There’s a question floating around the paid advertising world right now that every e-commerce business owner should be paying attention to: what exactly do PPC managers do when AI is handling more of the campaign work? It’s not a theoretical debate anymore—it’s happening right now, and it’s changing how your advertising gets managed.
This week brought some fascinating discussions about where human expertise fits in an increasingly automated advertising landscape. Let’s talk about what’s actually changing and what it means for your business.
The Big Question: What Do PPC Managers Actually Do Now?
Here’s the uncomfortable truth that the industry is grappling with: Google’s AI can now handle tasks that used to take hours of manual work. Bid adjustments, audience targeting, even ad copy testing—the machine learning systems are doing this automatically across your campaigns.
So what’s left for the humans?
Turns out, quite a lot. But it’s a fundamentally different role than it was even two years ago. The focus is shifting from tactical execution to strategic thinking. Instead of adjusting bids seventeen times a day, experienced PPC managers are now analysing what the AI is actually doing and whether it aligns with your business goals.
Think about it this way: Google’s AI optimises for what it thinks will get conversions. But does it understand that you make better margins on certain product categories? Does it know you’re trying to clear old stock before new inventory arrives? Does it recognise that some customer types are worth more to your business long-term?
That’s where human strategy comes in. The role is evolving from “campaign operator” to “AI strategist”—someone who understands both what the automation can do and what your business actually needs.
What This Means for Your E-Commerce Business
If you’re working with someone to manage your Google Ads (or thinking about it), this shift matters. You want someone who’s asking strategic questions:
- Is the AI finding the right customers or just the easy conversions?
- Are we feeding it the right signals about what success looks like?
- Which automation features actually help your business versus which ones just help Google spend your budget?
- How do we guide the AI toward outcomes that matter for your profitability, not just conversion volume?
The technical skills still matter—you need someone who understands how Performance Max works or how to structure Shopping campaigns properly. But the real value now sits in strategic thinking about how to use these AI-powered tools effectively for your specific business.
ChatGPT Ads Are Coming (Apparently)
While we’re on the topic of AI changing advertising, here’s something worth watching: ChatGPT is starting to test advertisements. This isn’t rolled out widely yet, but it’s a signal of where things are heading.
Think about how different that advertising context is. Someone using Google is searching for something specific—”men’s leather boots size 10″ or “best coffee grinder under £100”. But someone using ChatGPT might be having a conversation about planning a hiking trip or asking for gift recommendations.
The advertising format will need to be completely different. More conversational, more contextual, woven into an actual dialogue rather than appearing alongside search results.
For e-commerce businesses, this is still early days. I’m not suggesting you rush to advertise on ChatGPT tomorrow. But it’s part of a broader pattern: AI is creating new places where people interact with information, and those places will eventually become advertising channels.
Remarketing Lists Still Matter (A Lot)
Here’s something that hasn’t changed despite all the AI advancement: remarketing is still one of the most effective tools you have. Someone who’s visited your website before is significantly more likely to buy than a cold visitor.
The industry discussion this week covered ten different remarketing approaches you can use, and it’s a good reminder that audience strategy still requires human thinking. Google’s AI can optimise delivery, but it can’t decide that you should create a specific list of people who viewed your premium products but didn’t purchase, then show them a different message than people who abandoned lower-priced items.
That strategic segmentation—understanding different customer behaviours and what they might mean—that’s still very much a human job. The AI can then take those segments and optimise delivery, but you need to set up the strategy first.
For your e-commerce business, this means thinking about customer journey stages. Someone who browsed for thirty seconds isn’t the same as someone who added items to cart. Someone who purchased once isn’t the same as someone who’s bought from you five times. Different messages, different offers, different approaches.
Google’s Testing Podcast Ads
Google apparently launched a podcast feature that includes advertising opportunities. This is interesting more for what it signals than for immediate action.
Google keeps expanding into new content formats—images, video, now podcasts. Each format creates new places to reach potential customers, but also new complexity in managing campaigns across all these different touchpoints.
For most e-commerce businesses, podcasts probably aren’t the priority right now unless you’ve got very specific audience targeting in mind. But it’s part of the broader pattern of advertising becoming more fragmented across different formats and platforms.
What to Actually Do With This Information
If you’re managing your own Google Ads, think about whether you’re spending your time on the right things. Are you still manually adjusting bids when you could be thinking about strategy? Are you letting automation handle the tactical work while you focus on whether it’s delivering the right business outcomes?
If you’re working with someone to manage your ads, consider whether they’re evolving with these changes. Are they still talking about manual bid management, or are they discussing strategic decisions about campaign structure, audience signals, and business goal alignment?
The role of PPC management hasn’t disappeared—it’s just moved up the strategic ladder. The businesses that thrive are the ones working with people who understand that shift and are focused on the right level of decision-making.
AI handles the repetitive optimisation. Humans need to handle the strategic thinking about what to optimise for and why. That distinction is becoming more important every week.