- Google Marketing Live 2026
- Google unveiled new agentic creative and end-to-end solutions powered by multimodal AI.
- Agentic commerce capabilities are transforming the next era of retail, catering to the new ways people shop and driving businesses growth.
[NIGERIA], May, 2026.- Today marked a new edition of Google Marketing
Live (GML), where the company unveiled a new generation of solutions,
built with Gemini, designed to help businesses of all sizes grow more
intelligently and effectively across Search and YouTube.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving from a promise into an everyday
reality, unlocking new growth opportunities for businesses. At GML,
Google showcased how Gemini is becoming the engine driving new ways for
brands to boost discovery, creativity, commerce, and measurement. From
transforming AI into a strategic partner for marketers, to scaling human
creativity, providing clearer insights into marketing investment
performance, and expanding agentic commerce capabilities for retailers,
Gemini is turning AI from an operational tool into an intelligent growth
engine.
Below are the key announcements from GML 2026:
Introducing next-generation of ads on Search
People are coming to Google to ask more and different types of
questions, and Search is becoming an even deeper tool for discovery and
decision-making with generative AI. Google is reinventing ads for this
new era to answer and inspire all at once.
As Google continues to test ads in AI Mode in the U.S., they are
introducing two new ad formats designed to be more useful and
contextualized. Both of these new formats feature an independent AI
explanation that evaluates information about a product or service, using
Gemini models.
With Conversational Discovery ads in AI Mode, Gemini models take the
deep context of the user’s question and generate a customized ad
creative from a business that offers a solution, highlighting specific
relevant features. The second format appears when AI Mode curates a
recommendation list. An advertiser can appear as a featured
recommendation in Highlighted Answers. This only happens if the
recommendation has a high quality and is relevant to the search. These
features are currently being tested in the U.S. in English, and ads
within AI Mode will continue to be clearly labeled as Sponsored.
Google launched a Direct Offers pilot in the U.S. in January and is now
expanding them with two new features: promotion bundling and new travel
offers. Brands can now upload promotions like discounts, giveaways, and
local coupons, and Gemini will match them to present the most compelling
offer. The tool will also soon feature hotel booking deals from travel
partners like Booking and Expedia in the U.S. directly within a
person’s AI-assisted trip planning.
We’re also introducing two new ad formats built with Gemini on the
search results page. AI-powered Shopping ads— in the U.S. — surface
relevant Shopping ads along with an AI explainer about why it might be
the right choice, anticipating specific needs before the person even
asks. Business Agent for Leads, built with Gemini, puts a brand agent
directly inside the ad that allows the shopper to chat with an agent
trained on the advertiser’s website. This helps turn a helpful
interaction into a valuable lead.
New creative tools, AI-powered campaigns, and advanced measurement
Google is upgrading Asset Studio, its AI-powered creative hub, to make
it even easier to create the range of assets needed to drive performance
across Google and YouTube. Users can now generate compelling,
brand-accurate ad assets just by inserting a description in everyday
language. Because Asset Studio is built directly into Google Ads, the
tool already knows past campaign performances, and business goals. But
now, the tool can ingest far more information—allowing users to upload
full marketing briefs, reference images, brand guidelines, and more.
Google AI will then use these new imports to generate and refine bespoke
text, image, and video assets tailored to the user’s exact vision.
When the creative assets are ready, they can be tested with a single
click using 1-Click A/B Testing to find the best performer.. These
features will be available globally and in English.
AI-powered campaigns help marketers keep pace with the new ways people
are searching and discovering products on Search, YouTube and beyond.
Available globally, Demand Gen capabilities are expanding to new
surfaces and gaining new features. With a new Google Maps inventory,
Demand Gen connects brands with people exploring their local areas
during key moments of discovery and consideration. Google is also
launching the ability to integrate Merchant Center product videos
directly into Demand Gen campaigns to help retailers bring their
products to life at scale.
Having a clear view of performance across channels unlocks smarter
investment decisions. Meridian, Google’s open-source Marketing Mix
Model, will now be integrated directly into Google Analytics 360 to help
businesses globally analyze cross-channel and first-party data in one
place. Google is also launching Qualified Future Conversions to help
marketers measure what happens long after someone first sees their ad.
New agentic tools
Earlier this year, Google announced Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)
and co-developed it with leading partners across the retail ecosystem.
UCP solves the core challenge of scaling agentic commerce across the
entire web, by allowing agents to connect to business systems, securely
and seamlessly. UCP is now expanding into additional industries and
bringing new capabilities to retailers on Google. Building on the
single-item checkout experience which lets customers buy products on
Google without ever leaving their chat, UCP is now evolving, allowing
shoppers to buy multiple products from a single business at once. Soon,
shoppers will also have the option to transfer items from Google to the
retailer’s site to complete the transaction. These features will
initially launch in the U.S., in English, with select retailers.
Soon, UCP-powered checkout in Shopping ads on YouTube will make it
easier to buy products on the spot. In the coming months, UCP-powered
experiences on Google will also expand to Canada and Australia, and
later the United Kingdom. Additionally, UCP will also scale to new
categories, including hotel booking and local food delivery, in the
coming months.
People are using AI Mode and Gemini to shop more, so to help merchants
get discovered in those moments, Google is rolling out the AI
performance insights tool in Merchant Center in the coming months in
Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the U.S. This new tool helps
brands compare their share of voice against similar brands in all
shopping journeys starting from AI Mode, AI Overviews and the Gemini
app. Google also released conversational attributes globally which allow
merchants to update their product descriptions to reflect the more
conversational way people search.
Built with Gemini, Google’s advertising and commerce tools are moving
from marketing automation to marketing intelligence, becoming strategic
partners to businesses. The new Ask Advisor works across Google’s
in-product agents — Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Marketing
Platform, and soon Merchant Center— to offer proactive personalized
recommendations that save marketers time and help them to reach their
business goals. Ask Advisor is currently available in beta for English
language accounts with new features rolling out in the coming months.
Find more information on the Google blog here [1]
