The TLDR: Search will always matter. But treating it like the main growth engine in 2026 is like bringing a brick-sized mobile to a smartphone world.
If you have been in PPC for a while, you have probably lived through the golden era of Search-led growth. Add coverage, expand match types, scale budgets, rinse and repeat. And to be fair, that playbook worked for years.
But I think we have hit a point where relying on Search campaigns alone for growth will start to cap performance, especially in travel. Not because Search is bad. Not because people who do Search first are wrong. Simply because the way people discover and decide has changed, and Google Ads has changed with it.
This is my view from the accounts I work on. Your mileage may vary depending on product, margins, seasonality, tracking quality, and how mature your campaigns are. But if you are seeing plateauing performance and higher costs to access the same demand, this is worth a rethink.
To be clear, the problem is not Search. The problem is how we expect Search to behave in a completely different digital environment.
Travel is one of the clearest examples of why the old approach is creaking
Travel makes this shift impossible to ignore. A lot of travel demand is inspired before it is searched. People watch travel content, save ideas, compare, ask friends, then come back later when they are ready to book. YouTube itself has published data showing travel content consumption has been growing strongly, which tracks with what many travel brands see in their own journeys.
So, when we try to force growth purely through Search, we are mostly competing for demand that already exists. That can work brilliantly for efficiency, but it is not always where incremental volume comes from.
What Search is still brilliant for
I am not here to bury Search. I still lean on it heavily, but in a more intentional way. In 2026, I use Search primarily for:
Brand protection – Making sure you own your brand space, defend against competitors, and keep messaging clean.
Very specific, high intent themes – Tightly defined products, destinations, events, and specialist holidays where intent is obvious and you want precision.
Keyword and messaging intelligence – Learning the language people use (AI Max), what converts, and what needs addressing in landing pages and creatives.
Competitor visibility – Auction Insights is still one of the most practical ways to see who is pushing, when they are pushing, and how aggressively. It is available for Search, Shopping and Performance Max.
Search is now my precision layer and my insight engine, not my main growth lever.
Where Performance Max and Demand Gen fit into growth
If Search is precision, Performance Max is reach plus optimisation.
Google positions Performance Max as a way to access inventory across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and more, all from a single campaign. In practical terms, this allows advertisers to reach users across the full Google ecosystem instead of waiting for them to type a keyword.
Alongside this, Demand Gen has evolved far beyond being a purely awareness or “top of the funnel” format.
In 2026, Demand Gen is increasingly used as a performance channel that can drive consideration and conversions, particularly when supported by strong creative and conversion signals. With placements across YouTube feeds, Shorts, Discover style surfaces and in feed environments, it allows advertisers to actively influence users who are already researching, comparing and shortlisting options.
In travel, this is especially powerful because:
- Performance Max focuses on scalable conversion volume across multiple placements
- Demand Gen supports high intent browsing behaviour, not just passive awareness
- Both allow you to reach users before and during active decision making, not only at the final keyword search stage
That said, Performance Max remains my primary growth driver when the objective is consistent volume and automated optimisation at scale. Demand Gen works best as a complementary performance layer that strengthens mid funnel engagement and assists conversion performance rather than sitting in isolation.
Performance Max is best for automated scale across Google when your goal is volume and efficiency, while Demand Gen gives you more creative control to influence users who are actively browsing, researching and shortlisting, often before they ever reach Search.
The best approach is not Search vs PMax, it‘s role clarity
The strongest accounts I work on do not treat this like a religious debate.
They assign roles:
- Search owns brand and tightly defined high intent themes
- Performance Max drives scalable conversion and conversion value volume across the Google ecosystem
- Demand Gen supports consideration and performance driven discovery where creative influence matters, which is particularly helpful 2-3 months before peak times
- Search insights influence asset group structure and messaging
- Creative learnings feed back into copy, landing pages and future testing
This is where PPC starts to feel like a connected system rather than isolated campaigns fighting for budget.
The 2026 control and visibility point
One of the fairest criticisms of Performance Max historically was control and transparency. That has improved.
Google has rolled out meaningful control and reporting improvements for Performance Max, including channel-level performance reporting, campaign-level negative keywords, brand exclusions and wider steerability features.
That does not mean it is as controllable as Search. It is not meant to be. But it does mean the old objection of “PMax is a black box, so we cannot use it for serious accounts” is becoming harder to justify.
What I would change if you are still Search first
If you are heavily Search led today, I would not rip everything up overnight. I would test a shift in a controlled way:
- Keep Search tight and purposeful
- Use Performance Max as the core growth lever
- Use Demand Gen to strengthen performance outside Search
- Treat creative as a performance lever
- Use competitive insight properly
Final Thoughts
I am not saying Search is outdated. I am saying the expectation that Search alone should deliver growth, year after year, is increasingly unrealistic for many advertisers. Search is still essential. It is just not the only engine anymore.
Performance Max, used properly, is one of the clearest ways to unlock incremental reach across the Google ecosystem and turn that reach into conversions, without forcing everything through a keyword shaped funnel.
If you’re currently relying on Search as your primary growth channel and not seeing the scale you expected, it may be time to rethink how your PPC strategy is structured.
Whether you’re in-house or agency-side, small strategic shifts – from campaign roles to creative inputs and signal quality – can make a significant difference to performance. The teams that adapt now will not just outperform competitors. They will redefine what “good performance” actually looks like.
If you’d like support reviewing or restructuring your account for modern growth, feel free to get in touch. I’m always happy to talk strategy and share what I’m seeing work in real accounts.