Google Marketing Live 2026: Key Updates

The most anticipated event of the year for advertisers has finally taken place this week, so we’re here to catch you up on everything that went on at Google Marketing Live 2026.

For first-timers (or if you’ve been living under a rock), Google Marketing Live is the biggest annual announcement event for advertisers using Google Ads. Each year, Google unveils changes to campaign types, AI features, measurement tools, and platform strategy – updates that directly shape how advertising budgets are managed and results are delivered.

GML2025 Recap

Google Marketing Live 2025 centred on two themes: AI innovation and, to many advertisers’ surprise, greater transparency and control. The headline announcement was AI Max for Search – a one-click enhancement to existing Search campaigns using keywordless technology to reach audiences traditional keyword targeting would have missed. Smart Bidding Exploration followed closely, opening new territory for lead gen through flexible ROAS targets, while Channel Performance Reporting for Performance Max finally gave advertisers the visibility into channel-level spend they’d been asking for. The event’s parting message said it all: “You’re not competing against AI, you’re competing against those already using it.”

You can find our entire coverage on last year’s event here.

Google Marketing Live 2026: The Gemini Advantage

This year’s event theme was ‘The Gemini Advantage’, which focused on the AI-first direction that Google (and honestly, the entire world) is signalling. Specifically, the 2026 Google Marketing Live event was centred around how Gemini is being integrated into the core operating system for Google’s advertising, commerce, and measurement ecosystem – with cross-platform AI collaboration being a key talking point.

Google Marketing Live: The Key 2026 Announcements

This year, Google reiterated their unwavering focus on continuing to optimise and enhance their products with AI capabilities, as well as a commitment to ‘frictionless shopping’. Rather than, like previous years, what feels like an endless barrage of new products and changes, many of the announcements focused on improving the search and shopping experience for consumers, as well as the Google’s product interfaces for advertisers and brands.

Read on for some of the key updates.

AI-Powered Shopping Ads

When someone searches for a product – say, an espresso machine – Gemini pulls up the most relevant products and instantly writes a custom explainer for each, highlighting why that specific product might be the right choice for that specific user. Rather than a static product listing, shoppers get a tailored recommendation built in real time from their query. AI-powered Shopping ads are expected to roll out later this year in the US, so it’s one to get ahead of now – making sure your product feeds are well-structured and your campaigns are built on AI Max and Performance Max foundations will be key to taking full advantage when it arrives.

Ads in AI Mode

Google is introducing a new generation of Gemini-powered ad formats across AI Mode and Search, designed to make ads feel more conversational, contextual and helpful. Rather than sitting above or below the AI response as they do today, ads are woven into the conversation itself – surfacing at the moment a user is actively exploring a topic or weighing a decision. Conversational Discovery ads, for example, are designed to answer a person’s specific question directly inside AI Mode – someone searching for ways to make their home smell like a spa could see tailored creative generated with Gemini that highlights relevant product features. The message from Google was clear: AI Mode is becoming a serious monetisation surface, and advertisers who adapt to conversational formats early stand to benefit the most.

AI Brief

AI Brief is a new way to guide AI Max – and eventually Performance Max – campaigns using natural language rather than settings and toggles. Advertisers write a description of their brand: what to say, what to avoid, which audiences to prioritise, how the tone should feel – and Google uses that as context to generate ad copy. Think of it as handing Gemini the same brief you’d give a copywriter. What makes this genuinely exciting is the strategic implication: it will now be possible to run an A/B test not just between different variations of ad copy, but between different variations of your overarching brand proposition – a meaningful unlock for understanding what’s actually resonating with your audience in market. Brief writing looks set to become a new core skill for PPC practitioners.

Ask Advisor

Ask Advisor is an agentic conversational interface that spans Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Marketing Platform and Merchant Centre – connecting the specialised agents embedded in each part of the Google ecosystem to give advertisers a single place to analyse strategy, diagnose issues and identify opportunities. Google’s pitch is cross-product orchestration: one agent across ads, analytics, commerce and measurement – something that has historically only ever happened in the background. Ask Advisor is available globally for English-language accounts from today, making it one of the most immediately accessible announcements from the entire event. If it delivers on the promise, it could genuinely change the day-to-day workflow of how PPC teams manage and interrogate performance.

What’s Next?

Once again, Google really ensured that the AI agenda was driven home, and that those who adapt their strategies to align with Google’s vision are the ones who will see the benefits.

It was refreshing to see updates to existing products, and a focus on how these will assist in making the shopping experience more seamless for consumers, rather than a barrage of new AI-powered products. Additionally, the focus on helping advertisers to utilise AI for previously time-consuming tasks such as asset creation and ad copy is a welcome one.

Similarly to last year, Google left us with a profound closing remark that reinforced that AI is absolutely here to stay: “Using manual strategies in the algorithmic era leaves you at risk of falling behind.“