Every Google surface eventually gets ads. Maps did it. Gmail did it.
On Friday, Waze, YouTube, and AI Mode all took another step in that direction in the same 24 hours.
Your GPS just became a billboard outside of the US, with Waze Ads expanding to 42 countries, including all 27 EU states.
The catch? Access runs only through Performance Max store goals campaigns bidding to Store Visits, Store Sales, or Local Actions Directions.
So it’s a local-intent play. Physical locations only, and barely anyone in Europe has touched it yet.
Last call for untargeted booze ads: From October 30, alcohol brands can run personalized campaigns across YouTube inventory.
That covers alcohol, alcohol-related products and alcohol alternatives, so non-alcoholic beer and spirits brands get in too. Egypt, India, Indonesia and Poland stay excluded.
Age gates stay. Health-based targeting stays banned. Google says more surfaces are coming.
The AI Mode velvet rope loosened, with Google confirming a small experiment serving exact and phrase match keywords inside AI Mode.
Until now, that inventory required AI Max, PMax, or broad match plus Smart Bidding. Eligibility is limited to explicit, direct intent.
Translation: you may already be buying AI Mode traffic. And you still can’t segment it in reporting.
