Google bringing ads to AI Overviews in India, alongside new AI-driven marketing tools

The move comes at a time when the Google search experience is undergoing a major shift, driven by the rapid integration of generative AI. Earlier this week, India became the first market outside of the US to get AI Mode in Search. This feature differs from traditional Google Search as users can dive deeper into the web by asking follow-up questions and finding hyper-relevant content that matches their search query, as per the company.

“Over 15 per cent of the searches that we see on Google are new. But over the past year or so, those new searches are getting longer, more complex, and more conversational. There’s no single right answer or a set of web pages where you want to send somebody to. And so, those are also the places where you could introduce businesses and commercial information earlier in a purchase’s journey,” Dan Taylor, Vice President, Global Ads, Google, said at a virtual media roundtable held earlier this week.

Ads shown within AI Overviews will feature a transparent ‘Sponsored’ label in bold black text to make it distinguishable from organic chatbot responses. In response to a query from indianexpress.com on whether it is currently experimenting with other ad formats, Google said it is working on launching ad formats that address evolving consumer behavior, empower advertisers and marketers to connect with consumers across their non-linear journeys and drive profitable growth.

Shoppable ads on YouTube Masthead. (Image: Google)

One such example is Shoppable CTV, which lets users discover and engage with products directly from the big screen. Google is also letting advertisers in India display shoppable links to their products below YouTube Masthead ads on the mobile app.

“India is a thriving digital ecosystem, we have the largest number of users who are actually trying and testing our products. That’s really the reason behind Google getting these innovations to India faster,” said Roma Datta Chobey, Managing Director, Google India.

In the past, the Indian government levied a 2 per cent tax on digital services rendered to Indian businesses by offshore technology firms like Google and Amazon. It had also imposed a 6 per cent equalisation levy on non-resident companies that earned over Rs. 1 lakh annually from the sale of online advertising or related services in India. Both taxes have since been scrapped, a move that experts have linked to pressure from the United States over trade tariffs.

How will ads in AI Overviews work?

Google has introduced a new setting called AI Max for advertisers to increase the performance of their existing marketing campaigns on Google Search.

“This is custom-built for how search is evolving. AI Max learns from brands’ landing pages, their existing ads, and even their existing keyword list to infer the types of products and services they are selling, and when it is relevant to show their ad,” Taylor said. Cashify, the online marketplace for electronic gadgets, saw a 15 per cent increase in conversions with customer acquisition costs declining by 12 per cent upon enabling AI Max, as per Google.

Another interesting tool rolled out on the advertiser end is Smart Bidding Exploration. It uses AI to capture new searches in order to secure additional conversions. For example, a mortgage lender may already bid on search queries related to mortgages and home loans. Smart Bidding will allow the lender to also bid on search queries such as ‘how to buy a home’.

Smart Bidding Exploration can actively explore new high-performing searches from a range of unique categories. (Image: Google)

In addition, advertisers will now be able to see the number of times a user searched for a brand after seeing a video ad from that brand.

Tools for AI-generated creatives, AI agents

Google said it will be introducing its ‘Generated for You’ feature to brands in India. This tool uses AI to analyse a merchant’s product catalogue and shows them on-brand AI-generated images and videos which can be saved and published across various Google platforms.

Advertiser adoption of Google AI for generating creatives has gone up by 250 per cent, according to Taylor.

In response to concerns that AI tools could make ads generic and potentially replace creative ad agencies, Taylor said, “AI is not a strategy, AI is the half. The ‘what’ is still the core marketing strategy. Who are the audiences you want to reach, what is the profit margin you want to attain. All of those core marketing tactics will remain the same,” he said.

The ‘Generated for You’ feature is available to advertisers via Product Studio. (Image: Google)

“While generative AI tools are powerful for ideation, generation, and scaling. It lacks human lived experience, intuition, cultural nuance, subjective taste, strategic oversight, the emotional resonance that truly connects with an audience, and ethical considerations,” Taylor further said, adding that creative ad agencies will have a role to play in pointing AI towards the direction to achieve a marketer’s outcome.

Google has also introduced AI agentic capabilities in Google Ads and Google Analytics. These AI agents will learn from advertiser inputs including datasets, landing pages, assets, and real-time campaign performance. In Google Ads, advertisers can use the agentic tools to generate keywords, creative recommendations, etc. Within Google Analytics, marketers can use these tools to gather new insights and trends to optimise their marketing campaigns or websites.

Other AI-driven tools for advertisers

Google further announced updates to its existing advertiser tools such as Performance Max, which is being upgraded with Retention Only Mode. This lets advertisers show targeted ads to re-engage existing lapsed customers, such as those who have installed an app but not made a purchase on it in the last 30 days.

Online food delivery major Swiggy used the Retention Only Mode in Performance Max and saw a 70 per cent improvement in cost per session versus other re-engagement channels, Google claimed.

The company also launched new tools to help marketers measure the performance of their campaigns more accurately.  These include On Device Measurement for better tracking of iOS app campaigns and a new API for Google’s MMM Data Platform that gives marketers access to granular data such as reach, frequency, and search query volume.