Google Marketing Live unveils Gemini as the ultimate business solution across Search and YouTube

Google Marketing Live shattered the glass ceiling of agentic commerce by unveiling a new generation of business solutions built within its own AI assistant, Gemini. As AI continues to become more integrated into our everyday lives, Google has upgraded Gemini to help marketers and brands improve their discovery, creativity, commerce, and measurement. From providing insights into marketing performance to expanding agentic commerce capabilities for retailers, Gemini has grown from just being an operational tool to an intelligent growth engine. 

A modified search engine

With Google being the top search engine for people’s queries and curiosities, the platform’s AI Mode is utilizing this opportunity to introduce two new AI-backed ad formats that evaluate information about a product or service using Gemini models. These are the Conversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers. 

Through Conversational Discovery ads, Gemini takes the concept of the user’s question and generates a customized ad from a business that offers a solution, while highlighting specific and relevant features users may find helpful. On the other hand, Highlighted Answers appear as a featured recommendation when a user’s question merits a recommendation list. Both 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 also launched a Direct Offers feature in January in the U.S., which allows users to directly receive promotions on the platform. Direct Offers has also been expanded with two new features. The first is promotion bundling, which allows brands to upload promotions like discounts, giveaways, and local coupons to match users with the most compelling offer via Gemini. The second is new travel offers, which will feature hotel booking deals from travel partners like Booking and Expedia in the U.S. directly within a person’s AI-assisted trip planning.

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.

When AI Mode curates a recommendation list, an advertiser can appear as a featured recommendation in Highlighted Answers.

With Direct Offers, brands can now upload promotions like discounts, giveaways, and local coupons, and Gemini will match them to present the most compelling offer.

Lastly for Search, Google is introducing two new ad formats built with Gemini that will be visible on the search results page. The first is AI-powered Shopping ads in the U.S., which will gather and display relevant shopping ads to users’ searches, along with an AI explainer on why it might be the right choice. The second is Business Agent for Leads, built with Gemini, which puts a brand agent directly inside the ad. Through this, the shopper will be able to chat with an agent trained on the advertiser’s website, helping turn an interaction into a valuable lead.

Revamped assets for easier ad generation

Focusing on asset creation next, Google announced that it’s upgrading its AI-powered creative hub, Asset Studio, to make it even easier to create assets to drive performance across Google and YouTube. Users can now generate compelling, brand-accurate ad assets just by inserting a description in everyday language. 

Since Asset Studio is built directly into Google Ads, the tool already knows past campaign performances and business goals. But with this upgrade, the tool can ingest more information, allowing users to upload full marketing briefs, reference images, brand guidelines, and more. Google AI will then use these new materials to generate and refine bespoke text, image, and video assets tailored to the user’s exact vision. Then, once the creative assets are ready, they can be tested with a single click using 1-Click A/B Testing to determine the best performer.

Creative assets made in Asset Studio can be tested with 1-Click A/B Testing to find the best performer. 

Asset Studio makes it easier to create the range of assets needed to drive performance across Google and YouTube. Generate compelling, brand-accurate ad assets just by inserting a description in everyday language.

The second wave of tool improvements Google is developing focuses on making product search and discovery more seamless across Search, YouTube, and beyond: Demand Gen and Merchant Center. Available globally, Demand Gen connects brands with people exploring their local areas in key moments of discovery and consideration with the help of a Google Maps inventory. Meanwhile, Merchant Center integrates product videos into Demand Gen campaigns to help retailers bring their products to life.

Qualified Future Conversions can help marketers measure what happens long after someone first sees their ad. 

Looking at performance metrics from a wider perspective, Google’s open-source Marketing Mix Model, Meridian, will now be integrated directly into Google Analytics 360. This will help businesses analyze cross-channel and first-party data in one place. Along with this, Google is also launching Qualified Future Conversions to help marketers measure what happens long after someone first sees their ad.

Seamless business transactions for users’ everyday comfort

Earlier this year, Google announced Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and co-developed it with leading partners across the retail ecosystem. The goal of UCP is to solve 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. Now, UCP is allowing shoppers to buy multiple products from a single business at once. And soon, shoppers will also have the option to transfer items from Google to the retailer’s site to complete the transaction.

UCP-powered checkout in Shopping ads on YouTube will also make it easier to buy products on the spot. In the coming months, UCP will also cater to new categories, including hotel booking and local food delivery.

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is co-developed with leading partners across the retail ecosystem.

With people using AI Mode and Gemini to shop more, this behavior presents the opportunity for merchants to get discovered. To optimize this, 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, starting from AI Mode, AI Overviews, and the Gemini app. In addition, Google also released conversational attributes, which allow merchants to update their product descriptions to reflect the more conversational way people search.

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.

Lastly, Google introduced the new Ask Advisor function, which 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 reach their business goals faster.

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