As Shopping ads dominate the SERP and GenAI chatbots replace queries with recommendations, traditional keyword campaigns are left scrambling for relevance.
Search ads aren’t dying—they’re being replaced. And if you’re still clinging to your keyword campaigns like it’s 2017, you’re already behind.
Shopping campaigns are taking over the SERPs
Let’s get one thing straight: Google doesn’t care about your meticulously optimized search campaigns anymore.
Between Performance Max, the AI-fueled AI Max beta, and visual-forward SERP features like the massive PLA carousel, the writing’s on the wall: traditional search ads are getting pushed to the margins—literally.
Here’s what that looks like:
- Everything above the fold is product tiles, not text ads.
- Filters and categories dominate the SERP.
- Search terms like “men’s bike helmet” return a full-blown ecommerce interface, not a results page.
The golden age of “best X under Y” search ads is over. The feed is now the funnel.
Google Ads in ecommerce: from Froogle to full-stack AI
Google’s ecommerce play has always been about control. First came Froogle (2002), then Google Product Search, then PLAs in 2012. Each iteration nudged advertisers toward feed-based shopping.
By 2020, Google even reintroduced free product listings, creating a hybrid paid-organic Shopping ecosystem that made SEO folks cheer—and quietly buried smaller brands under a pile of merchant feeds.
Fast forward to 2025:
- Performance Max has cannibalized Smart Shopping and Search.
- AI Max is live in beta, promising “intent-based matching” instead of keywords.
- Shopping ads now show up in AI overviews and product comparison panels.
This isn’t just a change in format. It’s a re-architecture of user behavior.
GenAI is the new funnel—and it doesn’t need Google
While Google’s trying to Shopping-ify the SERPs, the real existential threat is off-platform.
Platforms like Perplexity and ChatGPT are collapsing the ecommerce funnel altogether—moving the buying journey from clicks to conversations.
With Firmly.ai, users can:
- Ask natural language queries like “best office chair under $300 with lumbar support”
- Get live product recs from 11M+ merchants
- Checkout inside the chat interface—no redirects, no browsing, no PPC.
These “agentic” AI interfaces merge discovery, research, and transaction into a single experience. It’s not just search that’s shrinking—it’s the entire top-of-funnel.
Search ads still matter—but only in the margins
This doesn’t mean you should nuke your search campaigns. They still serve key roles:
✅ Brand protection against competitors
✅ Long-tail queries that Shopping ignores
✅ A/B testing ad copy and creative
✅ Filling in gaps Performance Max doesn’t catch
But make no mistake—their slice of the conversion pie is shrinking.
As GenAI tools move upstream, and Shopping takes over SERPs, traditional text ads are fighting for scraps.
Operator POV: adapt or get buried
🧠 Google’s not a search engine anymore—it’s a shopping assistant with a feed bias.
💸 Chatbots are becoming checkout bots.
🔗 Your product data, not your ad copy, is now the asset that matters.
Here’s how to not get left behind:
- Structure your product data with Schema.org markup
- Enable OpenAI/Perplexity bots to crawl your site (check your robots.txt)
- Get on the Firmly/Perplexity integration list ASAP
- Invest in product feeds, not just SEO content
- Treat Performance Max as your new baseline—build your campaigns around it, not against it
Because when someone types “best air purifier for allergies under $200” into ChatGPT, they’re not scrolling past 10 blue links. They’re buying from the first three recs. And if you’re not in that shortlist?
You don’t exist.
So what?
If you’re still fighting for SERP real estate with 3-line text ads, you’re playing checkers in a chess match.
🛒 Google is now a Shopping mall.
🤖 AI chatbots are virtual sales reps.
🧠 The new funnel doesn’t start with a click—it starts with a prompt.
The search ad decline isn’t hypothetical. It’s happening now. And ecommerce brands that cling to keyword strategies without adapting their feeds, data, and tech stack will get crushed by a new generation of AI-native competitors.
Get in the feed—or get filtered out.
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