Google Ads in 2026: what the new AI tools mean for Gulf brands

Google Marketing Live is where Google shows advertisers what is coming. The 2026 edition took place on 20 May in Mountain View, with a European edition in Dublin the next day, and almost everything on stage involved AI: agents that take on parts of an account, bidding that learns from more signals, and measurement that forecasts conversions months ahead. For anyone advertising in Arabic, the catch is that many of these tools arrived in English first.

AI agents inside the account

Ads Advisor, updated in April, sorts out policy problems while a campaign is being built, watches account security and handles certifications. It asks for approval before it acts, and works in English accounts globally, with other languages promised. Ask Advisor, announced at the event, is one Gemini agent spanning Google Ads, Google Analytics, Merchant Center and Google's marketing platform. Google's own pages disagree on whether it is in beta or generally available; either way, it is English only.

New controls for bids and budgets

• Smart Bidding Exploration lets smart bidding try searches it would normally skip. It has expanded from Search to Performance Max and Shopping, and Google reports 27 percent more unique converting users on Search. Since June it is generally available for Performance Max campaigns without product feeds, and in beta for those with feeds.
• Journey-aware bidding, in beta, lets a Search campaign learn from goals it does not bid on.
• Campaign total budgets, introduced earlier in 2026 for Search, Shopping and Performance Max, set one budget for a campaign's whole run. Google says they cut manual budget changes by 66 percent.
• Promotion mode, in beta since June, allows a temporary return-on-spend tolerance and extra budget during a sale.

Paying more for customers you do not have yet

• New Customer Value mode gives new customers a higher value. Google says valuing them at twice the average order value produced a 9 percent higher return.
• New Customer Only mode bids for new customers and nobody else.
• New Prospects mode, added for 2026, leaves out past buyers, people searching for the brand, site visitors and anyone who has engaged.

Measuring what happens later

• Meridian, Google's open-source marketing mix model, is coming to Google Analytics 360.
• Qualified Future Conversions, in a pilot, predict conversions up to 180 days ahead, alongside existing conversions. Ginny Marvin noted that about 70 percent of conversions generally happen within 30 days, but only 50 percent for Performance Max and 40 percent for Demand Gen.
• Attributed branded searches count brand searches made within seven days of a YouTube ad view.
• Google tag gateway serves Google's tag through the advertiser's own domain, with an average 14 percent uplift that Google describes in some places as conversions and in others as signals.

Performance Max is less of a black box

Performance Max gained channel reporting, search terms, full asset metrics and campaign negative keywords (up to 10,000) in 2025. March 2026 added first-party audience exclusions, a budget report projecting month-end spend, age and gender reporting, and placement reports split by network. In July a limited pilot let some advertisers switch off Search Partners and Display. From late September, the campaign language setting no longer governs Performance Max's search traffic.

Shopping features that have not reached the Gulf

Universal Cart and checkout inside AI Mode, through Google's Universal Commerce Protocol, start in the US, with Canada and Australia next and the UK planned. Merchant Center's AI performance insights launched in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the US. None of this reaches the Gulf yet. Asset Studio's AI video generation is rolling out globally, in English only.

Questions to put to whoever runs your ads

• Which new AI tools have been tested on our Arabic campaigns before we rely on them?
• If growth depends on first-time buyers, are we using a new customer mode?
• Are fixed-length pushes such as Ramadan, White Friday and National Day sales on campaign total budgets?
• Is someone reviewing Performance Max placements and search terms every month, now that the reports exist?

Our GCC marketing calendar lists the region's campaign dates, which helps when planning a fixed-length budget.

If you would like a second opinion on your Google Ads set-up for the year ahead, the ALXO team is glad to go through it with you.