Google Marketing Live 2026: Ads in AI Mode, AI Max and What Advertisers Should Do

Google Marketing Live 2026 took place on 20 May. The theme was clear: search is becoming a conversation with AI, and ads are moving into that conversation. Google said AI Mode has passed a billion monthly users.

The main announcements

• Ads in AI Mode: sponsored answers that appear inline as people ask follow-up questions, in testing in the US.
• Access through AI Max and Performance Max: if your campaigns aren’t using these, you won’t be eligible for the new placements.
• AI Brief: a Gemini-powered way to tell AI Max what you want in plain language: which products to push, which messages to avoid, who your customers are.
• Dynamic Search Ads moving to AI Max, after AI Max for Search became widely available in April.

What it means for Pakistani advertisers

Ads in AI Mode are US-only for now. But the campaign changes behind them, AI Max and Performance Max, are available here. Accounts that prepare now will be ready when these placements expand.

What to do

1. Test AI Max on one Search campaign with good conversion data. Compare cost per conversion with your existing campaigns for at least 3–4 weeks.
2. Write strong landing pages. AI Max generates ad text from your site, so unclear pages produce unclear ads.
3. Use brand exclusions and negative keywords to keep control.
4. Keep conversion tracking clean, including enhanced conversions and offline conversion imports for leads.
5. Check search terms reports weekly. Automation can drift into irrelevant searches.

Our take

Google keeps moving control from keywords to AI. That works well for advertisers with clean data and clear websites, and poorly for those without. The fundamentals matter more than ever.