AI and Google advertising: Whats next? – Search Engine Land

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. Its a great article, and I encourage you to read it if you havent already.

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

One of the most startling findings in Crowes article is that AI is increasing Google search volume, but organic listings arent 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 Crowes words, Every single website is going to feel the pain.

Why arent organic listings benefiting from the increased search volume? Because organic listings are being moved further down the SERPs than ever before.

Googles introduction of AI Overviews on SERPs is one of the main contributors to this phenomenon.

If you havent seen them yet, heres 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, its not surprising that traffic to these sites is dropping.

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 isnt too surprising, given that advertising is an important revenue source for Google. Why wouldnt they reserve that prime real estate for advertisers?

Its also possible (although Im 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:

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

While I agree its possible, its not something Im counting on or even all that excited about, to be honest.

I feel this way for two reasons:

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, Im starting to think that keywords are rising from the dead for two reasons:

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 theyre updates weve wanted for years!

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.

Broad match isnt what it was a few years ago.

The new broad match is dramatically different. Its so different that its too bad Google didnt give it a new name.

Todays 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

With Googles commitment to AI, you can be sure that AI-driven campaigns like Performance Max arent going anywhere.

If you havent 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.

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

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

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

Weve 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.

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 thats 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

All of this may sound overwhelming, but its not really.

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

Its 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 companys goals? or even, Does this ad program support the companys goals at all? Often, it does not.

Its a straightforward approach, but youd be amazed at how well it works. We strip things down and laser-focus on aligning the advertising of the clients product/service with the clients 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.

Ill leave you with one final note of optimism.

Even though Google is eager to keep people on its pages as long as possible, that doesnt 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.

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

Thats why all of the predictions and recommendations Ive written about above are just for this moment.

A month from now, a year from now, well 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.

Contributing authors are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. The opinions they express are their own.

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AI and Google advertising: Whats next? - Search Engine Land