Google hosted its Marketing Live event in Sydney on Thursday afternoon, unveiling a suite of new AI-powered tools designed to enhance digital advertising capabilities for businesses.

The event, which drew over 600 representatives from the advertising, marketing, and agency sectors, showcased how the tech giant is turning AI into action for its customers.

Managing Director for Google Australia and New Zealand, Mel Silva, said: “That’s the new reality of consumer choice, and it’s defined by four key behaviours: streaming, scrolling, searching and shopping. And only Google and YouTube get you in front of consumers across all four.”

Global VP of Search Ads and Ads on Google Experiences, Shashi Thakur, said: “AI is helping us execute on our vision to help brands create meaningful connections with compelling ads that appear at just the right moment. It’s all about allowing brands to meet customers wherever they are in their discovery journey with hyper-relevant and timely messaging."

Google's AI Overviews are reportedly in use by over 1.5 billion people globally, contributing to over 10% growth in applicable query types in major markets. The AI Mode tool, available in the US, offers advanced reasoning and multimodality capabilities.

Google Lens has seen a significant increase in usage, with nearly 20 billion searches monthly worldwide. One in five of these searches reportedly shows commercial intent. The AI Max for Search tool, a keywordless solution, is currently in open beta and launching on SA360, with claims of a typical 27% increase in conversions at a similar cost per acquisition (CPA).

Performance Max (PMax) has undergone over 90 improvements in the past year, reportedly boosting conversions by over 10%. Demand Gen has experienced a 26% year-on-year increase in conversion value. Advertisers who upload both video and image assets reportedly see 20% more conversions. Commonwealth Bank has reported up to nine times better performance on cost-per-click with Demand Gen compared to social channels.

Google also announced updates to its Smart Bidding Exploration, Asset Studio, and Accessible Measurement tools. Smart Bidding Exploration aims to help businesses discover new conversion opportunities, with campaigns reportedly seeing an average 18% increase in unique search query categories with conversions.

Asset Studio, set to launch later this year, will utilise generative AI to create variations of high-performing creative assets. Accessible Measurement is expected to make incrementality testing more accessible by the end of 2025.

Managing Director of Media Sales Specialists for Google Australia and New Zealand, Rhys Williams, said: “For every $1 you spend on Google Search, you get an incremental $6 back. You are not getting that kind of return anywhere else. Australian Advertisers are more likely to say Google Search and YouTube drive business growth more than any other paid advertising platform.”