your PPC campaigns, use the tips and recommendations in this guide.
Of course, you can always reach out to my team at NP Digital for a conversation. We have a proven track record of building impactful paid media strategies for our clients and can’t wait to show you what our omnichannel approach to PPC can do for you.
Patients often search before they call, even when a physician already referred them. SEO for doctors helps clinics and medical practices appear when patients compare symptoms, treatment options, specialists,…
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In 2024, we
introduced our site reputation policy
to stop a practice where third-party content is published on a trusted website just to exploit that
site’s good reputation to rank higher in Search. This practice hurts search quality, and creates a
bad experience for users.
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Google renamed “Conversions” to “Key Events” in 2024. The terms mean different things in GA4 and Google Ads, so getting the terminology right matters when comparing numbers across platforms.
Every interaction in GA4 is event-based, with parameters providing the context behind what happened.
Data-driven attribution is GA4’s default model, using machine learning to spread credit across all the touchpoints that led to a conversion.
BigQuery export is free for standard properties and unlocks analysis that the standard reports can’t handle.
DebugView is the fastest way to catch broken tracking before it becomes weeks of unusable data.
Are you getting the most out of Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?
GA4 has been Google’s standard analytics platform for a few years now. The move from Universal Analytics (UA) was a major shift, but Google has continued updating GA4 itself along the way. One of the biggest changes came in 2024, when Google replaced “Conversions” with “Key Events” in 2024.
While some marketers might miss UA, there’s no going back.
This GA4 guide skips the history lesson and focuses on what you need to do in GA4 day to day, from proper setup to tracking key events (not conversions) and other impactful metrics.
What Is Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 is the current version of Google Analytics, and it provides web analytics on a level that allows marketers to effectively analyze important customer usage metrics, not just track traffic.
Google Analytics 4 tracks the entire customer path across multiple platforms and leverages AI and machine learning to provide more detailed insights into how users interact with your website and app.
GA4 combines cross-channel measurement and AI-driven predictive analytics. It also operates under a privacy-first tracking framework designed for today’s privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
These features combine to give marketers a more complete view of how users interact with their digital properties than what UA offered.
How to Set Up Google Analytics 4
Many marketers ask me how to use GA4. Your setup process will depend on whether you’re tracking a website or an app (or both). I’ve broken down each option below.
Google Analytics for Firebase
Firebase is Google’s app development platform that helps you build and deploy apps and games. If you enable Google Analytics when creating a Firebase project, Firebase automatically links your app to a GA4 property.
If you’re working with an older Firebase project, you may need to link it to a GA4 property or complete Google’s upgrade process.
Follow any prompts to enable or upgrade GA for the project.
Once linked, you can find app analytics in both the Firebase console and Google Analytics.
Setting up Google Analytics 4 from Scratch
If you’ve never used Google Analytics before or you want to set up a brand-new website, you’ll need to start from scratch:
Create an Analytics account if you haven’t already by visiting https://analytics.google.com and opening Admin. Then click Create, and then Account (skip if you already have an account).
In the Property column, click Create > Property.
Enter a name for your new property, and select a time zone and currency.
Select your industry category and business size.
Select your business objectives (e.g., “Get baseline reports,” “Generate leads”).
Click Create and accept the Terms of Service.
Add a data stream (Web, iOS, or Android) to start collecting data.
A data stream is a source of information that feeds your GA4 analytics property. It could be your website or your app. Google will guide you through adding each data stream.
Install With Google Tag Manager
For most marketers, Google Tag Manager (GTM) is the recommended installation method. GTM lets you deploy and update the GA4 tag (along with other marketing tags) without touching the site code whenever something changes.
To set up, create a free GTM account and add a container for your site. Google will give you two snippets of code to paste on every page (one in the <head>, one right after the opening <body> tag).
Once the container is live, create a Google tag inside GTM using your GA4 Measurement ID and set it to fire on all pages. Publish the container to push your changes live.
Verify With DebugView
After setup, use DebugView (found under Admin) to confirm your events are firing correctly. It shows real-time event data from a single device with debug mode enabled, which beats waiting for reports to populate. Skipping this step is a common way for broken tracking to go unnoticed for weeks.
Now that your setup is verified, let’s look at what really makes GA4 tick.
Understanding the GA4 Data Model
Understanding GA4 comes down to one core concept: Any custom action you can define (clicks, scrolls, and purchases) is viewed as an event.
While it may seem confusing, classifying events this way enables GA4 to provide a single, flexible structure for all your important metrics.
Each event carries parameters that add context. A purchase event, for example, includes parameters like revenue, item name, and transaction ID. Parameters are where the useful details live, and you can attach up to 25 parameters to any event.
GA4 groups events into four categories:
Automatically collected: Things GA4 tracks the moment you install it
Enhanced measurement: Extra web interactions you toggle on in the data stream settings
Recommended: Predefined names Google suggests for common actions like sign_up or login
Custom: Anything you define yourself
Sessions still exist in GA4, but they’re derived from events, like a page view or opening your app, rather than the other way around.
A session starts when a session_start event fires and ends after 30 minutes of user inactivity, but there’s no limit to how long they can last while active.
Key Events in GA4 (Formerly Conversions)
As I mentioned earlier, Google renamed Conversions to Key Events throughout GA4 in March 2024.
A Key Event is any event you mark as important to your business, whether that’s a purchase, a form submission, a newsletter signup, or a demo request. This terminology change may be one of the biggest changes introduced by GA4 and could trip you up if you’re not careful.
The rename wasn’t cosmetic. Google separated the terms to reduce confusion between platforms.
Key Events now lives inside GA4, and Conversions is reserved for Google Ads. The two are related (Key Events can be imported into Google Ads and become conversions there), but they’re counted and reported separately. Overlook this distinction, and you could end up misreading your marketing data.
On most web properties, purchase is the primary event that GA4 automatically marks as a key event. Most other events will need a manual toggle. However, if you connect an app property, you should see all pre-defined Key Events.
To mark an existing event as key, go to Admin > Data display > Events. Find the event in the list and click the star icon next to it. To create a new event and mark it as key in one flow, navigate to the same Events menu. Click Create event, and enter the new event’s name, then click the toggle next to it to mark it as a key event.
After that, select your Default key event value and Counting method, and click Create.
You’ll find key event data in the standard reports (Reports > Engagement > Key events) and as a column in most acquisition reports.
One thing to watch for: The Advertising workspace still uses Conversions language because that section pulls data from linked Google Ads accounts, where the term still applies. It’s the same underlying action, but a different label depending on where you are in the interface.
It’s important to keep this language straight as you begin to pull reports.
The GA4 Reports That Marketers Actually Use
GA4 has more reports than most marketers will ever need, but don’t feel overwhelmed. I’ll cut through the noise in this next section of our GA4 guide and give you four foundational reports for the bulk of your day-to-day analysis.
Acquisition Reports
The Acquisition reports show where your traffic comes from, broken down by default channel groupings like Organic and Paid Search, Direct, Referral, and Organic Social.
I think your two most important reports here are User Acquisition (how users first found you) and Traffic Acquisition (session-level sources). Both give insight into which channels are bringing your audience to you and deserve more attention.
The data-driven attribution model may change how channels are compared in your report. You can switch models in Admin > Data display > Attribution settings if the default doesn’t fit how your team makes decisions.
Engagement Reports
Engagement reports are where most day-to-day content analysis lives. To find your top-performing pages, open Reports > Engagement > Pages and screens, and sort by views or engagement rate.
To truly understand this report, you have to understand that Google’s benchmark of an engaged session is any session that lasts more than 10 seconds, includes at least one key event, or has two or more page views. GA4’s engagement rate is built from this count, and bounce rate in GA4 is calculated as its inverse.
Monetization Reports
Monetization reports cover revenue data, such as product performance and which promotions are bringing in new customers.
The report comes with pre-made summary cards that can break down revenue and purchaser figures, and even provide insights by cross-referencing revenue per purchaser.
You can also drill down further with views like Ecommerce Purchases (transactions, revenue, and top items) and In-App Purchases (for mobile apps).
Ecommerce events aren’t collected automatically. You (or your developer) have to implement events such as add_to_cart, begin_checkout, and purchase with the correct parameters before any data shows up in these reports. If you’re not seeing any data in your Monetization dashboard, skipping this implementation step is almost always why.
Explorations
Explorations are for questions that the standard reports can’t answer. Three versions of these reports that may be useful are:
Use standard reports for recurring monitoring and Explorations for one-off analysis. When you want an answer to a question the team’s never seen before, it’s time to dig into Explorations reports.
Building Audiences in GA4
Audiences in GA4 are user segments grouped by demographics or Key Events. You can use them for analysis in reports or push them to linked ad platforms for targeting and exclusion.
There are two main types:
Predictive audiences: These use GA4’s machine learning to group users based on future behavior using predictive metrics, such as purchase probability and predicted revenue. Your property needs enough historical data to train the models before these audiences appear. You may start to see predictive tools like these popping up across platforms. Used well, they can guide both your traditional SEO and AI SEO strategy.
Custom audiences: These let you define the criteria yourself using the audience builder at Admin > Audiences > New audience. Conditions can be based on events, event parameters, user properties, dimensions, or metrics, with a limit of 10 conditions per audience.
Any audience can be published to a linked Google Ads account for targeting or exclusion. Just remember that GA4 audiences don’t populate in real time, so a user may not appear for 24 to 48 hours after initially meeting your audience criteria.
Attribution in GA4
An attribution model is a rule (or a data-driven algorithm) that determines how conversion credit gets distributed across the touchpoints a user encounters before triggering a key event. If someone clicks a paid search ad on Monday and then converts through organic search on Friday, the attribution model decides which channels get credit and how much.
GA4’s default model for event-scoped dimensions is data-driven attribution, which uses machine learning to distribute credit fractionally based on which touchpoints influenced the conversion.
The other two options Google gives you are “Paid and organic last-click” and “Google paid channels last-click.” You can change your attribution model by going to Admin > Data display > Attribution settings. Switching recalculates how credit is spread across channels, so it may change what your reports say.
Beyond the settings, two attribution reports are worth exploring. Both live in the Advertising section: Attribution paths shows the full sequence of touchpoints leading to a Key Event and Attribution Models compares how credit gets distributed across different models.
BigQuery Export: GA4’s Most Underused Feature
This Google Analytics 4 guide wouldn’t be complete without covering BigQuery export. This feature lets you export your raw GA4 event data to Google Cloud Data Warehouse, where you can query it using structured query language (SQL).
Standard GA4 properties can export up to 1 million events per day for free to a BigQuery sandbox, and most marketers should be taking advantage.
BigQuery is powerful because you can join your raw GA4 data with customer relationship management (CRM) data, ad spend, or anything else you can put into a table, which opens up analyses that aren’t possible in the standard reports. It also stores every event and parameter from your GA4 account for as long as you keep the database.
Any time you need custom attribution windows or multi-source reporting is a good time to use BigQuery. An example use case might be joining BigQuery event data with your CRM to see which acquisition channels bring in customers with the highest lifetime value.
Common GA4 Mistakes to Avoid
Even a well-configured GA4 property can lead you to bad decisions if the data is read incorrectly.
Here are some common missteps to guard against as you’re gathering and interpreting your data:
Confusing Conversions and Key Events. They’re reported and used differently in GA4 and Google Ads, so using the terms interchangeably could lead to confusion when the numbers don’t match across platforms.
Reading acquisition reports without checking attribution settings. Attribution models each distribute credit differently, so the model you’re using shapes how channel performance appears.
Skipping DebugView after making changes. Any new event or setup change should be verified before you rely on it. DebugView lets you see if the proper triggers are firing, catching problems before they become weeks of broken data.
Mixing up sessions and engaged sessions. Engaged sessions are a subset defined by 10-plus seconds, a Key Event, or two or more page views. Treating them as interchangeable will misrepresent your engagement picture.
Using standard reports for questions that need Explorations. Standard reports are pre-aggregated. Deeper analysis with custom segments or path exploration belongs in Explorations.
Not linking Search Console. Without the link, organic search query data and landing page metrics aren’t available in GA4’s Search Console reports.
FAQs
What is GA4 in marketing?
GA4 is Google’s current analytics platform for tracking user behavior on websites and apps. In marketing, it’s what most teams use to measure traffic sources, campaign performance, and on-site behavior.
When did GA4 launch?
GA4 launched in October 2020, when Google announced it as the successor to Universal Analytics.
Does GA4 use cookies?
Yes. GA4 uses first-party cookies (like _ga) to identify unique users and sessions. Cookie behavior can be controlled through Consent Mode.
Is GA4 correctly installed?
Use DebugView (under Admin > Data display) to verify events are firing after setup. Google’s Realtime report also helps confirm data is flowing.
Conclusion
My goal with this GA4 guide was to cover more than theory or technical instruction. I wanted to show you the mechanics of how GA4 works for marketers in 2026.
GA4’s event-based data model, paired with predictive audiences, gives you a level of insight Universal Analytics never really offered.
The catch is that neither one delivers value automatically. You have to configure things correctly and know which reports to pull for which questions.
If you need help with custom reporting or more complex functions, such as using GA for SEO measurement or keyword research, contact my team at NP Digital. They’re some of the best in the business when it comes to using GA4, and they’re more than happy to help.
For most of search marketing’s history, action items stayed close to what SEO and website teams owned: technical issues, content, links, authority, and related work. Fixes often required developers, writers, or subject-matter experts, but SEO and website teams could usually diagnose the problems and influence the outcome on their own.
AI visibility doesn’t fit as neatly into that SEO box.
A company can have a technically sound website that AI crawlers can access and understand, including what the company sells and who it serves. AI may even mention and cite the brand regularly in informational responses.
Yet when a buyer asks what to purchase, those same brands can be left out. That’s because AI uses a different set of criteria when it shifts from providing information to making recommendations. As a result, AI visibility plans require action from teams across the organization, far beyond SEO and AI search.
This is why I believe AI visibility now has two jobs:
Optimize what SEO and development control.
Mobilize the organization for everything else.
Mobilizing teams across the organization will become one of the most important capabilities for in-house teams responsible for AI visibility.
Being visible and being recommended aren’t the same problem
Much of the industry’s GEO conversation today focuses on getting found and mentioned:
Can AI crawlers access our content?
Are we mentioned?
Are we cited?
Which sources influence AI responses?
How often do we appear compared with competitors?
This is a job in itself.
However, when a buyer asks:
“I need a compressed air system for a food manufacturing facility that maintains consistent pressure during variable production demand without introducing oil contamination into the process. What should I consider?”
This isn’t simply a request for information about compressed air systems. The buyer has provided a specific set of requirements and asked AI to help make a decision. AI shifts from providing information to giving advice.
To answer well, AI must determine which solutions are appropriate for food manufacturing, which can handle variable demand, which address contamination concerns, what tradeoffs the buyer should consider, and more.
The AI system compares products using documentation, technical specifications, customer experiences, third-party sources, and its understanding of manufacturers and the buyers they serve. It also applies its own understanding of what matters most in that buying scenario to its evaluation.
Once AI moves into advising, it’s no longer simply retrieving information. It’s making recommendations, and that’s when being understood and citable is no longer the same as being recommendable.
That significantly expands the role of the SEO and AI Search (GEO) team.
Sometimes AI understands your product perfectly and that’s why you’re omitted
Consider a manufacturer with strong domain authority, extensive content, and technically sound product pages. Its products consistently appear when buyers ask informational questions about the category.
Now imagine a buyer asks:
“What equipment should I use for this application if minimizing downtime is more important than initial cost?”
The manufacturer disappears from the recommendations.
Why?
Most search teams would look for a content opportunity. Maybe the website doesn’t explain the product in the context of that application. Maybe its operational advantages aren’t documented. Maybe the information exists but isn’t easy to retrieve.
Those are fixable search and content problems.
But our analysis of leading brands is uncovering issues far beyond what SEO and AI Search (GEO) teams typically consider. We’re seeing reasons such as:
Higher maintenance requirements than competing products
Missing capabilities that matter for the buyer’s specific application
Consistent customer reports of difficult support experiences for complex issues
A component with a reputation for frequent failure
Cloud connectivity that’s reported to drop frequently
These aren’t hypothetical examples. We’ve uncovered issues like these while investigating why large, sophisticated brands with strong products are omitted from AI recommendations.
In these cases, AI wasn’t failing to find the company or its products. It understood them extremely well — in fact, too well.
AI accurately recognized the products’ limitations, what could go wrong, and where buyers were likely to face risk, frustration, higher total cost of ownership, more downtime, longer repair times, and other tradeoffs.
The gaps we’re finding come down to buyer scenarios. Specific prompts surface evidence within AI’s context window that it uses to decide whether a company is a good recommendation for that buyer.
This is a fundamentally different visibility problem than SEO or getting found by AI. It’s a recommendation problem.
When recommendations are the issue, the work extends beyond the SEO and AI search (GEO) team and into cross-functional teams across the organization. In many cases, winning in AI search requires mobilizing far more teams than SEO ever did.
Getting AI to recommend a product often exposes problems outside SEO’s jurisdiction
Now consider a SaaS company that’s a true leader in its niche but consistently loses recommendations when buyers want a native integration with a particular enterprise platform. Its leading competitors offer one. This company doesn’t.
The website could clearly explain the available workaround. It could publish implementation documentation and customer examples showing the alternative works. That may improve the company’s visibility and AI’s perception. But content can’t turn a workaround into a native integration. If that capability matters to the buyer, AI sees the product as a poorer fit or a higher-risk choice.
We saw an even more striking example while researching a complex manufacturing machine. AI understood that one component was made from a different material than its competitors, recognized the performance implications of that design choice, and surfaced both the component and its material when throughput became important to the buyer later in the conversation.
The product’s design itself becomes a factor in recommendations.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Product design has rarely influenced marketing channels beyond reviews, listicles, and ecommerce filters.
This is where AI visibility moves beyond the traditional boundaries of SEO. The SEO or AI Search (GEO) team can identify the pattern, measure how often it affects important buyer scenarios, and diagnose why the product loses recommendations. But it can’t change the material used in a product, add a native integration, or rewrite a company’s warranty policy.
SEO needs to know when and how to mobilize other teams to execute AI visibility solutions.
AI visibility creates a different kind of cross-functional challenge than SEO. Analysis may uncover recommendation problems whose solutions don’t belong to SEO at all.
If AI repeatedly excludes a product because buyers need a capability it doesn’t have, the next conversation belongs with Product.
If customer evidence causes the company to lose recommendations because of poor support for complex issues, that conversation belongs with Technical Support leadership.
If the return policy or refund timeline is blocking recommendations, that conversation belongs with Finance leadership.
The SEO and AI search (GEO) team’s expanded role is to bring cross-functional teams a business problem they may not even know exists:
“When buyers ask AI about this requirement, we lose. Here’s why. Here’s how often it happens. Here’s which products or revenue opportunities it affects. How do we fix it?”
From there, the business can decide whether anything should change.
Sometimes the answer is to change the product, policy, or process. Sometimes the answer is, “We can’t change,” and the team must rely on better positioning, stronger evidence, or clearer content to improve AI’s perception. And sometimes the company decides the buyer scenario simply isn’t important enough to justify action.
Pacesetter AI visibility programs will own the program while mobilizing cross-functional teams to own the solution. That creates two layers of ownership, unlike SEO, where responsibility typically rests with the SEO team.
The SEO and AI search (GEO) team may own monitoring recommendations, investigating losses, and diagnosing their causes. But when the cause lies in the product, customer experience, operations, finance, or another function, that team must be mobilized to own the solution.
The pacesetters in AI visibility won’t be the teams that learn to optimize everything they find. They’ll be the teams that know what SEO can fix, what it can’t, and how to mobilize the organization when the answer lies elsewhere.
Join me Oct. 5 for my all-new AI Brand Visibility SMX Master Class and discover what it really takes to earn recommendations in the AI era. This isn’t another tactical SEO workshop. It’s a strategic roadmap for understanding how AI is changing discovery, and how your organization can adapt before your competitors do.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/ai-visibility-YbxEvM.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=110801920Dubado Solutionshttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngDubado Solutions2026-08-25 18:33:592026-08-25 18:33:59AI visibility has two jobs: Execute SEO and mobilize the organization
Google is bringing Gemini Omni into Asset Studio in Google Ads, allowing advertisers to turn creative briefs, brand guidelines and existing assets into multi-format videos that can be deployed directly into campaigns.
The new capabilities are aimed at reducing the work required to produce creative variations for Demand Gen, Performance Max and other Google and YouTube campaigns.
What’s new. Starting today, Google DeepMind’s Gemini Omni model powers new multimodal video creation tools directly within Asset Studio.
Advertisers can provide their brand guidelines and website URL, enter a creative brief or select existing static assets, and use Gemini Omni to generate video storyboards and motion scenes.
How it works. Google has built the workflow around four stages: establish the brand, generate concepts, refine the creative and deploy the finished assets.
After importing brand guidelines and a URL, advertisers can generate initial concepts from prompts or existing creative. They can then use additional prompts to adjust individual scenes, voiceovers, pacing and aspect ratios before exporting the assets directly into campaigns.
Prompt-based editing. Advertisers can refine generated videos using natural language rather than rebuilding creative from scratch.
Gemini Omni can make changes to scenes, backgrounds and styling while retaining context from previous instructions, allowing advertisers to iteratively develop the creative through a conversation-like workflow.
Brand controls. Google says Gemini Omni uses reasoning during scene generation to help AI-generated assets remain consistent with an advertiser’s visual identity and tone.
Rather than only generating realistic-looking scenes, Google says the model reasons about what should happen next while attempting to maintain the brand standards supplied by the advertiser.
Multi-format creative. One of the main goals is to make it easier to produce the creative variety needed across Google’s different advertising surfaces.
Gemini Omni can generate horizontal 16:9 and vertical 9:16 versions of video creative, reducing the need for advertisers to separately produce variations for different placements across Google and YouTube.
From creation to campaigns. Finished assets can be exported from Asset Studio directly into Demand Gen, Performance Max and other YouTube or Google campaigns.
That creates a more integrated workflow where advertisers can move from a brief to generated creative and then into campaign deployment without relying on separate video production tools for each stage.
Why we care. Producing enough video variations for Google’s increasingly creative-heavy campaign types can be expensive and time-consuming, particularly when advertisers need multiple formats. Putting generation and editing directly inside Google Ads could dramatically shorten that process. But advertisers will still need to scrutinize whether AI-generated videos genuinely meet their brand standards rather than relying solely on Gemini Omni’s interpretation of their guidelines.
Bottom line. Google is turning Asset Studio into a more complete AI video production environment, using Gemini Omni to take advertisers from creative brief to brand-aware, multi-format video assets that can be deployed directly into campaigns.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Google-AI-creative-avxsZN.png?fit=1672%2C941&ssl=19411672Dubado Solutionshttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngDubado Solutions2026-08-25 18:23:122026-08-25 18:23:12Google brings Gemini Omni video creation to Google Ads
Google is significantly expanding booking capabilities for Local Services Ads (LSAs), increasing support from around 20 Reserve with Google booking partners to more than 500.
The expansion means substantially more LSA advertisers can let potential customers book directly from their ads on Google Search and Maps, according to Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin.
What’s new. Starting now, advertisers whose Google Business Profile already has an active partner booking link will automatically have that booking capability enabled for their Local Services Ads.
There’s no additional manual linking required. Eligible customers can move directly from seeing the LSA to making a booking through the advertiser’s existing booking partner.
A big expansion. Google says Local Services Ads now support more than 500 Reserve with Google booking partners, up from just 20.
That dramatically increases the number of businesses that could potentially use direct booking through their ads without adopting a different scheduling provider.
Bookings become paid leads. Direct bookings generated through LSAs aren’t simply an additional interaction with the ad. Google says they will flow into LSA lead reporting as paid leads.
Advertisers can continue viewing and managing those booking leads from within their Local Services Ads profile.
Advertisers still have controls. Businesses that don’t want to use a particular booking provider can adjust their preferences.
Booking settings and individual partner links can be managed under Profile & Budget > Settings within the LSA dashboard, including the ability to disable a specific partner link.
Marvin said advertisers’ booking preferences will carry over as part of that migration, helping preserve existing configurations through the transition.
Why we care. Direct booking reduces the number of steps between seeing an LSA and becoming a lead. Expanding support from 20 to more than 500 booking partners could make that experience available to significantly more advertisers. But because those bookings are treated as paid leads, businesses should also monitor booking quality and costs rather than viewing the feature simply as a free conversion improvement.
Bottom line. Google is turning direct booking into a much more widely available Local Services Ads feature, automatically connecting existing eligible Business Profile booking links and letting customers go from an ad on Search or Maps directly to making an appointment.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/LSA-booking-integration-76hGfs.png?fit=1672%2C941&ssl=19411672Dubado Solutionshttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngDubado Solutions2026-08-25 17:55:442026-08-25 17:55:44Google expands direct booking for Local Services Ads
Google is updating its Local Services Ads lead charge policy, changing how and when advertisers are charged for calls generated by their ads.
Starting Oct. 1st, certain missed calls and subsequent calls that meet Google’s valid lead criteria will become chargeable.
What’s changing. Missed calls during business hours will now be charged as valid leads when a user stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, with some exceptions.
That means advertisers could be charged for a call even if nobody at the business actually answers it.
Subsequent calls. If an initial call doesn’t qualify as a charged lead, Google says subsequent follow-up calls between the business and the user will be charged if they meet its valid lead criteria.
Call routing exceptions. Google is introducing an exception for businesses whose call-receiving setup requires customers to press a key to reach the appropriate department.
In these cases, the 20-second timer won’t begin until the customer presses the key. Businesses won’t be charged if the customer doesn’t press a key and therefore isn’t routed.
Spam protections. Google says it is introducing new safeguards intended to limit robot calls and address spam call abuse as part of the change.
The announcement doesn’t provide further details about how those protections will work.
Why Google is making the change. Google says Local Services Ads customers often have immediate needs and expect to connect quickly with a trusted local professional.
The company says the policy change is intended to help the platform meet those customer expectations while rewarding businesses that provide “excellent responsiveness.”
Why we care. The change puts more importance on advertisers’ ability to answer calls during business hours. Businesses could now pay for missed calls that last longer than 20 seconds, making call responsiveness and routing setup more directly connected to LSA costs.
Bottom line. Starting Oct. 1, Google will broaden what can qualify as a charged Local Services Ads call lead, including missed calls lasting more than 20 seconds during business hours and qualifying subsequent calls.
First spotted. This updated was spotted by a digital marketer on X.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Google-Lead-charge-ZQp5Eb.webp?fit=496%2C756&ssl=1756496Dubado Solutionshttp://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.pngDubado Solutions2026-08-25 17:24:502026-08-25 17:24:50Google Local Services Ads will charge for some missed calls starting Oct. 1
