Google stole the show yesterday with Veo 3 (video) and Imagen 4 (image) — the most convincing generative-media duo we’ve seen. At the same time search keeps morphing: AI Overviews now test “query-expansion” tabs, yet AI Mode clicks are still invisible in Search Console. Anthropic fired back with Claude 4, while Google slipped product-price history straight into SERPs. The attribution headache gets worse, the creative possibilities get wilder.
Story 1 | Google launches Veo 3 & Imagen 4 — generative media goes pro
Source: Google Cloud Blog, 20 May 2025
https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/announcing-veo-3-imagen-4-and-lyria-2-on-vertex-ai
What’s new
Veo 3 – text-to-video up to 1080p, 60 fps, with multi-scene prompts and camera-movement control.
Imagen 4 – higher-fidelity imagery, improved typography, better hands.
Available now in Vertex AI + Gemini Ultra tier; Flow (beta) lets you storyboard → Veo scenes → Imagen stills in one timeline.
Why it matters
In-house video ads, explainers and social slices can now be churned out in minutes, not weeks.
Imagen 4’s typography fix finally makes AI images fit paid-social specs.
Expect CPM compression as creative supply explodes.
Next moves
Pilot Veo-generated B-roll for paid socials; A/B against stock footage.
Build an “Instant Variations” macro in Gemini Workflows: prompt → Imagen 4 → push to Ads Creative Studio.
Story 2 | AI Overviews add “query-expansion” tabs
Source: Search Engine Roundtable, 28 May 2025
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overviews-testing-query-expansion-tabs-39498.html
Google is testing horizontal tabs above the overview: the original question plus related follow-ups. Early testers report the tabs regenerate a fresh AI answer on click.
Signals
Google wants more queries — the 10 % YoY growth Sundar touted is clearly not enough.
Semantic breadth, not just depth, now drives visibility.
Playbook
Map primary keywords to two hops of semantically-close questions.
Pre-optimise meta data so the first paragraph answers the likely follow-up, nudging citation odds.
Story 3 | Attribution black hole — AI Mode clicks still untracked
Source: Ahrefs Blog, 27 May 2025
https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-ai-mode-is-here-but-you-cant-track-it-properly/
Tests confirm: AI Mode strips the referrer and isn’t logged in Search Console. Traffic lands as “Direct/Unknown” in GA4.
Why you should care
AI Overviews already show in 13.14 % of US desktop searches (Semrush + Datos) — that slice is going dark.
Conversion credit will drift to Brand/Direct, skewing ROAS models.
Mitigations
Add persistent UTMs to every internal link you expect AI to surface.
Re-weight Direct contributions in MMM to account for hidden AI traffic.
Story 4 | Anthropic ships Claude 4 (Opus + Sonnet)
Source: Anthropic, 28 May 2025
https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-4
200 k-token window, deterministic tool-calling, better code execution.
Early testers cut multi-prompt campaign planning time by ~40 %.
Try this – Feed Claude an entire performance-max report, ask for budget-shift recommendations with SQL snippets for BigQuery.
Story 5 | Product-price history now exposed in SERP overlay
Source: Search Engine Roundtable, 28 May 2025
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-products-overlay-store-pricing-39493.html
A third-level overlay (three-dot menu) reveals price-trend graphs per retailer.
Implications
“Fake sales” will get called out — margin-based pricing strategies need a rethink.
Value messaging (warranty, shipping speed, sustainability) becomes the differentiator.
The bigger picture
Generative media is exploding (Veo 3/Imagen 4), while measurement is imploding (AI Mode blind spot). Marketers must:
Automate creative — use Vertex AI pipelines for ad-set variation at scale.
Re-engineer attribution — lean on first-party surveys, server-side tagging, and modelled lift.
Optimise for journeys, not keywords — query-expansion tabs and zero-click answers mean multi-touch content clusters win.
Quick-fire actions for today
Priority Task Owner
🔴 Add long-lived UTM parameters to all evergreen blog CTAs Web dev
🟠 Prototype Veo 3 10-sec product demo for Instagram Reels Creative
🟢 Ingest last quarter’s P-Max data into Claude Opus 4 for re-allocation plan Performance
How-to mini guide → Building a zero-pixel attribution stack
Server-side GTM with IP-hashing to regain lost referrer clues.
Post-purchase poll in checkout asking “Did Google’s AI answer help you decide?”
Bayesian MMM that treats Direct spikes after AI roll-outs as a separate channel.
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