Latest in PPC: Introducing New Features from Google, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Latest in PPC: Introducing New Features from Google, YouTube, and LinkedIn

A new API from Google makes it simpler to incorporate first-party data into advertisements. YouTube announced enhancements to the advertising experiences for Shorts. In order to provide advertisers greater control over cost and delivery, LinkedIn introduced Reserved Ads.

Google Data Manager API

The Data Manager API lets you send audience and conversion data to multiple Google advertising products with a single call. The Data Manager API also supports features such as confidential matching and encryption. It would replace several separate Google platform APIs with one centralized integration point for advertisers, agencies, and developers. It builds on Google’s existing codeless Data Manager tool, which tens of thousands of advertisers already use to activate their first-party data.

Marketers who have deeply integrated AI tools report 60% greater revenue growth than their peers. To make it simpler for marketers to connect first-party data with Google’s advertising tools, introducing the Data Manager API. The new tool helps developers, agencies, and advertisers build even more custom and automated connections with Google Ads.

Uses:

• Upload and refresh audience lists
• Send offline conversions to improve measurement
• Improve bidding performance by giving Google AI richer signals

Partnership push to speed adoption: Google is launching with integrations from AdSwerve, Customerlabs, Data Hash, Fifty Five, Hightouch, Jellyfish, Lytics, Tealium, Treasure Data, Zapier, and others.

YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts rolls out new Ad experience

YouTube Shorts is helping to get more from your short-form video strategy this holiday season. According to Kantar, on average, YouTube Creator Ads on Shorts increase purchase intent by 8.8%, driving 2.9x more consumer intent to spend versus the competition.

To enhance and grow YouTube Shorts’ advertising experience to offer genuine, captivating methods of attracting new clients, like:

• Adding comments to qualified Shorts advertisements will enable your company to engage with consumers more effectively and replicate the experience of organic Shorts.
• Allowing Shorts Creators to link to your brand’s website for sponsored content would entice their audience to learn more.
• In order to expand support for short-form video advertisements, Shorts ads for mobile web is being launched. As consumers watch and interact on more devices and surfaces- TV, web, desktop, and mobile app.

While many advertisers worldwide are finally gaining access to these new options, Google notes that this feature is not yet available on all accounts, but will be rolled out to all advertisers within the coming months.

To check if the YouTube Shorts ad format is available on the YouTube Ads account:

• Create campaign
• Choose “create a campaign without a goal’s guidance.”
• Select “Video.”
• If the feature is available in the account, you would find the shorts under Video in the Efficient Reach section.

LinkedIn Reserved Ads

LinkedIn’s updates help B2B marketers reach buyers earlier with faster creative workflows, smarter targeting, and stronger feed visibility. It is rolling out new ad tools that help you boost brand awareness, personalize your messages, and speed up creative work, in order to reach potential buyers earlier in the funnel.

Further features announced by LinkedIn:

• Reserved Ads
• Ad personalization
• AI-powered creative tools

Reserved Ads in the LinkedIn feed deliver premium visibility, predictable impressions, and a greater share of top-of-feed attention than competitors. The format works across Video, Thought Leader, Single Image, and Document Ads, which helps brands to maximize creative impact. Reserved Ads guarantee top-of-feed placement.

Ad personalization include adjusting messages using profile data like first name, job title, industry, or company. 71% of consumers expect personalized messaging, while 76% get frustrated when it is missing (McKinsey). Ad Personalization adjusts messages based on a person’s name, company, or job title to make them feel more relevant.

AI-powered creative tools for testing multiple ad variations. While Flexible Ad Creation, which will launch in early 2026, allows marketers to upload various assets that LinkedIn would automatically mix, match, and optimize for performance, AI Ad Variants produce new, on-brand copy from a single seed input. New AI tools also help create and test ads quickly, improving engagement and reaching early-stage buyers more efficiently.

B2B advertisers should experiment with Reserved Ads, ad personalization, and AI-driven creative tools for strengthening top-of-funnel impact, refining messaging, and optimize performance – all without adding significant manual effort.

Final Thoughts

The common objective on Google, YouTube, and LinkedIn is the aims of eliminating obstacles that impede measuring, planning, and creative output.

In order to help marketers provide better signals for their bidding strategy, Google is making it simpler to use first-party data. In order to facilitate companies' participation in short-form video with fewer pauses in user flow, YouTube is tightening its tools around shorts. In order to keep B2B marketers visible without adding more operational effort, LinkedIn is concentrating on predictability and creative efficiency.

These modifications aid in simplifying planning, measurement, and adjustment for advertisements. As planning continues into 2026, incorporating these modifications into your workflows can help produce more consistent execution and dependable signals