Google brings Gemini deeper into ads business, unveils BrandStack and Business Agent for Leads in India

Google used its annual Marketing Live conclave in New Delhi to lay out how deep Gemini now runs through its ads business, announcing a clutch of new tools built specifically to help Indian brands find and convert customers on Search and YouTube.The company said 93% of consumer journeys in India—the moment someone discovers a new brand, product or service—now touch Google or YouTube at some point, based on an Ipsos study it commissioned. That number is the backdrop for a set of launches Google is pitching as a shift from marketing automation to what it's calling marketing intelligence.

What's new for brands hunting leads and scale

The headline launch is Business Agent for Leads, now in beta in India. It embeds a chatbot trained on an advertiser's own website directly inside a Search ad, letting shoppers ask questions before a lead form even shows up.

EdTech platform upGrad is already testing it, using the agent to field routine student queries around the clock so its counselors spend more time on actual conversions instead of cold calls.On the video side, YouTube BrandStack—which Google says was conceptualized and built in India—rolls campaign planning, buying and measurement into one system instead of treating brand awareness and performance marketing as separate tracks.

Axis Max Life Insurance was the first to run it, pairing BrandStack with YouTube Connected TV through this year's cricket season. The insurer's ecommerce head, Sameer Jain, said the approach drove "a phenomenal 43% higher business growth" through AI Max and Performance Max on Search, alongside an 18.4% jump in branded search queries and 23% high-quality leads from the YouTube push.

Shopping and measurement get an AI layer too

Retailers get their own upgrade with AI Max for Shopping Campaigns, extending last year's AI Max for Search—already used by MakeMyTrip, Myntra and Nykaa—to Merchant Center's product feeds.

A new AI Brief tool, in beta, lets advertisers type campaign goals in plain language and have Gemini translate that into ad creative and targeting.Google is also folding its open-source Marketing Mix Model, Meridian, directly into Google Analytics 360, and introducing a new metric called Attributed Branded Searches to track how a YouTube ad translates into someone searching for that brand later. Cars24 used the beta version and reported 2X incremental searches at a 7% lower customer acquisition cost from its YouTube Shorts campaigns.Roma Datta Chobey, who heads connected consumer commerce at Google India, said the company sees Gemini becoming less of a backend tool and more of what she called a strategic growth partner for marketers navigating an increasingly conversational, AI-driven search landscape.