What Is the Google Ads AI Image Generator?

The generator sits inside campaign setup, in the asset generation panel. You paste the URL you want people to land on. Google reads that page to work out what you sell, then suggests and generates assets on the next screen: headlines, descriptions, long headlines, images, logos and your business name.

Google has widened where it runs. Asset generation is available in Performance Max, Demand Gen, Display and App campaigns, and in German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Italian on top of English.

The image editor does more than make pictures from scratch. Google's description of it is that you can generate new images, replace image backgrounds, auto-enhance images, and create all the image sizes you need to reach audiences across Google's channels. For an ecom store, that last one is often the real win: one product shot becomes every aspect ratio PMax asks for, without opening a design tool.

Three worth knowing before you use it, all from Google's own page on generated images.

Every image is marked. "All images generated by Google Ads include mechanisms that allow them to be identified as generated, such as an open-standard markup", plus "SynthID, which is an imperceptible, digital watermark that's resistant to manipulations". You cannot pass a generated image off as a photograph, and you should not try.

You choose, and you are responsible. Google's line is "You're in control. When you generate images or when Google automatically suggests generated images, you can decide which ones you want to add to your campaigns", and it puts the duty on the advertiser to make sure "generated images are accurate before adding them to a campaign".

Some things are simply blocked. "Generation of images within sensitive categories, such as prominent likeness and minors or children isn't allowed." Adult faces are allowed, for lifestyle shots. Google also says it is designed not to auto-suggest generated images for sensitive verticals such as political or pharmaceutical ads.

The real risk is the picture not matching the product.

Google's Merchant Center rules prohibit offering "products that you don't have or can't deliver" and set the baseline as "Deliver what customers paid for". An AI lifestyle shot showing a colourway, a size or an accessory that is not in the box is two problems at once. It is a returns problem, and it is a policy problem, and the policy one stops every Shopping ad you have. So use it for backgrounds, scenes, and resizing what you actually photographed. Do not use it to invent the product.

Scaley AI does not generate images. There is no image generation anywhere in the plan. We build Scaley, so weigh that. What Scaley does is help you work out which products are worth the creative effort. It sorts your catalogue by what each product actually earns and how fast it moves, and it names the ones quietly burning budget, so you spend your shoot day on the winners and leave the rest alone. It writes nothing until you approve it. The track record behind it is ZenoX Media's, our sister Google Ads agency, which generated $200M+ in revenue for 300+ ecom brands.

Where something else wins outright: your hero products. For the twenty SKUs that carry the account, a real photographer or designer still beats a prompt, and it is not close. Generated assets are for the long tail you would otherwise never shoot.

Yes. Google calls them image assets, and they let you add pictures to your text ads on Search. Not every account gets them. Google lists the rules: the account has been open at least 60 days, has a good policy record, has spent on Search in the last 30 days, and is not in a sensitive category.

The specs are simple. A square image at 1:1 is required, 1200 x 1200 recommended and 300 x 300 minimum. A landscape image at 1.91:1 is optional, 1200 x 628 recommended. PNG or JPG, up to 5120 KB. You can add up to 20 images per campaign, and Google suggests at least 4.

Performance Max, Demand Gen and Display take images too, with their own specs. Our Performance Max answer lists those.

Shopping images come from your product feed, not from the generator, and Merchant Center is strict about them. From January 31, 2027, Google asks for at least 500 x 500 pixels. It already suggests around 1500 x 1500 or more. No file over 16 MB.

The bans matter more than the sizes. No promotional text or overlays, like a price or a call to action. No watermarks, logos laid over the product, barcodes or QR codes. No borders. No placeholder or generic image that does not show the product. Break those and the product can be disapproved, which means it cannot show at all.

So for Shopping, the best image is a clean, true photo of the exact product. Save the generated scenes for Performance Max and Demand Gen assets.