AI is changing the game for PPC, and it’s especially evident during holiday peak retail season. Craig Graham shares his insight on how PPCers can adapt and still win the holiday season.

Every year, Q4 feels like the Super Bowl of paid media. Budgets go up, expectations skyrocket, and every platform is fighting for the same attention. But this year is different. This will be the first holiday season where AI isn’t just a buzzword. It’s built into almost every part of campaign setup and optimization, and that changes how we plan, budget, and execute.

The fundamentals haven’t changed. Good data, creative, structure, and timing still win. What’s changed is that AI now amplifies everything, the good and the bad. If your setup is strong, AI becomes your best teammate. If it’s messy, it’ll magnify every weak spot.

Start Early or You’ll Be Playing Catch-Up

If you’re still finalizing your Black Friday plan in October, you’re already behind. The best advertisers start in June or July, locking budgets, mapping promotions, and getting creative in motion.

The reason is simple: learning periods. Platforms need time to stabilize before the spike. The earlier your campaigns are live, the better the data you’ll have when things get competitive.

Here’s what being prepared really means:

• Your promotions calendar and offers are finalized early
  
• Your creative is approved and ready to go with no delays
  
• Tracking and dashboards are clean so you can measure in real time
  
• You know your year-over-year benchmarks, from impression share to MER and ROAS
  

Every hour you save in December is one you earned in September.

Bidding: Don’t Panic and Don’t Spike

Every Black Friday, you can spot the advertisers who panic. They double budgets overnight and break their own campaigns.

That kind of jump confuses the algorithm and wrecks pacing. Waiting too long to scale is just as bad, because you’ll miss the conversion surge. The right move is steady, measured increases that start in early October.

Monitor impression share daily, keep an eye on competitors, but don’t let them dictate your moves. Conversion rates almost always rise as the holidays approach, which helps offset higher CPCs. Stay calm, bid smart, trust your prep.

Remarketing and Retention: Your Q4 Secret Weapon

If you’ve been running ads all year, this is where it pays off. You’ve been building audiences such as add-to-carts, past buyers, and email subscribers, and now it’s time to use them.

In Google Ads, feed that data into Performance Max so the algorithm knows who your best customers are. On Meta, hit warm audiences with creative that feels urgent but still fits your brand.

This is the one time of year when “The sale’s on now” actually works. Lean into it.

Your creative should look and feel seasonal. New visuals, a holiday tone, strong calls to action. You don’t need to reinvent your brand, but your audience should feel like this is the moment to buy.

AI Is Core to PPC, But It’s Still Just a Tool

AI has changed how we manage campaigns, but it hasn’t replaced why we do it.

It’s now a core part of every account I manage. I use it for pacing, bidding, creative testing, and anomaly alerts. But it still needs human direction. Think of it like a really fast, really smart assistant. It can execute with precision, but only if you tell it what matters.

Here’s how I approach it:

• Use AI for execution, not decision-making. You decide the strategy, it handles the repetition
  
• Keep your data clean. Bad inputs always lead to bad outputs
  
• Protect your tone. Don’t let AI-written creative sound robotic
  

The best advertisers this year will be the ones who combine automation with intuition. AI’s job is to accelerate, not replace.

Want to start optimising your ads for the AI era? Check out the AI opportunities in our Adzooma platform and transform your PPC performance!

Looking Ahead to 2026

If 2025 was about figuring out how to use AI, 2026 will be about learning to scale with it. Search behavior is already shifting. Conversational queries, AI summaries, and new ad placements are changing how people discover products.

If you want to stay ahead, start testing early. Test new Google features. Test new creative formats. Test AI tools. You don’t have to adopt everything, but you do need to learn faster than your competitors.

Structured testing keeps you relevant. Treat every new product or feature like a controlled experiment. Get real data, analyze, and adapt. That’s how you stay in front when the landscape moves this fast.

Final Thoughts

After more than a dozen Black Friday seasons, one thing has always stayed true: preparation beats reaction every single time.

AI will make this year’s holiday season faster and more competitive than ever, but it also gives us the tools to be smarter than ever. The brands that win won’t be the ones that spend the most. They’ll be the ones who plan early, stay disciplined, and use AI to amplify great strategy, not replace it.

Author
Craig Graham is Co-Founder of Hiatt Digital, a performance marketing agency managing over $30M in annual ad spend across healthcare, legal, and eCommerce brands. He specializes in paid media strategy, AI integration, and scalable growth frameworks.

Ready to optimise your ads for the AI era? Sign up to Adzooma to start making changes and seeing results right away.