Google Launches AI-Powered Marketing Tools in India

Google Expands Presence in India

Google has launched a suite of its AI-powered advertising tools in India, which debuted in the U.S. in May, as the repeal of the so-called ‘Google tax’ has made the South Asian market more attractive to global tech firms selling online ads.

In March, the Indian government scrapped its 6% levy on digital advertisements, effective in April, as a move to address some of the trade concerns raised by the Trump administration. The United States Trade Representative had criticised the levy by calling it ‘discriminatory and unreasonable,’ as domestic companies were exempt.

On Thursday, Google hosted the local version of its Marketing Live event to debut its AI-powered tools for Indian marketers. One of the tools is ‘Generated for You’, available within Product Studio, that identifies relevant content opportunities across shopping catalogs and pre-generates images and videos via AI that merchants can save or publish across Google platforms.

Another tool is an opt-in feature called Smart Bidding Exploration in search campaigns, which is built on existing Smart Bidding and uses AI to find newer, qualified leads that merchants wouldn’t have captured or bid on typically. Plus, Google introduced new agentic capabilities in Google Ads and Analytics.

Google brought AI Max for Search Campaigns, which aims to enhance search ad campaign performance by identifying more relevant and high-performing search queries by learning from brands’ landing pages, their existing ads, and existing keyword lists. Indian online marketplace for used electronics goods, Cashify, saw its conversions up by 15% and customer acquisition costs reduced by 12% after deploying AI Max during its early testing, Google said.

Google also announced that ads will start appearing on AI Overviews in India later this year. Additionally, the company has introduced its shoppable connected TV ads on YouTube in India. YouTube’s masthead on mobile will now also start serving ads in the country.

India’s digital advertising presence is growing, as the world’s second-largest internet market continues to see more users come online. The country’s digital ad market is projected to grow over 20% year-over-year, reaching nearly $7 billion by the end of 2025, per a recent Dentsu Digital Advertising report.