Google Marketing Live 2026: AI Max, Maps Ads & the End of Display | 29 May 2026
On this episode of PPC in the Trenches, Jeremy Yang and Frances Suarez go through everything that changed at Google Marketing Live 2026 and what it actually means for people running paid ads.
Jeremy Yang is the founder of Australian digital ads agency Digital Goliath, and both he and Frances are managing around $500,000 a month in ad spend. They cover PMAX Maps-only ads, the constant push from reps to turn on AI Max, and Google auto-generating video ads from your assets even when the AI features are switched off.
The conversation also covers the death of Display and dynamic search ads, AI Max moving into Google Merchant Center for shopping, the new AI Brief for adding natural language and exclusions, Meta's creative loading changes, and where ChatGPT ads are heading with a $26 billion forecast for the year ahead.
If you run Google or Meta ads, or you're just trying to keep up with how much is shifting toward AI, this one's worth a watch.
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⏰ Timecodes ⏰
0:00 Intro
0:57 PMax Maps-only ads, and how to get them to actually serve
3:15 Comparable data for YouTube vs inflated Facebook numbers
5:00 Google auto-generating video ads from your assets
7:00 The death of Display and dynamic search ads
8:38 Getting ads into AI Mode means turning on AI Max
9:52 Final URL customization, guardrails and the new AI Brief
11:46 AI Max for Shopping moving into Merchant Center
13:15 The "Google favours advertisers week to week" theory
15:04 The AI Max vs PMax comparison the team built
16:47 Meta creative changes and the "Meta tanked" rumours
17:53 ChatGPT ads, the $26B forecast, and everything becoming ads
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Learn more about Jeremy Yang on LinkedIn ➡️ / jeremy-yang
Listen to our other podcast, Marketing & AI for SMEs ➡️ https://pod.link/aHR0cHM6Ly9hcGkucml2...
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Website ➡️ https://digitalgoliath.com.au/
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