Google appears to be expanding immersive creative inside paid search and Maps placements, with new ad units that incorporate 360° flyover-style visuals of business locations and surrounding areas—similar to a Google Earth preview embedded directly into ads.
These assets are tied to a pre-opted in (and often overlooked) setting inside Location Manager: “Google-owned rich media”
- Opting in allows Google to use photos, videos, icons, 3D assets, and other media across ad placements
- If enabled, Google can automatically generate or surface enhanced visual experiences tied to your business profile
In practice, what’s now showing in some experiments is a dynamic 3D-style map flyover of the office and surrounding environment, embedded directly into the ad unit.
Why this matters for law firms
This is a meaningful shift in how local ads are visually experienced:
- Ads take up significantly more SERP real estate, especially on mobile
- Motion + depth creates stronger stopping power than static listings
- The listing feels more like an “experience” than a search result
- Physical location context becomes part of the ad itself
For firms competing in high-CPC markets, even small gains in CTR from visual dominance can materially impact lead volume over time.
Our take
This is part of a broader move toward asset-first advertising, where Google is increasingly less reliant on text and more focused on automatically assembling visual experiences from available data.
The interesting part here is not just the 3D imagery—but the fact that it’s being generated and assembled by Google using owned media assets, rather than manually designed creative.
That points to a future where:
- Creative is partially auto-built
- Location context becomes a ranking/engagement factor
- Ads behave more like interactive map experiences than static placements
It’s also another signal that Maps, Search, and Display are continuing to converge into a single visual ecosystem.
What ADSQUIRE is doing
We’re actively monitoring where and how these immersive assets appear, and making sure clients are positioned to benefit from them.
- Location Manager Review
- Auditing whether “Google-owned rich media” is enabled where appropriate
- Ensuring profiles have strong underlying visual assets to feed these systems
- Creative Readiness
- Building stronger photo and video libraries for GBP and ad usage
- Preparing for increased reliance on auto-generated visuals
- Performance Monitoring
- Tracking CTR impact where immersive assets appear
- Comparing engagement vs. traditional static ad units
Bottom line
Google is starting to turn search and local ads into interactive, map-like visual experiences instead of static listings.
For now, this is still early testing—but it strongly reinforces where things are heading: less text-based advertising, more spatial and visual ad experiences built directly from your location data.
