How Google’s AI will help brands in ads and search

Google yesterday unveiled its latest AI developments for advertisers, including new ways for brands to customize ads in campaign manager Performance Max, as well as a first look at how ads will play a role in recent updates to AI-guided Search. The features, announced during Google’s annual Marketing Live conference, follow products that Google unveiled last week, including “AI Overview,” which injects AI-generated text and images at the top of search results. Google first launched generative search in early 2023, for which it released experimental ad formats during last year’s Marketing Live conference. Meanwhile, other tech giants are jostling to marry AI power with advertising use cases. Meta has been prolific in this department over the past year, most recently launching a tool that automates images, headlines and ad copy. And OpenAI, which just released its new ChatGPT-4o model, has taken aim at opportunities in Search via deals with Reddit and Dotdash Meredith. As for the king of search, Google launched AI Overview primarily to help consumers acquire information more quickly, but advertisers will soon be able to leverage its prime real estate. Google will begin testing the placement of Search and Shopping ads in Overview when they’re relevant to both the Overview’s information and the user’s query. The ads will appear inside Overview in a clearly marked “sponsored” section. Google is also testing a new dynamic ad experience in Search that will help guide users through their purchase journeys. When a user clicks on an ad, a Google AI assistant may request more information, such as images and budget, in order to recommend products personalized to their interest. This guidance may include a website link to complete the purchase decision. And new visual profiles will summarize a brand’s ethos and offerings at the top of Search, to help consumers get a quick sense of what the brand is about. These profiles, which are rolling out in phases in the coming months, will highlight product and brand imagery, videos, customer reviews, current promotions and shipping policies. Search ads will continue to appear alongside them. In Performance Max, which uses AI to decide how to target a brand’s ads, advertisers can now share brand materials, such as font and color guidelines and other image reference points, in order to build more curated assets. And new image editing capabilities will allow brands to further adapt their ads for diverse formats and thus more effective targeting. Google also rolled out new ad formats for retailers, most notably the option to connect short videos, either created by the brand itself or a creator, to Search ads. Shoppers will be able to see how apparel fits on different body types, view styling suggestions and discover related products. AI-generated summaries of the videos will also be provided. The feature will begin a closed beta stage later this year.

How Google’s AI will help brands in ads and search

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