AI and Google advertising: What’s next?

AI is impacting every aspect of Google, including SEO and Google Ads. 

In a recent article in Search Engine Land, Anna Crowe masterfully discussed the impact of generative AI on SEO. It’s a great article, and I encourage you to read it if you haven’t already.

I want to expand on what Crowe wrote, focusing on AI’s impact on Google advertising, both now and in the future. 

The impact of generative AI on search volume and CTRs

One of the most startling findings in Crowe’s article is that AI is increasing Google search volume, but organic listings aren’t benefiting from that increase. 

Crowe estimates that search volume is up 6 times searches per day (thanks to AI), yet AI is leading to a 60% decrease in average CTR.

This, in turn, could lead to a 30% reduction in organic traffic.

In Crowe’s words, “Every single website is going to feel the pain.” 

Why aren’t organic listings benefiting from the increased search volume? Because organic listings are being moved further down the SERPs than ever before. 

Google’s introduction of AI Overviews on SERPs is one of the main contributors to this phenomenon.

If you haven’t seen them yet, here’s what these AI Overviews look like on SERPs:

As of this writing, AI Overviews have been rolled out only to U.S.-based searchers. 

As you can see, AI Overviews push organic results further down the page. Consequently, organic listings – even those with top search rankings – can fall below the fold. 

Given this placement, it’s not surprising that traffic to these sites is dropping.

The impact of AI Overviews on advertisers

The situation on the advertising side of the equation looks quite different.

Crowe reports that we will start seeing ad placements above AI Overviews and put them at the top of SERPs. 

This prime placement of ads on SERPs isn’t too surprising, given that advertising is an important revenue source for Google. Why wouldn’t they reserve that prime real estate for advertisers?

It’s also possible (although I’m just speculating) that the “cards” that contain organic links at the bottom of AI Overviews might someday be replaced with ads.

With these changes, two questions are top of mind for Google advertising professionals:

• Will businesses increase their Google Ads budgets to take advantage of these new opportunities?
• Will businesses that have invested heavily in SEO shift some of their budgets to Google advertising?

The impact of AI on CPC

Crowe also speculates that we may see a drop in CPCs with these additional ad placements (a.k.a. “ad inventory”). 

While I agree it’s possible, it’s not something I’m counting on – or even all that excited about, to be honest. 

I feel this way for two reasons: 

• High CPCs are a pain point for most advertisers, and everyone has a different perception of what qualifies as a high CPC. Every PPC pro has seen that annoying $100 click within an account that averages $10 per click. But we get over the sting pretty quickly as long as conversions are coming in at a good pace and the account is performing well overall.
• Even if CPCs do decrease, where will we find them? I have a hunch they’ll be found in Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns – not Search campaigns. Performance Max and Demand Gen already have more ad placement options than search ads have now – and, from where I stand – often have lower CPCs. Any decrease in CPCs probably won’t manifest in search. 

Are search keywords getting a second life? 

Advertisers have witnessed a steady decline in the power of standalone keyword targeting over the past few years, and many advertising pros (myself included) predict that this trend will continue. 

With AI-driven campaign types on offer, such as Performance Max and Demand Gen, standalone keyword-based traditional search advertising seemed to be on its way out. 

But now, I’m starting to think that keywords are rising from the dead for two reasons:

• If organic traffic drops 30%, as suggested, search ads have the opportunity to capture that drop. 
• Google recently announced improvements to search ads query matching and brand controls – it’s the kind of **** we haven’t seen for search in a while.

Ginny Marvin, Ads Product Liaison at Google, outlined these changes in a recent LinkedIn post. 

These updates include automatically including misspellings in negative keyword lists and allowing brand inclusions and exclusions across additional campaign types – they’re updates we’ve wanted for years! 

Success lies in mastering all aspects of your Google Ads program

What does all of this mean for Google advertisers?

This means that to be successful, you need to master all aspects of your Google Ads program, from Search to Performance Max to Display ads and more.

Even more importantly, you need to know how to integrate all of the targeting options, ad formats and campaign types to achieve peak performance. 

To be more specific, here are six recommendations to stay ahead of the AI curve.

1. Make sure you’re current on match types

Broad match isn’t what it was a few years ago.

The “new” broad match is dramatically different. It’s so different that it’s too bad Google didn’t give it a new name. 

Today’s broad match uses contextual signals and other signals, such as keywords in the ad group, landing page, user search behavior and user location, to understand intent.

Dig deeper: What to know about PPC keyword research tools and match types

2. Make sure you’re current on Google campaign formats

With Google’s commitment to AI, you can be sure that AI-driven campaigns like Performance Max aren’t going anywhere. 

If you haven’t already, add a Performance Max to the mix and see how it affects account performance.

Get familiar with the pros and cons of this format and how it will interact with your current search keyword-targeted campaigns, as it will only become more important.

3. Stay committed to using the best combination of keyword match types and campaign types 

Your best-performing combination might include Performance Max, or it might not. The only way to know for sure is to test. 

Don’t let biases or preconceived ideas get in the way of bringing in more targeted traffic. It’s not a question of whether Search is better than Performance Max or vice versa. It’s a question of what works best for every Google Ads program. 

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4. Don’t even try to copy and paste strategies

Abandon the idea that you can copy and paste a successful strategy from one campaign to another. It’s not so simple. 

We’ve repeatedly found that strategies that work well in one account may differ dramatically from those that work well in another – even when the accounts provide similar services or products in the same industry.

5. Invest in original, high-quality content

Crowe points out in her article that Google is facing an indexing crisis. The amount of content that Google has to crawl and index is growing exponentially – thanks, in part, to AI-generated content.

As a result, Google might not even try to index all content, starting with content that’s generic. 

To quote Crowe again, “Today, the best way to get your content seen by Google is through content written with experience and opinion. AI cannot write based on experience.”

Dig deeper: PPC landing pages: How to craft a winning post-click experience

6. Remember, you are a marketer first

All of this may sound overwhelming, but it’s not really. 

Ever since I started in Google advertising, oh so many years ago, I’ve always approached it with a marketing-first mindset. My primary focus is always on how we can use a client’s Google Ads account to achieve the goals of the marketing teams we support.

It’s a focus that my team and I continue to maintain today.

Whenever we encounter accounts that are overworked, over-targeted and over-tinkered, we start with the fundamentals.

We start by asking, “How is this ad program supporting the company’s goals?” or even, “Does this ad program support the company’s goals at all?” Often, it does not.

It’s a straightforward approach, but you’d be amazed at how well it works. We strip things down and laser-focus on aligning the advertising of the client’s product/service with the client’s business and marketing goals. 

How we achieve that alignment may be a little different than before with the introduction of AI, but the basics still apply.

AI may have created new challenges. But the solution remains the same. 

Reason for optimism

I’ll leave you with one final note of optimism. 

Even though Google is eager to keep people on its pages as long as possible, that doesn’t mean your website will become obsolete anytime soon. 

No matter how well information is presented on the SERPs, users still need to go to your site to talk to you about your service or product (for now, at least). You still have plenty of opportunities to engage with them and win them over on your own home turf.

However, as mentioned above, it is more important than ever to ensure that your website is well-designed and has the content you need to engage and convert leads.

This is just the beginning of AI and Google Ads 

There’s no question that AI is changing Google Ads in many important ways and will continue to do so. 

That’s why all of the predictions and recommendations I’ve written about above are just for this moment. 

A month from now, a year from now, we’ll need to reconsider keyword management and how it relates to account strategies once again.

Because generative AI will continue to evolve – and how people use it will evolve along with it.