AI, Automation & Ads: The Big Announcements from Google Marketing Live

By Pranay Gautam on 17 Jul 2025

We are more than halfway through 2025, and AI is not only a buzzword but has become a major part of ad operations. At this year’s Google Marketing Live (GML), it became clear that AI is here to stay. With that in mind, let’s unwrap the new products and features Google announced.

1. Redefining Shopping Experience

Google’s new AI mode can now show shopping ads. Although it's only available in the US right now, it’s a sign of a completely different shopping experience in the future. Especially with Google’s new “try it on” feature, which would allow shoppers to try on clothes virtually.

The update is not only limited to trying on clothes virtually, but there are a couple of other new additions to shopping within the AI overview. One of the new features is Google’s brand-new price tracking feature. Users can now select a product of their choice and hit the price tracking button, and set a price limit. Once the price of their selected product drops, users will get a notification on their phone, and they can purchase with the Agentic checkout feature. The Agentic checkout feature will allow users to make a one-touch payment using Google Pay without even going to the website. We think this might significantly reduce the e-commerce web traffic, but we will reserve our judgment until this feature rolls out completely.

2. Product Studio Powered by AI

Google has launched new tools to enhance creative generations. Although only available in Google Merchant Center so far, these tools allow advertisers to convert static images into videos by using Google’s latest AI tech, powered by Veo. It will be interesting to see the quality of these AI-created videos, as we have seen in the past that the AI-generated videos in Pmax campaigns have not been great.

Another addition to the product studio is the AI outpainting tech, which extends ad visuals beyond frames. So far, this is only available for app campaigns, but it will be available for other campaign types in the future. This could be a significant leap in resolving the never-ending issue of creative generation. Advertising agencies and advertisers could both benefit from this feature, and turnaround times could improve significantly.

3. AI-Powered Agents

Remember the good old recommendations tab? Well, Google has taken a significant leap from just suggesting improvements to creating, optimising, and troubleshooting campaigns in real-time. There’s a new chat option in the Google Ads platform with a real-time conversation option with AI agents, which can provide information on the historic performance of a certain campaign and suggest improvements on important metrics like Conversion value, CTRs, CPCs. With the conversational AI support in the platform, we think this might lure more advertisers to use Google Ads.

4 . Get Over Pmax, It’s Time for AI Max

It seems like this is another step towards more automation and less control. Google has unveiled the new AI Max feature for Search campaigns. This feature leverages broad match keywords to extend beyond your keyword list. This feature will look at the landing pages as well to find new, relevant search terms. Not only does this feature use broad match to find new search terms, but it also uses the existing RSA headlines and landing page text to make changes in the headlines on the go.

Another old feature that’s been wrapped under AI Max is the final URL expansion. This feature was available separately earlier; however, it's a part of AI Max now. You can find the AI Max feature under the campaign settings in the search campaign and enable AI Max with a single toggle. We think this might make the role of the website even more important. A better-structured website with proper content may win the AI max race. Our take is that it’s a combination of broad match and DSAs, a new feature but not necessarily a new concept.

5. Smart Bidding Exploration

A brand-new addition to Smart bidding strategies and more control for Google. This new Beta, if opted in, can lower target ROAS in the campaigns between 10% and 30% to uncover new relevant search queries. We think this could be a nice addition to smart bidding, especially for seasonal businesses where demand could surge during a certain time of the year. However, it would be interesting to see how broad Google will go with the additional search queries. Over the years, we have seen less and less data in the search terms report, which is not very helpful.

We have added a quick snippet below of what it looks like in the platform.

Quick recap & summary of our key takeaways from Google Marketing Live

AI is changing rapidly. Although still not perfect, we can see a shift in the future in how people shop online. With shopping and search ads appearing in the AI overview, we may see more people purchasing in the research phase.
Product studio could be a boon for agencies and advertisers. The challenge of getting creatives could be solved with this one feature. However, we are yet to see live examples of how good the AI-generated videos and images would be.
We may see more small businesses using Google Ads and running ads with the help of AI-powered agents.
Website content and structure could become even more important with Google pushing more and more towards a keyword-less future with features like AI Max.