Google Ads launches lead intent scoring pilot and journey‑aware bidding for lead‑gen campaigns

In a September 18 2026 episode of the Ads Decoded podcast, Google senior product managers Stephen Chang and Natalia Bӧhm outlined new AI‑driven features for Google Ads lead‑generation campaigns. The announcement introduced a lead‑intent scoring pilot that aims to prioritize high‑potential leads by feeding first‑party data into Google’s AI bidding models. At the same time, the company previewed a journey‑aware Smart Bidding capability that trains bids on longer, delayed sales cycles, allowing the system to optimise for closed‑won revenue rather than immediate clicks. Both features are presented as pilots and are not yet generally available; Google said they will be rolled out to a limited set of advertisers for testing. The rollout is tied to the broader “data strength” initiative, which encourages advertisers to centralise first‑party data via the expanded Data Manager. No independent performance data or third‑party validation is provided in the announcement.