Monday Briefing: Google Just Put Ads Inside Your AI Conversation

Good morning, it's James here. Last week, Google made a move that every CMO running paid search needs to understand. The company launched shopping ads inside AI Mode, meaning your brand can now show up in the middle of an AI-generated conversation. Whether that's a gift or a Pandora's box depends entirely on how you play it.

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The Lead: Google Puts Shopping Ads Inside AI Conversations

On Tuesday, Google officially launched a new shopping ad format built for AI Mode, its conversational search interface that now reaches over 75 million daily active users (PPC Land). Ads appear as "clearly labeled as sponsored" product cards that fit inside the conversation when someone is actively comparing products.

What's actually happening: When a user asks AI Mode something like "what's the best running shoe for flat feet under $150," Google will now surface sponsored product results alongside its AI-generated answer. Users can also buy directly from Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart inside the Gemini chatbot, with Shopify merchants getting checkout integration too.

Why CMOs should care: This isn't another ad placement. It's a fundamentally different buying context. Users compose queries 2-3x longer in AI Mode than in standard search, which means intent signals are richer and more specific. If your brand isn't optimized for conversational product queries, you're invisible in a channel that 75 million people are already using daily.

The take: Google is making a bet that ads inside AI conversations won't erode trust the way they did in traditional search. Maybe. But the timing is worth noting. This announcement dropped the same week Anthropic's anti-ad Super Bowl campaign delivered the biggest user boost of any AI company (more on that below). Users are telling us they value ad-free AI. Google is telling us it doesn't care. That tension will define how this plays out.

By The Numbers

11%: the jump in Anthropic's daily active users after its Super Bowl ad that explicitly mocked ChatGPT for running ads. Claude cracked the top 10 free apps on the App Store. By comparison, ChatGPT saw a 2.7% bump and Gemini added just 1.4% (CNBC, Feb 13, data via BNP Paribas).

What this means: The AI platform war just got its first real consumer brand moment. Anthropic spent millions to position Claude as the AI that respects you enough not to sell to you. It worked. Whether that positioning holds as Anthropic scales remains to be seen, but the data is clear: consumers responded 4x more to an anti-ad message than to the ad-supported incumbents. If you're evaluating AI tools for your marketing stack, user trust is now a feature, not a footnote.

What I'm Watching

Threads quietly launched something genuinely novel on Tuesday: "Dear Algo." Users can now type "Dear Algo, show me more posts about podcasts" (or whatever they want) in a public post, and the algorithm will adjust their feed for three days (TechCrunch, Feb 11). You can even repost someone else's Dear Algo request to try their feed preferences. It's live in the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand (Meta, Feb 11).

Why this matters beyond the novelty: Meta is turning algorithm frustration into a feature. Every platform gets complaints about feed quality. Meta's response is to let users steer the car. For brands, this creates a new dynamic: if enough users explicitly request your category, you get organic distribution you didn't have to pay for. Watch whether "Dear Algo" posts about specific topics start trending. That's a signal worth tracking.

The Reading List

• "How the Super Bowl Breaks All the Advertising Rules" — Mark Ritson on why mass reach, emotion, and creative still work when everyone says otherwise. Essential reading after last week's game.

• "10 AI Marketing Trends for 2026" — Shiv Singh in Adweek on why operational execution is commoditizing and strategy is all that's left. The agentic workflows section is the one to underline.

• "'A Brand Trip': How the Creator Economy Showed Up at the Super Bowl" — Digiday on how brands turned Super Bowl suites into creator activations. One agency's Super Bowl business grew 25% YoY. The economics of creator marketing at tentpole events are shifting fast.

• "Meta's Threads Ads Arrive Fast, But Advertisers Move at Their Own Pace" — With 400M+ monthly users and a global ad rollout underway, Threads is no longer optional. Digiday on what early adopters are learning.

One More Thing

TikTok launched "Local Feeds" on Wednesday, its first new U.S. feature since the ownership transition (MediaPost, Feb 12). It's a location-based discovery tab showing travel, events, restaurants, and local creators. Users 18+ only, defaults to off.

The strategic read: TikTok under new ownership isn't retreating. It's expanding into local commerce and discovery, territory that Google and Meta have owned for years. If you run local or regional marketing, this is worth a test budget before everyone else catches on.

See you next Monday. Make it count.

—James