Google unveils new AI-powered features for campaign management, measurement & optimization

“For marketing and marketers, our vision and product strategy are rooted in what we are building: the best AI-powered campaigns putting Google AI to work across your creative, media and measurement today,“ Brendon Kraham, vice-president of search and commerce at Google’s Global Ads Solutions division, told The Drum.

Here's a quick overview of some of the most noteworthy new features announced today:

• Google’s ’conversational experience’ for search campaigns – a Gemini-powered feature that allows advertisers to automatically generate headlines, images and other content for search campaigns – will become available in German, French and Spanish in the coming months.
• AI-powered image editing will now be available across more campaign types within Performance Max, the company’s AI-powered ad campaign management platform.
• Performance Max can now process as many as five reference images, along with a written prompt, to produce AI-generated imagery that aligns with a brand’s unique vision.
• Advertisers will also have access to more streamlined reporting, as campaign performance insights are being consolidated into a centralized location. Plus, new reporting features are designed to enhance advertisers’ ability to optimize campaign performance. Granular insights on individual assets, for example, can help brands to advertise those that are underperforming. Google will then make custom recommendations for improving those assets.

• In another update, advertisers will be able to buy demand-generation ads directly through Google’s Display & Video 360 starting next month.
• Finally, Google will begin enabling advertisers to block certain keywords at the campaign level in Performance Max, helping to ensure that ads don’t appear for irrelevant searches.

The new features were developed in response to feedback from Google Ads users who have been looking for more transparency into how AI impacts campaign performance from start to finish, according to a blog post published today by Kraham.

Google has been on a roll lately with its AI-powered offerings for advertisers: the company introduced a raft of new features during its Marketing Live conference in May, all of which underscored the company’s drive to bake AI into every step of the ad campaign development and execution process.

But as advertisers seek more sophisticated automation tools for creative development, media planning, buying and campaign management, many are also fretting over how the technology is being used on their behalf by agency partners, according to a report published Tuesday by the World Federation of Advertisers.

At the same time, many brand marketers that are curious about the creative applications of generative AI tools like Google’s Gemini are also nervous about the potential for the misuse of such tools to lead to legal or reputational harm. Big tech companies like Google, Meta and Adobe, therefore, face the twin challenge of deploying new AI tools for marketers while simultaneously working to build guardrails that will assuage their fears around governance and brand safety.

Both Silicon Valley and the marketing sector have become transfixed with the creative and commercial potential of AI since the release of ChatGPT almost two years ago, so it seems likely that the symbiotic relationship that has developed between the two industries will only grow stronger as the technology continues to rapidly evolve.

For more on the latest happenings in AI and other cutting-edge technologies, sign up for The Emerging Tech Briefing newsletter.