Every year, Google Marketing Live sets the tone for where paid media is heading. As a leading performance marketing agency in Los Angeles through our direct relationships with Google, our team at PSM was able to attend Google Marketing Live 2026 with access to product announcements, platform updates, and insider discussions about where these tools are heading. What we walked away with was not just a list of new features, but a clearer picture of how search, discovery, and AI-driven advertising are converging into something the industry has not seen before.
The headline from this year's event was hard to ignore. Google announced that AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly active users. That milestone signals a fundamental shift in how people are searching, and more importantly, how brands need to show up. Ads inside AI Mode do not look like traditional search ads. They are designed to mirror the conversational, native feel of an AI-generated response, and answer long-tail queries in a way that feels organic rather than promotional.
Google introduced three new ad formats within the AI Mode experience. The Direct Offer format is built for transactional moments, with a standout feature being the ability for eCommerce advertisers to generate one-time coupons directly within the platform. The Conversational format expands on what advertisers have already started seeing in AI ad experiences, with a more natural, dialogue-driven tone. The Highlighted Answers format is the most native-feeling of the three, surfacing a brand's response alongside a company logo in a way that directly addresses why a product or brand fits what the user is searching for.
One of the most forward-looking announcements was the new Business Agent feature. A new "Ask A Question" button will appear underneath search results, opening a branded AI chat where users can ask specific questions about the product or brand, or select from automated prompts. After chatting, a CTA such as "Chat with a sales expert" then leads directly to a lead form, all without leaving the search experience, or viewing a single web page. For industries with longer consideration cycles like real estate, this has the potential to meaningfully reduce friction and improve lead quality at the point of highest intent.
Google also introduced Qualified Future Conversions, a new metric that uses AI to forecast the downstream revenue value of users who are still early in the funnel. Rather than waiting months for a long sales cycle to close, QFC analyzes early engagement signals like branded searches and site visits to project the likelihood of a future conversion. For brands who have historically been skeptical of upper-funnel investment, this gives media teams a credible, data-backed way to connect awareness activity to long-term pipeline value.
Finally, Google confirmed that Google Display Network campaigns will be moving into the Demand Gen campaign type. Advertisers will still be able to run display-focused campaigns, just within the Demand Gen framework. An automatic migration tool is planned for 2027, but waiting for that tool is not the strategy we would recommend. Getting campaign architecture, creative assets, and audience strategy aligned now is the right move.
The throughline across every announcement is that AI is no longer being introduced to advertising. It is the infrastructure advertising is being built on. At PSM, our relationship with Google gives us early visibility into where these platforms are heading, and our job is to translate that into strategies that drive real business results for our clients. For brands looking to evolve their paid media approach to match where search is going, the time to start is now.
