Google has introduced AI-powered advertising features to help Nigerian businesses track online ad performance, understand customer interactions and manage campaigns more effectively.
Speaking in Lagos on Friday, Google’s Director for East and West Africa, Mr Olumide Balogun, said the features, introduced under its AI Max for Search platform, include a new Google Ads reporting tool and an expanded AI Brief, a Gemini-powered tool that allows advertisers to guide campaigns using plain language.
The new reporting feature brings information on customers’ search queries, the adverts they see and the webpages they visit after clicking the ads into a single view.
Google previously stored the information across different sections of advertisers’ accounts.
Balogun said the new report would give Nigerian businesses a clearer picture of how their advertising budgets perform.
“We are excited to give Nigerian businesses a clearer view of what their advertising delivers.
“Every naira matters, especially in the weeks before Black Friday.
“With the new report, business owners will see on one screen the question a customer asked, the ad she saw and the page she landed on.
“This makes it far easier to decide where their budget works best,” he said.
Google unveiled the reporting feature at DMEXCO 2026 in Cologne, Germany, and plans to roll it out globally, including Nigeria, later in the year.
The expanded AI Brief will allow advertisers to give the system instructions in everyday language about what their advertisements should or should not communicate.
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For example, advertisers can instruct the system not to mention prices, prioritiZe specific searches or highlight particular offers for selected customer groups.
Advertisers can also preview sample adverts and searches before campaigns go live and adjust their instructions where necessary.
Google is expanding AI Brief through a closed beta programme with support for seven additional languages: Japanese, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French and Italian.
The company also announced that advertisements could now appear above and below AI Overviews in more than 200 countries, including Nigeria.
Balogun urged Nigerian businesses preparing for Black Friday and the festive shopping season to begin planning their campaigns early.
“With Black Friday on Nov. 27 and the festive season close behind, now is the time for businesses to set up their peak-season campaigns,” he said.
Google Vice-President of Global Ads, Mr Dan Taylor, said changing search habits were influencing how businesses reached potential customers online.
Taylor said consumers increasingly used longer and more detailed questions, voice commands and images when searching for products and services.
He said searches conducted through Google’s AI Mode were three times longer than traditional searches, while one in six searches used voice or images.
Taylor added that about 500,000 advertisers globally had adopted AI Max since Google introduced the product in 2025.
He said advertisers using AI Max recorded 27 per cent more conversions, including sales and enquiries, at a similar cost.
Taylor clarified that the performance figures represented global data presented at DMEXCO 2026 and did not specifically measure results from Nigerian advertisers.
DMEXCO 2026, an international digital marketing and technology conference, held in Cologne, Germany, from 23rd to 24th of September.
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