Global technology giant Google has unveiled new artificial intelligence-powered tools designed to assist Nigerian businesses in monitoring online advertisement performance and optimising marketing campaigns ahead of the festive shopping period.
Unveiled at the DMEXCO 2026 conference in Cologne, Germany, the updates include enhanced reporting capabilities within the AI Max for Search platform and an expansion of AI Brief, a Gemini-driven feature enabling advertisers to control campaign messaging using conversational language.
The new reporting feature aggregates details regarding search queries, displayed advertisements, and landing page visits into a unified interface, replacing the previous system that required navigating multiple sections of Google Ads accounts. The capability will launch globally, including in Nigeria, later this year.
Speaking in Lagos on Friday, Google Director for East and West Africa, Mr Olumide Balogun, highlighted the commercial value of the tools for local firms preparing for peak shopping events.
“Every naira matters, especially in the weeks before Black Friday,” Balogun said, noting that displaying search questions, ads, and landing pages on a single screen helps business owners decide where their budget works best.
Balogun urged Nigerian companies to prepare early for upcoming retail events, pointing out that Black Friday falls on 27 November. He explained that the expanded AI Brief tool allows businesses to provide explicit instructions in simple language, such as excluding pricing details, prioritising specific search terms, or tailoring promotions to selected customer segments, with options to review sample ads before launch.
The AI Brief feature is entering a closed beta phase with support for seven new languages, including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, and Japanese. Additionally, Google announced that advertisements will now feature above and below AI Overviews across more than 200 countries and territories, including Nigeria.
Shift in consumer behaviour is driving these technological adjustments, according to Google Vice-President of Global Ads, Mr Dan Taylor. Taylor revealed at DMEXCO that users are employing longer queries, voice inputs, and image searches, with Google AI Mode searches averaging three times the length of standard text queries, and one in six searches now utilizing voice or visual inputs.
Taylor added that approximately 500,000 advertisers worldwide have adopted AI Max since its 2025 launch, achieving a 27 per cent increase in conversions at comparable costs. He clarified that these figures reflect global performance metrics rather than Nigeria-specific data.