A year ago, Google introduced AI Max for Search campaigns, a set of AI-driven features designed to expand reach beyond the keywords advertisers explicitly bid on. This week, on its first anniversary, Google announced it's expanding the product significantly: into Shopping campaigns, into travel-specific formats, and with a new input tool called AI Brief.
The framing from Google is bullish, as you'd expect. AI Max is described as "the fastest-growing AI-powered Search ads product." The announcements are timed ahead of Google Marketing Live, which tends to amplify the positive case. Our job is to read past the press release.
Here's what was actually announced, and what it practically means for e-commerce brands managing real budgets.
Source: Google Ads Blog. Read the original announcement →
What Was Announced
Four distinct updates, each worth looking at separately.
AI Max for Shopping campaigns
AI Max is expanding from Search into Shopping. It uses Merchant Center product feed data to generate dynamic Shopping ads that respond to conversational queries, including long-tail searches that standard Shopping campaigns don't capture. Google describes it as a "one-click upgrade" for incremental reach.
Search campaigns for Travel
Travel advertisers have historically had to manage multiple fragmented campaign types across different interfaces. AI Max is bringing feeds and formats in one place, with a unified performance view. Relevant for travel brands, less so for general e-commerce.
AI Brief: a new way to steer the algorithm
Powered by Gemini, AI Brief lets advertisers give the algorithm context in plain English: what to say in ads, what searches to prioritise or avoid, and which audiences to target with which messages. It offers previews before commitment. Rolling out in English for Search campaigns first, then PMAX and Shopping.
Text disclaimers with Final URL Expansion
Previously, advertisers in regulated industries who needed mandatory text in ads couldn't use Final URL Expansion they had to choose one or the other. The new text disclaimers feature removes that constraint, letting regulated advertisers use AI-powered URL routing while keeping required text visible in every ad.
The Case For Each Update
AI Max for Shopping
The most immediately relevant announcement for e-commerce brands. Standard Shopping campaigns match against explicit product queries. Someone searching "dewalt 18v drill" sees a relevant product. The problem is that search behaviour is becoming more conversational. Queries like "what tools do I need to build a deck" or "cordless drill for occasional home use" don't match cleanly against product titles.
AI Max for Shopping is designed to bridge that gap using feed data to generate ads that answer intent-based queries, not just keyword-match queries. If the product works as described, it addresses a real limitation in how standard Shopping campaigns handle the long tail.
Genuinely useful if the feed is clean
The quality of what AI Max generates from your feed data depends entirely on the quality of that feed. Optimised titles, accurate GTINs, clear product types, and correct pricing are table stakes. If your feed has gaps and most large-catalogue feeds do AI Max for Shopping will amplify those gaps at scale. The upgrade is only as good as the data you're feeding it.
AI Brief
This is the most genuinely interesting development in the announcement, and also the one that raises the most questions. The premise is sound: giving advertisers a structured way to provide brand context, messaging guardrails, and audience direction to an algorithm that currently operates with very limited instruction. "Never mention prices" or "prioritise searches for healthy pantry staples" as natural language inputs is a meaningful improvement over the current state.
The previews-before-commitment feature is worth noting. One of the consistent criticisms of AI-driven ad products is that they operate as black boxes — you set a target, the algorithm decides the rest, and you find out what happened in the reporting tab. AI Brief moves the interaction point earlier in the process, which in principle gives advertisers more leverage before budget is committed.
The brief is the only thing that was ever really yours. AI Brief acknowledges that which is more than most Google Ads updates do.
Promising but the details will determine the reality
Natural language inputs to complex ad systems have a mixed track record. The quality of interpretation on how faithfully "never mention prices" translates into actual ad copy decisions across thousands of queries is something we'll only know from live account data. Google's framing is optimistic. The reality will be in the implementation. Worth testing, worth scrutinising the output carefully before scaling.
Final URL Expansion with text disclaimers
This is a narrow fix to a specific constraint, but it's a meaningful one for the brands it affects. Regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, legal, certain supplement categories have been locked out of Final URL Expansion because they can't afford to lose mandatory compliance text. This update removes that specific barrier.
Straightforwardly useful for regulated advertisers
If you're in a category with mandatory disclosure requirements, this is a real unlock. If you're not, it doesn't change your situation. No caveats needed here — this solves a specific problem for a specific group of advertisers.
Search campaigns for Travel
Relevant for travel not for general e-commerce
The consolidation of fragmented travel campaign types is a workflow improvement for travel advertisers. For e-commerce brands outside travel, this announcement is background noise. File and move on.
The Broader Pattern And The Honest Question
Taken together, this announcement follows a consistent Google trajectory: expand AI autonomy, offer more natural language controls as a counterweight, and position the combination as more effective than manual management.
That positioning isn't wrong. AI Max for Search campaigns has driven measurable incremental conversions for accounts with clean data and well-structured campaigns. The expansion into Shopping is a logical next step. AI Brief is a genuine attempt to address the control problem that has made sophisticated advertisers wary of full automation.
The honest question is whether more control inputs into an AI system are a substitute for understanding what the system is actually doing with your budget. AI Brief lets you tell the algorithm what to say. It doesn't give you visibility into which SKUs it's spending on, whether those SKUs can break even at your tROAS target, or why it's allocated 60% of your Shopping budget to your lowest-margin category.
The control problem hasn't been solved, just moved
Adding a natural language brief to an AI system improves the input layer. It doesn't improve the output transparency. The questions that matter most for e-commerce profitability — which products is the AI funding, at what margin, against what break-even threshold remain as difficult to answer after this announcement as before it. AI Brief is a better steering wheel. You still can't see out the windscreen.
What To Do With This
For e-commerce brands currently running Shopping campaigns, AI Max for Shopping is worth testing with a subset of your catalogue. The sensible approach is to start with your highest-margin product categories where incremental conversions from long-tail queries actually generate profit rather than enabling it account-wide on day one.
AI Brief, when it rolls out more broadly, is worth engaging with seriously. The ability to set messaging guardrails and audience context in plain English is a genuine improvement over the current state of hope-and-check. But treat the preview outputs as a QA step, not a rubber-stamp review; the sample assets the system generates before committing budget to them.
The structural work that matters most hasn't changed with this announcement. Feed quality, margin-tier segmentation, break-even ROAS calculation by SKU, and custom label architecture are still the levers that determine whether AI-powered Shopping campaigns generate profit or consume it. Google's AI is getting better at finding conversions. It still doesn't know which conversions are worth having. That's still your job.
AI Max is a product that's genuinely improving. This week's announcements move it in the right direction with more reach, better inputs, and fewer arbitrary constraints. For e-commerce brands with clean data and clear margin targets, there's real value to extract from these updates. For brands that haven't yet answered the margin questions at the SKU level, adding more AI capability to the mix will accelerate the wrong outcomes faster.
The tools are improving. The strategic brief you give them still determines everything.
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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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