Top 10 Takeaways from Google Ads Academy: Win the Holiday Season with Google

HK Digital
Sep 19, 2025
5 min read

TL;DR: Holiday 2025 is a three-month marathon, not a weekend sprint. Google is leaning hard into AI for discovery, creative, and measurement, while giving advertisers a bit more control/transparency in PMax and Shopping. The winners will pair AI with clean product data, sharp promotions, and disciplined measurement.

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1) Holiday is now a 3-month event driven by deliberate shoppers

What Google said: Shoppers are pacing purchases from October through New Year’s, doing more research and being more selective. Fewer impulse buys, longer consideration. blog.google

HK Digital POV:

Good: Longer runway = more profitable acquisition (you can warm audiences cheaply before peak CPCs).
Bad: Brand switching risk rises—comparison shoppers need reasons to stay.
Speculation: Expect deal discovery queries to spike earlier; “price-drop” and “promo” signals will matter in creative.

How to implement:

Shift budgets and targets forward (Oct 1) and sustain through Jan 7.
Build an always-on browsing → consideration → promo structure: Demand Gen/Video/YouTube for top-funnel; PMax/Shopping for capture.
Use Performance Planner with Google’s demand forecasts to phase budgets by week. Google Help

2) AI-powered discovery & creative are the default this season

What Google said: Think Week/Think Retail emphasized AI across Search, YouTube and creative tools to connect at the moment of discovery. blog.google +2google-ads.brandlive.com +2

HK Digital POV:

Good: Better creative coverage at scale (video, image variants) without blowing up production timelines.
Bad: Generic outputs hurt brand distinctiveness if you don’t feed strong brand/USP inputs.
Speculation: Creative lift will skew to catalog-plus-story formats (video with product feed overlays).

How to implement:

In PMax and Demand Gen, upload brand guidelines, top value props, and best-seller feeds; let AI resize/adapt but pin key headlines to protect claims.
Use YouTube full-funnel: awareness (In-Stream/Shorts), mid-funnel (Video Action), and product-feed video for conversion. (Google pushed this in last year’s Holiday Academy too—still relevant.) Google+1

3) More transparency in Performance Max (finally)

What changed: Advertisers report account-level channel reporting for PMax—compare Search/YouTube/Display/Shopping contributions across campaigns, not just in silos. digitalads.io

HK Digital POV:

Good: Easier to spot if PMax is leaning too hard on cheap Display/Discover.
Bad: Still not full search term control; you’ll manage with negatives/brand protection tactics.
Speculation: Expect gradual expansions of network and asset reporting if adoption stays high.

How to implement:

Create a monthly tiered KPI readout: channel mix, assisted conv. rate, MER by channel family.
If YouTube drives high-value assists, raise video asset weight and allocate separate YouTube Action to feed PMax with stronger signals.

4) Campaign Total Budgets to control seasonal spend swings

What changed: Google is rolling out campaign total budget options to smooth spend over a flight—useful for holiday blitzes. Brainlabs

HK Digital POV:

Good: Prevents early-flight overspend; aligns with promotion calendars.
Bad: If forecasts are off, you might under-deliver during Cyber Week.
Speculation: We’ll see total budgets used alongside ROAS target shifts by phase.

How to implement:

For promo flights (e.g., 11/25–12/2), set total budget + looser tROAS on peak days; tighten post-peak.
Pair with hour/day parting via ad scheduling on Search where relevant promos are time-boxed.

5) Merchant Center insights & demand planning are centerpiece

What Google emphasized: Use Google’s demand forecasts and trends to prep inventory, pricing, and feed strategy; integrate GA4/first-party data and run structured experiments. Google Help

HK Digital POV:

Good: Clear line from search trends → feed content → promo planning.
Bad: Insights are only as good as your feed health and custom label strategy.
Speculation: Expect more price competitiveness signals to impact Shopping ranking this season.

How to implement:

Audit feed weekly: titles, GTINs, image quality, shipping/returns, pricing.
Create Custom Labels (L1: margin tier, L2: inventory risk, L3: giftability); route budget by margin and stock.
Spin up lift/geo experiments for promos and feed changes ahead of Cyber Week. Google Help

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6) Audience exclusions in Shopping = less waste

What changed: You can now exclude audiences in Shopping (long a request), helping you avoid spend on past converters/low-intent cohorts. digitalads.io

HK Digital POV:

Good: Cleaner CPCs and better efficiency for brands with repeat traffic.
Bad: Over-exclusion can reduce remarketable pools, hurting LTV.
Speculation: Exclusions + loyalty lists will become a standard Shopping pattern.

How to implement:

Exclude recent purchasers from acquisition-focused Shopping; put them into loyalty/upsell sequences via PMax with “existing customer” audience signals.
Maintain a 30/60/90-day view of buyer windows by category.

7) Deals & loyalty matter more—and Google is surfacing them

What Google said/changed: Google continues to push deal discovery and better reporting for promotions; loyalty and personalization features are getting more native support across Ads & Merchant Center. Google Help+1

HK Digital POV:

Good: If you have compelling offers (bundle, GWP, tiered discounts), Google will help shoppers find them.
Bad: Brands without clear offers will lose to marketplaces and discounters.
Speculation: Expect more loyalty-aware ad serving and creative hooks in 2025.

How to implement:

Mark up promotions in Merchant Center; sync price drop and sale price attributes.
Build loyalty audiences (members, recent purchasers, high LTV) and tailor PMax/Demand Gen assets to VIP messaging.

8) Commerce Media / Marketplace integrations expand reach

What’s new: Google’s Commerce Media Suite continues rolling out—letting brands advertise into third-party marketplaces while leveraging Google AI and product-level measurement. digitalads.io

HK Digital POV:

Good: If you sell on marketplaces, you can finally measure incremental sales beyond your site.
Bad: Attribution complexity increases; margins on marketplace sales can be thinner.
Speculation: Expect more marketplace partners and product-level insights before peak.

How to implement:

Pilot with one category that already performs on marketplaces; compare incremental ROAS and new-to-brand vs. site.
Use custom labels to separate marketplace-eligible SKUs and set distinct tROAS.

9) YouTube still converts—especially with product feeds

Evidence & guidance: Google continues to push full-funnel YouTube for retail, with formats that guide shoppers from inspiration to purchase; last year’s Holiday Ads Academy emphasized this and the guidance still holds. Google+1

HK Digital POV:

Good: YouTube + product feed is a legit conversion driver when creative shows price/promo/USPs.
Bad: Weak hooks (no urgency, no offer) = expensive views.
Speculation: Short-form/Shorts inventory with product overlays will surge during BFCM.

How to implement:

Create 15s/6s cutdowns that call out offer + product + deadline; attach product feeds and site-wide promo codes.
Use Creative Experiments (two offers, two intros) and rotate winners into PMax assets.

10) Measurement: incrementality and geo-based lift testing

What Google recommends: Use privacy-centric incrementality tests, geo-based conversion lift, and GA4/first-party integrations to prove what’s working. Google Help+1

HK Digital POV:

Good: Moves the conversation from last-click to true incremental lift—critical when budgets are tight.
Bad: Tests need scale and clean holdouts; not every brand has it.
Speculation: Expect lighter-weight AI Max experiment types to reduce setup friction.

How to implement:

Stand up geo-lift on your top two regions in October; lock learnings for November budget allocations.
Push first-party signals (loyalty, subscriber status, margin tiers) to Ads for smarter bidding/creative.

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A sample Holiday 2025 Execution Plan (eCommerce)

Oct 1–Nov 10 (Warm-up):

35% budget to YouTube/Demand Gen with product feeds; 65% to PMax/Shopping.
Test 3 offers (bundle, tiered %, GWP) in geo-lift.
Clean feed + custom labels (margin/inventory/giftability).

Nov 11–Dec 2 (Peak & BFCM):

Switch eligible promos on in Merchant Center; enable sale price & price-drop annotations. Google Help
Increase PMax caps; use campaign total budgets for promo flights; loosen tROAS on peak 4 days. Brainlabs
Daily channel-mix checks via account-level PMax reporting; boost YouTube if it’s assisting high-value conversions. digitalads.io

Dec 3–Jan 7 (Gifting & Post-Peak):

Pivot to last-minute & gift card creatives, then Boxing Week/Clearance messaging.
Retarget buyers with loyalty/VIP offers; exclude recent purchasers in Shopping to reduce waste. digitalads.io
Run post-period incrementality analysis to lock 2026 playbook. Google Help

Sources & further reading

Google Ads & Commerce updates from Think Week/Think Retail 2025. blog.google +1
Ads On Air: Holiday event hub + Google Ads Academy programming. adsonair.withgoogle.com
Holiday optimization & experiments guidance (Google Help). Google Help+1
Practitioner wrap-ups and expert takes (Brainlabs; DigitalAds.io; agency recaps). Brainlabs+2digitalads.io+2
YouTube full-funnel commerce guidance from last year’s Holiday Academy. Google+1