Google Marketing Live is the most significant single moment in the Google Ads calendar. In 2025, Google delivered more than 24 product announcements in under 90 minutes. The year before that, Gemini integrations into the ad creation workflow and expanded Shopping capabilities set the tone for an entire year of platform evolution. The pattern holds: GML is where the roadmap becomes real.
This year carries extra weight. GML 2026 runs immediately after Google I/O—Google’s broader developer and technology conference scheduled for 19–20 May. The back-to-back timing is deliberate. Whatever Google reveals about Gemini and AI infrastructure on Tuesday will almost certainly flow directly into Wednesday’s advertising announcements. The two events are connected by design, and following both will give the clearest read on where the platform is heading.
We’re in Dublin on 21 May for the EMEA session and following the global Americas keynote live on 20 May. A full post-event breakdown will be published on this site within 48 hours. This is our read of the landscape going in.
The Format: Who’s On Stage
GML 2026 runs across two days and two distinct events. The global keynote on 20 May sets the main stage, and the EMEA session on 21 May, which we’re attending in Dublin, follows the next day with its own confirmed speakers, session tracks, and regional context. Both are worth following closely.
20 May 2026 · Americas global keynote · 8:45 AM PT / 4:45 PM BST
- 8:45 AM PT: Pre-show — On-the-ground hosts open the event
- 9:00 AM PT: Global keynote — Main stage announcements across Ads, AI, and YouTube
- Post-keynote: Ads Decoded Live — Ginny Marvin breaks down announcements with product leads in real time
21 May 2026 · EMEA session · 11:00 AM BST · Dublin (360 OM attending)
- Ads: Google Ads Updates — Search, Shopping, PMAX, and campaign developments for EMEA advertisers
- YouTube: YouTube as a performance channel — Demand Gen, shoppable formats, and creator integration
- AI in action: Gemini across the ads stack — practical demonstrations of AI-powered tools in live campaigns
- New releases: Product announcements — features confirmed at or following the global keynote
- Practical tips: Implementation guidance — how to act on announcements in live accounts immediately
- Live Q&A: Direct access to Google product teams — questions from the EMEA advertiser community answered in real time
The EMEA session has its own confirmed session tracks—Ads, YouTube, AI in action, New releases, Practical tips, and a Live Q&A—making it substantively different from the Americas keynote rather than a regional repeat.
The Practical Tips and Live Q&A tracks in particular tend to be where the most immediately actionable content emerges, with Google product teams available to answer questions directly from the EMEA advertiser community.
Confirmed Speakers
Americas keynote · 20 May
- Vidhya Srinivasan
VP / GM, Ads and Commerce · Google
- Philipp Schindler
SVP, Chief Business Officer · Google
- Gaurav Bhaya
VP, Measurement & Analytics · Google
- Ginny Marvin
Google Ads Liaison · Ads Decoded Live host
EMEA session · 21 May · Dublin
- Debbie Weinstein
VP, YouTube & Video Global Solutions · Google
- Vanessa Hartley
Director, Large Customer Sales EMEA · Google
- Dan Taylor
VP, Global Ads · Google
- Stephanie Davis
Director, Ads & Commerce · Google
- Rajan Patel
VP, Engineering · Google Ads
- Shashi Thakur
VP, Ads Engineering · Google
- Melissa Hsieh Nikolic
Director, Product Management · Google Ads
- Harikesh Nair
VP, Research & Insights · Google
Harikesh Nair’s presence on the EMEA stage is notable. As VP of Research and Insights, his focus sits at the intersection of measurement science and advertiser strategy. Alongside Gaurav Bhaya, confirmed for the Americas keynote, measurement is shaping up to be a serious thread across both days, not a side session. On the EMEA stage, Rajan Patel and Shashi Thakur bring deep engineering context. Their sessions are typically where the most technically specific product details surface.
The Themes Google Has Already Signalled
Google has been explicit about its framing for 2026. Three themes dominate the pre-event communications and have shaped the product announcements already made ahead of GML.
The first is the Gemini advantage. Google’s positioning of Gemini as the AI layer running through every advertising product. Deeper Gemini integration across campaign creation, asset generation, and advertiser workflows is the stated direction. GML will show how far that integration has progressed and where it's going next.
The second is agentic commerce. Google’s term for AI agents acting autonomously on behalf of consumers and advertisers across the shopping journey. This is the most forward-looking theme on the agenda and the one with the most open questions. AI that can research, compare, and complete purchases on behalf of users changes the fundamental nature of a search query. The keynote will introduce the concept at scale. The details of how it works in practice will emerge over the months that follow.
The third is creative at scale. The continued push toward AI-assisted asset creation, video generation, and creative testing across Search, Shopping, YouTube, and Demand Gen. Google has been steadily expanding the tools available for automated creative production. GML will show the next iteration of that capability.
GML is where the roadmap becomes real. Not every announcement will be immediately actionable — but the direction it sets shapes strategy for the rest of the year.
What We’re Specifically Watching For
Beyond the headline themes, five areas will get our closest attention across both days.
Performance Max: Transparency and Campaign Controls
More reporting visibility and greater campaign control have been the loudest advertiser requests heading into 2026. PMAX has become the default campaign type for a significant share of Google Ads spend, and the gap between what it does and what advertisers can see has been a persistent friction point. Google has been moving toward more transparency incrementally. GML is where we expect to see what the next step looks like and whether it gives advertisers enough information to genuinely act on, not just enough to feel informed.
Agentic Commerce: The Implementation Detail
The concept has been introduced. What GML needs to show is the practical detail: how agentic queries are matched to ads, how conversion events are defined when an AI agent completes a purchase on behalf of a user, and what attribution looks like in an environment where the agent, rather than the human, is the final decision-maker. The keynote will frame the opportunity. The Ads Decoded Live session is more likely to contain the answers advertisers actually need.
AI Max for Shopping: Rollout and Requirements
Announced on 30 April, AI Max for Shopping uses Merchant Center feed data to generate dynamic Shopping ads that respond to conversational queries — capturing long-tail searches that standard Shopping campaigns miss. The announcement confirmed the capability. GML should clarify the rollout timeline, the feed quality requirements for the feature to perform, and whether there are new controls for steering which products the system prioritises. The one-click upgrade framing is appealing. The implementation reality will be in the details.
Measurement: Incrementality and Cross-Channel Attribution
Gaurav Bhaya’s confirmed appearance makes measurement a serious agenda item, not a side session. The open questions are significant: how do you measure incrementality in a multi-channel environment with degraded cookie signals? How do you reconcile what Google Ads reports with GA4 with actual revenue data? Any concrete movement on cross-channel attribution frameworks and MMM integration will be among the most practically useful announcements of the event for sophisticated advertisers.
YouTube and Demand Gen: Performance Creative At Scale
YouTube’s evolution as a performance channel, not just a brand awareness placement, has been one of the clearest directional signals from Google over the past two years. Demand Gen has been the vehicle for that shift. GML will show where the format is going next: shoppable capabilities, creator integration, audience modelling, and the tools for managing creative volume and performance at scale. For e-commerce brands that have treated YouTube as an awareness-only channel, this session is worth paying close attention to.
The AI Brief Announcement: What We Already Know
One significant announcement has already landed ahead of GML. On 30 April, Google confirmed AI Brief, a Gemini-powered tool that lets advertisers steer AI Max using natural language instructions. Messaging guidelines, matching boundaries, and audience context can now be set in plain English, with asset previews available before any budget is committed.
Already confirmed ahead of GML
AI Brief is rolling out in English for AI Max for Search campaigns over the coming months, followed by Performance Max and AI Max for Shopping. It represents a meaningful shift in how advertisers interact with Google’s automation, moving the input layer earlier in the process and giving advertisers more steering capability before campaigns go live.
The GML keynote is likely to build on this announcement, positioning AI Brief as part of a broader narrative about advertiser control within automated systems. We'll be watching how Google frames the balance between AI autonomy and advertiser direction, and what new controls are announced alongside it.
How to follow along
Both sessions are available as livestreams. The Americas keynote on 20 May starts at 8:45 AM Pacific Time, that’s 4:45 PM BST for UK audiences. The EMEA session on 21 May starts at 11:00 AM BST and is designed specifically for European advertisers.
The Ads Decoded Live session immediately follows the Americas keynote and is consistently where the most useful practitioner-level context emerges. If you only have time for one part of the event, it's worth watching that session alongside the keynote rather than instead of it.
Both sessions will be available on demand after the event through the Google Marketing Live website and the Accelerate with Google programme.
We’ll be publishing a full breakdown of everything announced, along with our read on what’s worth acting on immediately and what to watch over the coming months, within 48 hours of the keynote. If you want that analysis as soon as it’s live, follow us or check back here from 22 May.
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At 360 OM, we specialise in helping businesses take their marketing efforts to the next level. Our team stays on top of industry trends, uses data-informed decisions to maximise your ROI, and provides full transparency through comprehensive reports.
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