Breaking the Mould. What Google’s AI-Powered Future Means for Media Strategy
As digital marketers, we’re no strangers to transformation. But even by Google’s standards, the updates from Google Marketing Live 2025 represent a seismic shift in the way we approach media planning and performance. If 2023 and 2024 were about grappling with privacy changes and rethinking attribution, then 2025 is about embracing an AI-powered marketing ecosystem—and doing so with rigour, balance, and clarity of purpose.
At D3, we’ve spent the last six years navigating clients through the performance maze. We’ve also seen the limits of optimisation when it’s not balanced with long-term brand building. The updates announced at GML only sharpen that truth.
Short-Term Implications: Automate Intelligently, Not Blindly
AI Max for Search, Performance Max and Demand Gen: the new default?
Google’s launch of AI Max for Search and enhancements to Performance Max (PMax) and Demand Gen mean AI is no longer a tactical add-on—it’s the new default campaign mode. These systems combine keywordless targeting, real-time creative optimisation, and multi-surface delivery into a single click setup.
Google reports an average 14% uplift in conversions for campaigns adopting AI Max and 27% where legacy keyword strategies are still dominant. The temptation to switch everything to AI and walk away is understandable.
But this is where experience matters. Automation must be paired with solid strategic thinking. Without quality first-party data, intelligent creative, and proper measurement frameworks, AI will simply optimise mediocrity.
Ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode: performance in the context layer
Google is also rolling out ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode, placing brands directly within AI-generated summaries. These placements enable advertisers to tap into high-intent, exploratory search behaviours before a traditional query is even typed.
This represents a major shift: from search reactivity to search anticipation. For brands, it’s a chance to be the next logical step in a customer's journey, if creative and product fit are spot-on.
Medium-Term Shift: From Platforms to Experiences
New role for creative: from asset-to-asset system
Google’s Asset Studio, powered by Veo and Imagen, now automates the generation of visual and video creatives from basic inputs. This shifts the creative role from a static deliverable to a scalable input for algorithmic remixing.
It’s an approach we’re preparing for at D3 through the development of a new capability designed to meet the velocity and variety demands of platform-driven campaigns. While still a few months from full launch, this initiative will allow us to deliver high-impact, brand-consistent assets at scale, optimised for the AI-first advertising future. In a world of asset-hungry AI engines, creative agility isn’t just a luxury—it’s a key performance lever.
Measurement finally catches up.
With the new Meridian budgeting tool and incrementality enhancements, marketers can now evaluate not just whether a channel worked but also how much of it was net new value. Add Cross-Channel Reporting and Search Terms diagnostics in PMax, and the curtain is being pulled back on the black box.
At D3, we see this as an opportunity to break from outdated last-click mindsets and build unified measurement frameworks that combine brand and performance impact, aligned to actual business value, not vanity metrics.
The Bigger Picture: AI + Brand ≠ Optional
In the shadow of this AI evolution lies the performance plateau—a phenomenon where digital returns stagnate despite continued investment. As highlighted in our recent piece, Breaking Free from the Performance Plateau, overreliance on performance media erodes returns over time.
To escape this trap, brands must balance performance with brand-building. We believe the optimal ratio remains close to Binet & Field’s 60:40 in favour of brand investment. Google's updates make this balance more measurable and scalable, but the strategic intent must still come from marketers.
What Marketers Must Do Now
- Reassess the Media Mix
Incorporate video, CTV, and YouTube into your upper funnel with intention. Use PMax not as a shortcut, but as a canvas for full-funnel storytelling.
- Double Down on Data Quality
Ensure CRM systems, GA4, and server-side tagging are in order. AI performance hinges on the quality of signals—garbage in, garbage out.
- Measure Beyond Clicks
Adopt incrementality testing, embrace attribution models that reflect modern paths to conversion, and integrate offline signals when possible.
- Scale Creative Efficiently
Start building creative systems, not just assets. Variation and velocity are key for AI Max, Demand Gen, or YouTube.
- Lead With Strategy, Not Tools
AI is the enabler. Your competitive advantage is the strategy, insight, and brand only your team can provide.
Final Word. Human-Led, AI-Enhanced
As ever, we’re not here to outspend, but to outthink. That means being pragmatic about automation, ambitious about brand, and transparent about outcomes. At D3, we’re doubling down on innovation—but always with human oversight and strategic intent at the centre.
The era of AI-powered marketing is here. Let’s not sleepwalk into it. Let’s lead it.
