Google Marketing Live 2025: Highlights & impact on Search Advertisers

This blog recaps the biggest announcements from Google I/O 2025 and Google Marketing Live (GML) 2025, with insights into what they mean for search advertisers.

As the leader in Search Intelligence, Adthena provides competitive visibility that Google Ads doesn’t. Our data helps advertisers improve transparency, optimize budget decisions, and boost performance.

Below, we break down each key release with a brief overview and our take on the potential benefits or pitfalls. There’s some great stuff coming, but the innovation means an even greater need for a platform like Adthena to understand where Google is showing your ads versus your competition.

Google Beam

• Google Beam transforms 2D video calls into immersive 3D experiences using AI and multiple cameras, with early devices launching later this year alongside real-time speech translation in Google Meet.
  

Project Astra

• Gemini Live incorporates AI-powered camera and screen-sharing features for practical uses like interview prep and training, now available on Android and rolling out on iOS.

Project Mariner

• Agent Mode enables AI agents to perform complex, multi-step tasks online—like apartment hunting—through “teach and repeat,” with developer access expanding this summer.

Personalization

• Gemini models use private, permissioned personal context across Google apps to deliver highly relevant and authentic responses, such as personalized Smart Replies in Gmail coming later this year.

AI Mode

• AI Mode offers a new, advanced tab in Search that supports longer, more complex queries and interactive follow-ups, powered by Gemini 2.5 and launching now in the U.S.

Gemini 2.5

• Gemini 2.5 Flash delivers faster, cheaper AI with improved reasoning and multimodal capabilities, while the 2.5 Pro model introduces an enhanced “Deep Think” reasoning mode.

Gemini App 

• The Gemini app now supports uploading files for custom research and integrates with Canvas, enabling users to create dynamic infographics, quizzes, and podcasts in multiple languages with a single click.

Generative Media

• New generative video and image models, Veo 3 and Imagen 4, have been introduced, expanding creative possibilities for video and image generation.

Google Marketing Live 2025 showcased a wave of AI-powered updates set to transform the Search results page and beyond. From new ad placements in generative experiences to smarter bidding and creative automation, the updates signal a continued shift toward a more AI-driven search journey, both for users and advertisers.

Here’s a closer look at the standout announcements shaping how brands are discovered, how decisions are influenced, and what that means for marketers looking to stay competitive in the evolving search environment.

We see over 5 trillion searches a year on Google and AI has opened new ways to explore with tools like Lens, AI Overviews and AI Mode, helping people discover information and act faster. Google is expanding ads in AI Overviews to desktop and introducing paid placements in AI Mode; its conversational, chatbot-style search experience. These updates significantly broaden the surface area for paid search, creating new opportunities for brands to appear in high-engagement, AI-driven contexts.

Google is integrating its powerful AI creative tools — Imagen for visuals and Veo for video — directly into Google Ads and Merchant Center. Marketers will soon be able to generate product imagery and video creatives automatically, saving time and increasing content velocity.

Smart Bidding is getting its biggest upgrade in over a decade. Smart Bidding Exploration uses Google’s AI to pursue unconventional, higher-performing queries that may have previously been overlooked. It’s designed to expand your reach across emerging or long-tail searches, before they become competitive.

Google is rolling out “agentic” AI capabilities; intelligent tools that proactively guide campaign setup and optimization. These tools act like AI marketing assistants, recommending actions, surfacing insights, and simplifying complex tasks.

Alongside Search Landscape, Adthena offers Ask Arlo, your GenAI data analyst for quick, clear answers to complex search questions, and PPC Market Share Reports, which reveal competitor bidding behavior and market trends. Together, these tools equip marketers with the clarity and control needed in today’s AI-driven search landscape.

The latest announcements at Google Marketing Live 2025 signal a bold push toward automation and AI-led experiences in Search. While these innovations offer exciting new possibilities, they also reduce advertiser control and visibility in key areas.

At Adthena, we help search marketers stay one step ahead in the Google Ads landscape. Whether you’re testing Smart Bidding Exploration or tracking shifts in AI-powered SERPs, our Search Intelligence platform gives you the clarity and confidence to win.

Book a personalized demo today with Adthena.