Twelve-Month Google Ads Roadmap for Growing Small and Medium Business Advertisers

You are the product manager for Google AdWords, the search advertising product now called Google Ads. One of the core initiatives you own is growing the small and medium-sized business (SMB) segment along three lines: the amount SMBs spend, how engaged their accounts are, and the number of SMB accounts. What does your roadmap for the next twelve months look like? ```hint Follow the advertiser's life cycle Trace a small business from first hearing about search ads to spending more each month, and find the stages where most of them stall or leave before you decide what goes in which quarter. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - If the three goals pull against each other, for example many new accounts that each spend very little, which one matters most? - What counts as account engagement: logins, campaign changes, use of features such as automated bidding, or something else? - Which businesses count as SMBs here (by employee count or by ad spend), and which countries are in scope? - Beyond product and engineering, can the roadmap use sales, support and partner channels? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A diagnosis of why SMBs do not start advertising, stay, or spend more, organized by stage of the advertiser life cycle - Distinct SMB segments, with a reason for where the plan starts - Initiatives sequenced across the year, with dependencies, quick wins versus longer bets, and which of the three goals each one moves - Metrics for each goal, with guardrails for advertiser results and for the searchers who see the ads - The trade-offs among the three goals and the checkpoints at which the plan would change ### Follow-up Questions - If you could fund only one initiative this year, which would it be and why? - How would you stop spend growth that does not pay off for advertisers from turning into churn a few months later? - How would the roadmap change in a market where most small businesses have no website?