Think Leads 2025: Google Redefines the Future of Search
This past week, Google held its fourth annual conference on lead generation called “Google Think Leads 2025” in New York City, and our Founder and President of Digital4Startups Inc., Reva Minkoff, had the pleasure of attending.
This year’s “Think Leads” highlighted some new AI-powered advertising solutions that are transforming lead generation. It also gave us an insight into where search itself is heading and how people’s searching habits and decision-making processes are changing.
As the customer journey becomes increasingly complex and fragmented, the goal for marketers now is to meet their customers where they are. This means anticipating their needs and utilizing AI to connect with high-quality leads at critical decision-making moments.
In this blog post, we will discuss key insights from the event that are worthy of discussion, as well as what tools we think might be used more in the future.
Top Highlights from Google Think Leads 2025
At Google Think Leads 2025, Google offered strategic approaches for businesses to enhance lead generation and maximize return on investment (ROI) by leveraging Google’s new AI advertising platforms, AI data, and AI content.
The central theme emphasized the importance of meeting customers where they are in their “dynamic, not linear” purchasing journeys across Google and YouTube. People are now searching using voice, images, and unstructured data.
This creates new opportunities for advertisers already using AI Max to show up for searches they can’t possibly predict. These platforms will play a significant role in the future, with 72% of potential customers now using them in their decision-making process.
New AI integration tools were also introduced and heavily suggested, such as Data Manager and AI Max for Search and Demand Gen, as well as new tools like Deep Search in AI Mode, Crystal Value, and Journey Aware Bidding.
Thoughts from D4S on Google Think Leads 2025
Founder and President of Digital4Startups, Reva Minkoff, was honored to experience Google Think Leads in person this year and shared some of her top learnings that she is excited about.
“I’m so happy to see Google release tools that will make it easier to a) set up tracking and analytics and b) determine why your setup isn’t working c) show you ways to make your setups better,” Minkoff said about the updates with Google Data Manager and Google Tag Assistant.
Minkoff also made note of a new tool called Crystal Value that uses Gemini to create audience lists from customer data.
“Essentially, it‘s like trying to take a crystal ball to prospective customers and determine who is likely to become a high-value customer. It also gives insights into what characteristics were most indicative of a high-value customer,” said Minkoff.
Another update included NotebookLLM, which “actually made AI seem accessible to me for the first time, and the vision of how easily I can integrate it with our company’s Google Drive has me very excited for the future,” said Minkoff.
Lastly, Minkoff looks forward to Google’s new AI bidding tool called Journey Based Bidding that “seems like a logical follow-on given all the conversation about measuring the full user funnel for clients with long conversion cycles,” said Minkoff.
Minkoff’s top learning from the event was that the combination of data and AI is allowing for integrations, advances, and efficiencies that were never possible before.
“I’m really excited to see what this means for us and for our clients,” said Minkoff.
The future of Google Search in 2025 – 2026
Google Think Leads 2025 made it evident that search is becoming more multimodal, as people’s habits are changing. People aren’t just searching for short keywords anymore; they are asking longer, more in-depth questions, searching inside images, and going to YouTube to see how to do something.
“Being able to interact with and give feedback on the scripts and videos makes me feel much more confident that what the AI generates will match brand guidelines and styles, and that opens up a whole new world,” said Minkoff about Google’s new AI video generation tools.
As multimodal search expands, AI does as well, helping advertisers show up in moments that look very different from the traditional “end of funnel” interaction. Google is integrating AI into search with AI Max, AI Mode, and “Deep Search.”
Through deep search, customers can make faster, easier, and better decisions, which creates more opportunities for advertisers to be there. That means ads will be shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode, as even simple questions can show ads that will relate to questions on Google.
There are countless points when someone realizes—sometimes suddenly—that they need a product or a professional service. Google is getting better at recognizing those moments and placing ads that actually feel additive to the experience.
Google search is also getting better at recognizing when someone realizes that they need a product or a professional service. In the future of search, users can now become a high-intent lead by asking more questions on Google.
Conclusion
As new capabilities emerge, new challenges do as well, and Google made it clear that past performance isn’t going to predict future results in the AI age.
That means there’s no denying that AI is the future of search, and advertisers will have to start embracing the change rather than ignoring it, especially as AI Mode expands to have more agentic capabilities. This includes seeing more ads in AI overviews, which 2B people use monthly, making it the most widely adopted AI product in the world.
The future role of search advertising is now in relation to that experience, rather than the other way around, and Google has finally articulated a coherent vision of that.
If you’d like a deeper look at how Google Ads and our PPC marketing services can help your business grow, feel free to reach out for a consultation at info@digital4startups.com
