Google Marketing Live: our favourite announcements!

Google Marketing Live is today (21st May 2026) and this year we are spoilt for choice, there are so many new tools on the horizon! We share our favourites.

The volume of news confirms our thoughts that Google is doing everything it can to keep users in their ecosystem. 

Our top 5 favourite announcements 

AI Briefs 

This feature, currently in beta, gives advertisers more control by allowing us to provide AI Max with business context, what you want the ads to say and who you want to reach. It gives you the ability to add messaging, matching and audience guidelines, allowing you to make AI max your own! (Currently this is a beta by request, so if you’re interested in this one, let your google rep know.)  

Business Agent for Leads 

This one is HUGE. Google is launching a conversational lead qualification experience right on the Search results page (SERP) – currently a pilot in the UK. You can set up your own AI agent which will use information from your website to answer customers complex questions in real-time, on the SERP, so you can filter prospects and collect prospective customer data 24/7. We are very interested in this one and can’t wait to learn more!  

New Prospects Mode 

This new customer acquisition mode goes beyond standard acquisition, to target brand-unaware users. It automatically filters out anyone who has bought from you, visited your site, searched your brand terms, or engaged with your past ads - basically, it is brand exclusions but better! This is another beta you need to request from your Google rep. 

Creator Videos in Asset Picker 

This one is coming soon on a global roll out! We will have the ability to pick organic creator videos directly within the Google Ads asset picker for Demand Gen campaigns. Utilising trusted creator content is a fantastic way to build instant brand credibility, with Google claiming that these partnerships have been delivering an average 20% increase in conversion. 

Demand Gen Uplift Experiments 

Our final favourite will give us an automated A/B testing infrastructure to prove the exact incremental value of running Demand Gen campaigns. This will allow us to easily isolate its impact to the bottom line, including metrics such as conversions, sales, CPA, or ROAS. By giving us that depth of analysis, it really will be possible to put data at the core of your PPC decision making. 

These five favourites are just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more coming, such as improved click to call ads allowing you to get actual insights past the point of a call being made, the expected update of ads coming to AI Mode, missed opportunity reporting, and more! With so many changes and updates coming, now is the key time to sharpen up your PPC strategy and explore these opportunities. 

If you'd like help with your paid search, please get in touch. We would love to hear from you!