Google Call Ads Deprecated: What to Do

In its latest update to Ads policies, Google has said that Call (call-only) Ads are being deprecated. As of right now, you cannot create new call ads. And as of February 2027 any existing call ads will stop receiving impressions.

The fix that Google recommends is to replace your call ads with responsive ads that use call assets.

Here's how to do this:

1. Make sure your account or campaign settings include your business name in the Assets section. Name must exactly match your domain or verified legal name.
2. Create or modify a suitable responsive search ad.
3. To add call assets (previously known as "call extensions") to the responsive search ad, Select "More Asset Types".
4. Add all relevant phone numbers, which will appear as tappable buttons on mobile devices or as hyperlinked phone numbers on desktop.
5. When Google has approved your responsive ad and you start getting impressions, remove your old call ad.

Note that this process could trigger Google's Advertiser Verification process.

Maine House Passes What Would Be Toughest US Data Privacy Law

On a 71-68 vote the Maine House yesterday sent LD 1822 - "An Act to Enact the Maine Online Data Privacy Act" - on to the Senate, where a vote could be taken as early as Tuesday next week.

If this bill becomes law it will go further than any state data privacy law now in effect to limit the use of consumers' personal data in marketing.

Internet companies controlling or processing personal data of 35,000 or more Maine consumers would fall under the jurisdiction of the Act.

On top of the rights given to consumers in existing laws of other states, the Maine act would give consumers the right to obtain a list of all third parties to whom their personal data have been provided.

Consumers would also have the right to opt out of the use of their personal data for certain purposes including targeted advertising, selling, and profiling to be used to support automated processes which can produce legal or other significant effects for the consumer.

Furthermore the Act would permit the Maine Attorney General to proceed with enforcement actions against data controllers and processors without advance notice or an opportunity to make corrections.

If this Act would harm your business in any way, get on the phone to your State Senator and Representative before Tuesday please..

Check your Google Ads keyword match types

Because it's being reported that Google has automatically changed some Exact and Phrase match types to Broad when advertisers switch to conversion-based bidding.

Even "Exact" match is no longer very exact, and Broad match is very broad. Changing to Broad match can dramatically increase numbers of nonconverting clicks for which you're paying, increasing your ad spend while reducing your return from it (ROAS).

Google Ads Product Liaison Ginny Marvin said in a tweet:

"That is not the expected behavior when switching from manual bidding to a Smart Bidding strategy. The team is investigating this issue."

In the meantime: check your match types.

January 2026 Update

Yes, this does happen - per Google, because of a "Broad Match Keywords" campaign setting designed to "leverage machine learning for more conversions."

If you have switched to Smart Bidding and/or opted into the "Grow your business" or "Maintain your ads" features of Google Ads, Google may have automatically switched your keywords to broad match.

For tighter control over your match types, you must check and manage this setting.

When the "Broad Match Keywords" setting is enabled, it automatically converts exact-match and phrase-match keywords to broad match and sets all new keywords to broad match.

Some advertisers have found with this change produces irrelevant clicks and wasted spend on campaigns that require precise targeting.

What to do:

• After switching to Smart Bidding, check campaign settings to see if "Broad Match Keywords" is enabled.
• Check all your keywords to find any that have been switched to broad match.
• Disable the "Broad Match Keywords" setting or manually re-apply exact- or phrase-match to your keywords.
• On the Recommendations page, click Autoapply and ensure that "Upgrade your keywords to broad match" is disabled.

Go here for more in depth about keyword research for Google Ads and SEO.

How to use Google to find the currently most-used search queries for a business

Google does its best to deliver the most relevant results possible to every search query. But there has to be a certain amount of guesswork involved if the phrasing of the way you describe your offers differs from the phrasing of queries made by searchers looking for what you're selling.

For instance: if your website calls your business an "RV resort" and most people are searching for "campgrounds," you're going to miss out on some qualified web traffic, and ultimately on some bookings.

Google organic search returns provide an easy way to find out what people are currently searching for on any topic. You can use this free information to improve the relevance of your website content and/or AdWords campaigns.

All you need is a Web browser, and something like MS Excel to organize the data you'll be collecting.

Example:

Pretend for the moment that you're responsible for the official State of Maine tourist board.

Your website contains all kinds of information about tourist attractions, lodging, dining, transportation, local tours, outdoor recreation, and everything else of possible interest to people who are considering Maine as a leisure-travel destination.

The two most important resources with which you have to work are your website content, and your AdWords ads and keywords. How can you make those consistent with language people are using when seeking information about Maine?

That may sound like an insurmountable obstacle, given the vast diversity, on so many dimensions, of people searching: stage of the buying process, age, sex, location, social status, household income, ethnic heritage, interests, past experience, etc., etc. There's no way you can produce and maintain dedicated content for all those individual segments.

However: what you can do is eavesdrop on all the search queries that have been used very recently by people interested in visiting Maine.

And you can do that using Google to search for Maine tourism information, and capturing the language being used in "Related Searches" - something Google will give you for any query of yours.

Start with the single very most basic term for what you’re selling. In our example, I’m going to use visit maine.

That query at Google produces - along with links to various other people’s websites - at the bottom of the page a list of 8 Related Searches:

maine points of interest

maine destinations

maine tourism

visitmaine com attractions

portland maine

bar harbor maine

maine vacations packages

things to do in maine

(Just for speed and simplicity, in our example I’m going to pick my choice of the most relevant three of these suggestions to pursue further. You should follow all relevant leads, to see where they take you.)

My pick of 3 are:

maine destinations

maine tourism

things to do in maine

Note that these search terms are live hyperlinks in the Google page - with just a mouse click you can expand any of them to find more related searches.

Expanding each of these produces 8 more Related Searches, on and on ad infinitum.

Here’s where Excel or a similar spreadsheet program comes in: you need a way to organize all these data as you continue to identify search queries that are being phrased in language used by real, live people looking for stuff like yours to buy.

Next steps:

1. Incorporate the language used in these search queries into the content of your site.
2. Incorporate the same language into your AdWords ads and keywords, for a frictionless consumer journey from Google search to whatever conversion event we want to occur.

TIP: In the real world, this process works best when done in manageable chunks - do one product at a time, get that marketing funnel working well, then go on to another product.

Go here for more in depth about keyword research for Google Ads and SEO.

Emerging strategies for Google AIOs in Travel Marketing

Google's AI Overviews (AIOs) are driving big changes in marketing by the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.

Because AIOs frequently result in "zero click searches" for travel services: Google responds directly to users' queries, bypassing any clickthroughs to vendor websites. And this drying-up of organic search traffic in turn increases competition raises the cost of paid search advertising campaigns. That plus aggressive bidding by OTAs has increased the marketing spend of travel companies by 20%-30% vs a year ago.

Right now in the heat of the holiday season, savvy travel marketers are reporting some successes resulting from:

• Authoritative content that supports EEAT
• More images and videos in content
• Focusing on mid- and bottom-funnel marketing while forgoing riskier top-of-funnel spend
• High-converting creative aimed at high-intent queries
• Staying constantly on top of negative organic keywords
• Strict bidding discipline to control return on ad spend in the face of rising costs per click
• More effective SEO, to maximize share of "free" clicks
• Targeted remarketing in support of customer retention

Comment: If you're wondering why, with AI driving travel sales, do we need Google at all? Keep in mind that all those AI tools are getting their data from Google's search index.