Google today (Nov. 7) is rolling out generative AI features in its Performance Max ad product as a beta to all U.S. customers, per details the company shared with Marketing Dive. Executives at the tech giant detailed how early tests have gone and what marketers can expect from the asset generation features, which were first announced at Google’s Marketing Live event in May.

“We’ve heard from our customers that creating, testing and scaling assets can be one of the hardest parts of building and optimizing a cross-channel campaign,” Amanda Silvernale, global product lead at Google, said during a virtual roundtable event about features that are intended to help advertisers streamline a process that has been “such a big pain point for them in the past.”

First launched in 2021, Performance Max represented the first-ever AI-powered tool that works across all Google Ads inventory, including search, YouTube, display, Gmail, Maps and more. Since then, Google has improved the underlying AI and rolled out features that help advertisers use the tech and evaluate its performance.

“Marketers continue to turn to Performance Max to help them stay ahead of consumer trends and reach and engage customers at the right moments in time,” said Brendon Kraham, vice president of search and commerce for Google Ads, who said the platform helps advertisers meet the “dynamism” of the ad market. “Customers [are] leveraging things like Performance Max to help them maximize ROI during this critical time.”

The rollout comes as the crucial holiday marketing period is in full swing, and seeks to help advertisers navigate an increasingly fragmented media landscape. During the 2022 holiday season, more than half (54%) of shoppers used five or more channels to shop over a two-day period, per Google data, demonstrating the need for advertisers to quickly and easily generate assets for a variety of channels.

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