5 MORE Reasons Your Google Ads Cost Per Click Is Rising

And Why It’s Only 40% Your Fault

If you have spent the last three hours frantically googling "why are my Google Ads expensive all of a sudden" while your boss (or client, or your own mounting internal anxiety) breathes down your neck... welcome.

Take a breath. Unclench your jaw. Pour a cup of cold brew that you're definitely going to forget to finish.

This post is for you. And I am trying to be funny even though I have been told by my kids I am “the most unfunny”…

Let’s regroup…

You are still reading now because, your Cost Per Click is creeping up, your return on ad spend looks like a sad limp balloon, and you are left holding the bag trying to explain to a board of directors or your spouse why paying $24 for a click from a guy who meant to search for a free PDF is "just part of the strategy."

It’s frustrating. It sucks. But before you re-evaluate your entire life strategy, let’s talk about what’s actually happening under the hood.

Because spoiler: Google has been busy.

1. Google built a real-estate nightmare (AI Overviews)

Remember when a search results page was just ten blue links and a couple of neat little text ads at the top? Simpler times. Now, Google drops a massive, sprawling AI

Overview box right at the very top of the page.

It takes up the whole screen. It answers the user’s question before they even scroll. And most importantly? It shoves traditional ad placements down into the abyss.

So now, instead of four prime ad spots, you’ve effectively got one or two above the fold. There’s less inventory, but the same number of desperate advertisers trying to buy it. What happens when supply drops and demand stays high? Basic inflation. The price goes up. It’s annoying, it’s ugly, and you can officially forward this paragraph to your boss as Exhibit A.

2. We’re all too distracted by internet drama to search for things

Here is a dark truth about the entire internet: people just aren't searching like they used to.

Why? Because we are all glued to social media apps, hostage to algorithms designed to feed us low-stakes human drama. We aren't googling "best project management software" instead we're on scrolling TikTok tracking the latest updates on the HYROX diarrhea saga or the person who found a rug when digging up a tree…that was last year but I spent 3 days following that situation…

Search volume for your specific category might literally just be down because collective human attention has been sucked into the social media vortex. Fewer total searches means fewer overall ad impressions, which turns the remaining search auction into a bloodbath.

3. Broad Match has developed a mind of its own

I swear to God, I can explain Broad Match until I try to explain Broad Match. It has mutated into a sentient creature with its own agenda.

Here’s the trap: Exact Match keywords barely serve traffic anymore because Google’s system insists they "don't have enough volume." So marketers like me are forced to lean into Broad Match just to get the gears turning.

But if I have to use Broad Match, guess who else is using it? Everyone in your industry.

Now, your competitors are accidentally bidding on your brand terms, your niche terms, and queries so loosely related to your product they shouldn't even belong in the same quadrant of the internet. Everyone is bidding on everyone else’s junk, pushing auction prices up for literally no reason.

4. Prediction markets joined the chat (and brought their deep pockets)

This one gets a little weird, so stick with me.

A while back, Google opened up ad inventory to prediction market advertisers basically financial/event betting platforms. Why does that matter to your local SaaS or service business? Because in Google’s algorithmic world, an ad spot is an ad spot.

If a massive prediction market advertiser enters the ecosystem willing to throw huge money at high-intent placement slots because their customer lifetime value is astronomical, Google’s machine says: "Great, highest bidder wins!"

Suddenly, an ad slot that used to be cheap is being inflated by an entire industry of advertisers who weren't even on the platform a year ago. It’s one of those "you really had to be in the auction trenches to see it happen" situations, but trust me, it’s quietly driving up costs across the board.

5. Google is just tuning the dials

Look, we don't always like to admit how this industry works, but at the end of the day, Google is a publicly traded company with quarterly earnings targets.

Sometimes, the simplest explanation is the correct one: Google has dials, and sometimes someone in Mountain View just turns the revenue dial up by 3%.

I’m not saying it’s a giant mustache-twirling conspiracy. It’s just supply and demand. As Google continues to disrupt organic search (SEO) with AI, businesses get desperate for reliable traffic. Desperate businesses buy ads. Less ad supply + more desperate demand = Google turns the dial, and your CPC goes up.

So if you’re currently staring at your Google Ads dashboard wondering what you did wrong... take a second.

Yes, your account probably needs some tightening up (it always does). But a lot of what you're fighting right now isn't your bad strategy—it's the weird, moody, constantly shifting mechanics of an ad ecosystem trying to monetize an increasingly distracted internet.

Now, go send this to your boss. And then close your tabs and take a walk outside. You earned it.

(This post was brought to you by late-night search terms audits and way too much caffeine. If you want someone to come fix your broad match chaos so you can stop getting yelled at, my inbox is open. If you just want to talk about TikTok drama, that's fine too.)