Google's AI Now Picks Which Product You Sell | Plus: ChatGPT Shopping Ads Arrive Too

Google's new AI-powered Shopping ads can now decide which of your products wins the click — and it's optimizing for the user, not for your margin, your brand, or your strategy. This Gemini-built format writes its own product descriptions and may re-rank which product gets shown, beyond your bid. Mike Ryan and Chris dig into what that means for retailers who suddenly have less control over what gets pushed. Plus: ChatGPT is finally bringing Product Listing Ads (PLAs) to its results — a solid first step, or a Bing-style copycat play? The real story: "more relevant to the user" is not the same as "best for the retailer." As automated channels get more aggressive at matching products to searches, advertisers risk quietly losing control of which products actually get sold. In this episode: → What Google's AI-powered Shopping ads actually are — a new format inside AI Max for Shopping, not an umbrella term  → "Intelligent product identification": how Gemini may re-rank which product is shown, beyond the bid  → The retailer's blind spot — Google optimizes for click-through rate; you optimize for the business  → The coffee-machine problem: when the highest-converting product isn't the one you need to sell  → Why the best Google Ads outcome isn't always the best business outcome  → ChatGPT's PLAs: a solid, feed-based first step — or a Bing-style copycat play?  → What OpenAI's $100B ad ambition means for what comes next The throughline: AI executes, but only you know what your business needs to achieve. The retailers who win are the ones who keep translating business goals — margin, brand priority, profitability — into the channel, instead of letting the platform decide. 📌 Growing Ecommerce is brought to you by smec (Smarter Ecommerce). We help ecommerce brands move from platform-driven to business-driven PPC — combining AI-powered software with human expertise to optimize Google Shopping and Performance Max toward real business goals. 🔗 Learn more: https://www.smarter-ecommerce.com 🎧  Subscribe so you don't miss an episode — and if this was useful, a comment or a share genuinely helps. #GrowingEcommerce #ChatGPTShoppingAds #GoogleAds #ShoppingAds #PerformanceMax #PMax #PPC #Ecommerce #GoogleShopping #PaidSearch #RetailMedia #smec **About Smarter Ecommerce (smec):** Smarter Ecommerce (smec) empowers e-commerce brands with AI-driven PPC automation that optimizes for profit and business outcomes while maintaining strategic control. The platform activates first-party data - profit margins, customer lifetime value, and key business metrics - to automate campaign optimization toward goals like profitability and efficient growth, while detailed campaign insights provide full transparency and enable PPC teams to focus on strategic oversight rather than manual execution. As a Google Premier Partner and three-time Microsoft Retail Partner of the Year, smec manages over €500 million in ad spend and drives €5B+ in annual e-commerce revenue for 350+ global retail clients including THG, Snipes, REWE, and Intersport. **Make sure to follow smec - Smarter Ecommerce for more performance marketing insights:** smec - Smarter Ecommerce: https://www.smarter-ecommerce.com LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/smarter-ecommerce-gmbh Newsletter: https://smarter-ecommerce.com/en/newsletter/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smarterecommerce/