• by Laurie Sullivan , 5 hours ago

Google introduced “Ask Advisor” on Wednesday to connect all advertising support through the company's ad ecosystem. It connects insights, workflows and recommendations across Google’s marketing ecosystem across Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Merchant Center.

The company also introduced agentic-based ad units that have moved into beta.

“Ask Advisor” rolls out later this year to lead a team of expert agents across Google products, serving as an “always-on collaborator and problem solver.”

It identifies consumer journeys and works through campaigns to improve performance. 

The agentic technology personalizes recommendations to improve performance in campaigns. 

The technology understands the original goals of the campaign, can explain what worked, and recommends what to do next. 

Ask Advisor acts as an agentic agent hub -- a central environment or management platform built specifically for autonomous, reasoning AI agents, rather than basic, rule-following automation tools. It does not need to visit different platforms to see how a campaign is doing, because it pulls in insights using data from Google Ads and Google Analytics.

For example, advertisers can request the agent to find new customers for the brand's hair care products, and Ask Advisor will automatically pull product details from Merchant Center to set up a new campaign in Google Ads.

Ask Advisor, which is built on Google Gemini, entered beta for English-language accounts with new features rolling out in the coming months.

Google Gemini continues to transform the entire advertising and marketing processes.

The Alphabet company on Wednesday began testing a new generation of ads in AI Mode -- two types of ads built with technology that offers product details and guidance.

Both formats are labeled “Sponsored” and feature an agentic system to offer consumers insights as part of the ad.

“Conversational Discovery” ads answer a person’s specific question, despite the length of the query, whereas “Highlighted Answers” in AI Mode provides a list of recommendations such as the most ideal language apps to take on an upcoming trip.

These ad units are being tested in the U.S. on mobile and desktop.

Company data shows that 75% of consumers make faster and more confident decisions using AI Mode in Google Search.

In addition, AI-powered “Shopping” ads are coming to Search in the coming months. With this technology, if someone searches for an espresso machine, Gemini will pull up the most relevant products and serve a custom description that highlights why the product may be the correct choice for them.

“Business Agent for Leads,” a lead-generation format built with Gemini, puts a brand’s smart agent inside the ad. People can click on the ad to chat directly with the brand agent and answer their questions before filling out a lead form. The format launches in the U.S. in open beta.

Google also expanded its pilot for “Direct Offers,” which launched in January. Since then, Chewy, Gap and L’Oreal and others have surfaced relevant deals as shoppers explore their options.

The experience got an upgrade by allowing more offer types such as “promotion bundling,” “native checkout,” and “travel expansion.”

With these updates, “Direct Offers” now serves responses in the AI Mode as shoppers explore options, making deals more instantly discoverable.