Google has introduced new artificial intelligence-powered advertising tools aimed at helping Nigerian businesses track the performance of online campaigns and manage their advertising more effectively.
The company’s Director for East and West Africa, Olumide Balogun, announced this on Friday in Lagos, saying the features were part of updates to its AI Max for Search platform.
Balogun said the new Google Ads reporting feature would provide advertisers with a clearer picture of how customers interact with their search adverts by bringing search queries, ads viewed and webpages visited into a single report.
He said the feature, unveiled at DMEXCO 2026 in Cologne, Germany, would be rolled out globally, including Nigeria, later this year.
Google is also expanding AI Brief, a Gemini-powered tool that allows advertisers to guide campaigns using everyday language.
According to Balogun, businesses can use the tool to specify what their adverts should communicate, prioritise certain searches or highlight particular offers. Advertisers can also preview sample adverts and searches before campaigns go live.
The company said AI Brief is being expanded through a closed beta programme with support for seven additional languages, including Japanese, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French and Italian.
Google also announced that adverts can now appear above and below AI Overviews in more than 200 countries, including Nigeria.
Balogun encouraged Nigerian businesses preparing for Black Friday and the festive shopping season to begin planning their campaigns early.
Google Vice-President of Global Ads, Dan Taylor, said changing search habits were reshaping how businesses reached potential customers, with consumers increasingly using longer queries, voice commands and images when searching online.
Taylor said searches conducted through Google’s AI Mode were three times longer than traditional searches, while one in six searches was conducted through voice or images.
He added that AI Max, launched in 2025, had been adopted by about 500,000 advertisers globally, with users recording 27 per cent more conversions at a similar cost.
Google clarified that the performance figures were based on global data presented at DMEXCO 2026 and did not specifically represent the Nigerian market.
