[Update] Expanded Audience List Types – by end of 2025
- The “Audience List Type” dimension in audience‑performance reporting will be expanded. Previously, it had three possible values — First party, Third party, and Bid manager. Now it will include ten values: First party, Agency, Commerce, Third party, Demographics, Affinity, In‑market, Custom, Lookalike, Unknown.
- Why this matters: you’ll get more granular insight into which audience segments drive results — e.g. distinguishing Lookalike or Commerce audiences, evaluating performance by more precise audience sources, enabling smarter optimization decisions.
[Update] Exchange Renaming in DV360 Reporting – Nov 17, 2025
Three partner exchanges will be renamed:
- “Magnite Streaming” → “Magnite SpringServe”
- “Xandr” → “Microsoft Monetize”
- “Criteo — Commerce Grid” → “Criteo Commerce Grid”
What to check: If you have saved reports, dashboards, or automated workflows that reference old names — they’ll need to be updated, otherwise reporting/automation might break or fail to recognise the renamed exchanges.
[Update] Improved TrueView Click‑Through Attribution – by end of 2025
- For TrueView campaigns in DV360, Google will append a new URL parameter &gclsrc to click‑through landing URLs.
- Why it matters: this helps improve click-through conversion attribution for video ad campaigns — assuming landing pages don’t block the parameter. More accurate attribution means better data for optimization and reporting.
[Update] Smarter Optimized Targeting (real-time budget allocation) – by end of 2025
- The platform’s “Optimized Targeting” feature now analyzes both automatic and manual targeting performance, and reallocates budget in real time toward better-performing segments.
- What this means: more efficient spend — DV360 will shift budget dynamically to segments that deliver better performance, which helps maximize return on ad spend (ROAS), especially useful for large campaigns with many audience segments.
[Update] Natural Search metrics will be removed – January 6, 2026
- What changes: The “Natural Search” feature (i.e. organic-search attribution) will be removed from CM360. After that, conversion attribution will rely only on paid clicks.
- Impact: Any conversions previously attributed to organic search will no longer be counted in CM360. If you used organic search data in your conversion modelling or bidding logic — outcomes, budgets or bidding strategies may shift.
[Update] Deprecation of Firebase links (and legacy Floodlight links for apps) – Q1 2026
- What changes: The option to create “Firebase or Floodlight links” will be removed. You’ll need to use standard Google Analytics or Floodlight links for app-conversion measurement.
- Transition: Legacy Firebase/Floodlight links will remain supported for at least 90 days after deprecation begins.
- Impact: If your app installs/conversions rely on Firebase-based links — you’ll need to migrate to Google Analytics or Floodlight. Without migration, tracking for app conversions may break.
[Update] Removal of “Disable attribution” setting — attribution becomes default – December 2025
- What changes: The “Disable attribution” option on conversion tags will be removed. After the change, attribution will be enabled by default for all activities.
- Impact: All conversion-tracking tags will by default attribute conversions — previously disabled tags may now automatically attribute. If previously you had disabled attribution for some activities, you may need to review those settings.
[Update] New suggested audience templates for customer lifecycle goals – December 1, 2025
Google Analytics introduced two new “suggested audience” templates to help build audiences based on customer-lifecycle behavior:
- High-Value Purchasers — defined by number of purchases or Lifetime Value (LTV). A new field LTV percentile lets advertisers select the top percentile of users by LTV — focusing on the highest-value customers.
- Disengaged Purchasers — defined by the number of days since a user’s last purchase — allowing advertisers to identify past customers who may be re-engaged or reactivated.
These audiences can be used in Google Analytics reporting and exported to Google Ads. They’re useful for campaigns aiming at acquiring high-value customers or re-engaging previous buyers.
[Update] Cost data import is now Campaign data import – November 19, 2025
- The feature previously known as “Cost data import” has been renamed to “Campaign data import.”
- Functionality remains the same: you can continue importing campaign-level data (cost, clicks, impressions, etc.) from non-Google advertising platforms. No changes in how data works — only the name has changed.
- All existing imports remain active and uninterrupted — no action required from users.
[Update] User-Provided Data (UPD) attribution improvement & new UPD infrastructure – November 5, 2025
- On this date Google Analytics updated the User-Provided Data (UPD) feature: it now focuses on activation and ads conversions (e.g. for Enhanced Conversions and audience matching), improving data quality and attribution for ad-driven conversions. UPD will no longer be used as a “reporting identity” identifier for session or user attribution.
- The update also includes a new UPD infrastructure: for new implementations, the improved UPD works without degradation. Early adopters on the old infrastructure may see some data quality issues until migration is complete (expected by Q2 2026).