Google Ads keeps sabotaging my niche campaigns.

Not through bugs or glitches — through deliberate design changes that systematically favor broad, generic advertising over precise, targeted messaging.

Here’s what’s happening:

I set up exact match keywords for a client’s specialized product.

I carefully build negative keyword lists to exclude irrelevant traffic.

I craft ad copy that speaks directly to a specific audience with a particular problem.

Google essentially ignores it all.

It didn’t always.

But the platform now forces media buyers into broad match keywords, claiming “improved targeting through machine learning.”

When I enter exact matches, Google’s algorithm cheerfully serves ads for loosely related searches that would have been filtered out just two years ago.

The negative keywords I painstakingly research to avoid wrong-fit prospects? Google treats them as suggestions rather than firm boundaries. Or ignores them outright.

This isn’t accidental.

It’s a calculated shift toward automation that benefits Google’s revenue model while undermining precisely the kinds of products that create genuine market value.

Google wants us to embrace Performance Max campaigns and automated bidding because these systems optimize for Google’s success metrics — clicks and impressions — rather than our business outcomes.

The algorithm pushes ads to audiences who might click but almost certainly won’t convert, generating revenue for Google while bleeding budgets for advertisers.

The result is that unique, innovative products — the ones that solve specific problems for particular audiences — get drowned in a sea of generic targeting that reaches everyone and converts no one.

In I Need That, I discuss how successful products thrive by speaking DIRECTLY to their specific audience rather than trying to appeal to everyone. Google’s current direction forces exactly the opposite approach: broad messaging to undefined audiences, optimized for platform metrics rather than customer value.

Product Payoff: My wife’s search engine of choice, Duck Duck Go, gained over 3 billion monthly searches by positioning itself as the anti-Google. While Google optimizes for ad revenue through broad targeting and user data collection, Duck Duck Go focuses on privacy and precise search results. Their growth acceleration coincides directly with increasing advertiser frustration over Google’s automated campaign requirements.

By maintaining user-centric rather than advertiser-extraction focus, they’ve captured market share from users seeking alternatives to Google’s increasingly commercialized search experience.

Action for today: Scan your Google Ads strategy for platform drift. Document where Google’s automation recommendations conflict with your specific targeting knowledge. Consider diversifying your acquisition channels to include platforms that still allow precise audience targeting — like LinkedIn for B2B products, Pinterest for visual goods, or direct partnerships with niche publications.

The goal is not to abandon Google entirely (yet) but to reduce dependence on a platform that increasingly prioritizes its revenue over your product’s success.

Have you noticed Google Ads becoming less effective for precise targeting?

Tap that reply arrow and share your experience with platform changes that seem designed to benefit Google (or another platform) more than advertisers.

Or reach out to my team of product marketing specialists at Graphos Product.