What to stop, start, and continue in 2025

Early this year, I asked my team to recommend what we should stop, start, and continue doing in 2025 to improve our collaboration. 

As a leader, it was a valuable exercise that highlighted to me what we can do to improve different aspects of our working life. 

This exercise also got me thinking about how to apply the same framework to Google Ads – and use it to define what we should stop, stop, and continue doing to optimize our clients’ Google Ads programs this year. 

Rethinking optimization: Why Google Ads strategies must evolve

Techniques once seen as “best practices” no longer work. 

As Google Ads has evolved, so has the complexity of optimization.

That’s why I can’t name a single best strategy. PPC success will vary depending on many factors. 

That said, the most important “strategy,” if we can call it that, is a mindset shift. 

It’s not about narrowly following any particular sure-fire approach. 

It’s about thinking, testing, and analyzing every method you try. 

Remember this as you read through my start, stop, and continue recommendations below. 

There are no strictly good or bad strategies. 

And a “bad” strategy right now might become a good strategy in the future. 

With that important caveat, let me walk you through my start, stop, and continue recommendations for different Google Ads optimization strategies in 2025.

Keyword strategies

Stop 

Stop trying to squeeze more from your search campaigns by actively bidding on every variation of keywords that has converted. 

Bidding on keyword variations is a traditional optimization strategy I’ve always trained my team on. 

We prided ourselves on the ability to spot emerging trends related to our keywords and bid on them.  

But it isn’t what it used to be – and it can cause more harm than good, especially if no follow-up analysis is done.

We stepped away from this strategy quite some time ago. But every once in a while, we get pulled back in. 

This happened recently with a client account. We identified a handful of trending keyword phrases that stood out and added them to the account. 

The results? 

An increase of $5 more per lead (with fewer total leads) and a decrease in conversion rate from 1.28% to 1.10%. 

We reverted this change.

Start

Start narrowing and streamlining your keyword lists. 

Try using broad match of your top converting keywords instead of adding endless variations.

Continue

Continue to question and test – there’s no single right or wrong strategy. 

Mastering keyword strategy is a learning curve. There’s no universal approach, and it varies across accounts.

Dig deeper: PPC keyword research: What you need to know

Performance Max strategies

Stop

Stop giving up on Performance Max at the first sign of spam leads.

B2Bs often see an initial spike in spam when launching PMax, and we’ve abandoned our share of campaigns over the years.

But not every PMax campaign will be a home run – some will work, and others won’t.

For example, we can see the performance of different PMax asset groups for this B2B client: 

Because this client can pull their Salesforce data into their Google Ads account, we can see the actual value of the business closed.

The top two asset groups look great, but the third – not so much.

You win some and lose some.

Start

Start communicating with your clients to work through these initial issues.

We struggled with the above campaign at first. It produced some spam leads.

But with lots and lots of communication with the client and their teams, we figured it out. We made some adjustments – and so did the client – to make it work.

Continue

Continue to optimize Performance Max campaigns.

Even though PMax is more automated than Search campaigns, there’s still room for optimization.

You can, for example:

• Review asset groups and pause those that are not performing.
• Review mobile traffic and performance. In the above campaign, we found that mobile traffic wasn’t converting – and a lot of mobile traffic was coming from PMax. Therefore, we assigned a lower conversion value for mobile traffic.
• Review your search terms. As with Search campaigns, you can also review your search terms for PMax (although you’ll need a script). But unlike Search, where you can specifically target and exclude (negate) keywords, try thinking about trends and categories that can enhance current targeting.
• Realize PMax campaigns are a complement to your top-performing Search campaigns.

Dig deeper: 5 ways to get the most from Performance Max in 2025

Audience-first strategies

Stop

Stop thinking of your keyword selections as the whole (or even the most important part) of your ad program strategy.

Obsessing over the millions of keyword variations you can bid on to describe your company’s products and services is no longer a viable approach.

Start

Instead, start building an audience-first strategy. 

Think about your customers’ needs – and then strategically align your keywords with those needs and the stages of the customer journey. 

Then, align those ad campaigns with your customers’ big-picture business goals. 

Continue

Continue focusing on value-added components in your Google Ads account that complement your keywords. 

Use first-party data, such as customer and website audience lists, to include, exclude, and create lookalike opportunities.

Last year, we onboarded a client with valuable customer data that their previous agency had ignored.

Instead of leveraging this data, the agency kept adding new keywords, cluttering the account with thousands of low-value terms.

We proposed an audience-first strategy, requiring a shift in their approach. 

The client was hesitant to allocate the same budget as before.

 Despite a smaller budget, we exceeded expectations.

• Cost per lead dropped significantly, from $100 to $19.
• High-value conversions increased, prioritizing quality over quantity.

We restructured the account, removed thousands of ineffective keywords, and built a strong foundation. 

By leveraging remarketing and customer lists, we efficiently targeted prospective, past, and current customers.

Our approach was simple: we understood the client’s business and goals, then used customer segments to attract new customers while excluding existing ones.

This ensured we met each audience’s needs at the right stage of their search journey.

Now, with a scalable structure in place, we’ve successfully expanded product offerings and recently launched a new category – something that wouldn’t have been possible under the previous setup.

What will you stop, start, and continue in Google Ads in 2025?

These start stop, start, and continue recommendations for Google Ads optimization won’t work for every account. 

But the most critical element of any optimization is review and follow-up. 

With every change you make to optimize an account, you need to assess what the change improved (or didn’t improve) and then move forward in a way that puts your client closer to their business goals.