Google adds AI brand safety and reporting, live CTV, Buyer Direct - what to know

New monetization and AI tools for publishers

Google said the releases are designed to cut manual work, improve ad quality, and make it easier to monetize both day-to-day and peak live inventory. The tools span brand safety, reporting, support, live events, and direct deals.

Key details

• AI brand safety in Ad Manager: A new tool learns from publishers' decisions in the Ads Review Center to surface and soon automatically block unwanted ads. It builds on Ad Manager Protections and existing anti-fraud and scam defenses.
• Generative AI reporting: A natural-language generative AI reporting tool in Ad Manager creates custom reports from prompts like "Which ad units had the highest CPM last week?"
• AI Help guide: An AI-powered chat in the Ad Manager, AdMob, and AdSense help centers offers instant onboarding and troubleshooting, especially useful for smaller businesses.
• CTV live-biddable for high-viewership events: Ad Manager's new solution provides real-time audience insight at scale and live bidding access. Google is partnering with publishers and ad tech providers on standards. New features include smarter content identification and more reliable ad delivery. According to BCG, 82% of buyers expect to increase programmatic live CTV investment over the next year.
• Early results:

  "Google Ad Manager's live CTV solution allowed us to deliver high-quality streams of the FIFA Club World Cup to millions of fans globally, seamlessly transitioning between live matches and personalized ads and enabling us to monetize our premium, peak-viewership inventory."

  - DAZN

• Buyer Direct in Ad Manager: A new workflow that combines the control of traditional direct deals with programmatic efficiency, including cross-publisher frequency optimization, real-time reporting, and consolidated billing.

Background

Publishers often manage time-consuming reviews and operational tasks across ad platforms. Google says AI can reduce manual work while maintaining ad quality. The brand safety tool uses signals from the Ads Review Center and Protections, alongside existing AI systems that fight fraud and scams.

Live events drive valuable, spiky audiences, but monetizing that inventory in real time has been operationally complex. The live CTV solution aims to handle surges and overruns while supporting industry standardization.

Sources

• Ads Review Center
• Ad Manager Protections
• Ad Manager generative AI reporting tool
• BCG: Catching the next wave of revenue in live connected TV
• DAZN case study video