Google announced a suite of Gemini-powered advertising tools for Indian businesses on July 9 at Google Marketing Live 2026, expanding AI capabilities across Search, YouTube, and Google Ads to improve customer acquisition, campaign performance, and measurement. The launch targets a market where 93% of consumer journeys for discovering new products involve Google Search and YouTube, and 86% of surveyed online Indians use both platforms during purchase decisions.
The new solutions build on Google's integration of Gemini across its ads ecosystem, positioning the technology as a strategic tool rather than a simple automation feature. "Gemini is now the engine accelerating growth for our customers across our ads products as we move beyond marketing automation to marketing intelligence," said Roma Datta Chobey, Managing Director, Connected Consumer Commerce, Google India.
AI agents and creator ads
Business Agent for Leads, now in beta in India, lets advertisers place an AI-powered brand agent directly inside Search ads. Potential customers can ask questions and qualify leads before submitting enquiry forms. Edtech platform upGrad is testing the feature to automate initial student interactions and improve lead quality.
On YouTube, Google introduced YouTube Affiliate Partnerships Boost, a format that promotes creator-generated videos where products are already tagged. The tool helps brands scale creator-led commerce campaigns by turning existing tagged content into paid ads.
Campaign planning and creative tools
YouTube BrandStack, an India-developed solution, combines campaign planning, buying, and measurement into a single workflow. Axis Max Life Insurance used it alongside YouTube Connected TV during the cricket season, recording an 18.4% increase in branded searches and generating 23% quality leads.
AI Max for Shopping uses Merchant Center data to better understand products and improve Shopping campaign performance. This follows AI Max for Search, already used by Indian brands including MakeMyTrip, Myntra, and Nykaa. AI Brief, a beta feature, lets marketers guide AI Max with conversational prompts, defining campaign objectives and brand guidelines in natural language.
Performance Max campaigns now offer Retention Only Mode with Dynamic Remarketing to re-engage existing customers, while Demand Gen campaigns will expand to Google Maps and support Merchant Center product videos. Asset Studio, integrated within Google Ads, can generate text, images, and video assets from natural language prompts, marketing briefs, and brand guidelines.
Measurement and merchant insights
Google is integrating Meridian, its open-source marketing mix modelling framework, into Google Analytics 360 to help businesses analyze cross-channel performance with first-party data. A new metric, Attributed Branded Searches, measures how YouTube video ads influence branded searches on Google. Cars24 reported a two-fold increase in incremental branded searches and a 7% improvement in customer acquisition costs using the beta feature for YouTube Shorts.
Ask Advisor, a Gemini-powered assistant, provides personalized recommendations across Google Ads, Analytics, Marketing Platform, and Merchant Center. Merchants will also gain access to AI Performance Insights, which tracks product visibility across AI Overviews, AI Mode, and the Gemini app, alongside new conversational product attributes within Merchant Center.
Why this matters for marketing professionals
These tools represent a shift from manual campaign management to AI-driven workflows that handle creative production, lead qualification, and cross-channel measurement. Early adopter data shows that features like YouTube BrandStack and Attributed Branded Searches can reduce customer acquisition costs and improve campaign efficiency. The integration of measurement into Google Analytics 360 reduces reliance on external tools, and tracking visibility across AI-generated search experiences will become essential as AI overviews and AI Mode expand.
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