What if Google isn’t forever? Marketers grapple with a platform in flux

The cumulative effect: marketers are now looking at Google not as an untouchable platform, but as a company in flux. That shift is already shaping how they think about the future, according to advertising and media experts interviewed by Digiday. 

Marketers are testing alternative ad tech partners and shifting ad dollars toward retail media players that, in another era, would’ve defaulted to Google. While spending patterns remain largely intact, but there’s more momentum behind the idea of building a future less tethered to a single platform. 

“There’s this new sense that the ecosystem we’ve built campaigns around could look really different in a year or two,” said a media director at a major holding company agency. “The priority now is optionality – making sure clients aren’t locked into any single vendor.”

What that means, according to agency execs, is clients are asking more questions not just about measurement and transparency, but about structural risk. What happens if Google is forced to separate its exchange from its ad server? What if Chrome or Android spin out into separate entities? What does a mandated API for search data mean for performance marketing strategies?

“For the future, we are evaluating how Google (and the government) moves might impact how we engage with Google from an advertising perspective,” said Robert Kurtz, strategic business outcomes partner at Basis Technologies. “For the tech side, our product team is watching closely how our DSP or data sharing could be impacted. For our search team, we are proactively thinking through different moves based on what might arise out of the anti-trust lawsuits.” 

The antitrust rulings also give marketers leverage they haven’t had in years. If regulators are cracking open Google’s ad stack, advertisers can push harder for concessions – better reporting, more transparency in auctions and real interoperability across platforms.

Not long ago that would’ve sounded like wishful thinking. The idea of Google bowing to marketer demands? A fantasy. Now, not so much. Just last week, Google acknowledged to some advertisers that its AI-driven media buying platform needs to be more transparent. Naturally, marketers will be watching closely to see whether that continues.

The most recent updates include new features for Performance Max to improve transparency and decision-making, including channel performance reporting across YouTube, Search, and Display with expanded asset-level metrics like clicks, cost, conversions and full search terms reporting.

As one ad exec explained on condition of anonymity: “We wouldn’t be surprised if Google takes proactive measures to avoid the appearance of anti-competitive behavior. That might look like greater transparency, increased interoperability, or subtle steps to open up more competition across its ad ecosystem. If that happens, it could lead to more options, more market fragmentation and potentially lower costs for advertisers. But any such shifts are likely to be gradual and measured, given the stakes — both financially and reputationally — for Google.”

Google did not respond to Digiday’s request for comment by press time for this story.

Other agency execs said client confidence in Google is unchanged. Advertisers are still willing to do business, but recent antitrust revelations and cookie updates allow them to show more interest in what works for them. The timing of the trials and the cookie news seems more like coincidence to Matt Kane, SVP of Data & Analytics at Digitas. He said clients are still confident in Google as a partner and that who they work with depends on the goals and outcomes.

“If Google continues to offer good products and they continue to offer services that help advertisers, those things are going to be more noisy than anything else,” Kane said. “…I don’t think there’s a groundswell of opposition for it. These things ebb and flow, and I think we just kind of might be in an ebb for them.”

But don’t expect anyone to shout about those wins. Most are keeping their moves close to their chest — too soon for bold declarations, they argue, especially with Google’s fate still in limbo. After all, no one knows what its ads business will be even if regulators end up getting what they want – divestments of both its Chrome business and large swathes of its ad tech business. 

“Here’s what’s changing: it’s no longer just about media efficiency — it’s about strategic sovereignty,” said Jason Alan Snyder, chief AI officer at Momentum. “Marketers are realizing Google isn’t just the pipe; it’s the landlord, the architect and the utility company. That’s a tough pill when you’re asked to justify every dollar of ROAS while the platform owns the metric, the channel and the terms.”

Still, it’s early. And marketers are conflicted. Recent legal rulings validated their long-standing concerns. But the idea of a Google breakup is just as unsettling as its dominance. For all their grievances, few platforms offer Google’s mix of scale, performance and infrastructure. That’s the paradox they’ve been living with for years: frustrated but stuck. 

“There’s finally enough friction to start seriously looking at alternatives,” said one senior marketer at a global brand. “You don’t pull spend overnight – but you start thinking about how much risk you’re exposed to when one player controls everything.”

And there’s the rub: for now, it’s more vibes than verdict. That’s not to say these moves from marketers don’t matter — but how much it matters, and how soon, is still up for debate.  

“We all understand changes may require re-consideration in the future but right now still believe in the power of Google and its ability to drive great outcomes for marketers,” said Goodway Group CEO Jay Friedman, who testified as a U.S. Justice Department witness during the adtech trial.

It’s a sentiment that captures how marketers have responded — or more accurately not responded — to the news that third-party cookies will be sticking around in Chrome, five years after Google first vowed to kill them off. 

Brands are annoyed but mostly relieved that they won’t need to rush to away from third-party cookies within Google Chrome, which is currently facing a potential sell-off as part of remedies in the search case. Rio Longacre, who spent the last decade at Slalom Consulting helping advertisers and publishers with their adtech strategies, thinks any other company wouldn’t have been forgiven so quickly.

“It just looks bad for Google. It looks incompetent,” Longacre said. “If they weren’t a monopoly, they’d be punished…When you are a monopoly, you don’t have to do anything, because nothing is going to erode your position.”