Spending on Google search ads increased 13% year over year in Q4 2025, up from 10% growth in Q3, according to Tinuiti’s latest benchmark report. Advertiser click growth reached its fastest pace since early 2021, while average CPCs dipped slightly for the second quarter in a row. AI-driven results are boosting overall query volume, including commercial intent searches. Why we care. Google search ad clicks are climbing sharply while CPCs stay largely unchanged, a pattern partly driven by Amazon pulling back from U.S. Google Shopping auctions. Advertisers are experiencing both upside (mostly stable CPCs) and volatility as budgets shift between search and shopping. At the same time, AI-fueled query expansion is widening the search funnel, creating more chances to engage customers earlier in their purchase path. Shopping ad trends: Google Shopping ad investment rose 16% year over year as Target and Walmart ramped up during the holiday period. Amazon’s retreat created a gap in auctions, while Shein and Temu continued to participate but with smaller, less visible footprints. Shopping Ads CPCs stayed soft, slipping 1% year over year. Performance Max. PMax campaigns represented 62% of total Google Shopping spend and 61% of sales, slightly below last year’s share but higher than earlier in 2025. Non-shopping placements, such as video and display, accounted for 39% of PMax spend, with YouTube video delivering 13% of impressions outside of search. Text ads. Google text ad clicks reached a 19-quarter peak, rising 9% year over year. Spend grew 11%, while CPCs saw only modest growth of 2%. Brand keyword CPC growth…