How to Improve Paid Media Performance in 2026: Insights from Performance MCR

The importance of Creative Diversification

 Ellie McGuingan explored how Meta’s latest updates are influencing the creative strategy across the platform. The introduction of Gem, Lattice and Andromeda have reinforced the importance of ad diversification through a focus on emphasised personalisation and cross-platform learning. Ad strategies need to align with the new algorithmic changes, including a diverse mix of messaging, creative approaches, formats and placements within each campaign. This gives Meta’s AI a broader range of assets to support targeting, help improve engagement and campaign performance. Ellie also highlighted the value of a creative diversification matrix to assess campaign assets, identify gaps and deliver clear recommendations.  

From Campaign Optimisation to Journey Optimisation

Dean Kadi emphasised the importance of testing creative elements rather than ads in isolation, highlighting how many testing approaches focus on minor variations without delivering meaningful insights. Instead, he introduced a framework built around five key elements: angle, audience, assets, journey and landing page. 

He illustrated this with a case study where the team had initially assumed the product was best suited to professional users. Testing told a different story – it actually resonated far more with serious hobbyists. Once the messaging was reshaped to speak to this audience, and different assets like user-generated content and product demos were brought into the mix, performance improved significantly. 

The approach also emphasised sequencing and journey design, using educational content before directing users to product pages. This structured testing framework drove consistent improvements over time, increasing conversion rates to an average of 4.7%. 

PPC: Smarter product feed optimisation for better performance

Both Chris Avery and Dave Alexander explored how a more strategic approach to product feed optimisation can drive stronger commercial outcomes.

Chris highlighted the importance of optimising PPC campaigns ‘based on intent’ & the role of the SKU within the business, rather than performance alone. Whether a product is intended to drive profit, scale, protection or recovery, both campaign structure and the product grouping should reflect the purpose to work cohesively to deliver stronger business outcomes.

Dave focused on maximising product coverage within Performance Max campaigns by dynamically allocating budget based on performance and seasonality. Using automated scripts, products that deliver below a certain metric benchmark are re-labelled and filtered into a lower-budget campaign, while still maintaining visibility. Once performance improves the product will automatically be moved back into the original campaign. This approach helps to revive ‘zombie’ items and scale non-converters, which has previously led to 25% increase in revenue and 30% in traffic at the same efficiency.

AI in Search: Control vs Automation

Ethan Lambert explored the impact of AI within Google Ads, focusing on AI Max, quality score and enhanced conversions, while highlighting the growing role of AI within the consumer shopping journey. AI Max, described as a combination of broad match and dynamic search, was shown to significantly increase impressions while reducing click-through rates and cost-per-click, with only marginal improvements in ROAS.

Here, quality score improvement was emphasised as a key factor influencing cost efficiency, alongside the importance of applying seasonality adjustments, running A/B tests and implementing exclusions to manage performance.

Reconnecting PPC and CRO for Stronger Performance

Adam Pearce talked about how PPC and CRO used to work hand in hand, but over time, the two have drifted into separate corners. He pointed out that both are chasing the same outcome, yet they’re often handled by different teams, with different tools, and rarely in the same conversation.

His argument for bringing them back together came down to three things. First, the shared goal: at the end of the day, both are trying to turn attention into action. Second, data. Neither discipline really works without it, and when you combine what PPC sees at the top of the funnel with what CRO learns on-site, the picture gets a lot clearer. Third, structure – using things like benchmarks and prioritisation models to figure out what’s actually worth testing, rather than guessing.

Some examples he provided included showcasing payment options, exposing search functionality on mobile, and providing clearer information in the user journey. They are small changes, but all of them contributed to increases in both conversion rates and average order value.

Rethinking Measurement Beyond Platform Attribution

Abbie Brookes highlighted the limitations of traditional attribution models, noting how approaches such as first click, last click and linear attribution often introduce bias and fail to accurately reflect the whole story of how a customer actually got to conversion.

To have a more comprehensive approach, Media Mix Modelling (MMM) was presented, which takes a much wider view of the customer journey. It measures the long-term impact of both media and non-media activity while incorporating external factors that influence performance.

Although MMM requires initial investment, it was shown to significantly improve overall ROI, with one example demonstrating a 37% increase in ROI when a more holistic measurement framework was implemented.

What we are taking back into our own work

Based on these sessions, several practical changes will be applied to how we approach campaign planning and optimisation:

• Implementing creative diversification with specific measurement matrix to define performance.
• Testing strategies across creative elements and customer journeys, to generate more meaningful insights.
• Structure PPC campaigns around SKU intent (profit, scale, protection or recovery) rather than performance alone.
• Use automation to optimise product feeds, dynamically reallocating budget based on product performance and seasonality.
• Balance AI with manual optimisation by monitoring Quality Score, testing AI features and applying appropriate controls.
• Connect PPC, CRO and measurement, using holistic testing and attribution to optimise both campaign and business performance.