Conversational formats on search, advertisers even more assisted by agents, creations designed from A to Z by AI, are among the strong announcements of the 2026 vintage of Google Marketing Live unveiled on Wednesday May 20.
Google is making search ads even more conversational, pushing campaign automation further and strengthening support for advertisers with a unified experience of AI agents who are experts in the platform’s advertising products. Here are the main announcements made by the platform this Wednesday, May 20 during its Google Marketing Live.
More conversational search ads
Google announces two developments in its advertising formats on the search engine which will be deployed in the coming months.
First of all, on Shopping, ads will be optimized by AI to become more conversational. “Now, if a user searches for an espresso machine, Gemini will display the most relevant products and instantly write a personalized description explaining why the product could be the ideal choice.”
Then, for lead generation, Gemini will integrate “an intelligent brand advisor” directly into the ad. Thus, “students researching universities can click through the chat to get instant responses based on the advertiser’s website, turning a convenient interaction into a valuable contact” (see below).
In AI Mode, not yet available in France, two new formats will also appear: “discovery conversational advertisements” and “highlighted responses”. In the first case, the ad responds to the user’s specific query using Gemini like a conversational agent. In the second case, when the AI mode offers a list of recommendations in response to a question, it will highlight the ad, the advertising block being natively integrated into the response provided by the IA mode (see above). Note that the direct offers pilot program, launched in AI Mode in January, is gaining new features, opening up to new sectors such as tourism and will soon be open to purchase buttons via the UCP protocol for brands that have adopted it.
Ask advisor: a unified experience with agents dedicated to advertisers
After Google Ads, Google Analytics and Google Marketing Platform, it is the turn of Google Merchant Center to be equipped with an integrated AI agent to help the advertiser configure and analyze their campaign and “obtain the best results”. Even more, all these agents will be “later this year” connected within a unified experience called: Ask Advisor. The latter will act as a true coordinator of expert agents on all Google products with the promise of supporting the advertiser and resolving difficulties encountered throughout their campaign. “For example, you can say ‘find new customers for my hair products,’ and Ask Advisor will automatically retrieve product information from Merchant Center to configure your new campaign in Google Ads,” Google said in a post dedicated to this launch.
And that’s not all: “Instead of juggling different platforms to track your performance, Ask Advisor provides you with valuable insights using data from Google Ads and Google Analytics. It understands your initial goals, explains exactly what worked, and recommends next steps.”
The studio asset boosted by Gemini Omni
The Asset Studio, a hub of centralized creative tools for Google Ads and Merchant Center, launched last yearwill welcome even more automation to facilitate the creation of assets to optimize performance on Google and YouTube. “Today, we’re making content creation even simpler: Asset Studio analyzes the marketing brief, graphic charter, website and objectives to instantly generate a range of high-quality content, covering multiple themes and types,” explains Google. The advertiser can then refine the natural language creations. The hub will notably be boosted with Gemini Omni. These new features will be “gradually deployed in English this summer”.
Other announcements from Google Marketing Live 2026
- Purchase buttons directly in advertising (but not in France): Google announced on Tuesday May 19 new developments around agentic commerce with the launch, this summer in the United States, of its universal basket and the expansion of payment via the UCP protocol to retailers in the travel and food sectors. It will then be the turn of Canada, Australia then the United Kingdom. Before arriving on YouTube in the United States. During the GML this Wednesday, May 20, we learned that advertisements will also “soon” include purchase buttons for brands that have integrated the UCP protocol. Users will purchase the product directly from ads, both on search results and on YouTube.
- Meridian, the MMM model developed by Google, will “soon” be integrated into Google Analytics 360.
- Demand Gen gains new features to optimize ad creatives, including influencer partners, and a new delivery channel with Maps. For retailers, the promise is an on-the-fly distribution of advertising for the most relevant product for a need at a given moment.
