Independent Manchester agency Open Partners has announced a landmark strategic partnership with Google to formally develop its proprietary advertising solution, ACE (Automated Campaign Execution) within the Google ecosystem.
Backed by a significant co-investment from Open Partners and Google, the partnership has seen the ongoing development of ACE, with a planned launch for early 2026.
Google sought a partnership with the agency in 2025 following early deployments of ACE across Open Partners’ client verticals including homebuilding, hospitality, and retail, with campaigns consistently delivering 20–30% uplifts in ROAS and conversion rates through innovative applications of data activation, AI, and automation.
Capabilities include the dynamic adjustment of media weight, audiences, and targeting in response to live signals such as weather, first-party data, contextual inputs, and shifting consumer demand. Fully automated, ACE eliminates manual campaign management and ensures ads perform at peak potential regardless of time, location, or market volatility.
Michael Leppan, co-founder of Open Partners, said: “Our mission as the Agency of Next is to think about the future so our clients are always ahead of the curve. ACE fully embodies this ethos, because when the technology didn’t exist to deliver our clients’ full potential, we created it. ACE ensures they consistently reach the right audience, with the right message, at the right time, and that’s what will deliver true growth. It has the power to fundamentally change how advertisers operate in an AI advertising landscape.
“Additionally, to have secured Google’s collaboration and investment in an agency-led project is a monumental validation of our vision and expertise. We are confident the full rollout will deliver transformative outcomes.”
Adam Hetherington, strategic agency manager at Google, added: “We see huge variation in the quality of hyperlocal activation across our platforms, and approached Open Partners to co-develop a tool with us to solve. The ACE platform is now nearing completion, and it’s been clear that Open Partners’ combination of highly relevant client experience twinned with their agile way of working have both been integral to the success of the project.”
Founded in 2017, Open Partners specialises in media, data, and creative marketing capabilities and artificial intelligence.
