Google unveils Gemini-powered marketing tools to boost AI-led advertising for Indian businesses

Google has introduced a suite of Gemini-powered advertising and commerce innovations for Indian businesses at Google Marketing Live 2026, expanding artificial intelligence capabilities across Search, YouTube and Google Ads to help marketers improve customer acquisition, campaign performance and measurement.The announcements build on Google's broader push to integrate Gemini across its advertising ecosystem, positioning AI as a strategic tool for marketers rather than just an automation feature. According to Google, 93% of consumer journeys for discovering new products or services involve Google Search and YouTube, while 86% of surveyed online Indians use the two platforms during their purchase journeys."With 86% of surveyed online Indians turning to Google Search and YouTube, Indian businesses have a tremendous opportunity to meet consumers where they are—and we are enabling that with Gemini," said Roma Datta Chobey, Managing Director, Connected Consumer Commerce, Google India. "Gemini is now the engine accelerating growth for our customers across our ads products as we move beyond marketing automation to marketing intelligence."Among the key launches is Business Agent for Leads, now available in beta in India. Built with Gemini, the feature enables advertisers to place an AI-powered brand agent directly inside Search ads, allowing potential customers to interact with the business, ask questions and qualify leads before submitting enquiry forms. Google said edtech platform upGrad has begun testing the feature to automate initial student interactions and improve lead quality.For YouTube advertisers, Google unveiled YouTube BrandStack, an India-developed solution that combines campaign planning, buying and measurement into a single workflow. Insurance company Axis Max Life Insurance became one of the first brands to deploy the product alongside YouTube Connected TV during the cricket season, recording an 18.4% increase in branded searches and generating 23% quality leads, according to Google.The company also introduced YouTube Affiliate Partnerships Boost, a new advertising format that allows brands to promote creator-generated videos where products are already tagged, helping advertisers scale creator-led commerce campaigns.Google is further expanding its AI-driven campaign tools with AI Max for Shopping, which uses Merchant Center data to better understand products and improve Shopping campaign performance. This follows the rollout of AI Max for Search, which is already being used by Indian brands including MakeMyTrip, Myntra and Nykaa.To provide advertisers with greater control over AI-generated campaigns, Google launched AI Brief, a beta feature that enables marketers to guide AI Max using conversational prompts, allowing brands to define campaign objectives, messaging priorities and brand guidelines in natural language.Performance Max campaigns are also receiving new capabilities through Retention Only Mode with Dynamic Remarketing, designed to re-engage existing and high-value customers using personalised creative. Meanwhile, Demand Gen campaigns will expand to Google Maps and support Merchant Center product videos to help retailers showcase products across Google's discovery surfaces.On the creative front, Google has upgraded Asset Studio, enabling marketers to generate text, images and video assets by providing natural language prompts, marketing briefs, reference images and brand guidelines. The tool is integrated within Google Ads and supports English-language asset creation.To strengthen campaign measurement, Google announced that Meridian, its open-source marketing mix modelling framework, will be integrated into Google Analytics 360, allowing businesses to analyse cross-channel performance using first-party data. It also introduced Attributed Branded Searches, a new metric that measures how YouTube video ads influence branded searches on Google.Google cited Cars24 as an early adopter of the measurement tool, reporting a two-fold increase in incremental branded searches and a 7% improvement in customer acquisition costs after using the beta feature for YouTube Shorts campaigns.The company also introduced Ask Advisor, a Gemini-powered assistant that provides personalised recommendations across Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Marketing Platform and Merchant Center. In addition, merchants will soon gain access to AI Performance Insights, which tracks product visibility across AI-powered Google experiences, including AI Overviews, AI Mode and the Gemini app, alongside new conversational product attributes within Merchant Center.Google said the latest launches are designed to help businesses prepare for increasingly AI-driven consumer journeys by combining advertising, commerce and measurement capabilities into a more integrated marketing platform.