Google Marketing Live Key Takeaways – What the PPC Industry Needs to Know for 2026 and Beyond

By Sophie Logan - Wednesday May 20, 2026 Share (Twitter) WhatsApp Summarize ChatGPT Perplexity Grok Google AI Google Marketing Live (GML) is Google’s annual flagship event for advertisers, offering a preview into their roadmap for the year ahead.

It’s where advertisers can hear about new product announcements and Google showcases real-world case studies from businesses using their products. Back in 2025, we were introduced to AI Max for Search campaigns, Asset Studio, and Google tag Gateway, all of which have helped shape the way we run Google Ads accounts.

It is therefore no surprise as to why advertisers across the world eagerly anticipated this year’s announcements.

Above: A photo taken by Sophie Logan of her dog, Dexter, waiting for the live show to start Dexter and I tuned into the live stream of the event – which took place in the US on Wednesday 20th May – and dug through the mountains of news announcements and help documentation to bring you the key takeaways that we believe the PPC industry needs to know.

Ads in AI Mode Above: A screenshot taken from the live Google Marketing Live YouTube stream “We’re not just showing your ads. We’re framing your product as the answer.” – Vidhya Srinivasan We all know that AI has truly reshaped Search, and AI Mode has been a pivotal way that Google has played a part in this change.

In his keynote, Philipp Schindler, even said that the number of searches in AI Mode have been doubling every quarter since it first launched. It was therefore no surprise to see the Google Ads announcements leading with lots of new ad formats and features for Ads in AI Mode.

Here’s what caught my attention: Powered by Gemini AI, new ad formats – ‘Conversational Discovery ads’ and ‘Highlighted Answers’ – are being tested in AI Mode, and are intended to close the gap between discovery and decision. On a personal note, I’m pleased to see that ads within these AI-generated results will be clearly labeled.

As advertisers, we naturally want to reach our target audiences, but it’s equally important that we do so in a transparent way that maintains user trust. ‘Business Agent for Leads’ allow searches to ask a question inside of an ad and then submit an enquiry using pre-filled fields.

This is currently available for education, real estate and automation advertisers only, but it could be very promising for Lead Gen advertisers. AI Brief’ is here to provide advertisers with the control they’ve been asking for.

It allows advertisers to provide a brief outlining key information such as business goals, audience personas, brand guidelines, and contextual insights, which is then interpreted to generate ad guidelines for Search Campaigns. This will be available for Performance Max and AI Max for Shopping campaigns soon.

‘Universal Cart’ makes it easier for shoppers to add items to their cart as they browse the internet, but still ensures the original merchant is still on the record. I definitely want to test this out as a consumer!

YouTube Next up, the YouTube team reiterated the importance of advertisers needing to be where their audience are, and how to use creatives to turn passive scrollers into actively engaged users. Starting off the announcements with the statement – “Stop choosing between brand building and Conversions.

YouTube gives you both” – John Nicoletti and Nicky Rettke delivered these exciting product announcements: Demand Gen ads are expanding to Google Maps.

This expansion is going to be music to the ears of brick and mortar businesses, as it is designed to help them to reach their target audience in the right moments and drive footfall exactly when their intent is at it’s highest.

Demand Gen campaigns utilising product feeds are going to see an expansion to where their ads can surface, including tablet devices and YouTube Pause ads.

Above: A screenshot taken from the live Google Marketing Live YouTube stream GML was a heavy on the Demand Gen announcements, so if you’ve not yet had a chance to play around with them, then it’s definitely time to give them a go.

Creatives We all know the importance of creatives in our campaigns, but did you know that according to a Google study, great creatives drive 49% of incremental sales? Here are some important takeaways for the use of creative assets in Google Ads: ‘Asset Studio’ – which already utilises Gemini, Veo 3.

1 and Nano Banana – continues to advance with the upcoming integration of Gemini Omni. It will also allow advertisers to more seamlessly integrate with other creative platforms, such as Adobe and Canva, for easier creative library management. Above: A screenshot taken from the live Google Marketing Live YouTube stream 1