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The digital advertising landscape is undergoing a massive transformation. As third-party cookies phase out and global privacy regulations tighten, enterprise advertisers must find new ways to measure performance, attribute conversions, and target audiences accurately. To solve these challenges, companies are increasingly relying on first-party data, particularly offline conversion events, to feed machine learning algorithms and ad platforms. To streamline this transition, Google has announced a major upgrade to its data infrastructure. The Google Data Manager API has been expanded to support event ingestion across the Google Marketing Platform (GMP). This consolidation represents a significant shift in how enterprise brands, agencies, and ad-tech developers route first-party offline conversions and manage audience matches across Google’s key advertising destinations. With this latest integration, Google is positioning the Data Manager API as the centralized, privacy-safe conduit for all customer data. Below, we explore the technical mechanics of this update, the strategic advantages of unified schemas, the introduction of IP-based matching for Customer Match, and what these changes mean for your marketing workflows. Understanding the Expanded Google Data Manager API Historically, managing offline conversion data within the Google ecosystem was a fragmented process. Advertisers pushing offline data—such as CRM updates, in-store purchases, phone call conversions, or lead status changes—had to build and maintain separate integration pipelines for different platforms. A developer might have had to write distinct codebases to feed conversions into Campaign Manager 360, Search Ads 360, and Google Ads. The updated Data Manager API solves this fragmentation by offering a single, consolidated ingestion layer. Developers can now send offline conversion event data to three critical Google Marketing Platform destinations through a unified interface: Campaign Manager 360 (CM360): Google’s ad server and management system for tracking cross-channel campaigns. Search Ads 360 (SA360): The search management platform used to design, manage, and optimize large-scale search campaigns across various engines. Display & Video 360 (DV360): Google’s demand-side platform (DSP) for programmatic media buying across display, video, audio, and connected TV. By bringing these systems under a single API umbrella, Google simplifies the technical overhead required to build and maintain modern marketing data pipelines. The Power of a Single, Unified Schema For data engineers and marketing technology teams, the introduction of a single schema is the most impactful technical improvement in this release. Previously, sending offline conversions to multiple platforms required mapping data fields to different formats, handling varied authentication protocols, and managing separate API rate limits. The expanded Data Manager API allows advertisers to format their offline conversion data once and route it to multiple destinations simultaneously. A single API call can now securely send conversion signals to Campaign Manager 360, Search Ads 360, and Display & Video 360. This multi-destination routing drastically reduces duplicate data transmission, minimizes the risk of API errors, and ensures that all measurement tools are working with the exact same conversion dataset. Additionally, the API natively supports encrypted user identifiers. Advertisers can safely transmit sensitive customer data—such as email addresses and phone numbers—by hashing them before or during the ingestion process. This ensures compliance with strict data security policies while preserving the ability to match offline actions to online ad exposures. Migrating from Legacy Campaign Manager 360 APIs With this announcement, Google is actively encouraging advertisers currently using the legacy Campaign Manager 360 API for offline conversion uploads to begin their migration to the Data Manager API. The transition is designed to provide greater flexibility, ease of implementation, and long-term support for advanced attribution use cases. Continuing to rely on older, single-purpose APIs introduces technical debt and leaves organizations unprepared for future privacy features. Moving to the Data Manager API ensures your measurement infrastructure is built on Google’s modern privacy-first framework. Advertisers can learn more about configuring their pipelines by visiting the Google Ads Developer documentation, which details the migration steps and payload structures. Upgrading Customer Match with IP-Based Ingestion In tandem with the GMP event ingestion expansion, Google is rolling out an update to Google Ads Customer Match. Advertisers will soon have access to IP-based ingestion support via a newly introduced data block known as the CompositeData field. Traditionally, Customer Match has allowed brands to upload lists of first-party contact information—like emails, phone numbers, and physical mailing addresses—to build custom target audiences across YouTube, Search, Gmail, and the Display Network. The new CompositeData field expands this capability by allowing advertisers to upload customer IP addresses alongside these traditional identifiers. Beginning in Q3 2026, Google will use these IP addresses, combined with corresponding observation timestamps, to improve match rates across Customer Match campaigns. This addition of IP addresses as an identifying signal acts as an extra layer of verification, helping Google’s systems match offline user profiles to active Google accounts with higher precision. How the CompositeData Field Works The CompositeData field acts as a container for advanced identifiers. When configuring your audience uploads, you can pass IP address data linked to specific user events alongside standard contact fields. To maintain user privacy, the API enforces strict protocols regarding how these IP addresses and timestamps are sent and processed. By preparing your CRM schemas to collect and store IP addresses alongside timestamps now, your organization will be ready to leverage the match-rate optimization immediately when it goes live in Q3 2026. Strategic Benefits for Enterprise Advertisers Consolidating your conversion and audience ingestion pipelines under the Data Manager API yields several long-term strategic advantages: 1. Unified Cross-Channel Attribution When different measurement tools receive data from separate pipelines, minor discrepancies in timestamps, deduplication rules, or data formatting can cause major attribution differences. By routing a single, consistent stream of offline events to CM360, SA360, and DV360, you ensure that your programmatic, search, and overall campaign reports remain synchronized. This consistency makes it easier to evaluate cross-channel performance and allocate budgets more accurately. 2. Reduced Engineering Overhead Maintaining separate API integrations for multiple ad platforms is a drain on engineering resources. Whenever an ad platform updates its API version or changes its data requirements, your development team has to adjust multiple codebases. Transitioning to

The retail media landscape is undergoing a massive paradigm shift. For years, Retail Media Networks (RMNs) have been the darlings of the digital advertising world, offering brands a direct line to consumers at the digital point of sale. However, as onsite inventory on e-commerce platforms becomes increasingly crowded and expensive, advertisers are looking for ways to scale their efforts. The solution lies in offsite commerce media—leveraging a retailer’s highly valuable first-party data to reach shoppers across the broader web. Google has taken a significant step forward in this space by expanding its Commerce Media Suite to support Demand Gen campaigns. This new integration allows brands to activate retailer first-party audience data across Google’s most visually engaging, high-reach surfaces, including YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. By bridging the gap between retailer audience intelligence and Google’s massive reach, this update offers a powerful way for brands to drive demand and measure real-world sales outcomes. The Evolution of Commerce Media: Moving Offsite To understand the significance of this integration, it is essential to look at how retail media has evolved. Historically, retail media was confined to “onsite” placements—sponsored product listings, banner ads, and display placements directly on a retailer’s website or mobile app. While onsite retail media is incredibly effective for capturing high-intent shoppers who are already in buying mode, it has inherent limitations in scale. There are only so many search result pages and product detail pages a retailer can monetize before the user experience begins to degrade. Furthermore, onsite ads primarily capture consumers at the very bottom of the marketing funnel. To sustain long-term growth, brands must also influence consumers during the awareness and consideration phases of their shopping journey. This is where offsite retail media comes into play. By utilizing a retailer’s deterministic purchase data to target consumers on external websites, social platforms, and open-web programmatic inventory, brands can engage potential buyers earlier in the customer journey. Google’s latest update accelerates this trend by bringing offsite commerce media directly into its highly engaging Demand Gen ad formats. What is Google Commerce Media Suite? Google Commerce Media Suite is a dedicated technology platform designed to help retailers build, manage, and scale their own retail media networks. It provides the infrastructure necessary for retailers to securely monetize their first-party data and digital real estate, while giving brand advertisers the tools they need to execute and measure highly targeted campaigns. Through this suite, retailers can share their audiences with trusted brand partners in a privacy-safe environment. Brands can then use these audiences to run campaigns that are contextually relevant and highly targeted, ensuring that marketing dollars are spent on the consumers most likely to convert. Understanding Google Demand Gen Campaigns Demand Gen campaigns are designed to help advertisers find and convert consumers using visually rich, multi-format creatives. Operating across YouTube (including Shorts, In-Stream, and Feed), Google Discover, and Gmail, Demand Gen ads reach over three billion monthly active users. Unlike traditional search campaigns that capture existing intent, Demand Gen is built to stimulate new interest. By utilizing immersive video and image assets, these campaigns help brands tell compelling stories and introduce products to consumers while they are browsing their favorite feeds. Combining these visually engaging formats with the precision of retailer first-party data creates a potent combination for modern marketers. How the Demand Gen and Commerce Media Integration Works The integration of Demand Gen into the Commerce Media Suite simplifies a process that was previously fragmented. Here is a step-by-step look at how this collaborative ecosystem operates: Data Sharing: Retailers make their valuable first-party audience data—such as past purchasers, loyalty program members, or frequent category buyers—available through the Commerce Media Suite interface. Campaign Activation: Brand advertisers access these shared retailer audiences directly within their Demand Gen campaign setups. They can then build visually rich ad creatives tailored specifically to these high-value segments. AI-Powered Optimization: Once the campaign is live, Google AI takes over to optimize delivery. The system analyzes real-time signals to show the right creative format to the right user at the optimal time across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail, maximizing conversions and driving sales. Closed-Loop Measurement: Perhaps the most critical step, the integration connects digital engagement with final purchase outcomes. Advertisers can tie their Demand Gen ad exposures directly to actual transaction data from the retailer, offering definitive proof of campaign performance. Key Benefits of the New Integration The expansion of Commerce Media Suite to support Demand Gen inventory offers distinct advantages for both brands and retailers. Here are the primary benefits driving adoption: 1. High-Value Audience Targeting at Scale In an era where third-party cookies are being phased out and privacy regulations are tightening, first-party data is the most valuable asset in digital marketing. Through this integration, brands can leverage deterministic purchase data from retailers to target consumers across Google’s massive global network. This ensures ads are served to highly relevant audiences who have a proven affinity for the brand’s product category. 2. Visually Immersive Storytelling While standard display banners and text ads are useful, they often fail to capture the imagination of modern consumers. Demand Gen campaigns rely on visual storytelling through YouTube Shorts, carousel ads, and high-impact image layouts. This allows brands to showcase their products in action, building emotional connections that drive purchase intent long before a user visits a retail website. 3. AI-Driven Campaign Optimization Google AI is central to the success of Demand Gen. The platform uses machine learning to test different creative combinations, predict customer lifetime value, and bid efficiently for conversions. When paired with high-quality retailer data, Google’s bidding algorithms can find new, highly qualified prospects who mirror the behavior of the retailer’s best customers. 4. Closed-Loop Attribution and Measurable ROI One of the biggest pain points in offsite digital advertising has been attribution. Brands often struggle to prove that an ad shown on an external platform led to a sale on a retailer’s site. The Commerce Media Suite addresses this by connecting digital ad exposure directly to transaction-level data. Advertisers gain full visibility

The digital advertising landscape is undergoing a massive transformation, driven by the rapid rise of retail media networks (RMNs) and the ongoing cookieless transition. Retail media, often dubbed the “third wave” of digital advertising, has traditionally been limited to onsite placements—banner ads, sponsored search results, and featured products on a retailer’s own website or mobile app. However, as these digital storefronts become crowded, brands and retailers are seeking new ways to scale their efforts without compromising the precision of first-party purchase data. Google is addressing this challenge by expanding its Commerce Media Suite to support Demand Gen campaigns. This integration allows brands to leverage a retailer’s highly valuable first-party audience data and run visually rich, AI-powered campaigns across Google’s most popular offsite channels, including YouTube, Google Discover, and Gmail. By bridging the gap between retailer audience insights and Google’s massive visual ecosystem, this update marks a major shift in how commerce media is planned, executed, and measured. The Evolution of Commerce Media: Moving Beyond Onsite Placements To understand the significance of this update, it is essential to look at how retail media has evolved. In its early stages, retail media was highly effective because of its proximity to the point of purchase. Showing a sponsored ad to a user who is actively searching for shampoo on a grocery delivery website yields high conversion rates. However, onsite retail media has two major limitations: scale and funnel depth. First, retail websites do not command the same daily active usage or dwell time as major social networks, video platforms, or search engines. Consumers visit retail sites with specific, transactional intent, leaving when their purchase is complete. Second, onsite placements are primarily bottom-of-the-funnel tactics. They capture existing demand rather than generating new interest or building brand awareness. By moving offsite, commerce media unlocks the upper and middle sections of the marketing funnel. Brands can now use the deterministic purchase data collected by retailers—such as historical purchase frequency, product category affinity, and loyalty program status—to target prospects while they are browsing video content, catching up on news, or managing their emails. This strategy combines the precision of retail media with the reach of traditional digital advertising. What is Google’s Commerce Media Suite? Google’s Commerce Media Suite is a technology framework designed to help retailers build, manage, and scale their own retail media networks. It provides the infrastructure necessary for retailers to securely share their valuable first-party audience data with brand advertisers, without exposing sensitive consumer information or violating privacy regulations. Through the suite, retailers can monetize their digital assets and audience insights, while brands gain access to highly qualified customer segments. Previously, this suite focused primarily on search and display networks. The addition of Demand Gen capabilities changes the dynamic, allowing brands to tell visual stories across Google’s discovery-focused surfaces. Understanding Demand Gen and Its Role in Commerce Demand Gen is Google’s modern, AI-powered campaign type designed to drive action and engagement on highly visual surfaces. It was introduced to replace Discovery campaigns, offering more robust creative options, better audience targeting, and advanced AI optimization. Demand Gen ads run across several key Google environments: YouTube and YouTube Shorts: Engaging video formats that capture user attention in both long-form and short-form feeds. Google Discover: A highly personalized feed on mobile devices that serves news, articles, and videos based on user interests. Gmail: Immersive, interactive promotions served directly in the Social and Promotions tabs of users’ inboxes. Unlike standard search ads, which rely on users typing in specific queries, Demand Gen campaigns focus on visual storytelling. They use high-quality images and video assets to capture attention and spark interest before a user has even actively decided to search for a product. By integrating retail first-party data into this workflow, brands can ensure these highly visual ads are shown to consumers who have a demonstrated history of buying from relevant categories. How the Demand Gen Integration Works The integration of Demand Gen into the Commerce Media Suite establishes a collaborative, closed-loop workflow between retailers, brands, and Google’s advertising technology: 1. Data Collaboration Retailers upload and organize their first-party customer data—such as past purchase behavior, brand affinity, and loyalty tier data—within Google’s secure environment. This data is converted into privacy-compliant audience segments that brands can target. 2. Campaign Activation Brands access these retailer-defined audience segments directly within the Commerce Media Suite interface. From there, they can set up and launch Demand Gen campaigns, choosing budget parameters, targeting criteria, and uploading creative assets such as product images, lifestyle videos, and engaging copy. 3. AI Optimization Once the campaign is live, Google’s advanced machine learning algorithms take over. Google AI analyzes real-time signals across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail to determine which creative assets, placements, and bid strategies are most likely to drive conversions. The algorithm continuously optimizes delivery to reach the consumers most likely to take action. 4. Closed-Loop Measurement One of the biggest pain points in offsite retail media has historically been attribution. When a brand runs an ad on an external site, it can be difficult to prove that the ad directly led to a purchase on a retailer’s digital or physical store. The Commerce Media Suite solves this by linking ad exposure data with the retailer’s actual point-of-sale (POS) and online transaction data, offering clean, closed-loop reporting. Key Benefits for Brands and Retailers This integration provides clear advantages for all parties involved in the digital commerce ecosystem, solving legacy issues of scale, measurement, and targeting accuracy. For Brand Advertisers: Unprecedented Scale with High Relevance: Brands are no longer restricted to the virtual aisles of a retailer’s website. They can reach relevant shoppers at scale across Google’s massive global network, using premium video and image assets. Deterministic Audience Targeting: Instead of relying on broad demographic targeting or decaying third-party cookies, brands can reach consumers based on actual, verified purchase histories provided by the retailer. Full-Funnel Marketing: Brands can use Demand Gen to introduce new products, build brand equity, and nurture leads, all while knowing their ad spend is

The Next Era of Retail Media: Moving Offsite Retail Media Networks (RMNs) have rapidly established themselves as the third wave of digital advertising, following closely in the footsteps of search and social media. Historically, the primary value proposition of retail media was simple: place highly relevant ads in front of consumers at the digital point of sale. Brands could buy sponsored product listings, display banners, and featured search placements directly on retail websites like Walmart, Target, or Amazon. However, onsite retail media inherently suffers from a scaling limitation. A retailer’s web traffic is finite, restricted only to active shoppers looking for specific products at a specific moment. To unlock the next level of growth, retail media must look beyond its own virtual walls. Advertisers need to reach high-intent shoppers where they spend most of their time online—watching videos, browsing curated feeds, and reading emails. Google has stepped in to bridge this gap by expanding its Commerce Media Suite to support Demand Gen campaigns. This integration allows brands to leverage a retailer’s rich, first-party audience data to run highly visual campaigns across YouTube, Google Discover, and Gmail. By combining the precision of retail transactional data with the massive scale of Google’s ecosystem, this development represents a major shift in how commerce media is planned, executed, and measured. Understanding Google’s Commerce Media Suite and Demand Gen To fully appreciate the impact of this update, it is essential to understand the two core components coming together: Google Commerce Media Suite and Demand Gen campaigns. What is Commerce Media Suite? Google’s Commerce Media Suite is a dedicated framework designed to help retailers monetize their digital properties and first-party data while allowing brand partners to scale their advertising efforts. It serves as a bridge, enabling secure data collaboration between retailers and brands. Through this suite, retailers can share valuable audience segments—built from real purchase histories, loyalty program data, and onsite search behaviors—without compromising user privacy or exposing sensitive proprietary data. What are Demand Gen Campaigns? Introduced as the next generation of Discovery ads, Google’s Demand Gen campaigns are visually immersive, AI-powered campaigns designed to capture consumer attention and drive action across Google’s most popular, visually-driven surfaces. Demand Gen placements include: YouTube: Including Shorts, in-stream ads, and the main YouTube home feed. Google Discover: The personalized content feed on mobile devices that reaches hundreds of millions of users daily. Gmail: Social and Promotions tabs where consumers actively look for deals and brand updates. Demand Gen relies heavily on Google’s advanced machine learning algorithms to serve highly creative video and image ads to audiences who are most likely to engage. Historically, these campaigns relied on Google’s native audience signals. Now, the integration with Commerce Media Suite allows these campaigns to be fueled directly by retailer first-party purchase data. How the Integration Works The mechanics of this integration are designed to be seamless for both retailers and brand advertisers, operating through a structured data-sharing and activation workflow. Step 1: Retailer First-Party Data Onboarding Retailers start by making their verified, first-party audience data available within the Commerce Media Suite. This data includes lists of past purchasers, loyalty program members, frequent category buyers, and users who have shown high intent on the retailer’s own website. Because this data is grounded in actual financial transactions, it is vastly more reliable than standard demographic or interest-based targeting. Step 2: Campaign Activation Brand advertisers access these retailer-defined audience segments directly within their Google Ads environment. They can then build Demand Gen campaigns targeting these specific cohorts. For instance, a beauty brand can target users who recently purchased skincare products from a major beauty retailer, displaying rich video ads for a new moisturizer across YouTube Shorts and Google Discover. Step 3: AI-Driven Optimization Once the campaign is live, Google AI takes over to optimize delivery. The system analyzes real-time signals—such as device type, time of day, and content engagement—to determine the optimal placement and creative asset for each user. Google’s algorithms continually refine bidding and targeting to maximize conversions and sales throughout the consumer’s purchase journey. Step 4: Closed-Loop Measurement One of the most significant hurdles in offsite retail media has been attribution. This integration solves that issue by connecting ad exposure on Google’s surfaces directly back to purchase outcomes at the retailer. Advertisers receive detailed reports showing how many users saw an ad on YouTube or Gmail and subsequently completed a purchase on the retailer’s app or website. This closed-loop measurement provides unambiguous proof of return on ad spend (ROAS). Key Benefits for Brands and Retailers The synergy between retail first-party data and Google’s advertising reach offers clear advantages for all parties involved in the digital commerce ecosystem. 1. High-Intent Targeting at Unprecedented Scale Onsite retail ads are highly effective because they capture users at the bottom of the funnel. However, offsite advertising allows brands to engage prospects further up the funnel while maintaining targeting precision. By utilizing actual retail purchase history on platforms like YouTube and Discover, brands can reach consumers who are statistically highly likely to buy, even when they aren’t actively shopping on a retail site. 2. Leverages the Power of Google AI Manual optimization of multi-format visual campaigns can be incredibly complex. Google’s AI handles the heavy lifting by automatically testing different creative combinations, managing bids, and identifying lookalike audiences based on the retailer’s core customer data. This ensures that ad budgets are allocated dynamically to the most profitable placements. 3. Simplified Collaborative Workflows In the past, running offsite retail media campaigns required complex, manual workarounds, including third-party clean rooms, manual data transfers, and disjointed reporting dashboards. The Demand Gen integration within Commerce Media Suite streamlines this process into a single, cohesive framework. This reduces administrative friction and speeds up time-to-market for new campaigns. 4. Authentic Closed-Loop Attribution With privacy regulations making traditional conversion tracking increasingly difficult, closed-loop reporting is incredibly valuable. By tying a consumer’s exposure to a YouTube Short directly to a checkout event on a retailer’s site, brands can justify their marketing investments with concrete,

The digital advertising landscape is undergoing a massive paradigm shift. As third-party cookies deprecate and privacy regulations tighten, first-party data has become the most valuable currency in digital marketing. Retail Media Networks (RMNs) have risen to prominence as a direct result, allowing brands to advertise to consumers directly on retail sites where purchase intent is at its peak. However, retail media has historically faced a major scalability bottleneck: onsite inventory is inherently limited by the amount of organic traffic a retailer’s website receives. To break through this limitation, the industry is moving rapidly toward “offsite” commerce media, extending the power of retailer audience data across the broader open web. Google is accelerating this shift by integrating Demand Gen campaigns directly into its Commerce Media Suite. This update allows brands to utilize retailer first-party audience data to run highly visual, AI-driven campaigns across YouTube, Google Discover, and Gmail, taking retail media far beyond the boundaries of traditional online storefronts. Understanding the Evolution of Commerce Media To fully grasp the significance of this integration, it is important to understand how retail media has evolved. What began as simple digital endcaps and sponsored product listings on e-commerce sites (onsite retail media) has expanded into a sophisticated ecosystem. Onsite advertising is incredibly effective for capturing lower-funnel demand, but it struggles to build brand awareness or capture shoppers who are not actively searching on a specific retail site. Offsite retail media solves this by allowing brands to leverage a retailer’s rich, deterministic purchase data—such as past purchase history, loyalty program status, and real-time shopping cart behavior—and apply it to ad campaigns run on external platforms. By bringing Google’s Demand Gen inventory into the Commerce Media Suite, advertisers can now connect these high-value audiences with some of the internet’s most engaging visual touchpoints. What is Google’s Commerce Media Suite? Google’s Commerce Media Suite is a dedicated technology platform designed to help retailers build, manage, and scale their own retail media networks. It provides the infrastructure necessary for retailers to monetize their digital properties and first-party data safely, while giving brand advertisers the tools they need to plan, execute, and measure collaborative campaigns. Through the platform, retailers can securely share access to their audience segments without compromising consumer privacy. Brands can then activate these segments within their digital marketing campaigns. The addition of Demand Gen capabilities to this suite marks a major milestone, transitioning Commerce Media Suite from a localized retail tool into an expansive omni-channel advertising engine. The Power of Demand Gen Campaigns Demand Gen is one of Google’s most visually immersive and AI-centric campaign formats. Specifically designed for modern, social-first consumers, Demand Gen campaigns serve ads across Google’s most visually engaging, feed-based environments. These placements include: YouTube: Including YouTube Shorts, in-stream ads, and feed placements. Google Discover: The highly personalized content feed on mobile devices that reaches millions of users daily. Gmail: Highly visible, interactive placements right inside users’ inboxes. Historically, Demand Gen was utilized by advertisers looking to drive brand discovery and consideration using their own data or Google’s native audience segments. By integrating this inventory with Commerce Media Suite, brands can now layer retailer first-party data on top of these highly visual ad formats. This means a consumer who regularly buys organic groceries at a specific retail chain could be targeted with a beautifully produced YouTube Shorts video or a visually striking Google Discover ad promoting a new organic snack brand—directly connecting upper-funnel discovery with lower-funnel purchase intent. Key Benefits of the Demand Gen and Commerce Media Integration This integration offers several clear advantages for both brands and retailers, creating a mutually beneficial framework that drives efficiency and return on ad spend (ROAS). 1. Reaching High-Intent Audiences at Scale Onsite retail media is bounded by web traffic. If a retailer gets ten million visitors a month, that is the maximum addressable audience for onsite ads. By moving offsite with Google’s Demand Gen, brands can reach those same high-intent shoppers on platforms they use daily for entertainment, communication, and information gathering. YouTube alone has billions of active users, allowing brands to find their target audiences at a scale previously unimaginable within a retail-only environment. 2. Leveraged Power of Google AI Modern advertising requires continuous optimization, and Google AI does the heavy lifting for Demand Gen campaigns. When a brand launches a campaign using retailer first-party data, Google’s machine learning algorithms analyze real-time performance signals. The system automatically optimizes creative delivery, bidding strategies, and placements to maximize conversions, ensuring that the ad spend is directed toward the users most likely to take action. 3. Closed-Loop Measurement and Attribution One of the biggest pain points in modern advertising is the “attribution black box”—the inability to definitively prove that an ad impression led to a sale. Commerce Media Suite solves this problem by connecting ad exposure on Google’s platforms directly to final checkout transactions at the partner retailer. Advertisers can track whether a user who viewed a YouTube video or clicked a Gmail ad actually purchased the product, whether online or in-store, providing unparalleled transparency into campaign ROI. 4. Simplified Campaign Workflows Historically, running offsite retail media campaigns required complex manual workarounds, custom audience transfers, and fragmented reporting across multiple platforms. The integrated workflow within Commerce Media Suite streamlines the entire process. Retailers can easily make their audiences available, and brands can launch, monitor, and optimize their Demand Gen campaigns from a unified interface, lowering administrative hurdles and reducing the time-to-market for new campaigns. How the Integration Works in Practice Executing a Demand Gen campaign through the Commerce Media Suite is a structured process that prioritizes user privacy, data security, and ease of use: First, the retailer uploads and curates their first-party audience segments within the Commerce Media Suite. These segments are built using deterministic signals like loyalty program interactions, past purchase recency, and brand affinity. To maintain strict consumer privacy, these audiences are anonymized and hashed. Next, the brand advertiser accesses the shared audience segments through their campaign portal. The brand designs visually engaging creative

Commerce media expands beyond retail sites with Demand Gen integration The digital advertising landscape is undergoing one of its most significant structural shifts in a generation. As privacy regulations tighten, platform policies evolve, and third-party cookies steadily deprecate, first-party data has emerged as the ultimate currency for digital marketers. This shift has fueled the astronomical rise of Retail Media Networks (RMNs), which allow brands to advertise to consumers using retailers’ rich, verified purchase data. Until recently, however, the power of retail media was largely confined to “onsite” placements. Brands could successfully target shoppers while they were actively browsing a retailer’s website or mobile app, but reaching those same high-intent consumers across the broader web using retail data remained a complex, fragmented challenge. Google is directly addressing this limitation. By expanding its Commerce Media Suite to support Demand Gen inventory, Google is bridging the gap between high-value retailer audience data and the massive, visually-driven reach of its open-web ecosystem. This integration allows brands to activate retailer first-party data directly within Demand Gen campaigns, running highly engaging ads across YouTube, Google Discover, and Gmail. The Evolution of Commerce Media: From Onsite to Offsite To fully understand the significance of this update, it is helpful to look at how commerce media has evolved. In its early stages, retail media was primarily onsite. Brands paid to have their products featured at the top of search results on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Walmart, or Target. While highly effective at capturing bottom-of-funnel conversions, onsite advertising has inherent limitations: it relies entirely on the volume of traffic visiting the retailer’s own digital properties. As the market matured, the industry began moving toward “offsite” commerce media. This strategy involves taking the retailer’s first-party audience data—built from real purchase histories, loyalty programs, and shopping behaviors—and using it to target users on external platforms across the web. By integrating Demand Gen campaigns with the Commerce Media Suite, Google is scaling offsite commerce media to an unprecedented level. Advertisers are no longer restricted to static banners on third-party websites. Instead, they can now deliver rich, multi-format visual campaigns to highly relevant audiences on the platforms where consumers spend hours of their leisure time browsing, watching, and discovering content. What is Google Commerce Media Suite? Google Commerce Media Suite is a dedicated advertising technology framework designed to facilitate collaboration between retailers and brands. It provides a secure, privacy-compliant environment where retailers can monetize their valuable first-party data asset, and brands can leverage that data to execute highly effective advertising campaigns. Within this suite, retailers can bundle their audience segments—such as “frequent organic grocery buyers” or “recent consumer electronics upgraders”—and make them available to brand partners. The brand can then purchase advertising space using these precise audience segments, ensuring their ad spend is directed exclusively at consumers who have demonstrated a genuine affinity for their product category. Unlocking Demand Gen for Retail Media Demand Gen is Google’s modern, AI-powered campaign type designed to drive consumer action and engagement across its most visual and immersive surfaces. By replacing the legacy Discovery campaigns, Demand Gen was built specifically for social-first advertisers who rely on compelling visual storytelling to capture attention and spark purchase intent. Demand Gen campaigns run across several key Google touchpoints: YouTube Shorts: The rapidly growing short-form video feed that captures billions of views daily. YouTube Watch Next and Home Feeds: The primary discovery feeds where users find new long-form video content. Google Discover: A highly personalized feed on mobile devices that serves articles, videos, and recommendations tailored to individual user interests. Gmail: The promotions and social tabs where consumers actively look for deals, brand updates, and shopping inspiration. By injecting retailer first-party data into Demand Gen campaigns, brands can serve tailored video and image ads to known retail shoppers exactly when they are browsing their favorite feeds or watching content on YouTube. How the Demand Gen and Commerce Media Suite Integration Works The technical and operational integration between Commerce Media Suite and Demand Gen campaigns is designed to be streamlined, secure, and highly optimized by machine learning. The process can be broken down into four key phases: 1. Data Collaboration and Audience Sharing The process begins with the retailer. Using the secure architecture of the Commerce Media Suite, the retailer curates audience segments based on their first-party data. This can include past purchase history, brand loyalty status, frequency of purchases, or product category interest. The retailer then makes these audience segments accessible to approved brand partners within the shared suite, fully respecting consumer privacy and data regulations. 2. Campaign Activation Once the brand has access to the retailer’s audience segments, they can set up a Demand Gen campaign within their advertising interface. Instead of relying solely on general interest targeting or broad demographics, the brand selects the retailer’s verified audience segments to power their targeting parameters. 3. Google AI Optimization Once the campaign is live, Google’s advanced artificial intelligence takes over. Google AI analyzes real-time signals across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail to determine the optimal creative format, placement, and bidding strategy for each individual user. Because the underlying audience data is highly qualified (based on actual retail behaviors), Google’s machine learning models can find the path of least resistance to drive conversions, maximize return on ad spend (ROAS), and minimize waste. 4. Closed-Loop Measurement and Attribution One of the historical pain points of offsite advertising has been attribution. Brands would run ads on social networks or open-web sites, but linking those ad exposures back to sales on a retailer’s website remained incredibly difficult. This integration solves that problem by connecting ad exposure directly to transaction data. Because the campaign runs through the integrated Commerce Media Suite, brands gain access to loop-closing reporting. They can clearly see how many users who viewed or clicked a Demand Gen ad on YouTube or Gmail went on to complete a purchase on the retailer’s digital platform. This provides unmatched clarity regarding the direct business impact of the creative campaign. The Benefits of This Expansion for

Google’s search ecosystem is undergoing one of the most significant transformations in its history, driven by two powerful, converging forces: hyper-personalization and artificial intelligence. In a recent update, Google announced a major milestone in this ongoing evolution. Users have now designated over 345,000 “Preferred Sources” within their search profiles. Even more critically, Google is actively expanding the integration of these user-selected preferences into its advanced AI search experiences, including AI Overviews and the dedicated conversational AI Mode, alongside the rollout of brand-new link carousels. This development marks a monumental shift in how search results are constructed and delivered to individual users. Historically, Google relied almost exclusively on global algorithmic signals to determine authority, relevance, and quality. Today, with Preferred Sources deeply embedding themselves into AI-driven interfaces, Google is handing direct agency back to the user while fundamentally changing the landscape of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and digital publishing. For marketers and content creators, understanding this feature is no longer optional—it is a critical component of surviving the AI search transition. Understanding Google Preferred Sources To grasp the implications of this expansion, it is first necessary to understand what Google Preferred Sources actually are. This feature represents a direct, user-controlled personalization layer within Google’s search environment. It allows searchers to explicitly signal which websites, publications, and creators they trust and wish to prioritize in their everyday searches. When a user marks a domain as a Preferred Source—often through settings in the Google App, Chrome, or specialized search features—Google’s search algorithms adjust the individual’s search results. Content from these chosen domains is boosted, ensuring it ranks more prominently on the personalized search engine results pages (SERPs) for that specific user. For example, if a tech enthusiast designates a specific independent review site as a preferred source, subsequent queries about hardware or software will favor that site over larger, generic competitors. Reaching the milestone of 345,000 Preferred Sources indicates that users are actively embracing this feature. In an era characterized by information overload, AI-generated content spam, and trust deficits on the open web, searchers are seeking curated, safe-haven spaces online. They are moving away from being passive consumers of algorithmic outputs and becoming active curators of their own information ecosystems. The Expansion Into AI Overviews and AI Mode The true disruptive potential of this milestone lies in how these 345,000 Preferred Sources are now being integrated into Google’s flagship AI features. Specifically, Google is embedding these user preferences into AI Overviews and its dedicated conversational AI Mode. AI Overviews (Formerly Search Generative Experience) AI Overviews utilize Google’s Gemini large language models (LLMs) to synthesize complex web data into a single, cohesive, conversational summary at the very top of the search results. Until now, the sources cited in these overviews were determined solely by Google’s core algorithmic retrieval systems. With this latest expansion, if a user who has configured Preferred Sources triggers an AI Overview, Google’s Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline will actively prioritize those preferred domains. The AI will draw direct facts, quotes, and structural data from the user’s trusted websites to construct the generated response. This means the AI Overview a user sees will be completely unique to their profile, built from the digital fabric of the websites they have personally vetted and approved. Conversational AI Mode Google’s AI Mode represents a highly interactive, chat-based search interface designed for multi-turn queries and deep research. Within this mode, the AI acts as a collaborative research partner. By integrating Preferred Sources into AI Mode, Google ensures that the AI’s persona, reference points, and recommendations align with the editorial standards and perspectives of the user’s favorite publishers. If a user is researching a complex financial topic in AI Mode and has preferred specific financial planning blogs, the AI assistant will frame its guidance based on the methodologies of those preferred sites, creating a seamless, customized dialogue that respects the user’s pre-established trusts. The Introduction of New Link Carousels One of the primary anxieties surrounding the rise of AI-driven search is the threat of zero-click searches. If an AI summary answers a user’s query directly on the search page, the incentive to click through to the publisher’s website drops dramatically. This threatens the foundational business model of the open web. Google is addressing this friction by introducing new link carousels alongside Preferred Sources in AI search. These carousels are highly visual, swipeable card formats that display the original sources used to compile the AI’s response. When a user’s Preferred Source is utilized to generate an AI Overview, it is featured prominently within these newly designed carousels. The carousels serve several vital functions: Enhanced Visibility: Preferred sources do not merely get a standard text hyperlink; they receive rich, visual real estate at the top of the search interface, complete with favicons, site names, and compelling preview images. Increased Trust and Click-Through Rates (CTR): Because the user has already designated these sites as preferred, they are far more likely to click on these carousel links compared to unfamiliar domains. The familiar brand name acts as a powerful trust signal. Balanced Search Ecosystem: By giving preferred publishers a dedicated, prominent traffic-driving mechanism within the AI interface, Google is attempting to appease publishers and maintain the delicate flow of referral traffic that keeps the web sustainable. How This Restructures SEO and Content Strategy The convergence of personalized Preferred Sources and AI search represents a fundamental shift in how SEO must be practiced. The industry is moving away from a singular focus on global rankings and moving toward a framework centered on brand loyalty, user retention, and customer affinity. The Rise of “Brand Affinity” as a Ranking Factor For decades, SEOs have optimized for search engine bots, focusing on keyword placement, backlink profiles, and technical site architecture. While these factors remain foundational, they are no longer sufficient on their own. Under this new paradigm, brand affinity becomes a direct, personalized ranking factor. If your target audience does not actively choose your website as a Preferred Source, your visibility in their highly

The Evolution of First-Party Data Ingestion in a Privacy-First Era The digital advertising landscape is undergoing a massive paradigm shift. As third-party cookies phase out and global privacy regulations tighten, the reliance on robust first-party data has transformed from a strategic advantage into an absolute necessity. Advertisers must now find secure, efficient, and compliant ways to connect their offline conversion data and customer insights with online advertising platforms to maintain accurate measurement and targeting precision. Recognizing this critical need, Google has been actively working to consolidate and simplify its data ingestion infrastructure. In a significant move to streamline how advertisers bridge the gap between their internal data systems and advertising platforms, Google has announced major upgrades to its Data Manager API. By integrating Google Marketing Platform (GMP) event ingestion directly into this API, Google is establishing a unified pipeline for offline conversion tracking and audience management. This update fundamentally changes how enterprise advertisers, agencies, and developers interact with Google’s marketing ecosystem. Instead of managing a fragmented web of API integrations across various platforms, businesses can now leverage a centralized data ingestion layer to power their campaigns across the entire Google stack. Unifying the Google Marketing Platform Ecosystem Historically, managing offline conversion data across Google’s various enterprise tools was a complex, siloed process. An advertiser running campaigns across Search Ads 360, Display & Video 360, and Campaign Manager 360 often had to build and maintain separate API integrations for each platform. This fragmentation led to increased development costs, higher risks of data inconsistency, and significant delays in campaign optimization. The expanded Data Manager API solves this operational bottleneck by supporting offline conversion event uploads directly to three core Google Marketing Platform destinations: Campaign Manager 360 (CM360): The central ad server and measurement system for planning, targeting, and reporting across digital campaigns. Search Ads 360 (SA360): The search management platform that helps agencies and marketers manage large-scale search campaigns. Display & Video 360 (DV360): Google’s demand-side platform (DSP) for programmatic media buying across display, video, TV, audio, and other channels. With this expansion, advertisers can now use a single schema to format their conversion data and broadcast it to multiple Google products simultaneously. This unified approach eliminates the need for duplicate data pipelines, ensuring that your attribution models and audience lists remain perfectly synchronized across search, programmatic, and display channels. The Power of Single-Schema Ingestion and Multi-Destination Routing One of the most valuable aspects of the updated Data Manager API is its support for a single, standardized data schema. In database management and API integration, a schema defines the structure, format, and data types allowed within a payload. Previously, formatting data to match the unique requirements of CM360, SA360, and Google Ads required extensive custom code and data translation layers. By standardizing on a single schema, the Data Manager API allows developers to format their CRM or customer data warehouse (such as BigQuery, Snowflake, or AWS Redshift) once. This data can then be sent in a single API request and routed to multiple destinations dynamically. For instance, a single offline purchase event can be routed to CM360 for overall attribution, to SA360 to optimize search bids, and to DV360 to exclude that customer from seeing future acquisition-focused display ads. Furthermore, the API natively supports encrypted user identifiers. To protect consumer privacy, advertisers can upload hashed identifiers, such as SHA-256 encrypted email addresses and phone numbers. This ensures that sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) is never transmitted in cleartext, aligning perfectly with modern data security standards and compliance frameworks like GDPR and CCPA. Migrating from the Legacy Campaign Manager 360 API For organizations currently relying on the legacy Campaign Manager 360 API for offline conversion uploads, Google is actively encouraging a transition. The company is positioning the Data Manager API as the modern, future-proof framework for all first-party data ingestion needs. While legacy APIs served their purpose in an era of platform-specific silos, they lack the flexibility and unified architecture required for modern cross-channel marketing. Migrating to the Data Manager API provides engineering and marketing teams with several distinct advantages: Reduced Technical Debt Maintaining multiple API connections to different Google endpoints requires constant monitoring, updates, and troubleshooting. Consolidating to the Data Manager API reduces code complexity and minimizes the ongoing maintenance burden for engineering teams. Improved Data Consistency When different platforms receive data through different APIs at different times, discrepancy gaps inevitably occur. A centralized ingestion layer ensures that every Google platform receives the exact same conversion data at the exact same time, improving cross-channel attribution accuracy. Agility in Measurement As attribution methodologies evolve, having a single data pipeline makes it far easier to test new measurement frameworks, adjust conversion window settings, and adapt to privacy-centric attribution models without rewriting core integration code. Introducing IP-Based Matching for Google Ads Customer Match Beyond conversion tracking, the Data Manager API update introduces a powerful new feature designed to boost the performance of Google Ads Customer Match. Customer Match is a crucial tool that allows advertisers to use their first-party offline data to build audience segments and re-engage customers across Google Search, the Shopping tab, Gmail, YouTube, and the Display Network. To improve match rates—the percentage of uploaded offline customer records that Google can successfully pair with active Google accounts—the Data Manager API now supports IP address ingestion through a new parameter called the CompositeData field. Traditionally, Customer Match relied heavily on static identifiers like email addresses, phone numbers, and physical postal addresses. While highly effective, these identifiers can sometimes change, or customers may use different email addresses for retail purchases than they do for their Google accounts. With the new CompositeData capability, advertisers can upload IP addresses alongside traditional identifiers. To make this data highly actionable and accurate, the API requires the inclusion of corresponding observation timestamps. Because IP addresses are dynamic and change over time, matching an IP address with a precise timestamp allows Google’s systems to map the touchpoint to the correct user profile with a high degree of confidence. Google has

The digital advertising landscape is undergoing a massive paradigm shift. As third-party cookies continue to deprecate and privacy regulations tighten globally, first-party data has become the ultimate currency for digital marketers. In response to these shifts, Retail Media Networks (RMNs) have exploded in popularity, offering brands direct access to shoppers who are actively looking to buy. However, traditional retail media has long faced a significant constraint: scale. Most retail media campaigns have historically been limited to “onsite” placements—such as sponsored product listings or banner ads on the retailer’s own website or app. While highly effective at capturing bottom-of-funnel conversions, this model misses the broader consumer journey where shoppers explore, research, and discover new brands across the wider web. Google is directly addressing this limitation. By expanding the capabilities of its Commerce Media Suite to support Demand Gen campaigns, Google is bridging the gap between high-intent retail audience data and the massive scale of its visual, discovery-focused platforms. Brands can now utilize retailer first-party data to run highly targeted, visually engaging campaigns across YouTube, Google Discover, and Gmail, taking commerce media far beyond traditional retail storefronts. The Shift from Traditional Retail Media to Commerce Media To understand the significance of this update, it is important to distinguish between traditional retail media and the broader concept of commerce media. Retail media originally referred to ads placed on a retailer’s e-commerce platform. For example, when a consumer searches for “organic coffee” on a grocery retailer’s website, sponsored brand placements appear at the top of the search results. Commerce media, on the other hand, represents the next phase of this advertising evolution. It untethers first-party transaction data from the retailer’s physical digital storefront. Instead of restricting ads to a single retailer’s website, commerce media allows advertisers to use that invaluable purchase-history data to target consumers wherever they spend time online—whether they are watching product reviews on YouTube, checking their email, or scrolling through their personalized Google Discover feed. This off-site expansion solves the scale problem for both brands and retailers. Retailers can further monetize their proprietary data, while brands can engage qualified buyers at various touchpoints of their online journey, rather than waiting for them to visit a specific online store. What is Google Demand Gen, and Why Integrate It? Google launched Demand Gen campaigns to help advertisers find and convert consumers through highly visual, immersive ad formats. Operating across YouTube (including YouTube Shorts, In-Stream, and In-Feed), Discover, and Gmail, Demand Gen is designed specifically for modern social-first and visual-first shoppers. Unlike traditional search campaigns, which capture existing demand when a user types in a specific query, Demand Gen focuses on creating demand. It uses rich creatives—such as vertical videos, carousels, and high-quality images—to inspire and influence shoppers when they are open to discovering new things. By integrating Demand Gen into the Commerce Media Suite, Google is combining two powerful forces: First-Party Retailer Data: Knowing exactly what products consumers are buying, how frequently they purchase, and which brands they prefer. Immersive Visual Reach: The massive, highly engaged audiences on YouTube, Discover, and Gmail, powered by Google’s sophisticated machine learning and audience-matching models. This powerful combination means brands no longer have to choose between the high-intent targeting of retail media and the massive brand-building reach of video and visual social channels. They can now achieve both simultaneously. How the Demand Gen and Commerce Media Suite Integration Works The technical and strategic workflow behind this integration is designed to be seamless, secure, and privacy-compliant for brands, retailers, and consumers alike. The process unfolds in a few key steps: 1. Secure Data Collaboration Retailers securely make their first-party audience data available through Google’s Commerce Media Suite. This data includes high-value audience segments, such as past purchasers, frequent category buyers, or loyalty program members. Because this data sharing occurs within a controlled, privacy-safe environment, consumer privacy is protected, and retailers maintain strict control over their valuable data assets. 2. Campaign Activation and Targeting Brands collaborating with these retailers can access these curated first-party audience segments directly within their Demand Gen campaign setups. Instead of relying on broad demographic targeting or third-party cookies, brands can target ads directly to verified, high-intent shoppers as they navigate YouTube, Google Discover, and Gmail. 3. AI-Powered Creative and Bidding Optimization Once the campaigns are live, Google AI takes over to optimize delivery. The system analyzes real-time signals to determine the best creative asset, placement, and bid strategy for each individual user. Whether a consumer is watching a YouTube Short or browsing their Discover feed, Google’s machine learning algorithms ensure they receive the most relevant, visually compelling ad format to drive action. 4. Closed-Loop Measurement and Attribution One of the biggest historic pain points for off-site retail media campaigns has been attribution. Advertisers often struggled to prove that a programmatic display ad on an external website directly led to a sale on a retailer’s platform. The Commerce Media Suite integration solves this by connecting ad exposures directly with actual purchase outcomes from the retailer. Brands receive comprehensive, closed-loop reporting that shows exactly how their Demand Gen spend translated into tangible sales and return on ad spend (ROAS). Key Benefits for Brands and Advertisers For brand marketers, this integration opens up a suite of strategic opportunities that were previously incredibly difficult to execute at scale. Unparalleled Audience Relevancy at Scale Historically, finding high-intent audiences on YouTube or Discover required proxy targeting, such as targeting search intent or custom interest segments. While effective, these methods do not match the precision of actual purchase history. Using retailer first-party data allows brands to skip the guesswork. You are no longer targeting people who “might” be interested in baby formula; you are targeting parents who bought baby formula at a partner retailer last week. Closed-Loop Measurement and Clear ROI Marketing budgets are under more scrutiny than ever before. With closed-loop reporting, advertisers can clearly demonstrate the business impact of their creative campaigns. Connecting top-of-funnel visual engagement on YouTube directly to final purchase transactions on a retailer’s website provides

Commerce media expands beyond retail sites with Demand Gen integration The digital advertising landscape is undergoing a massive shift as retail media networks (RMNs) evolve from basic search-and-display networks on e-commerce sites into sophisticated, full-funnel advertising platforms. In the latest move to accelerate this transformation, Google has announced the expansion of its Commerce Media Suite to support Demand Gen campaigns. This integration allows brands to leverage rich, first-party retailer data across Google’s most engaging visual and discovery-focused surfaces, including YouTube, Google Discover, and Gmail. For brands and digital marketers, this update represents a major leap forward in how audience data is activated. By combining high-intent retailer insights with the scale and creative power of Google’s content-rich platforms, advertisers can now engage shoppers throughout the entire consumer journey, long before they even visit a retailer’s website. The Evolution of Commerce Media: Moving Beyond On-Site Limitations Retail media has traditionally been defined by “on-site” advertising—sponsored product listings, banner ads, and featured brand placements located directly on a retailer’s own e-commerce platform. While on-site advertising is highly effective at capturing consumers who are ready to purchase, it is inherently limited by the retailer’s own web traffic and inventory. To continue their explosive growth, retail media networks are increasingly moving “off-site.” Off-site retail media allows brands to use a retailer’s valuable audience insights to target potential customers across the open web, social media platforms, and video channels. Google’s integration of Demand Gen inventory into the Commerce Media Suite is a direct response to this demand for scale. By bridging the gap between retailer audience intelligence and Google’s vast ad network, brands can reach highly qualified audiences while they watch YouTube videos, browse their personalized Discover feeds, or manage their inboxes. How the Demand Gen Integration Works The core mechanism of this integration relies on secure, privacy-compliant data collaboration between retailers, brands, and Google. Here is a step-by-step breakdown of how the process works: First-Party Data Sharing: Retailers make their valuable first-party audience segments—such as past purchasers, loyalty club members, or high-frequency shoppers—available within the Commerce Media Suite. Campaign Activation: Brands use this retailer-cleared data to build and deploy Demand Gen campaigns directly through the shared suite platform. Multi-Channel Reach: The ads are served across Google’s highly visual, immersive surfaces, specifically YouTube (including YouTube Shorts and in-stream ads), Google Discover, and Gmail. Google AI Optimization: Google’s machine learning models analyze performance in real-time, optimizing bidding, placements, and creative delivery to drive maximum conversions, sign-ups, and sales. Closed-Loop Measurement: Post-campaign reporting links ad exposures on Google properties directly back to the retailer’s purchase data. This provides a clear, verifiable view of how digital engagement translates into actual sales. The addition of Demand Gen inventory marks the next phase of commerce media’s evolution, turning what was once a transactional, point-of-sale tool into a comprehensive upper-to-mid-funnel awareness engine. Why Demand Gen Matters for Visual Storytelling Unlike standard text-based search ads, Google’s Demand Gen campaigns are designed to be visual, immersive, and narrative-driven. Consumers are increasingly discovering new brands through short-form video, lifestyle photography, and curated feeds. By bringing retail media data to Demand Gen, brands are no longer restricted to static product images on a white background. They can now tell compelling brand stories using YouTube Shorts, interactive carousel ads, and high-definition video assets. For example, a home appliance brand can target verified “new home buyers” (identified through a home-improvement retailer’s first-party loyalty data) with a high-production-value YouTube Shorts video showing their smart kitchen suite in action. The Cookieless Future and the Value of Retailer First-Party Data As the digital marketing industry grapples with the deprecation of third-party cookies and heightened consumer privacy regulations, first-party data has become the ultimate currency. Retailers are sitting on a goldmine of this data, ranging from in-store loyalty card transactions and online search queries to precise purchase histories. Because retail data reflects actual consumer transactions rather than just digital browsing habits, it is incredibly accurate and resilient to privacy changes. Google’s integration of this data into Demand Gen campaigns provides a secure framework for brands to bypass the limitations of third-party cookie loss, allowing them to deliver highly personalized ads without compromising consumer privacy standards. Key Benefits for Brands and Retailers The integration of Demand Gen campaigns within the Commerce Media Suite provides clear advantages for all parties involved in the retail media ecosystem. For Brands and Advertisers Unprecedented Scale: Reach consumers across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail—surfaces used by billions of people daily—using high-quality retailer data. Full-Funnel Advertising: Move beyond lower-funnel conversion tactics to build brand affinity and drive discovery among audiences with a proven track record of buying similar products. Advanced AI-Driven Bidding: Leverage Google’s sophisticated AI systems to optimize campaign performance based on specific goals, such as maximizing conversions or driving value-based actions. Verifiable ROI: Access closed-loop attribution reports that show exactly how many viewers of a YouTube ad went on to purchase the product at the partner retailer. For Retailers and Retail Media Networks Expanded Monetization Opportunities: Retailers can monetize their audience data beyond their own website, opening up new high-margin revenue streams from brand partners’ upper-funnel marketing budgets. Stronger Brand Partnerships: By providing brands with better tools for reach, creativity, and conversion, retailers can solidify their position as essential strategic marketing partners. Actionable Customer Insights: Retailers gain deeper insights into how their customers interact with brand messaging across the broader internet, helping to inform future merchandising and inventory decisions. Best Practices for Launching Your First Demand Gen Retail Media Campaign To maximize the impact of this new integration, brands should approach Demand Gen campaigns with a strategic mindset tailored to visual storytelling and commerce data. 1. Align Creative Assets with the Consumer Mindset Because Demand Gen ads appear in feeds where users are consuming content for leisure—like watching YouTube videos or reading their Discover feeds—your creative needs to look native and engaging. Avoid overly salesy, transactional ad formats. Instead, focus on lifestyle imagery, product benefits, user-generated style content, and narrative video formats that feel natural in feed