Written by George Crosby, Director Paid Search, dentsu Digital
Google Marketing Live 2025: Unpacking Google’s Big AI Bet
As the dust settles on another Google Marketing Live filled with a huge number of exciting updates and innovations, we’ve pulled together a view of Google’s keynote topics and how we think these will have the biggest impact on advertisers in the coming months.
The Future of Search Ads
AI was, of course, a strong theme throughout, with highlights shared from across Google’s breadth of technology, such as Gemini 2.5, Veo 3, and Lens, as a means of searching. However, the centrepiece here was the announcement of ads coming to AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-search-ai-brand-discovery/
Based on the increasingly conversational method of searching, Google is now better able to anticipate a user’s next best action and surface highly relevant ads in these spaces, connecting users more seamlessly with advertisers and improving the overall user experience.
AI Overviews currently has 1.5 billion users across more than 200 countries and territories each month, presenting a prime opportunity to secure additional customers.
The way into these avenues will be through Google’s AI tool suite, like using Broad Match on Search, PMAX, or AI Max in Search, making it crucial over the next few months to increase adoption of these features if you’re looking to unlock the incremental coverage that AI Overviews and AI Mode will undoubtedly offer.
Speaking of their AI suite, Google announced a more formal coming together of what they are terming the “Power Pack”. This trifecta of tools is designed specifically with multi-modal search experiences in mind and includes the three most impactful ways of scaling your activity currently with Google.
1. PMAX
The oldest of the Power Pack, PMAX is now a mainstay for most advertisers in some capacity. One of the most significant announcements in this space is the release of the Channel Performance Reporting tool, which enables advertisers to segment their data for greater transparency across each channel, allowing for a better understanding of its incrementality.
A consistent theme throughout is that Google is working hard to address concerns from advertisers regarding transparency and control, which has blocked some from enjoying the benefits of this campaign type. Similarly, a detailed PMAX Search Terms Report will also be made available, providing more insight into how customers search.
Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/channel-performance-reporting-coming-to-performance-max/
2. AI Max for search campaigns
This is tipped to be the one-click method to instantly expand your reach and drive performance with both Broad Match and keyword-less technology at its heart. Pairing this with the capability to enhance creative relevance in real time and with greater control and visibility over insights, this is one to watch.
According to Google’s internal data, advertisers that activate AI Max in Search will typically see 14% more conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS – and if you’re still using mostly exact and phrase keywords, this could be up to 27%.
Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-ai-max-for-search-campaigns/#introduction
3. Demand Gen
Two main advancements were announced in relation to Demand Gen specifically: the first is the inclusion of Maps inventory to help drive foot traffic into stores, and the second is the inclusion of a New Customer Acquisition Goal, which is something we’ve already seen rolled out for PMAX.
This will be available in two forms: “Value Mode”, which prioritises bidding for new customers while continuing to reach your existing customer base, and “NCA Only Mode”, which exclusively bids for new customers.
Although GML often focuses on new product releases, one of the most insightful elements surrounding the Power Pack was the changes that have consistently been made behind the scenes to PMAX and Demand Gen to drive better performance.
Google has made over 90 improvements to PMAX that reportedly helped boost customer conversions by 10%. For Demand Gen, at least 60 improvements have contributed to a 26% increase in customer conversion value.
These changes aren’t always actively communicated, but certainly speak to the need to re-test these products, if you had previously done so and found they hadn’t worked out. Considering the focus on these, there will be more opportunities that will surface through them, which you won’t want to miss out on.
Finally, a new Smart Bidding Exploration tool was announced, a setting within your campaigns that captures traffic from a wider range of sources. It’s designed to scale your volume with your existing targeting methods, whether that’s broad match, DSA campaigns, or others, to grow your traffic and conversions.
Paired with this is a mention of Flexible ROAS Targets, and a sliding scale to adjust your target for this new traffic. Although specifics around these aspects were limited, we understand this to be another supportive tool in Google’s AI suite, designed to underpin the Power Pack from within your Search campaigns.
Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/smart-bidding-exploration-ai/
The Future of Video & Apps
From the world of video and apps, several announcements highlighted new ways to engage directly with your customer base while improving the measurability of these interactions.
“Shopability” was a key theme here, with YouTube’s Masthead becoming shoppable on mobile, having ads appear underneath the most prominent placement on the platform. Interactive ads are also available on CTV, which is a useful format for guiding users from the big screen to a mobile device to complete a conversion, while maintaining an interactive experience.
More capabilities to buy products directly from within a YouTube short ad are also coming, allowing customers to stay within the ecosystem and have a smoother purchasing journey.
However, measurability was underpinning each of these announcements with more attribution options directly coming from YouTube into GA4, as well as into Google Ads.
This also extended to the world of apps, with announcements to improve iOS App campaign measurement in a privacy-safe way through “On-device conversion measurement using event data”. This works without any user-identifying information ever leaving a user’s device or being disclosed to an external party, including Google, so it will help to plug commonly seen reporting gaps and allow for better optimisation.
Further announcements included the ability to measure app installs and conversions from your web campaigns to give a clearer and more accurate view of how well you are driving app engagement from your web ads, and being able to see this now within a more integrated UI; allowing you to more easily import app conversions for bidding and see quick-wins for optimisation.
These measurability improvements to apps also support the integration of iOS App Campaigns into Target ROAS bidding, as surfacing more data to bid strategies often yields better results.
Underpinning new visual and interactive experiences with measurement is something we’ve come to see more recently from Google, and it also speaks to the desire from advertisers to see more transparency around their investments.
However, the biggest announcement in this field was the new Creator Partnerships Hub, which will be available from inside Google Ads. This will be a central location to manage collaborations with YouTube creators, where you can search for creators, find contact information, and view more detailed reporting for linked creator videos.
The Future of Creative
According to Google, there has been a 250% increase in advertiser usage of Google AI for creating assets. With some of the impressive outputs of Veo 3 on display, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing a lot of growth and investment in this space, underpinned by Google’s latest technological improvements.
One of the key launches in this space was the announcement of Asset Studio. This is designed as a single destination within Google Ads, where you can tap into all the AI offerings that Google has in order to create high-quality assets. Here, you can generate compelling video content, featuring options such as voiceovers and captions, or perform more advanced image generation and editing.
The ability to reformat and extend videos was also a key announcement, allowing users to do so using the power of AI, without simply adding or reformatting black borders.
The Merchant Brand Profile was also featured, allowing you to create a more compelling story directly on Google Search and improve connections with potential customers through your unique brand story. The ability to add lifestyle image assets, videos, and edit business descriptions, while also highlighting promotions, will only serve to improve the connection between advertisers and their customers.
Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-ai-ads-creative/
Within AI mode, a new visual shopping experience will also become available – a visual mosaic of images and products curated based on the user’s search.
To support advertisers managing creative content, there will also be further advancements in Video Management Tools, and a greater drive to surface visual content suggestions, aiming to generate better performance within Product Studio.
Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-ai-ads-creative/
Within the Creative suite, there’s a clear narrative to bring elements together into more accessible Studio or Tools, making creating, editing, and monitoring assets far easier for advertisers. This is certainly required, given the breadth of change we’re seeing here and the rapid growth in this space, utilising Google’s latest AI technology.
The Future of Measurement
With Meridian hot off the press already this year, it was no surprise to see it feature heavily again, with its more accessible approach to building MMMs.
To bolster this, Google also announced an API to facilitate more frequent and straightforward data requests, along with a scenario planner designed to make the insights from Meridian more actionable.
However, Meridian wasn’t the only update from the world of measurement, as there are now more options to perform incrementality tests within Google Ads. With the AI-driven campaign formats forming the Power Pack, this was a question on many advertisers’ lips, further demonstrating Google’s attempt to add transparency to the heart of its AI solutions.
Reportedly, less than half of all advertisers are using MMM, in-platform attribution and incrementality testing together, so a drive to improve the accessibility of these is no surprise.
Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-ai-ad-campaign-measurement-update/
There will be further updates to Cross-Channel Measurement within Google Analytics, including enhanced multi-touch attribution, which will enable advertisers to see a clearer picture of their marketing impact across Google and other platforms, such as Snap and TikTok.
Data Manager was another headline announcement, providing a single location to streamline your data setup and leverage your first-party data most effectively.
Here, you’ll be able to connect your data, backed by the newly launched Data Manager API, to bring it together regardless of source in one centralised schema and receive guidance on how you can better utilise this within your activity to improve your RO. Possible suggestions from the platform include how to connect further data sources or maximise signals for activation.
Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-ai-ad-campaign-measurement-update/
Google Tag Gateway, which is coming to a broader set of advertisers soon, also features and allows you to upgrade your tags to serve from your site’s server without requiring any retagging. Formerly called First Party Mode, check out our recent blog here to understand a little more about how this works.
The Future? Agentic AI
Finally, as something heavily referenced at Google I/O, Agentic AI had to be featured. We’ve already seen how it will work from a purchasing standpoint (read our blog for more), but from GML, we heard more about how this feature might be implemented within Google Ads and Analytics.
Within Ads, we’ll see more in-platform guidance around optimisations or reporting on key metrics, and certainly more around accelerating campaign creation and how to scale coverage. In the Analytics space, using Agentic to unlock more expert analysis and strategic recommendations will be a key feature, as well as being more clearly linked to online guidance from Help Centre resources.
Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/ai-agents-marketing-advisor/
What did we take away?
1. AI is the future and foundation of Search.
Maximising your use of the Power Pack will unlock the best results and is surely worth a re-test if you’re not a heavy adopter at present. We’ll only see more opportunities surfaced through this suite, and they’ll go a long way to unlocking the exciting world of AI Overview and AI Mode ads.
2. Shopability must be underpinned.
Shopability is central to Video and Apps, but only when underpinned with strong measurement. The industry has been calling for more transparent and robust measurement, and Google will answer the call with some of these announcements, undoubtedly alongside more in the coming months.
3. Improving product accessibility is a focus for Google.
There’s a strong need to bring complex suites and tools together in a unified experience. In the Creative world, Asset Studio is at the forefront and will continue to assist advertisers in producing the highest-quality assets possible, all from one place.
Data Manager, in the Measurement space, as well as the Creator Partnership Hub, also speak to this coming together and growing need for accessibility.
4. Measurement and testing are key.
Underpinning your activity with a measurement foundation based on MMM, in-platform attribution, and incrementality testing should be your way forward.
Key announcements and developments to Meridian have been designed with this in mind to help provide the transparency that advertisers crave, along with further developments to attribution and in-platform incrementality testing.
5. Agentic AI is set to soar.
Agentic AI remains an exciting area of development, poised to continue growing and evolving. This is certainly one to watch, as it makes basic functions and processes far easier and seamless, allowing us all to reinvest valuable time into what matters most.
Whether you're testing PMAX again, rethinking creative production with Asset Studio, or preparing for Agentic AI, one thing is clear: the speed of change has never been greater. At dentsu, our experts are already helping clients harness Google’s latest ad and AI capabilities to drive performance across search, video, apps, and measurement. Let us help you unlock smarter campaigns, deeper insights, and more effective brand experiences.
Get in touch today to reimagine your advertising strategy for the AI-powered future.