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I started working in paid ads in 2016, I know a lifetime ago 😅.

Back then it was all about choosing the right keywords to target.

I remember having a long winded process for finding the best keywords.

Part of my process was using SEO tools. Fancy right?

I would spend a lengthy amount of time analysing the profile of each keyword.

I looked at the keyword strength, SEO ranking position, keyword difficulty and more.

This process was very insightful, but is it still necessary in today’s market?

The only answer is no, because of 2 reasons:

1. AI has landed and its here to do any repetitive or laborious tasks 🙌.

2. Ad platforms have evolved beyond keywords.

Even though keywords are still important, they aren’t the main piece of the pie, even if leadership think otherwise 👀.

Focusing purely on keywords in 2026 is the wrong path to take.

Here’s what I’m learning:

It’s not just about keywords anymore; it’s about how well the platform understands your audience.

I’m seeing this with ad platform updates:

Google Ads

If you are still running Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) on Google, it will be upgraded to AI Max for Search campaigns.

AI Max for Search is one of Google’s latest features that help you increase your reach and target audiences beyond your keyword offering.

This is how I’m seeing Google shift away from keywords to focus more towards audience intent.

This means that the assets and landing page copy have never been more important. Let’s not sleep on this.

It would be good to focus less on generic copy ie: “drive better outcomes” or “AI-powered platform”, and more on copy that speaks to the audience.

Microsoft Ads

You may have noticed that Microsoft Ads now offer more LinkedIn-style audiences, including job seniority targeting.

I saw this update in June, and it stood out to me because of the new audience targeting possibilities for search and audience campaigns.

It is a key update for B2B businesses because I understand how complicated it can be to target buying committees.

This feature will allow you to create strategies around the buying committee, with targeted copy or review reports on these audiences.

LinkedIn Ads

B2B businesses are allocating more of their marketing budgets towards LinkedIn. This isn’t random, trust me.

In Dreamdata’s latest LinkedIn ads benchmark report I saw:

LinkedIn now captures 41% of B2B ad budgets, increasing from 39% in the previous year.

This increase may seem small, but it isn’t. For instance, if an enterprise business with a large budget increases their budget by 1-2%, it’s a big deal.

I’m glad that B2B teams are realising that they need more than search ads to reach their audiences.

LinkedIn allows them to reach the buying committees who aren’t searching but feel the pain of their problem.

Open AI

ChatGPT has opened up its beta for the UK market 💃. I got served an ad in ChatGPT and it surprised me how much search has evolved.

Before it was all about ranking on search engines; now it’s about how well you understand and serve your audience to show up on ChatGPT.

If we see ChatGPT become a real ad platform, it’s where we will see prospects start their search journey.

The B2B bidding landscape is changing and if I were you, I would start adapting to these changes.

This week ask yourself:

• How well do I understand my audience?

• Are my current paid media efforts able to target them?

• Have I adapted my marketing to align with these updates?

If this post made you rethink your B2B paid ads strategy, good 😊.

I will see you in next week’s post 👋.

Jess

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I heard the same question from a B2B founder that I worked with when leads were down.

“Have you changed anything with paid?”

I had a mini mental panic before checking the Google Ads accounts.

The last thing I want is for the ads to be the reason we missed the MRR target.

I opened the Google Ads tab and started reviewing each campaign.

I found no issues in the account that would have caused a decrease in lead volume.

The knots in my stomach started to loosen.

I excitedly shared my findings on the Slack marketing channel. No one responded.

The ads aren’t always the problem.

It’s where you’re sending the ads to.

The ads are working. It’s the landing page.

Most B2B SaaS landing pages I’ve reviewed:

1. Ignoring the ICP

When the prospect reaches your landing page, they must believe that your product is for them and can solve their problem.

Use messaging to target the ICP and their needs.

Below is an example from Clay. They name their ICP in the headline and share a promise in the subheading.

2. Leading with features.

Speak the prospect’s language by leading with the benefits, followed by the features underneath.

Sell what the product makes possible, not the actual product.

For example, Ramp uses the headline on the homepage to display the benefits:

3. Excluding social proof

Social proof should sit above the fold.

If other people have used your product and shared their experience, then it would be easier for prospects to trust you.

For example, Vanta shows social proof on the homepage:

Here are 2 questions to ask yourself this week:

1. If a visitor reads only your H1, do they know what you sell, who it’s for, and why it matters today? If that’s a no then there’s a message match failure

2. Do you share any feedback from customers above the fold? If you answered no then you’re missing out on providing social proof.

If you answered no to any of these questions, book a strategy call where we dive into your landing page and share how to make it ad ready.

Book Now - calendly.com/launchlanedigital/strategy

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Have you ever worked with a team that had you defending your channel weekly?

I worked with a leadership team that knew nothing about paid media.

There was one week when the pipeline dropped by 30%, and the spend remained stable.

The leadership team’s immediate reaction was “Let’s reduce paid spend”.

The paid channel became the main discussion in the Slack marketing channel.

Other channel owners started suggesting taking the paid budget and plugging it into their channel.

I saw that some of the leadership team were commenting in a thread agreeing with this change.

On top of this the CMO gave a thumbs up to shifting the budget.

It’s less about shifting the budget and more about the reporting dashboard.

I noticed that the marketing dashboard didn’t report competitor activity.

Competitors are bidding more aggressively to remain relevant in the auction.

The main marketing dashboard didn’t show the data from the auction insights report.

The auction insights report helps me to understand how aggressively the competitor is bidding.

This redirects my actions for the coming week.

Rather than just decreasing the budget, I will use the data to steer the next steps.

This will include:

• Refreshing the ad copy to highlight wins unique to the business.

• Adjusting the bids to be slightly aggressive in the auction.

• Doing keyword optimisation on the keywords seeing a decrease in the impression share.

This week, ask yourself whether:

• Does my ad copy say something that my competitor can’t?

• Where am I being outbid and by how much?

• Which keywords lost impression share last month?

If you answered no to any of these, book a competitor strategy call before your next leadership meeting.

Book Now - calendly.com/launchlanedigital/strategy

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Read time: ~2.5 minutes

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Whenever I started a new marketing role I always completed mandatory training.

It was usually long and repetitive. All I wanted to do was get my hands dirty in an ad account.

The training usually covered general stuff, ie: company values, security, safety and more.

I always felt as though something was missing. Why was there no cross functional training?

How do we know that everyone identifies the ICP equally or that attribution is recorded in the same way?

Understanding how other channels contributed to the overall business goals was a mystery.

Every channel worked in a silo, unless there was a QBR or lead issue.

Operating in this manner usually resulted in broken attribution.

Inconsistency in the ICP and multiple measurement systems could have flown a few years back.

But in 2026, ad platforms have changed. They optimise based on the signals you feed them.

If you feed them inconsistent signals, automation amplifies the wrong prospects.

The reporting dashboard is usually the first suspect but it’s usually due to broken attribution.

The channels are optimising towards the wrong things.

Having the right signals that all teams agree with will fix your attribution.

In 2026, the 3 signals you should optimise against to fix attribution and increase pipeline:

1. ICP fit — this is your firmographic (company size, tech stack, region) and behavioural (pain point, buying trigger) definition. The ICP should be agreed across marketing, sales and product; otherwise, marketing could be sending leads they think are qualified but sales reject them. Once the ICP fit has been agreed, it can be used to build LinkedIn matched audiences off CRM or lookalikes from closed won.

2. Product signal — this is evidence of the user’s activity within the product. Has the user activated the product? Have they hit a PQL moment? Or have they shown intent inside the product? Paid ads should use this data to set up audiences that retarget trial users based on their behaviour. You can take it even further by feeding the PQL as a conversion event to the AI bidding.

3. Sales signal — this is confirmation from sales that a lead became a real pipeline. What stage counts as pipeline for you ie: SQL or opportunity created, closed won? Once this is determined, the data should be used to create a conversion event in ad platforms. This will allow you to optimise for closed won rather than trials and signups.

Change doesn’t magically happen; it takes intentional actions.

This week, ask yourself whether:

• Marketing, sales, and product share a written definition of “qualified”?

• When did sales last tell you which trials/demos actually converted to ARR?

• What signal are you feeding the platforms today?

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In the past, I used to wait to make updates to my ad campaigns.

I remember when Google got rid of the broad match modifier keyword match type.

This new match type was going to be replaced by broad match.

They were recommending changing your match type to broad match.

Honestly speaking, I was afraid of letting go of control.

What if it didn’t work and I wasted ad spend that I couldn’t explain?

I ignored Google’s recommendation to transition and guess what happened?!

Google forced the changes. My keywords transitioned into broad match without my say.

I noticed this update after the performance dropped.

Can you blame me for avoiding this update?

I wanted to make sure that I didn’t break anything by making updates.

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it right?

The old me would run with this motto, but updates now are different.

The broad match modifier update only impacted one match type.

The upcoming change is bigger with broader keyword updates and the retirement of a campaign type.

As we start to see more AI features being adopted, we’re seeing fewer manual options.

And if you don’t keep up Google will force the change on you.

Thankfully, you have some time to make this transition yourself.

The new change doesn’t come into play until September 2026.

After that, no more DSA campaigns; it will be completely retired.

Any DSA campaigns that are still active will automatically be migrated to an AI Max campaign.

AI Max is a new feature that uses audience signals to help you reach users beyond your keyword offering.

It optimises for conversions and not qualification.

Choosing to tighten the targeting is no longer the fix.

Because it doesn’t fix the issue around the conversion type being fed into the algorithm.

Which means that your campaigns will continue to optimise towards low quality leads regardless of you tightening the targeting.

Instead, you should focus on the signals that you are feeding the platform.

Below are 3 inputs to think about:

• ICP clarity - As we see a shift away from keywords, having a clearly built out audience will make it easy to differentiate between a good/bad lead. Everyone in the team will be clear on the ideal customer and how to filter the CRM before lead data is fed to the algorithm.

• Conversion signals - feeding the platform lead data will better inform it what a high quality lead looks like for your business. The algorithm will use the data to optimise the campaigns to find high quality conversions.

• Audience first creatives - serving your ICP with the right creatives is a feature that you still have some control over. It speaks to your ICP’s pain points, which will help your ad stand out to them. If you missed my last post on creating ad copy for your ICP → check it out here.

All this information is great, but it gets even better when you action it.

Start by auditing your current activity.

What conversions are you currently optimising towards?

Is your CRM data being fed back into Google?

Now that you’ve got a starting point, I would take action.

Learn from my earlier experience and adopt change early.

This will allow for testing or slowly phasing in Google’s new shiny feature.

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Read time: 2 minutes

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You used the product page as a research tool for new ad copy.

You selected all the features that stand out from your competition.

But every time you check the paid dashboard nothing has changed.

No growth. No new leads.

The wider team are suggesting that you revert to your old ad copy.

You started with the product page because nobody mapped the ICP’s pain points.

Your ad copy speaks to an undefined ICP. Not a real person with real frustrations.

You created one ad copy without considering what part of the funnel the prospect is in.

You’ve created ads that don’t speak to your ICP.

ICP Ad Copy Framework

B2B messaging underperforms because it’s generic, product-focused, and interchangeable.

Instead create ad copy that speaks to the prospect’s pain point in each part of the funnel.

Here is how I create copy that speaks to the prospect’s pain point:

Top of the funnel - Unaware of a problem

The prospect will benefit from ad copy that speaks to the prospect’s symptoms.

This helps them to recognise that something is wrong and they need a solution.

Symptom Ad Copy Examples:

❌ Feature focused: connects your teams to the decision makers

✅ Pain led: Your paid ads aren’t reaching the right decision makers

❌ Feature focused: Work where your team already sells, without slowing them down.

✅ Pain led: Your paid media is targeting outside of EMEA where you don’t offer your product.

❌ Feature focused: Reach the right people, faster

✅ Pain led: You are spending £50K/pm and reaching the wrong people

Middle of the Funnel - problem aware + building trust

The prospect is now aware that there’s a problem that needs fixing.

They need to see ad copy that shows credibility and builds trust.

Credibility + trust building ad copy examples:

❌ Trust building: Europe’s most trusted B2B tool for growing paid pipeline.

✅ Trust building: Europe’s most trusted B2B data for growing pipeline by 50% in 12 months

❌ Trust building: Join other businesses exceeding targets

✅ Trust building: Join 4000+ revenue teams exceeding targets daily

❌ Trust building: Work with partners your team is already familiar with.

✅ Trust building: Integrate Salesforce, Hubspot & more tools your marketing team is familiar with.

Bottom of the Funnel - Solution focused

The prospect understands that they need a solution but something is stopping them from following through.

Your copy needs to reassure them that they are making the right choice.

Solution Focused ad copy examples:

❌ Solution focused: Sign up now and get your whole team integrated.

✅ Solution focused: We will run through a demo with your CFO to ensure they are on board too.

❌ Solution focused: Book a demo today with our team

✅ Solution focused: Book a demo to test the product before fully committing

❌ Solution focused: Today is your last chance to sign up before prices increase

✅ Solution focused: Sign up today, and if you don’t benefit, we guarantee a full refund

If you haven’t created your ads with your ICP at the core, they need to be revamped.

Book a call and I will personally review your ads → Fix your ad issue

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