They take time. But they’re a growth gold mine.
I’m hearing it constantly: “Google Ads doesn’t work anymore.”
I say: Google Ads works. Your strategy doesn’t.
If your entire Google Ads strategy consists of targeting brand and non-brand keywords, you’re limiting growth. And if you’ve seen a decline in keywords converting, it’s not because Google Ads stopped working. It’s because old strategies don’t work anymore.
People aren’t discovering you by searching via a non-brand keyword. They’re doing research on Reddit, ChatGPT, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. They’re watching demos and reading customer testimonials. They’re learning about your brand long before they ever type a search query.
For B2B companies with complex sales cycles and long customer journeys, this shift is critical. And it requires a different approach.
Here are three things you need to know about AI-forward campaigns for B2B:
1. AI-Forward Campaigns Are a Cost-Effective Growth Gold Mine
For several years now, Google has been developing multi-channel, multi-asset campaigns — first with Performance Max, later with Demand Gen. These aren’t just campaign types; they’re growth opportunities.
These campaigns reach your audience across the web as they’re learning, discovering and researching. Your brand is front and center—rapidly and cost-effectively—while your audience builds their shortlist. By the time they’re ready to pick vendors to take the next step, you’ve already built trust. Then they’ll find you by searching for your brand.
What this means practically:
A Performance Max campaign with a variety of ad types like image and video ads can showcase demos or customer testimonials on YouTube. They can appear across the web via the Display Network. They can follow (retarget) your target audience as they research. That’s what drives the branded search that converts.
These AI-forward campaigns let you do all of this cost-efficiently. In a Performance Max campaign, you can use keywords alongside your own customer data as signals. You’re not abandoning keywords. You’re using them smarter.
2. The Search Experience Is Changing. Your Strategy Should Too.
The old Google search results page is changing with AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini. If this experience is changing so dramatically, isn’t it time to rethink your ad strategy as well?
I’ve been a fan of the 4S framework for a while now: Search, Scroll, Stream, Shop. But I’m adding Ask. Because that’s how people engage online. They ask ChatGPT or Gemini. They search Google. They scroll LinkedIn. They stream YouTube videos. They shop across platforms.
If your strategy only covers one or two of those behaviors, you’re missing growth opportunities.
The reality for B2B:
If you’re only focusing on keyword targeting, you’re missing the bigger picture. Yes, brand keywords will convert better than non-brand keywords. But how do people even know to search for your brand in the first place? (The answer is that you’ve been showing up in their feed the whole time.)
3. Test, Learn, and Be Patient
AI-forward campaigns take time. Especially for B2B companies with long sales cycles.
It took nearly a year to realize the value Performance Max was driving for a life science client.
Why? Most of their sales deals take a very long time to close. Our account manager was about to pause the campaign at one point because the ad platform data didn’t look good. But as we were able to start piping in sales data, that’s when things started clicking. Once we got over the sales cycle hump and started seeing revenue data, Performance Max proved its value. If you can sync data beyond MQLs — like Proposal Sent — that provides more data and signals to Google and more peace of mind until you can add sales data.
Be persistent and feed data:
B2B sales cycles are complex. You might have 100 people at an event that you promoted through a LinkedIn ad strategy. Some of those people caught an email promoting a webinar. Months later they searched for you on Google and asked for a proposal. And still months later, they became a customer. Even with the best-recorded data, you won’t see this happening right away in a long sales cycle.
Start Today.
If you don’t have a test-and-learn budget, reallocate 5-10% to introduce AI-forward campaign types. Test strategically. Don’t go all in, and don’t launch major tests during a busier time of year. Give yourself breathing room while the system learns.
Be patient. Feed data. Don’t give up too early.
AI-forward campaigns for B2B take time. But they’re a growth gold mine if you commit to the process. The advertisers who figure this out are building sustainable growth while everyone else is still wondering why their old keyword strategies stopped working.