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  • Google is generating your ad copy. You didn't write it.

Google is generating your ad copy. You didn't write it.

AI is writing your product ads right now. Your Merchant Center feed is the brief.

The Speed Read

  • Google launched Universal Cart at Marketing Live — native checkout across Search, YouTube, and Gemini. A shopper can find your product in an AI Mode result and buy it without ever hitting your site.

  • Google's AI Explainers are generating product descriptions inside your ad units from your Merchant Center feed data. You don't write the copy. You don't approve it.

  • OpenAI launched product feed campaigns for ChatGPT ads. Connect your catalog and the platform auto-generates ads from your product names, images, and attributes. Measurement is impressions and clicks only, no conversion attribution yet.

  • Amazon Dynamic TV Creative is live for US advertisers in CPG, fashion, and electronics. Prime Video ads now personalize in real time based on each viewer's Amazon shopping signals. CTV conversions grew 200%+ year-over-year in Q1.

Your Feed Is Writing Your Ads Now

Most of the AI conversation in media is about bidding and targeting. The part that's actually urgent right now is copywriting.

Google launched two things at Marketing Live that most brands didn't fully clock. Universal Cart is the one that got the attention: native checkout across Search, YouTube, and Gemini, so a buyer can complete a purchase without ever hitting your site.

The less-covered announcement was AI Explainers.

When your product shows up in Google AI Mode, Gemini writes a product description and runs it inside your ad. From your Merchant Center data. You don't see it before it goes live.

Google AI Mode is already serving ads in 25% of its results, up 394% year-over-year. Those placements pull from your existing Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. No opt-in. If you're running either, you're already in.

So: open your Merchant Center and look at your product titles. Actually look. Are they written for a shopper who has never heard of your brand, or for an internal SKU system?

I've seen feeds where the title is literally "PRDT-4492-BLU-M." That's what Gemini is writing the ad from.

A few things worth doing before next week. Pull your feed and read the titles and descriptions out loud as a stranger to your brand. Rewrite anything that doesn't hold up. Then check your Search Impression Share report for AI Mode placement data — you should know what's showing up and where.

One more: Google is retiring Dynamic Search Ads in September and auto-upgrading them to AI Max. Their timeline, not yours. If you haven't started planning that transition, three months goes fast.

If you want a second opinion on your Google setup before AI Mode makes more decisions for you, that's what we do.

ChatGPT Is Doing the Same Thing

Product feed campaigns are live in ChatGPT. Connect your catalog, set filters for which products are eligible, and the platform generates ads from your product names, images, and descriptions. No manual ad creation. Same mechanic as Google: the copy comes from your data.

The difference is where the channel is in its life cycle. Google AI Mode is already at scale. ChatGPT ads are still early. The platform is doing $109 million a month in ad revenue and CPCs are low right now in a way they won't be once every DTC brand catches up.

Measurement is light — impressions and clicks, no conversion attribution yet. That's the real reason most brands are holding off.

The problem is that's exactly what Meta looked like in 2013. The brands that waited for clean measurement on Meta spent years playing catch-up to the ones who didn't.

If your catalog is clean and you can set aside $5,000 to $10,000 this quarter, the window is open. It probably won't be this wide for long.

Quick Takes

Amazon Dynamic TV Creative is live. For Prime Video, Amazon can now adjust headline, CTA, and product details in real time based on each viewer's shopping history. Available now for CPG, fashion, and electronics brands selling on Amazon — live sports inventory comes in Q3. CTV conversions on the platform grew over 200% year-over-year in Q1 2026. If you're still booking that inventory as pure brand awareness, the numbers are making a different case.

Three holdcos are auditing The Trade Desk. Publicis told clients to stop using the platform after a third-party audit found fees applied beyond what was contractually authorized. Dentsu and WPP had already exited TTD's OpenPath product. If you use a programmatic partner, it's worth asking them to walk you through the fee line items in your current contract. Short conversation. Should be easy to have.

AdSense back button trigger: June 15. Four days. If you manage any publisher sites with vignette ads, the revenue change is automatic and silent. Get ahead of the conversation before clients see it in their June numbers.

The Last Word

AI isn't coming for your media buyers. It came for your copywriters first, and it was quiet about it.

Your product feed is now a performance asset on at least three ad platforms. Most brands are still treating it like a backend admin task.

That gap is the opportunity, if you move on it first.

Know someone who should be reading this?

If this was useful, forward it to one person managing media budgets who doesn't have time to read everything. That's exactly who this is for.