Welcome to this week’s PPC Pulse. The updates focus on expanded creative tools in Google Ads and updates to bidding strategies in Microsoft Ads.
The latest version of Nano Banana Pro is now available to advertisers in Google Ads. In a separate creative update, marketers spotted an expansion of Google’s creative toolkit on the platform. Finally, Microsoft Ads has changed some of its automatic bidding strategies to streamline setup.
Here’s what happened this week and why it matters to advertisers.
Nano Banana Pro version is now available in Google Ads
While Nano Banana Pro was initially introduced in November 2025, advertisers were alerted via email this week that its latest version is now available for free in Google Ads.
Now that it’s in Google Ads, advertisers can do all of these things on one platform:
- Generate new visuals using prompts
- Edit existing resources conversationally
- Create multi-product scenes
- Produce more detailed and photorealistic images
Here’s a preview of what it looks like once you access Asset Studio in Google Ads.
Why it matters to advertisers
Integrating Nano Banana Pro directly into Google Ads removes a lot of potential friction between creative generation and campaign execution.
This means that for advertisers who have greater control over creative, it becomes part of the optimization loop and not a completely separate workflow. Instead of scheduling creative updates in batches like a traditional process, advertisers can generate and test assets in response to performance changes.
Additionally, cost is not a barrier to entry. Making this available for free in Google Ads lowers the threshold for advertisers who might not have been able to invest in external creative tools or AI platforms.
Finally, the creative volume can quickly evolve. This is something I experienced personally while working with my Google rep this quarter. They seem to turn up the creative volume across the board.
When the tool becomes easier to generate assets, most accounts will naturally start testing more variations.
However, brands should still verify the results of these AI-generated assets to ensure they meet brand guidelines, product accuracy, and compliance requirements.
Google expands its creative toolbox in Google Ads
In another possible related creative update, Bia Camargo took LinkedIn to share an update she received in Google Ads about creative assets.
In its message, the Google notification says: “More rich media available for your Google ads. In addition to Google-owned images, Google-owned rich media (including photos, videos, icons, 3D assets, text, and more) will be available for use in Google Ads.”
It appears the goal is to allow advertisers to create and assemble more creative directly within the platform rather than relying entirely on external tools. It’s unclear if this is entirely related to the launch of Nano Banana Pro in Google Ads.
Why it matters to advertisers
This update continues Google’s efforts to further integrate campaign workflow into Google Ads.
For advertisers, this can reduce the time between identifying a creative gap and launching new variations.
It can also help small teams or advertisers without dedicated design resources produce a broader set of assets.
What PPC Professionals Say
Most comments were in favor of this decision. Brian Lasonde called it a “real victory” while Virgil Brewster commented “Isn’t that cool? Bring the toolbox.”
Bryan Shue had an interesting insight into the influence of creative production on the platform:
This seems like a bigger change than just creative convenience. Once production is moved inside the ad platform, the system gains more influence over the signals coming into the campaign from the start. Faster testing is an obvious benefit, but it also means the line between creative development and platform optimization continues to shrink.
Microsoft Ads makes setting up automatic bidding simple
This week, Microsoft Advertising introduced an update on how automatic auctions is structured for new campaigns.
Target CPA (Target CPA) and Target ROAS (Target ROAS) are now available as optional target parameters in conversion-based bidding strategies:
- Choose Maximize conversions and possibly define a target CPA
- Choose Conversion value and possibly define a tROAS
Microsoft has confirmed that existing campaigns using tCPA or tROAS remain unchanged and bid portfolio strategies are not affected.
Microsoft has positioned this as a simplification of bidding setup rather than a change in how the strategies work.
It was originally announced last year, but this week’s rollout makes it global for all advertisers.
Why it matters to advertisers
This change doesn’t change how campaigns are optimized, but it does change how decisions are made during setup.
The choice of bidding strategy is now more implicit. Instead of choosing between multiple strategies, advertisers are guided to a narrower set of options with overlapping targets.
This shifts the focus to how goals are set and adjusted over time.
For advertisers who closely manage performance, this reinforces the importance of:
- Set realistic CPA or ROAS goals based on actual performance
- Allow campaigns enough time to stabilize before adjusting targets
- Avoid overly aggressive constraints at the start of the campaign life cycle
Theme of the week: Less friction in configuration, more responsibility in execution
This week’s updates focus on two different parts of setting up a campaign, but both change the effort needed to go from idea to launch.
Google has expanded what advertisers can do within the platform by adding more integrated creative assets and making Nano Banana Pro accessible directly within Google Ads.
Microsoft has simplified the way bidding is applied in new campaigns by restructuring how goals are set.
Both aim to reduce friction, but from an execution perspective, it requires more thought and attention from advertisers.
More resources:
Featured image: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock; Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
