Google has made changes across AI Max reporting, Customer Match and Shopify checkout. Here’s the feedback from our Devs meeting with what they may mean for advertisers and merchants.
AI Max reporting: new label, familiar view?
Google’s “unified AI Max” report shows a path from search term and ad creative to landing page. But the functionality may feel familiar: it resembles the Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) report, which previously brought together search terms, landing pages and ad headlines.
The report could make it easier to understand how AI Max ads are generated and where they send users. Still, for advertisers who used the DSA report before, this looks less like a brand-new capability and more like the return of a useful view in a new campaign format.
Action
Review your AI Max report and use what you find to add negative keywords and exclude unsuitable landing page URLs, helping keep your ads relevant and reduce wasted spend.
Customer Match via IP address
Google’s Data Manager API now supports using IP addresses for Customer Match. However, IP address matching is not available for users in the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK or Switzerland. That gives advertisers another potential matching signal, though the meeting discussion raised questions about how anonymous an IP address really is compared with an email address or phone number.
Action
Teams considering the feature should weigh its potential value for matching against their own privacy and compliance requirements.
Shopify’s automatic UCP enrollment
Shopify stores in the US are being automatically enrolled in UCP Native checkout, which lets shoppers buy products directly in Google AI Mode and Gemini. The potential upside is a simpler path from product discovery to purchase. The trade-off is that merchants may want to consider how checkout inside Google fits their customer experience and business preferences.
Action
Shopify merchants can opt out through the agentic sale channel settings. For businesses that prefer more control over the checkout journey, reviewing that setting is a sensible next step.
Want to understand how UCP works and what it means for retailers? Our guide to Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol explores the shift towards AI shopping and why accurate product data, pricing and stock availability matter.
What do these updates mean for your business?
At Dream Agility, we combine our own AI technology with experienced marketers to help businesses make sense of platform changes and improve their advertising performance.
If you’d like help understanding what these updates mean for your campaigns or ecommerce business,
get in touch to find out how we can support you.
