Welcome to PPC Pulse’s weekly news review. This week’s focus includes asset guidance, budget pacing, and search controls across Google and Microsoft Ads.
Google has emphasized the importance of asset diversity as the search experience evolves. We also reviewed the latest information on how budget pacing works for specific campaigns. Ad scheduling. Meanwhile, Microsoft has launched a self-service negative keyword list with open beta support for P-MAX.
Each update affects different control levers within your account.
Here’s what happened this week and why it matters to advertisers.
Google emphasizes the importance of asset diversity
Latest decoded ad Podcast episode with Ginny Marvin hosting fellow Googlers abby butlerAdvertising UI Product Manager, and adam blockSearch Ads UX Lead. Talk about the design and process around the search ads experience.
In this episode, we discuss how search advertising is evolving on the SERPs, and Butler explained that changes in the way assets are displayed are being driven by one central goal: maximizing relevancy for users and advertisers at scale.
Butler said:
“The driving force behind these changes and the way assets are presented is to try to maximize relevance for users and advertisers at scale.”
She also directly tied asset width to format and overall query eligibility. This is the part that many advertisers miss. It’s not just the performance of individual headlines that matters. It’s about giving the system enough input to assemble and qualify more layouts.
Additionally, in the episode, she said, “The more assets an advertiser provides, the more likely they are to be able to use different formats for different queries.”
Block then enhanced this by: Design aspects of the search ads experience. What he meant was not just, “Give us more assets.” These assets gave the design team the flexibility to build new experiences that included formats that didn’t yet exist.
The episode also touched on how advertisers should think about this as we head into 2026, especially as search becomes more conversational and complex. Butler connected the need for more assets with the reality that users are moving beyond a single query.
“The more assets and information we have from advertisers, the more accurately and efficiently we can meet their demands.”
Why this matters to advertisers
This episode made an important point clear: asset diversity is more than just a creative best practice. It’s a qualification lever.
As Google moves headlines to different placements, combines them with sitelinks and extensions, and takes advantage of richer image formats when available, a narrow range of repeating assets limits where and how they can be displayed.
It also means that the value of an asset should not be determined solely by the impressions per asset.
Even if an asset only works in a specific context, that may be the most important scenario. The goal is flexibility between queries and formats, not “all headlines deliver equally.”
PPC expert opinion
Ginny Marvin framed the practical points This mirrors what many PPC pros see in their account operations today.
She specifically called on advertisers to avoid over-indexing impressions per asset and instead focus on overall ad performance.
“You don’t necessarily have to worry about the number of impressions per asset, but the overall performance of the ad itself.”
This is consistent with the widespread sentiment I consistently see from practitioners. Especially as the placement of assets on SERPs becomes more fluid, asset diversity is less about volume and more about meaningful coverage of different intent states.
Google updates some budget pacing with ad schedules
Some advertisers received an email update from Google that affects the average daily budget pace for campaigns starting March 1st.
The email states that your monthly spending limit will remain at 30.4 times your average daily budget, but that Google will begin aggressively using that limit regardless of your existing ad schedule.
This is not a change to the budget itself. This is a change in the way spend is deployed within the time constraints set by advertisers.
Why this matters to advertisers
Ad scheduling is often used by call centers, store hours, or businesses with known high conversion times.
If pacing becomes more demand-based within these windows, budgets can be deployed faster during peak periods. For some advertisers, prioritizing more focused time may improve efficiency.
However, this also means that your daily budget may be used up sooner than expected.
Advertisers who manage strict limits or rely heavily on intraday performance monitoring should take note of this update. Scheduling is no longer just about when your ads can run. This can have a significant impact on the speed at which spending is allocated.
PPC expert opinion
Ginny Marvin, Google’s head of advertising, provided a lengthy explanation of the update in a comment for this article’s coverage. marketing o’clock A LinkedIn post explaining the update.
Marvin acknowledged that not everyone is on board with this initial rollout phase. If advertisers are not receiving email notifications from Google, their accounts are not affected at this time.
We also provided an example of how this update works for campaigns that are scheduled to run only on weekends.
“If your daily budget is set at $100, your monthly spending limit will be 8 days (on average about 8 weekends per month) x $100 = $800. With this change, your monthly spending limit will be 8 days x $200 (up to twice your daily spending limit) = $1,600.
If you want to stick to the $800 monthly spending limit, you should lower your daily budget to $50 and plan to regularly double your daily spend, taking into account the margin you already know about your campaign. ”
Amet KabraHop Skip Media, founder of Hop Skip Media, added some thoughtful questions to Marvin about automated rules and scripts for pausing campaigns.
“Regarding point 2, wouldn’t such a budget change have an impact on the backend? Even if the system is actively trying to double your spend, reducing your budget will force Smart Bidding to lower your bids. Wouldn’t an automated rule or script that pauses the campaign when a spending threshold is reached be a better alternative?”
Microsoft Ads launches self-service negative keyword list
In a recent LinkedIn post, Nava HopkinsMicrosoft Ads advertising executives have announced that self-service negative keyword lists are now publicly available within the platform.
This update allows advertisers to place up to 5,000 negative keywords in a single listing. These lists can be applied at either the campaign level or the account level. This also includes open beta support for P-MAX campaigns.
However, if you read further, Microsoft help articlesIt looks like you can create one list at the account level with up to 1,000 negative keywords.
We also mentioned that negative match types work the same in P-MAX campaigns as they do in traditional search campaigns.
Why this matters to advertisers
Negative keywords are one of the easiest ways to protect your search performance.
Microsoft’s rollout of self-service negative keyword lists gives advertisers more direct control over campaign types, including open beta support for P-MAX. Instead of routing exclusions through support, teams can apply and manage lists within the interface.
From a workflow perspective, this brings Microsoft closer to what search practitioners expect from a baseline control layer like Google Ads. Automation will continue to be central to campaign execution, but advertisers will have a clear responsibility for defining where their ads should not appear.
PPC expert opinion
Hopkin’s LinkedIn post showed support and involvement from a number of advertisers, including Solcim director Nauman Younis Lodi.
Naumann Provided helpful feedback to Microsoft Ads:
“‘Phrase’ or ‘broad match’ negatives are useful, but one small mistake can impact ad delivery. Mistakes are made when scanning thousands of search terms. By default, exact match is a safe way to build a list. Advertisers can manually change an exact match negative to a root single word negative if needed.”
hopkins answered She said she will take that feedback to the Microsoft team for further consideration.
This week’s theme: Flexibility requires better input
Each update this week brings more flexibility within the advertising platform.
Google is encouraging advertisers to provide a broader range of assets so the system can assemble ads across more queries and formats. We also adjust how budget pacing works within the constraints of advertising schedules. Microsoft is giving advertisers more direct control over negative keyword management.
This update reinforces that performance is increasingly dependent on the quality of input and the clarity of guardrails set by advertisers.
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Featured image: Deemerwha Studio/Shutterstock; Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal