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It’s been 25 years since Google Ads started with a simple idea: The best ads are just answers. We look back at the journey and celebrate the incredible impact Google Ads has had on businesses, creators, and the internet as we know it.
Twenty-five years ago, marketing was on the cusp of a seismic shift, sparked by a new advertising product. From the early days of Google Ads, few could have predicted the fundamental change it would ignite in how people consume information and how businesses reach them.
People come to Google and YouTube to get answers to their questions, discover new things, and find inspiration. Ads help connect people to businesses of all sizes along these journeys, and enable publishers and creators to offer content for free.
And now, AI is transforming how people interact with the world around them and reshaping how they discover and engage with brands. This behavioral change, combined with next-gen AI-powered ad solutions from Google and YouTube, translates into new and better opportunities for businesses to reach their customers.
To celebrate this quarter-century milestone, leaders from small businesses, global brands, and agencies are sharing how Google Ads has impacted their business and the advertising industry as a whole. Here’s what they had to say.
Leveling the playing field for small businesses
Technological advances can be great equalizers for small businesses. We saw that with the arrival of the internet. Through an online presence and digital advertising, many small businesses gained access to consumers on a global scale that wouldn’t have been possible before without the big budgets or massive marketing teams typical of larger corporations.
Today, 79% of small businesses say these digital tools help them compete with much larger companies, and 82% of those businesses attribute their revenue growth directly to digital ads. And in the era of AI-powered marketing, Google AI is helping businesses of all sizes not only run better ads but also run better businesses.
For Avery Smith, CEO and co-owner of Louisiana Crawfish Company, digital advertising has helped expand the legacy of her family’s work. Investment in Google Ads provided a critical mechanism for expanding their customer base and fueling their growth.
“When Louisiana Crawfish Company started more than 40 years ago, we were primarily selling wholesale to seafood markets and restaurants. It wasn’t until we built our first website in 1998, and advertising with Google starting in 2002, that we were reaching more consumers. And, naturally, as technology and the internet changed over the years, we started seeing a shift in our business towards more direct sales to the front doorstep of everyday people across the country. Google Ads helps us find new customers and keep our loyal ones coming back.”
Helping businesses show up when people are open to discovery and ready to decide
Digital advertising’s holy grail has always been reaching the right customer, with the right message, at the right time. For 25 years running, Google Ads has helped businesses get as close to this as possible. With AI-powered Search, that opportunity is real.
As people search in more complex ways, we get richer clues about their context and intent. AI helps us understand the subtle intent behind a query by anticipating a potential commercial need. In that moment, the most helpful information may be an ad, because the best ads have always just been answers.
This has changed the game for marketers like Allyson Witherspoon, CMO at Nissan, who now caters to a more knowledgeable audience. And it creates incremental opportunities for businesses to connect with customers in a genuinely helpful way.
“Google Search transformed the car buying experience. With it, consumers could more easily discover different types of cars — the brand, the make, the model. This access to information helped create a more knowledgeable consumer beyond the product; they know more about the shopping and ownership experience too. The opportunity for Nissan when it comes to AI search is discoverability. It’s no longer about what website or social platform the customer lands on; it’s much more about delivering a stronger brand narrative for our customers. We can actually be a little bit more, excuse the pun, in the driver’s seat.”
Responding to a world that asks anything
Humans are endlessly curious. Google Search has fueled that appetite for answers by opening the doors to the online world. But the days of carefully crafting questions to search are behind us. Today, people can search by talking naturally, with images, or simply circling what they see.
This evolution from deliberate, text-based queries to fluid, multimodal interactions represents a monumental change in consumer behavior. Search is now an integrated part of how people experience the world. For Jeremy Hull, chief solutions officer at Brainlabs, this shift in the way people search represents a fundamental reimagining of how brands can engage with customers at the very instant curiosity strikes.
“Over the last 25 years, Search has gone from being a destination, a place you go to ask questions, to an ambient experience. Search is everywhere. People are interacting with Search in new ways across new devices. And any moment someone has that curiosity is an opportunity for a brand to connect with them in a way that matters. Throughout this journey, AI is helping businesses glean greater insights, respond with more relevant ads, and unlock a faster speed to impact.”
Empowering brands to tap into the speed of culture
Of course, part of what has made the past 25 years of digital advertising so impactful has been YouTube. For two decades, YouTube has been shaping culture through video. It’s where the world watches, creates, and connects in real time. It’s the pulse of what’s now and what’s next.
Creators have become essential to how culture forms and spreads. As the “startups of Hollywood,” they’re not just building content across a vast array of formats. They’re building passionate communities.
For marketer My Lindström, global head of marketing at Volvo Cars, YouTube isn’t just a place to show up; it’s an engine for cultural momentum. It’s where attention is earned, relevance is built, and brand impact unfolds in the moment.
“[YouTube] is an expansive and versatile creative canvas that’s become ideal for our storytelling. … Beyond our usual campaigns, YouTube also gives us a direct line to the trends and creators shaping culture. … Ultimately, YouTube has been instrumental in helping us make meaningful connections with customers across their entire purchase journey. It’s not only opened up new avenues for creative expression and cultural engagement but has also become our single biggest driver of brand consideration and incremental registrations, our leading indicator for sales performance.”
The story of the past quarter-century is one of relentless adaptation and growth, not a single triumph. The fundamental shift in the way people search has moved from retrieving information to cultivating effortless intelligence. Meanwhile, YouTube has become the epicenter of culture and home to billions of passionate fans. Throughout the evolution, this change has created a tremendous and essential infrastructure for brands to deliver more relevant ads and run stronger businesses.
