Analysis
The common thread is handing more of the execution to Gemini. The change that matters most for measurement is Meridian inside Analytics 360.
In 60 seconds
- Google Marketing Live took place on May 20, 2026.
- New Gemini-built Search ad formats include Conversational Discovery ads, Highlighted Answers and AI-powered Shopping ads, plus a Business Agent for Leads that chats with people inside an ad.
- Ask Advisor is a Gemini agent spanning Google Ads, Analytics, Merchant Center and Google Marketing Platform.
- Google Analytics 360 gains Meridian, its open-source marketing mix model, as a "command center for modern measurement".
Impact Layer
- What changed
- Google announced ad formats for AI answers, a cross-product agent (Ask Advisor), agent-led commerce (Universal Cart) and Meridian marketing mix modeling inside Analytics 360.
- Why it matters
- More of campaign setup, bidding and measurement is being delegated to Google's AI, so advertisers need their own checks on what it does and what it reports.
- Who is affected
- Paid search and shopping advertisers, agencies, and analytics teams that use Analytics 360 or run their own marketing mix models.
- Martech stack area
- Analytics, AI, Advertising
- Stack impact
- Google's ad, analytics and commerce tools are being tied together by an agent. Keep independent reporting so results can be compared with what Google's own tools say.
- Business impact
- High Most features were described at the event; availability and timing vary, and the pages we read did not give rollout dates for each.
- Related technologies
- Related vendors
- What to watch
- Rollout timing and eligibility for each format, how Ask Advisor reports its actions, and how Meridian's results compare with other measurement.
Google Marketing Live took place on May 20, 2026. Google’s collection of announcements groups them around AI in Search, an agent across its advertising products, new measurement and agent-led shopping.
Ads in AI answers
- Google introduced Gemini-built formats for Search: Conversational Discovery ads, Highlighted Answers and AI-powered Shopping ads, designed to sit within an answer and help a person from a question to a purchase.
- A Business Agent for Leads puts a brand agent inside an ad so people can chat with the brand instead of filling in a form.
- Google said a Direct Offers pilot that began in January 2026 had brands such as Chewy, Gap and L’Oréal surfacing deals, and that it is upgrading it to allow more offer types.
- AI Max campaigns remain Google’s main route for being visible in conversational searches. For the Dynamic Search Ads move into AI Max, see our earlier article.
One agent across the tools
Ask Advisor is a Gemini-built agent that spans Google Ads, Google Analytics, Merchant Center and Google Marketing Platform, which Google describes as an always-on strategic partner. Journey-aware bidding is described as helping Google’s AI understand complex lead-generation journeys, so Search campaigns can learn from both biddable and non-biddable conversion goals.
Measurement
Google reintroduced Google Analytics 360 with Meridian as a new command center for modern measurement. Meridian is the open-source marketing mix model Google first described in March 2024; see our technology guide.
Agent-led commerce
Google is expanding its Universal Commerce Protocol to new verticals and introducing Universal Cart, with product discovery tools for conversational AI surfaces.
Our read
Each item hands a decision to Google’s AI: where an ad appears, how a lead is qualified, how a bid is set and what an analytics report recommends. That can save work, but it also means the same company builds the advertising, runs the auction and measures the result. Advertisers should keep a measurement source that Google does not control, such as holdout experiments, a marketing mix model run outside Google, or sales data from their own systems, and compare it with what Ask Advisor and Analytics 360 say. The Pew study of search behavior in our research section is a reminder that how people use AI answers is still being measured.
Sources
- Google: Google Marketing Live 2026, news and announcements (opens in a new tab)
Source of the list of announcements and their descriptions.
- Google: A new generation of ads for the AI era of Search (opens in a new tab)
Google's post on the new Search ad formats and the Direct Offers pilot. We read its description, not the full post.
- Google: Google Marketing Live 2026, bidding and budgeting news (opens in a new tab)
Google's post on journey-aware bidding. We read its description, not the full post.
- Google: Empowering your team to build best-in-class MMMs (opens in a new tab)
Background on Meridian.