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

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, “We’re always working on launching ad formats that address evolving consumer behavior, empowering advertisers and marketers to connect with consumers across their non-linear journeys and drive profitable growth, with recent examples including Shoppable CTV and Shoppable Mastheads on YouTube.”

With Shoppable CTV, users can 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.

New AI-driven tools for advertisers

In terms of advertiser-focused tools, 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 that Google’s Veo 3 and Imagen 4 will serve as tools in a marketer’s toolkit. “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.

“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 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 or trends to optimise their marketing campaigns or website.