Google Think Leads 2025

Google began by showcasing how their AI-powered experiences, Overviews and AI Mode, are enabling consumer discovery at unprecedented levels of personalization and detail. Further to that, Google highlighted how AI integrations across their suite of products are improving the ability of advertisers to drive qualified leads, enhance reporting, generate creative at scale, accurately predict sales outcomes, model lifetime value, and create new consumer experiences through visual search and agentic.

Think Leads highlighted that AI has almost limitless potential in enabling brands to connect and engage with consumers at all stages of the user journey.

The crux though, amidst all the AI fanfare, is that data remains the backbone of effective digital marketing. The ability of advertisers to take advantage of the array of AI solutions hitting the market will still hinge on the availability and quality of key 1st party data signals.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS

Power Pack: Google emphasized that leveraging their “power pack” of AI Max, Demand Gen, and PMAX is the best way to take advantage of the AI search evolution today.

AI Max, Google’s one-click solution to amplify query matching, landing page selection, and ad copy with AI, is the constant, with keynote speakers doubling down on its benefits throughout the day. For advertisers who want greater control, it is recommended to pair AI Max with Demand Gen, Google’s performance-focused, visually immersive campaign type running across platforms like YouTube and Discover. For marketers looking for scale, Google recommends adding Performance Max to the mix, while emphasizing that the recent addition of controls and reporting transparency is the result of Google taking longstanding feedback on board.

Tag Gateway: Google’s big bet for strengthening first-party measurement and data accuracy. Tag Gateway creates a more secure, stable, and privacy safe way to deliver conversion data captured on a brand’s site back to Google. This server-assisted data delivery promises to provide an 11% uplift in conversion signals, improving data visibility and boosting bidding automation efficacy for advertisers. Tag Gateway will begin rolling out to advertisers next week.

Data Manager: Google’s “one-stop shop” for centralizing, aggregating, and operationalizing key first-party data signals. Of particular focus was the Data Manager API, designed to simplify the connection of data signals from CRM, cloud instances, and physical store locations. The emphasis here was on Data Manager’s ability to compile a rich data set capable of fueling Google’s AI-powered campaigns to deliver optimum results for advertisers. Data Manager is currently available to advertisers globally.

Bidding To User Journey: While specific details on this solution were scarcer, this announcement represents Google looking to AI to better account for the various nuances present in each consumer journey, and ensure they are considered in bidding decisions. This extends to touchpoints, length, online and offline signals, and the ultimate value that the consumer journey represents to each advertiser being accounted for by the bidder. While not widely available yet, this should be of particular interest to advertisers with longer, more complex buy cycles, and multiple touchpoints that represent variable business values.

Smart Bidding Exploration: Originally announced back in May 2025 as Google’s “biggest update to bidding in over a decade,” Smart Bidding Exploration was again championed as a way for advertisers to scale their search programs out beyond existing keyword lists, to capture additional, high value queries and boost qualified leads.

TAKEAWAYS

One of the more resounding themes at Think Leads was that technology, spearheaded by AI, has advanced to the point of being able to finally answer long-standing challenges, and enable digital marketing outcomes that have been out of reach for most advertisers. This extends to data connectivity, voice and image search providing genuine opportunities for user engagement, multifaceted journeys being accounted for by automated bidding, and true user intent being accurately predicted and acted upon. Think Leads delivered a consistent message of promise and potential for advertisers. However, this did not come without caveats.

The truth of the matter is that the power of AI cannot be fully realized by advertisers who do not have the right data infrastructure in place, across conversion, audiences, user journey information, and other 1^st party signals. While enablement here has also been made more seamless, the recommendation for our partners at this point is clear.

1. Prioritize data integration
   Google started the day with the quote “Your data is your competitive edge.” In a market where AI-powered solutions will continue to be made available to all advertisers, the breadth and depth of rich data signals will determine who is able to leverage these advancements most effectively.
   1. If you haven’t already, prioritize integrating 1P audience signals with your buying platforms.
   2. Ensure that the conversion data you are tracking and utilizing in-platform is reflective of meaningful business outcomes and move away from data arbitrage.
   3. Explore whether solutions like Google’s Data Manager can be used to bridge the gap between your CRM, offline, and cloud-based data and your media buying platforms.
   4. Gameplan ways to improve the quality of your conversion data. This extends to vetting and potentially enabling Tag Gateway, ensuring Enhanced Conversions are in place, and working to facilitate the upload of offline conversion data where applicable.
2. Test into AI forward solutions where relevant
   There are several campaign types that can be leveraged to improve discoverability across dynamic AI-powered search environments. As showcased at Think Leads, these include:
   1. The “power pack”. Vet AI Max, Demand Gen, and PMAX, and determine which combination of these solutions makes the most sense for your business.
   2. Explore other solutions, such as Broad Match and Smart Bidding Exploration, and determine whether the additional queries and auctions they grant you access to are creating incremental value for your business.
3. Build added rigor into measurement
   It is vital to continually assess and validate whether AI-powered marketing solutions are driving true value for your business. In that spirit:
   1. Explore Conversion Lift studies and Google teams. Opt-in for conversion lift has been made more seamless and can provide a relatively easy way to assess the incremental impact of your lead generation efforts.
   2. Review and extract insights from the new lead gen reporting capabilities available via Google.

Please reach out to your Crossmedia team with any questions regarding Think Leads, AI, data enhancement, or advanced measurement. We are here to partner with you all the way and ensure that you take full advantage of all the AI-powered advancements hitting the market today and in the future.