Google announces major DV360 changes for September

Google announced on August 26, 2025, a series of significant updates to its Marketing Platform capabilities, with most changes scheduled to take effect throughout September 2025. The modifications will impact Display & Video 360 and Campaign Manager 360 users across multiple operational areas, including reporting metrics, impression counting methodology, and political advertising policies.

According to the announcement, the updates represent the latest phase in Google's systematic modernization of its advertising infrastructure. These changes follow earlier modifications in August 2025 that introduced improved reach metrics and replaced programmatic guaranteed bidding measurements with more accurate alternatives.

Impression counting methodology shifts to begin-to-render standard

The most technically significant change involves moving display impression counting from "on-download" to "begin-to-render" methodology. The previous system counted impressions once an ad began downloading, while the updated approach only registers impressions after creative assets have finished downloading completely.

"The impressions counted this way are more likely to have had an opportunity to have been seen and impacted end users," according to the announcement documentation. This stricter standard affects both third-party hosted display ads in Display & Video 360 and display ads hosted by Campaign Manager 360, including Display & Video 360 display ads hosted through Campaign Manager 360.

The change exclusively impacts display advertising formats. Video, native, and other formats measured through tracking pixels remain unaffected by the counting methodology update. Advertisers may experience a slight decrease in billed impression volume due to the more stringent measurement criteria.

Digital advertising professionals at PPC Land have previously noted that impression counting changes can significantly impact campaign performance metrics and budget allocation strategies. The platform has covered similar measurement adjustments across Google's advertising ecosystem, including recent Display & Video 360 API updates that enhanced targeting capabilities.

Legacy metrics face comprehensive removal

Google will eliminate 41 deprecated dimensions and metrics associated with discontinued features. The removal targets metrics that remained in the system after their corresponding features were retired, including television bidding data, TrueView remarketing parameters, and out-of-home advertising measurements.

"Dimensions and metrics that are associated with features that are no longer available are being removed," the documentation states. "These no longer used metrics are being removed so that we can focus on improving the features you actively use and will have no impact on any currently active features."

The eliminated metrics include xbid_tv_broadcast_date, xbid_tv_household_impressions, xbid_tea_trueview_youtube_video, and xbid_ooh_billboard_category_type_name, among others. The comprehensive list spans television advertising parameters, TrueView campaign elements, and programmatic advertising identifiers from legacy systems.

Marketing technology specialists have emphasized that metric deprecations require careful campaign monitoring to ensure reporting continuity. Previous platform updates have demonstrated the importance of transitioning to replacement metrics before removal dates.

EU political advertising restrictions take effect

Google will exit political advertising in the European Union beginning September 2025, citing the EU regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) that becomes effective in October 2025. The decision affects all Google advertising platforms, including Display & Video 360, Campaign Manager 360, and Search Ads 360.

"Any ads in the scope of EU Political Ads will be restricted from serving in the EU after the policy update," according to the announcement. The restriction requires all advertisers globally to self-declare their intent to run political advertising, regardless of industry sector.

Each campaign must include a "Yes" or "No" declaration regarding political advertising intent. Self-declared "Yes" campaigns across Display & Video 360 line items, Campaign Manager 360 campaigns, and Search Ads 360 campaigns will be blocked from serving in EU territories. The requirement extends to programmatic interfaces, including the Display & Video 360 API, Display & Video 360 Structured Data Files, and Campaign Manager 360 API.

The policy change follows Google's broader restriction of EU political ads to official communications only, announced in August 2025. The restriction limits political advertising to "messages from official sources of Member States or the EU that are strictly limited to the organisation and modalities for participating in elections or referendums."

Geographic and carrier naming updates

Google will implement updates to carrier names and geographic targeting dimensions to align with current industry standards. The carrier name changes affect outdated designations in the advertising systems, with new names appearing in Display & Video 360 reporting once implemented. These modifications are cosmetic updates that will not impact functionality or data accessibility.

Geographic targeting receives more substantial updates, with 46 geo locations changing their country codes. The modifications utilize the latest Ads F1 geographic names and country codes, ensuring consistency between report builder filters and generated report dimensions.

The geographic updates include country code changes for regions such as CS-ME (8 locations), CS-RS (27 locations), GB-GG (2 locations), GB-IM (3 locations), GB-JE (2 locations), CG-CD (1 location), IT-MY (1 location), and CS-XK (1 location). The changes reflect updated international geographic naming conventions and political boundary modifications.

Reach metrics receive August enhancements

Prior to the September updates, Google introduced improved reach measurement capabilities in August 2025. The enhancements include cost per reach calculations, defined as Total Media Cost divided by Impression Reach, providing immediate campaign efficiency insights.

The platform added savings from frequency cap metrics through new Report Builder categories. Programmatic Guaranteed deals access savings data through the Programmatic Guaranteed Savings category, while other auction and non-guaranteed line items utilize the new Savings category.

"PG Savings Reinvested from Frequency Cap" replaces the deprecated "Programmatic Guaranteed Bid Requests passed due to Frequency" metric. The replacement addresses real-time auction dynamics by utilizing total media cost instead of bid request calculations, according to the documentation.

Technical implications for campaign management

The September updates require advertisers to review current reporting configurations and campaign setups. Display impression counting methodology changes may affect performance benchmarks and optimization strategies, particularly for campaigns heavily dependent on impression volume metrics.

Legacy metric removal necessitates audit procedures to identify any reports or automated systems that reference deprecated dimensions. Campaign managers should verify that essential performance tracking does not rely on the 41 eliminated metrics before the September implementation date.

Political advertising campaigns targeting EU audiences require immediate attention to comply with new self-declaration requirements. Advertisers must evaluate campaign targeting and content to determine appropriate declaration status and potential geographic restrictions.

The geographic targeting updates affect campaigns using country-level filtering or reporting. Advertisers utilizing the 46 affected geo locations should prepare for potential data continuity issues and adjust reporting systems accordingly.

Industry context and market impact

These modifications represent Google's ongoing effort to streamline its advertising technology infrastructure while addressing regulatory requirements. The changes align with broader industry trends toward measurement standardization and privacy-focused advertising practices.

Campaign Manager 360's recent integration with Netflix and enhanced attribution capabilities demonstrate Google's commitment to expanding measurement capabilities while maintaining platform efficiency.

The EU political advertising exit mirrors similar decisions by other major advertising platforms facing regulatory complexity. The TTPA regulation's comprehensive requirements for political advertising transparency and targeting restrictions have prompted several technology companies to reassess their European market participation.

Marketing professionals utilizing Google's advertising platforms should prepare for the September implementation timeline and evaluate the impact on current campaign structures. The updates underscore the importance of flexible campaign management strategies that can accommodate platform evolution and regulatory changes.

Timeline

• August 2025: Google deprecates Programmatic Guaranteed Bid Requests passed due to Frequency metric
• August 2025: Introduction of improved Added Reach Metrics including cost per reach calculations
• August 26, 2025: Google announces comprehensive September 2025 platform updates
• September 2025: Removal of 41 deprecated dimensions and metrics from discontinued features
• September 2025: Display impression counting methodology shifts from on-download to begin-to-render
• September 2025: EU political advertising restrictions take effect requiring self-declarations
• September 2025: Carrier naming updates implemented across reporting systems
• September 2025: Geographic targeting updates affect 46 geo locations with new country codes
• October 2025: EU Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation becomes effective

Related PPC Land Coverage

• Google updates Display & Video 360 API with campaign targeting features - July 2025
• DV360 announces major reporting changes for Q3 2025 - June 2025
• Campaign Manager 360 adds Netflix ads integration and TV measurement tools - February 2025
• DV360: New tools for privacy-focused advertising - January 2025
• Google announces major reporting updates for DV360 and CM360 - September 2024
• Google to roll out Enhanced Attribution across Marketing Platform - August 2024

Summary

Who: Google Marketing Platform users including advertisers, agencies, and marketing professionals utilizing Display & Video 360, Campaign Manager 360, and Search Ads 360 platforms across global markets.

What: Comprehensive platform updates including removal of 41 deprecated metrics and dimensions, transition from on-download to begin-to-render impression counting methodology, EU political advertising exit with mandatory self-declarations, carrier name updates, and geographic targeting dimension modifications affecting 46 geo locations.

When: Updates announced August 26, 2025, with implementation beginning September 2025. EU political advertising restrictions take effect September 2025, ahead of the October 2025 TTPA regulation enforcement.

Where: Changes affect Display & Video 360 interface, API, Structured Data Files, Campaign Manager 360, and Search Ads 360 platforms globally. EU political advertising restrictions specifically impact European Union territories and require global advertiser compliance.

Why: Google aims to modernize advertising infrastructure by removing deprecated features, improve measurement accuracy through stricter impression counting standards, comply with EU political advertising transparency regulations, and maintain consistent geographic naming conventions aligned with current industry standards.