Google, AI unlock natural language for SEMs

On the Google Ads & Commerce blog yesterday, Google Ads product director Brandon Ervin announced three new enhancements to Google’s AI Max search ads platform.

For background: Within Google’s AI ad stack, AI Max is for Search, Performance Max spans channels, and Demand Gen targets upper-funnel inventory across YouTube, Gmail, and Discover, according to the company.

AI Brief

Following the natural language shift driven by large language models (LLMs), search engine marketers (SEMs) can use natural language prompts – known as ‘AI Brief’ in AI Max – for campaign setup and management.

Ervin offered three types of prompts:

• “Messaging Guidelines: Tell AI Brief exactly what your ads should — and shouldn’t — say, e.g., ‘never mention prices.’”
• “Matching Guidelines: Set boundaries for the searches you want to capture or avoid, e.g., ‘prioritize searches for healthy pantry staples.’”
• “Audience Guidelines: Reach your desired audience and serve them tailored messages, e.g., ‘for people who are health conscious, highlight our clean products.’”

In a separate press briefing, Google product VP, Search Ads and Commerce, Brendon Kraham, made clear that keyword lists aren’t going away. Prompting is being layered on top in AI Max.

From tipsheet: No need to threaten the ‘golden goose’ of Google Search ads revenue which begins with users of the ad platform — thus, layer in prompts with keyword lists. With natural language prompts, this is like going from exact match (“human control”) to broad match (AI) in search marketer parlance. Opening up broad match should scale the AI opportunity and drive more of the outcomes advertisers want.

Text disclaimers

As Google expands automation across campaign element, AI Max’s landing page matching capabilities through Final URL Expansion (FUE — more here) will now include a compliance component. This is important for advertisers in regulated industries.

Ervin explained the new “Text Disclaimers”:

• “Improved compliance in Final URL Expansion that ensures required legal text always appears in ads, providing certainty for regulated sectors. Rolling out in the coming weeks globally, in all languages.”

According to Google Ads ‘Help Center’: “Text disclaimers are guaranteed to appear in the description line section in your responsive search ads (RSA).” Read more.

AI Max for Shopping and Search Campaigns for Travel

As Google segments its most important search ad verticals, the company has created special products for Shopping and Travel.

Ervin wrote:

• “We’re delivering specialized inventory access and deep intent understanding for conversational queries. Now available in Search campaigns and rolling out in closed beta globally, in all languages.”

It would not be surprising to see more verticals, if not all verticals, addressed in a similar manner as the valuable Shopping and Travel channels are optimized over time.

Chiming in on the launch of the new AI Max features, Google VP/GM Ads & Commerce Vidhya Srinivasan shared a case study on LinkedIn:

• “Powering AI Max is Gemini — the same engine and model driving the future of Search itself. Businesses have seen the results: Hilton captured one-third more clicks for a fifth of the spend, while simultaneously increasing the average booking value by 55%.” Read more. (April 30)

Read:

• Google Touts Its AI Ad Tech Adoption And New AI Max Features (April 30) – AdExchanger
• AI Max Turns 1 with new ways to steer performance and expansion to more advertisers (April 30) – Google Ads & Commerce blog
• Adapt your Shopping campaigns to modern Search with AI Max (April 30) – Google Ads & Commerce blog

From tipsheet: Google is formalizing the shift from keywords to prompts and from manual control to AI expansion.

LLMs & CHATBOTS

Developments

• Introducing Advanced Account Security (April 30) – OpenAI
• Your car with Google built-in is about to get smarter, thanks to Gemini (April 30) – Google’s The Keyword blog
• Agents can now create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy (April 30) – Cloudflare

LLMs & CHATBOTS

Earnings reported yesterday

Several companies with exposure to the AI in advertising and marketing opportunity reported financial results yesterday including:

Apple

• Markets: Apple stock was up 5% in after-hours trading yesterday.
• Stat: “Services revenue reaches new all-time high”
• Company: Apple reports second quarter results (April 30) – Apple
• Read: Apple reports earnings and revenue beat, boosted by services business – CNBC
• Read: Apple Reports Record-Breaking 2Q 2026 Results: $29.6B Profit on $111.2B Revenue – MacRumors

Reddit

• Markets: Reddit stock was up 12.4% in after-hours trading yesterday.
• Stat: “Daily Active Uniques increased 17% year-over-year to 126.8 million. Revenue grew 69% year-over-year to $663 million.”
• Company: Reddit Reports First Quarter 2026 Results (April 30) – Reddit
• Read: Reddit reports 69% jump in revenue, topping analyst estimates – CNBC
• Read: Reddit First-Quarter Profit, Sales Surge – The Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Roku

• Markets: Roku stock was up 7.1% in after-hours trading yesterday.
• Stat: “With generative AI reducing the cost and complexity of producing video creative, we see a significant long-term opportunity to target a meaningful share of the approximately $600 billion in annual SMB ad spend.”
• Company: Roku Reports First Quarter 2026 Shareholder Letter (April 30) – Roku
• Read: Roku Q1 Sales Pop 22%, Company Breaks Out Results for Advertising and Subscriptions Businesses for First Time – Variety
• Read: Roku Beats Wall Street Expectations After Hitting More Than 100 Million Streaming Households – The Hollywood Reporter

Stagwell

• Markets: Stagwell stock was down 5.9% yesterday.
• Stat: “On a two-year stack, our Digital Transformation segment is accelerating to 22% organic net revenue growth as we apply AI to drive industry-leading results for our clients.”
• Company: Stagwell Inc. Reports Results for the Three Months Ended March 31, 2026 (April 30) – Stagwell
• Read: Stagwell Reports 3.6% Q1 Growth – MediaPost
• Read: Stagwell Misses Q1 Earnings Estimates – Zacks on Yahoo Finance

More earnings: “Zeta Global Revenue Growth Accelerates to 50%” (April 30) – Zeta

PROTOCOLS

Meta discusses new MCP functionality

As tipsheet covered yesterday, Meta rolled out AI connectors for Meta’s Ads Manager via MCP.

• “Introducing Meta Ads AI Connectors: Manage Your Meta Ads From the AI Tools You Already Use” (April 29) – Meta

A Meta spokesperson answered follow-up questions from tipsheet via email:

Is this “AI connector” capability a new product, or an extension of the existing Meta Marketing API?

Meta: “The ads MCP server is a new product which is complementary to the existing Meta Marketing API (MAPI). MAPI remains essential automated infrastructure for developers, such as scheduled reporting dashboards or programmatic bidding rules. The ads MCP server will include additional data that is not available through MAPI — e.g., industry peer benchmarks, performance trend analysis — that enables agents to diagnose ad performance issues and recommend optimizations grounded in data that is not available through MAPI. This unlocks conversational intelligence, allowing advertisers to use their AI agent to perform high-level tasks like, ‘analyze why our CPA spiked yesterday and draft three new ad variations based on the top performers.’”

What level of control do external AI tools have over campaign optimization vs. Meta’s native automation systems?

“The ads MCP server does have read & write access for ads creation and catalog tools, enabling the user to direct their external AIs’ tools to execute changes to ad campaigns.”

Which third-party AI tools are currently supported, and is there a formal partner program?

“As of now, the MCP server can be used with the following AI assistants:

Anthropic: Claude Web Interface (Claude.ai), Claude Desktop App, Claude Coworker

• Supported plans: Custom connectors using remote MCP (like this one) are available on Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans. Free users are limited to one custom connector. For Team and Enterprise plans, organization owners must add the connector before individual users can enable it.

OpenAI: ChatGPT Web App

• Supported plans: Custom MCP apps are available to users on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans. They are not available on the Free or Go tiers. In Business and Enterprise/Edu workspaces, administrators have granular control over which apps are enabled.

We’ll share more as we expand support for additional platforms.”

Related:

• Manage ads from an AI agent with Meta ads AI connectors – Meta
• Introducing Ads CLI: A Command-Line Interface for Meta Ads and Commerce (April 29) – Meta

From tipsheet: Meta isn’t just exposing ads to agents. It’s deciding what agents can see and do through its ad system. Whoever controls that loop, controls how AI buys media.

FINANCIALS

Dan Salmon on Meta, Google earnings

In separate notes to Wall Street investors, New Street Research analyst Dan Salmon offered his take on earnings reports for Meta and Google this week.

On Meta:

“We think investors will continue to question whether Meta is an AI winner or not and this quarter will open more questions. Whereas last quarter’s well above consensus revenue guidance gave confidence that AI investments are driving upside in “core” ad revenues, this quarter’s middling guidance (combined with higher capex) will dent confidence in that view for the time being.

With that being said, we continue to see significant opportunity for Meta to generate improved AI returns as it discovers new and innovative ways to drive ad performance and create new AI experiences primed for future monetization.”

On Google:

“19% revenue growth would have been unthinkable even a little more than half a year ago, before the DOJ Search remedies came down lightly, when ChatGPT looked like it couldn’t be stopped, and the very business model of search was being questioned. What a difference a few quarters make as Google’s vertically integrated AI stack and frontier research efforts shine through most impressively in the core Search business.

1Q26 Search & Other revenue growth was 19.1%, which compared to our estimate of 17.9% and the Street consensus of 16.3%. CBO Schindler reiterated that he sees upside to Google’s typical 20% ad coverage (i.e. searches with any ads) as generative AI experiences show a higher ratio of commercial queries relative to total queries.”

---

TECH

X re-vamps ad platform with AI

X Business announced the launch of X’s newly-revamped AI-enabled ad platform “X Ads Manager” yesterday.

The company set expectations that the launch would be a “phased rollout” and offered high-level details on what platform users can expect.

From X Business on X:

• “This transformative upgrade introduces modern retrieval and ranking systems powered by state-of-the-art AI. These systems understand user behavior at a much deeper level, enabling more precise, relevant and dynamic ad delivery that aligns with what’s happening on X in real-time. This shift toward AI-driven contextual and semantic advertising will bring meaningful lifts in relevance, engagement and ROI.”

Read: X launches the most ambitious advertising platform rebuild in its 20-year history (April 30) – X Business on X

Xai’s Head of Global Advertising Monique Pintarelli said on LinkedIn:

• “Advertisers can expect smooth, continuous improvements and a regular cadence of powerful new features as we keep pushing the platform forward. We are excited to work closely with our partners as we roll out this next-generation platform.” Read more. (April 30)

From tipsheet: A few thoughts…

• There is only way for X’s ad platform to go: up.
• Watch for anecdotal evidence of improved performance.
• Large brands participating through the platform would signal better brand safety tools for the ad platform, too.
• Other products: Is there a data ‘play’ which X’s ad platform could facilitate such as incrementality measurement? Or how about enabling the platform for AI visibility intelligence?

Related: “Former X CEO Linda Yaccarino: X is ‘The Most Consequential Platform’” (April 29) – Adweek (subscription)

TECH

DCN’s Jason Kint on Google’s latest financials

“Google earnings milestone today. Q1 marks the first time 91% of G’s ad revenue (now $300B+ per year) comes from its owned properties (search, youtube, gmail, etc) rather than the rest of web. G is now accelerating death of open web with its own search results + AI Overviews.” (April 29) – Jason Kint, CEO, Digital Content Next on X

---

MORE

• Meta is running get-rich-quick ads for its AI tools (April 30) – The Verge (subscription)
• Gartner Predicts by 2029, CFOs Who Implement Strategic AI Deployment Will Add 10 Margin Points of Growth (April 28) – Gartner
• Possible Day 2: Breaking down agentic’s impact on marketing, including multicultural – Digiday (subscription)
• Snowflake helps unlock data collaborations with consent signals from OneTrust (April 28) – Marketing Dive
• Brands are asking agencies about principal media buying at the upfronts—why they likely won’t get enough clarity (April 30) – Ad Age