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Google ads updates from GML 2026 – Key highlights
Posted by on May 22, 2026 at 12:02 pmSpent the last few days going through everything from Google Marketing Live 2026 and turning it into an actual action list rather than a hype summary.
The short version of what changed:
– Ads now appear inside AI Mode responses (not just beside them), new formats: Direct Offers, Conversational Discovery, Highlighted Answers
– AI Brief lets you give Google plain-language instructions about brand messaging, matching, and audiences, important if AI Max has ever gone off-brand for you
– Journey-aware Bidding lets your CRM funnel data train Smart Bidding form fills stop being the optimisation goal
– Smart Bidding Exploration is showing +27% more unique converting users in early data and is expanding to Shopping
– Campaign Total Budgets are GA and showing 66% fewer manual adjustments
– Checkout Links for Demand Gen now work on Shorts and in-feed, available in 6 markets
– Conversational Attributes in Merchant Center feed AI Mode discovery directly: Q&A pairs, popularity rank, related productsThings I'd prioritise first:
1. AI Max toggle if you haven't already (GA, no rebuild needed)
2. Enhanced Conversions + Data Manager, biggest ROAS lever on the list 3. Journey-aware Bidding if you run lead gen
4. AI Brief to stop AI Max going rogue on your messagingHappy to discuss anything here though, what are people actually seeing from AI Max in the wild?
Curious if the 7% conversion lift is holding across different verticals.
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1 Reply
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Journey-aware Bidding is probably the biggest one for lead gen accounts. Optimising around form fills alone has been rough for a while when half the leads are junk.
AI Max has been mixed for us. Some accounts found solid new search volume, others drifted pretty fast without strong conversion data feeding back in. Feels like setup quality matters more than ever now.
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Journey aware bidding is going to be a massive win if Google can get it right. Solves the problem a lot of advertisers have, especially in lead gen, where they’re stuck using a binary conversion event instead of passing in value.
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If the ai brief works, big if
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