Technology company Google says it has unveiled new Artificial Intelligence-powered advertising features to assist Nigerian businesses in better tracking the performance of their online adverts and managing campaigns.
Mr. Olumide Balogun, Google’s Director for East and West Africa, announced this in a statement on Friday in Lagos. Balogun said the features, introduced under its AI Max for Search platform, would give advertisers clearer information on customer interactions with Search ads.
He explained that the updates comprise a new Google Ads reporting feature and an expansion of AI Brief—a Gemini-powered tool that allows advertisers to guide campaigns using plain language.
According to him, the reporting feature brings together information on what customers searched for, the adverts they saw, and the webpages they subsequently visited. This data, which was previously accessed from different sections of Google Ads accounts, will now appear in a single consolidated view.
“We are excited to give Nigerian businesses a clearer view of what their advertising delivers,” Balogun said. “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 noted that the reporting feature, unveiled at DMEXCO 2026 in Cologne, Germany, will be rolled out globally, including to Nigeria, later in the year.
Balogun added that AI Brief would allow businesses to specify, in everyday language, what their advertisements should or should not communicate. For instance, an advertiser could instruct the system not to mention prices, to prioritize particular searches, or to highlight specific offers to certain categories of customers. Advertisers can preview sample adverts and searches before campaigns go live and adjust their instructions where necessary.
AI Brief is currently being expanded as a closed beta, adding support for seven additional languages: Japanese, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and Italian. Google also announced that advertisements can now appear above and below AI Overviews in more than 200 countries, including Nigeria.
With Black Friday approaching on Nov. 27 and the festive shopping season close behind, Balogun urged Nigerian businesses to begin planning their peak-season campaigns early.
Commenting at DMEXCO, Google’s Vice-President of Global Ads, Mr. Dan Taylor, noted that changing search habits are heavily influencing how businesses reach potential customers online. Taylor said consumers increasingly use longer, more detailed questions, voice commands, and images when searching for products and services.
He highlighted that searches conducted through Google’s AI Mode are three times longer than traditional searches, with one in six searches now made through voice or images.
Taylor added that AI Max, introduced in 2025, has been adopted by approximately 500,000 advertisers globally. Advertisers using the product recorded 27 percent more conversions—including sales and inquiries—at a similar cost. However, Taylor clarified that these performance figures reflect global data presented at DMEXCO 2026 and are not specific to Nigeria.
DMEXCO 2026 is an international digital marketing and technology conference held annually in Cologne, Germany.
- NAN
