Case Study
Mapping the Gen Z digital experience for Google Ads
Google Ads Google Ads partnered with Bixa to understand how Gen Z discovers, evaluates, and responds to digital advertising. This international market research and UX research study explored Gen Z’s expectations across shopping ads, travel ads, local/maps ads, job ads, and education ads across three very different geographic markets: the U.S., India, and Brazil.
Through qualitative in-depth interviews, video diaries, and UX testing, Bixa uncovered how culture, context, and personal goals shape Gen Z’s online decisions. Our team created practical guidance and design standards for Google ads teams to help build the structure for more relevant ad formats while creating consistent and engaging digital experiences across products and markets.
The challenge
Gen Z isn’t just the next generation—it's the next big growth opportunity for Google. Reaching this pivotal audience is critical to staying ahead. That’s why they partnered with Bixa to crack the code on how Gen Z engages with online ads.
Specifically, Google wanted to understand which digital ad formats work best for Gen Z and how expectations vary across countries and advertising categories. Bixa was brought in to help:
Uncover Gen Z’s digital habits, motivations, and ad expectations across US, India, and Brazil
Identify high-impact engagement patterns across key ad verticals
Define scalable design principles for future ad and product experiences
Test and optimize ad formats to boost Gen Z relevance and click-through rates
Translate insights into wireframes and journey maps to guide UI strategy
Our approach
Bixa conducted international qualitative research across five advertising categories: shopping, travel, local search and maps, jobs, and education. We recruited qualified Gen Z participants across US, India, and Brazil markets.
This international research allowed us to compare Gen Z’s perceptions and behaviors across cultures. Our approach included:
In-depth interviews: Researchers explored participants’ digital habits, goals, motivations, and attitudes toward online advertising.
Video diary studies: Participants documented their experiences as they encountered ads and made decisions in real-life situations.
UX testing: Bixa tested ad concepts and product experiences to learn which formats, features, and levels of personalization Gen Z found most useful.
Customer journey mapping: The research team mapped Gen Z’s often nonlinear paths to understand key decisions, friction points, and opportunities for relevant ad experiences.
Design development: Bixa translated the findings into wireframes, user-interface recommendations, and design principles that Google teams could apply across products and markets.
These qualitative insights gave Google a clear roadmap for optimizing Gen Z engagement across shopping, travel, and education ads—resulting in stronger ad performance, higher conversions, and scalable design guidelines for global teams.
What we accomplished
Boosted Gen Z performance across three global markets
By identifying cultural nuances and behavioral patterns, we delivered insights that improved ad engagement and campaign effectiveness across diverse global markets.
Increased conversions for billions by mapping user journeys and optimizing ad formats
Customer journey mapping, UX testing, and video diary studies uncovered friction points and engagement opportunities in Gen Z’s nonlinear paths to conversion. Bixa used these findings to test and refine ad formats—leading to improved UX, stronger relevance, and higher conversion rates at global scale.
Accelerated product development with scalable UI guidelines
Bixa translated the research into actionable UI recommendations, design principles, and wireframes tailored to Gen Z’s expectations. The resulting framework helped Google’s product and advertising teams create consistent, user-centered experiences across products and regions.
A peek behind the curtain
Sample Google Ads concepts and wireframes developed by Bixa and tested with Gen Z participants.
Visualization of Gen Z’s nonlinear travel-planning journey, highlighting key decisions and advertising opportunities.
Highlighted tools & techniques
Journey mapping
Maps the customer experience from beginning to end to show what people are doing, thinking, feeling, and needing at each stage. It pinpoints moments of friction, unmet needs, and opportunities to improve the experience—and helps teams see how individual touchpoints connect to the bigger picture.
Wireframing
Translates research findings into a visual blueprint for a website, app, or digital experience—showing how content, navigation, features, and interactions should come together. Wireframes make recommendations tangible, giving teams something concrete to evaluate, test with users, and refine before investing in full design and development.
UX testing
In this method, we directly observe people using your product—or going through their own process for completing an action in a digital setting. We see what actually happens, not what we hope happens, revealing friction, confusion, broken flows, and unmet expectations before they cost you customers.
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