Google Shopping Visual Ads: New AI Formats for 2026

Table of contents

Summary

Google announced a wave of new visual shopping ad formats at Google Marketing Live 2026. Demand Gen campaigns can now act as a virtual storefront, showing your product catalogue on YouTube, YouTube Pause ads, and tablet devices. Vehicle feeds are coming in Q3. A new video link attribute in Merchant Center lets you attach product videos at scale. Campaigns with large product selections see a 33% conversion lift when product feeds are connected. The format is live in open beta across the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. Your feed quality is what determines whether any of this works.

Zara Imrie, Google Ads & AI Marketing Specialist, Founder of Bizi Digital

This post was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by Zara Imrie.

What changed at Google Marketing Live 2026 {#what-changed}

Google used GML 2026 to push shopping formats further into video and discovery territory.

The headline shift: Demand Gen campaigns can now pull directly from your Merchant Center product feed and turn YouTube into something close to a scrollable storefront. Not a new idea in principle, but the reach is bigger now. More surfaces, more verticals, more devices.

If you want the full picture of what Google announced, read my Google Marketing Live 2026 overview. This post is specifically about the shopping and feed changes.

The stat that matters: Google’s own data shows Demand Gen campaigns with more than 50 products in their feed see a 33% increase in conversions on average when product feeds are connected. That’s from campaigns active since Q1 2024, measured May to June 2025, across global markets.

33% is not a rounding error.

Why your product feed is now your most important creative asset {#feed-as-creative}

Here’s what most owner-led retailers miss.

They see a shiny new ad format, assume it’s a design problem, and either hire someone to make graphics or ignore it entirely. But Google’s visual shopping formats don’t run off custom creative. They run off your product feed. The image, the title, the price, the product video if you’ve added one. That’s what Google pulls. That’s what the shopper sees.

A few months back I was auditing a mid-size homeware brand, spending around £12k a month on Google Ads. Solid budget. Their Shopping performance was mediocre. When I looked at the feed, the product titles were a mess. “Vase – Blue – Large” instead of anything a shopper would actually search for. Images cropped oddly. No additional attributes. They’d been handing Google a weak brief and wondering why results were weak.

Feed quality is the creative lever. Always was, but it matters even more now that these formats are pulling into YouTube and pause ads.

If your titles are vague, your images are inconsistent, or your descriptions are copied from a supplier, the new formats won’t save you. They’ll just show your weak data on more screens.

What’s actually new: the formats and surfaces {#whats-new}

Here’s what Google confirmed at GML 2026.

More surfaces for Demand Gen product feeds

Your Merchant Center catalogue can now appear across YouTube in-stream ads, YouTube Pause ads (the static overlay that shows when someone pauses a video), and tablet devices. Previously tablet was not included. This is rolling out in open beta from Q2 2026 across the UK, US, Canada, and Australia, English language first.

Vehicle feeds in Q3 2026

Auto dealers and vehicle retailers, this one’s for you. Vehicle feeds become eligible for product feeds in Demand Gen campaigns in Q3 2026. That means cars, vans, and commercial vehicles can start showing up in the same visual storefront format. Worth getting your Merchant Center vehicle feed in shape now, ahead of the rollout.

New video link attribute in Merchant Center

This is the most practical update for brands that already produce short product videos.

Google is adding a new video_link attribute to the Merchant Center feed. You add a URL pointing to a product video and Google can feature that video across Demand Gen formats at scale. No need to manually attach a video to each individual ad. You set it once in the feed and it applies across your catalogue.

For brands with 100+ SKUs, this is a real time saver. For brands that don’t have product videos yet, it’s a reason to start making them. Short, clean, 15 to 30 seconds, product-focused. They don’t need to be polished brand films.

How to connect it

The setup is straightforward. Link your existing Merchant Center feed to your Demand Gen campaigns. Google pulls the product data automatically. If you’re already running Merchant Center for Shopping campaigns, you’re most of the way there.

For more on the AI-driven campaign side of this, see my post on AI Max Shopping campaigns.

What ecommerce advertisers need to do right now {#action-items}

You don’t need to overhaul everything. But a few things are worth doing before these formats fully roll out.

1. Audit your product titles

Your titles are doing double duty now: informing search queries AND appearing as the visible text in visual ad units. They need to be descriptive, specific, and front-loaded with what matters. Brand, product type, key attributes. Not internal SKU codes, not vague labels.

A bad title: “Women’s Top – Red”
A better title: “Joules Women’s Red Striped Cotton Jersey Top”

Do this for your top 20% of products first. That’s usually where 80% of your spend goes.

2. Fix your images

Google’s visual formats live and die on image quality. White or clean backgrounds, product filling at least 75% of the frame, no watermarks, no promotional text overlaid on the image. Check Merchant Center diagnostics for image disapprovals. They’re often silent killers sitting in the background.

3. Add the video link attribute when it goes live

If you have product videos already, set a reminder to add the video_link attribute when Google opens it up. If you don’t have videos yet, short lifestyle clips shot on a phone are a fine starting point. The attribute is designed to scale, not to showcase production budgets.

4. Expand your product selection in Demand Gen

If you’re running Demand Gen campaigns with fewer than 50 products connected, you’re leaving that 33% conversion lift on the table. Pull in more of your catalogue. Let Google’s matching do the work.

5. Connect Merchant Center to Demand Gen if you haven’t already

Go into your Demand Gen campaign settings, find the product feed section, and link your Merchant Center account. It takes about 3 minutes if your accounts are already linked at the MCC level.

FAQ {#faq}

What is the video link attribute in Google Merchant Center?

It’s a new feed attribute, rolling out in 2026, that lets you attach a product video URL to each item in your feed. When Google surfaces that product in Demand Gen visual formats, it can show the video automatically, without you needing to upload separate video assets for each ad.

Do I need a separate video campaign to use these new Shopping formats?

No. The new visual formats run through Demand Gen campaigns connected to your Merchant Center feed. You don’t need a standalone video campaign. The product feed connection is what powers the visual storefront experience on YouTube and other surfaces.

Are Google Shopping visual search ads available in the UK?

Yes. The open beta includes the UK alongside the US, Canada, and Australia. It’s rolling out from Q2 2026, English language only at launch.

When will vehicle feeds work with Demand Gen product feeds?

Google confirmed vehicle feeds become eligible in Q3 2026. If you’re in automotive, now is the time to get your Merchant Center vehicle feed set up and clean.

My product feed is a mess. Where do I start?

Start with your titles and primary images on your top 20 products. Get those right first. Then work through Merchant Center diagnostics for any active disapprovals. A clean feed on your best sellers will move the needle faster than a half-cleaned full catalogue.

Get your Shopping campaigns ready

If you’re not sure whether your current feed and campaign structure will take advantage of these new formats, a Google Ads audit is the fastest way to find out.

I look at feed quality, campaign structure, and where the gaps are. Not a generic report. Specific recommendations for your account.

Book a Google Ads audit or get in touch if you want to talk through what these changes mean for your campaigns.

Last updated: 21 May 2026

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