Let’s be honest: the pace of change in PPC is exhausting.
Between AI-powered everything, new campaign types rolling out every quarter, and feature removals with no warning, advertisers are being asked to adapt faster than ever – often with less control, less data, and less clarity than we’ve had in years.
We asked a group of experienced advertisers to share how they feel about Google, Meta, and Microsoft Ads in 2025 – not just a number rating, but:
- What they love.
- What they’d fix.
- What they’d remove if they had the chance.
The goal wasn’t to dunk on the platforms (we all rely on them) – but to surface the patterns in what’s working and what’s frustrating, and to spotlight real opportunities for improvement.
This isn’t a complaint-fest. It’s a sentiment check.
More importantly, it’s a roadmap for how ad platforms and advertisers can move forward together.
Google Ads: Too powerful to ignore, slowly becoming more transparent
Google Ads still dominates most PPC strategies.
Its scale is unmatched, its infrastructure is world-class, and its machine learning – when it works – can be a force multiplier.
Feedback consistently conveyed a feeling of being asked to trust a system that offered fewer levers to pull and diminishing insight into what was happening behind the scenes.
What advertisers love
Even among its critics, there’s still a deep appreciation for Google Ads’ potential, especially its precision when things are set up correctly.
Smart Bidding, when aligned with good data, can be exceptional.
There’s also cautious optimism about Google’s recent push to restore some of the transparency advertisers have been asking for.
Notably, the platform has started rolling out Performance Max insights that allow advertisers to see:
- Which channels and asset groups are spending budget.
- What actual search terms are driving PMax traffic.
- A clearer breakdown of performance across placements.
These updates are long overdue, but they’re meaningful.
For many advertisers, it’s a sign that Google is – however slowly – trying to build a better bridge between automation and accountability.
- “Imagine a ChatGPT-style assistant inside Google Ads that answers questions like ‘Why did conversions drop last week?’ or ‘Which keywords are wasting the most budget?’ That’s the kind of AI integration we actually need,” says Heidi Sturrock.
What advertisers would fix
This is where the most consistent feedback lives:
- Search query visibility remains incomplete, especially for converting terms.
- Match types no longer work intuitively – broad match in particular is too expansive.
- Performance Max still feels like a walled garden, even with improvements.
- Reporting is especially difficult for low-volume accounts, which often get partial or delayed data.
There’s also a clear call for smarter diagnostics. Advertisers want tools that help them interpret machine learning behavior – not just monitor KPIs.
- “We don’t necessarily need to change the machine, but at least let us see what it’s doing,” Steve Gerencser of Web Narwhal points out.
Dig deeper: Dealing with Google Ads frustrations – Poor support, suspensions, rising costs
What advertisers would remove
There’s a shared desire to eliminate or radically overhaul:
- Optimization score, which many feel misrepresents performance and pressures users into unsuitable changes
- Auto-applied recommendations, which alter accounts without consent
- The current Recommendations tab, which prioritizes increasing Google’s preferred metrics (like optimization score) over business outcomes
Fellow Search Engine Land contributor Sophie Logan warns:
- “The optimization score can mislead clients into thinking their account is ‘bad’ when it’s simply not following Google’s automated preferences.”
Go do: Double down on transparency
Google is starting to do the right things, particularly with new PMax insights, but it needs to go further.
Advertisers are watching closely and will reward tools that provide more clarity and control.
If Google continues to give advertisers better visibility into where money is going, how decisions are made, and what changes are occurring, it can show how automation and human strategy can coexist instead of compete.
For advertisers, now’s the time to push for even more visibility.
Document where:
- Improvements are showing up (like the new PMax data).
- Critical blind spots still exist.
That feedback isn’t just helpful – it’s leverage.
Dig deeper: Outsmarting Google Ads — Insider strategies to navigate changes like a pro
Meta Ads: Powerful reach, but at what cost to control?
Meta continues to be a workhorse for advertisers focused on reach, scale, and visual storytelling.
The ad formats are impactful, the platform’s data is rich, and the ability to connect with new customers, particularly in B2C and ecommerce, is still incredibly strong.
But unlike Google, which is cautiously adding back transparency, Meta appears to be moving away from it, while also pulling levers that remove creative control from advertisers altogether.
What advertisers love
No one’s questioning Meta’s value at the top of the funnel.
Advertisers still see great results for awareness, engagement, and remarketing, especially with well-structured creative.
The addition of Advantage+ and other automation layers has improved efficiency for many teams, particularly in high-volume campaigns.
There’s also appreciation for Meta’s breadth of placements and massive active user base, which continue to drive value for brands across verticals.
- “Meta ads are an indisputable champ when it comes to reach and building brand awareness,” notes Julia Vyse.
What advertisers would fix
This is where tension begins to mount. Advertisers want:
- More consistency in ad approvals, especially when identical creative is approved in one account but rejected in another.
- Manual controls over Advantage+ delivery, especially when the system picks winners too fast.
- Breakdown-level reporting for flexible creatives, which currently hides performance insights for individual assets.
- A true offline editor to support scaled changes and uploads (Power Editor is still missed).
Gabriela Martin-Arranz shares:
- “It’s frustrating to tell a client to take action on something, only to discover it’s already gone.”
There’s also growing concern about a lack of transparency in delivery.
While Google is (finally) revealing where budget is going in PMax, Meta is heading in the opposite direction: surfacing less detail about how campaigns are being optimized.
What advertisers would remove
More than any one feature, advertisers want more opt-in choices:
- Stop enabling creative enhancements account-wide without user control.
- Eliminate default daily spend caps for new accounts without guidance or visibility.
- Slow the feature rollout treadmill – or at least provide more reliable documentation.
Andrew Sutton observes:
- “As soon as we start to understand how a feature works, Meta changes it or removes it.”
Go do: Control builds confidence
Meta is still indispensable for many brands, but to keep that status, it needs to respect advertiser effort and allow for more deliberate automation management.
Full transparency isn’t always feasible, but clear controls and visibility into key systems are table stakes.
For advertisers, the takeaway is this: treat Meta as a fast-moving system.
- Build playbooks that anticipate sudden changes.
- Advocate for more stable tooling.
- Where possible, back up recommendations with platform-agnostic logic so you won’t be caught flat-footed when Meta shifts again.
Dig deeper: Rethinking Meta Ads AI – Best practices for better results
Microsoft Ads: The quiet contender with something to prove
Fewer advertisers filled out our Microsoft Ads feedback form, and that may be the most revealing stat of all.
The small sample size suggests that many advertisers still don’t have Microsoft in active rotation, even though the feedback echoed many of the same themes heard about Google.
That’s both a gap and an opportunity.
What advertisers love
Advertisers who do use Microsoft Ads described it as stable, reliable, and easy to work with. There’s appreciation for:
- Simplicity in campaign structure and reporting.
- Audience quality, particularly for B2B and older demos.
- Platform consistency, with fewer disruptive UI or structural changes.
Sutton says:
- “Microsoft is like going home. It feels familiar, and even when it changes, it still feels solid.”
What advertisers would fix
There was near-universal frustration about the Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN) being automatically opted into Search campaigns, without a global opt-out option.
Other suggestions:
- Add a forecast tool to the keyword planner.
- Improve experiment handling (e.g., removing expired experiments from the UI)
Thom Langeveld comments:
- “Auto-enabling the Audience Network with no master toggle is just absurd.”
What advertisers would remove
The answer here was simple: remove default MSAN inclusion, or at least make it easier to opt out with one setting, not dozens of placement-level exclusions.
Go do: Win advertisers by listening first
Here’s the opportunity: Microsoft could be the platform that actually listens.
If it responds quickly to feedback, improves control over automation, and communicates clearly, it can build real loyalty, especially from advertisers feeling burned out by Google or Meta.
Advertisers: don’t wait for a big market shift.
Test Microsoft now, while CPCs are relatively low and competitors are distracted elsewhere.
The platform is growing, and in some verticals, the early adopters are already reaping the rewards.
The platforms that win will be the ones that listen
There’s no perfect ad platform in 2025 – but there is a perfect principle: trust is earned through clarity and control.
Whether it’s Google making slow progress on Performance Max visibility, Meta moving too fast for its own good, or Microsoft quietly offering stability with one big caveat, the message is the same: advertisers want to be part of the process, not passengers on a platform’s roadmap.
If you’re a platform:
- Build tools that explain what the machine is doing.
- Offer real opt-outs, not buried toggles.
- Treat transparency not as a burden, but as a brand asset.
If you’re an advertiser:
- Document everything. Track what’s changing. Speak up about what’s not working.
- Test outside your comfort zone – especially where competition is light.
- And never stop advocating for smarter, clearer tools.
Because when platforms and advertisers move together, with mutual respect and real accountability, everyone wins.