diff --git a/samples/install-without-bom/pom.xml b/samples/install-without-bom/pom.xml
index 55f90faa..cc5daba0 100644
--- a/samples/install-without-bom/pom.xml
+++ b/samples/install-without-bom/pom.xml
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
   </properties>
 
-  <!-- {x-version-update-start:google-cloud-monitoring:released} -->
   <dependencies>
+    <!-- {x-version-update-start:google-cloud-monitoring:released} -->
     <!-- [START monitoring_install_without_bom] -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
@@ -32,13 +32,13 @@
       <version>1.100.2-SNAPSHOT</version>
     </dependency>
     <!-- [END monitoring_install_without_bom] -->
+    <!-- {x-version-update-end} -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.protobuf</groupId>
       <artifactId>protobuf-java-util</artifactId>
-      <version>3.12.2</version>
+      <version>3.12.4</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
-  <!-- {x-version-update-end} -->
 
   <!-- compile and run all snippet tests -->
   <build>
diff --git a/samples/snapshot/pom.xml b/samples/snapshot/pom.xml
index de3cbae9..26c06775 100644
--- a/samples/snapshot/pom.xml
+++ b/samples/snapshot/pom.xml
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.protobuf</groupId>
       <artifactId>protobuf-java-util</artifactId>
-      <version>3.12.2</version>
+      <version>3.12.4</version>
     </dependency>
 
     <dependency>
diff --git a/samples/snippets/pom.xml b/samples/snippets/pom.xml
index 1cb181bd..0b5be72f 100644
--- a/samples/snippets/pom.xml
+++ b/samples/snippets/pom.xml
@@ -42,11 +42,11 @@
       <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
       <artifactId>google-cloud-monitoring</artifactId>
     </dependency>
-    <!-- [END monitoring_install_with_bom] -->
+    <!-- [START_EXCLUDE] -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.protobuf</groupId>
       <artifactId>protobuf-java-util</artifactId>
-      <version>3.12.2</version>
+      <version>3.12.4</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
@@ -60,5 +60,7 @@
       <version>1.0.1</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
+    <!-- [END_EXCLUDE] -->
   </dependencies>
+  <!-- [END monitoring_install_with_bom] -->
 </project>