Welcome to this week’s PPC Pulse. Updates focus on expanding creative tools in Google Ads and updates to bidding strategies in Microsoft Ads.
The newest version of Nano Banana Pro is now available to advertisers in Google Ads. In a separate creative update, marketers spotted an expansion to Google’s Creative Toolkit in the platform. Lastly, Microsoft Ads made changes to some of their automated bid strategies to streamline setup.
Here’s what happened this week and why it matters for advertisers.
Nano Banana Pro Version Now Available in Google Ads
While Nano Banana Pro was originally introduced back in November 2025, advertisers were alerted via email this week that its newest version is now available for free in Google Ads.
Now that it’s in Google Ads, advertisers can do all of these things in one platform:
- Generate new visuals using prompts
- Edit existing assets conversationally
- Create multi-product scenes
- Produce more detailed, photo-realistic imagery
Here’s a peek at what it looks like once you navigate to Asset Studio in Google Ads.
Why This Matters For Advertisers
Embedding Nano Banana Pro directly into Google Ads removes a lot of potential friction between create generation and campaign execution.
This means that for advertisers who have more creative control, creative becomes part of the optimization loop, not a completely separate workflow. Instead of planning 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 inside Google Ads lowers the threshold for advertisers who may not have been able to invest in external creative tools or AI platforms.
Lastly, creative volume can quickly scale. This is something that I’ve experienced personally working with my Google rep this quarter. They seem to be pushing creative volume across the board.
When the tool becomes easier to generate assets, most accounts will naturally start testing more variations.
However, brands still need to check the outputs of these AI-generated assets to make sure they adhere to any brand guidelines, product accuracy, and compliance requirements.
Google Expands Creative Toolkit Inside Google Ads
In another possible related creative update, Bia Camargo took to LinkedIn to share an update she got in Google Ads about creative assets.
In her post, 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 looks like the goal is to allow advertisers to build and assemble more creative directly inside the platform rather than relying entirely on external tools. Whether this is completely tied to the launch of Nano Banana Pro in Google Ads is unclear.
Why This Matters For Advertisers
This update continues Google’s push to bring more of the 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 smaller teams or advertisers without dedicated design resources produce a broader set of assets.
What PPC Professionals Are Saying
Most comments were in favor of this move. Brian Lasonde called this a “genuine win” while Virgil Brewster commented “How cool is that? Bring on the toolbox.”
Bryan Shue had an interesting take around the influence of creative production in the platform:
This feels like a bigger shift than just creative convenience. Once production moves inside the ad platform, the system gains more influence over the signals entering the campaign from the start. Faster testing is the obvious upside, but it also means the line between creative development and platform optimization keeps getting thinner.
Microsoft Ads Simplifies Automated Bidding Setup
This week, Microsoft Advertising introduced an update to how automated bidding is structured for new campaigns.
Target CPA (tCPA) and Target ROAS (tROAS) are now available as optional target settings within conversion-focused bid strategies:
- Choose Maximize Conversions and optionally set a tCPA
- Choose Conversion Value and optionally set a tROAS
Microsoft confirmed that existing campaigns using tCPA or tROAS remain unchanged, and portfolio bid strategies are unaffected.
Microsoft has positioned this as a simplification of bidding setup rather than a change to how the strategies perform.
It was originally announced last year, but this week’s rollout makes it global to all advertisers.
Why This Matters For Advertisers
This change does not alter how campaigns optimize, but it does change how decisions are made during setup.
The choice of bid strategy is now more implied. Instead of selecting between multiple strategies, advertisers are guided into a smaller set of options with targets layered in.
That shifts the focus toward how targets are set and adjusted over time.
For advertisers managing performance closely, this reinforces the importance of:
- Setting realistic CPA or ROAS targets based on actual performance
- Allowing enough time for campaigns to stabilize before adjusting targets
- Avoiding overly aggressive constraints early in the campaign lifecycle
Theme Of The Week: Less Friction In Setup, More Responsibility In Execution
This week’s updates focus on two different parts of campaign setup, but both change how much effort is required to move from idea to launch.
Google expanded what advertisers can do inside the platform by adding more built-in creative assets and making Nano Banana Pro accessible directly in Google Ads.
Microsoft simplified how bidding is applied in new campaigns by restructuring how targets are set.
Both are meant to reduce friction, but from an execution standpoint, it requires more upfront thought and attention from advertisers.
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Featured Image: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock; Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
