Google puts more search controls in its AI ads

Google made a significant change to its most recognizable AI ad product, called Performance Max, so marketers can use search terms to target the ads. Some advertisers hailed the change, announced Thursday, since it gives them some more control and reporting over Performance Max campaigns. Google added what it called “search themes” to Performance Max campaigns, so marketers can add up to 25 topics that will help guide when ads run inside certain search queries. Performance Max has become one of Google’s most important ad products, changing how advertising works across search, Gmail, YouTube and Maps. The ad product, also known as PMax, was launched in 2020, and advertisers have gravitated toward it. More Google news: Pixel’s approach to creator marketing There have been concerns that the AI behind the PMax campaigns is inscrutable, though. Marketers don’t control all the creative and targeting, and they get limited insights and measurement about the campaigns. “We’ve heard you want more ways to share your expertise with Google AI,” Google wrote in its announcement about adding search themes. Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2023 Ad spending, rankings and analysis for the top 100 advertisers Click here Before this update, Performance Max looked at assets provided by the marketer, including analyzing their websites and product catalogs, and the AI then determined the best place for ads across its properties. The shortcoming was that the assets in the system might not have all the latest information a marketer wants to use to target an upcoming campaign. For example, a museum having a special event may want to reach people searching for “outdoor recreation” or “activities for children.” Google’s AI on its own won’t pick that up, but the marketer knows those searches are relevant. Now, the marketer can add those to the data that PMax uses for targeting. “Google heard our urge for more control and allows us now to target more precisely inside a fully automated campaign type,” said Thomas Eccel, a senior performance marketing manager at Jung von Matt IMPACT, an ad services firm in Zürich. On Tuesday, Google released its third quarter results, touting PMax ads as one of the key areas of growth in its search ad business, which posted 11% year-over-year revenue growth, to $44 billion. Google’s total third-quarter ad revenue rose 9.5% to $59.6 billion.Google will “continue to build other new PMax features based on all the advertiser feedback we’re seeing. So we are very, very encouraged by the progress here,” Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, said during the company’s quarterly conference call. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Having more control AI-powered ads are becoming more ubiquitous across digital platforms, including those from Meta, Microsoft, which owns LinkedIn and Bing, and Amazon. Meta has a similar ad product to Google’s PMax known as Advantage+. The automation is making it easier to generate campaigns, but it’s also taking some of the levers away from marketers who rely more on the machines to do the work. “You give up so much control to Google,” said Calla Murphy, VP of digital strategy and integrated marketing at Belardi Wong, the performance marketing agency, “because we’re not adding in keywords and what products get promoted.” More AI ad news: How AI can increase CTV ad attention “PMax can be very challenging for clients that have a really large assortment of products,” Murphy said, “say, a large home décor brand that sells tabletop accessories, $3,000 sofas, bedding, where that assortment is so broad.” With more control over the search themes, marketers could train the AI to target campaigns, Murphy said, since the marketer has more knowledge about their product set and keywords that work. Belardi Wong has more than 300 marketing clients, and the amount of spend going toward PMax campaigns is surging, Murphy said. Across clients, PMax represented 68% of their spend on Google so far this year, compared to 52% last year, Murphy said. Marketers still run traditional search campaigns, where they micromanage their keywords strategy, now that can help inform their PMax campaigns, advertisers said.

Google puts more search controls in its AI ads

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