Two gift candles. Same price. One gets the tap.
Since Oct 12, Google AI Mode shows Merchant Center promotions inside its Shopping ads. A brand with no promotion set up can lose on a badge, not on the product.
Picture a shopper asking Google’s AI Mode for a cozy gift under $40. Two near-identical candles show up in the Shopping ads. Same price. Same look. One carries a small badge: “Buy 2, get 15% off.” She taps that one.
The shopper and the candles are made up. The badge is real.
What changed on Oct 12
According to Common Thread Collective, an ecommerce agency, Google began showing promotion badges in AI Mode Shopping ads on Oct 12, 2026, the same way they already show in Shopping ads on the regular results page. A shopper who taps the badge sees the full deal before the product page.
If your promotions are already in Merchant Center, they start showing in AI Mode with no extra setup. If they are not, there is no badge to show.
The other brand lost on a badge
The brand without the badge did not lose on product, price or reviews. It lost on a promotion it never set up. If your deal lives only on your website, AI Mode has no badge to show.
A second change the same day
The same report says Google also launched automated promotions on Oct 12. Google scans your website and attaches promotion assets to eligible Search and Performance Max campaigns, unless you switch it off. The first change shows deals you set up. The second writes them for you, in Google’s words, not yours.
Google checks the deal first
Google reviews every promotion against its policies and editorial rules before showing it. Common Thread Collective says review takes 24 to 72 hours, and that a deal that does not work in the cart gets turned down. Promotions show in 13 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia and India.
Black Friday is Friday, Nov 27. Allowing 72 hours, a Black Friday deal should be in Merchant Center by Tuesday, Nov 24 at the latest. Earlier is safer, so there is time to fix a rejection.
Small gaps decide who gets picked
This is how AI shopping works now. Price, stock, shipping, returns and offers all sit in your product data. Google’s own advice for ads in AI Overviews is to keep descriptions, pricing and promotion offers, shipping and returns up to date. Each gap is a reason for the AI to show someone else.
Set it up before the rush
Five checks. Tick them off as you go.
How Shopthru.ai helps
Shopthru.ai is an AI agents team for consumer brands. It asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI, Perplexity and Copilot what your shoppers ask, finds where AI gets your products, prices or policies wrong, and drafts each fix into an approval inbox. It ships only on your yes, then checks again. Instagram and Amazon are next.