Google’s annual virtual event, Marketing Live, took place last month, showcasing over 40 updates to Google Ads, YouTube, and data measurement, all driven by AI technology. Among the key announcements were changes to Google Ads within AI Overviews and AI Mode, aimed at enhancing the user experience and improving ad effectiveness.
AI Overviews, introduced by Google in 2024, is a generative AI feature that provides users with summarized solutions from various sources in search results. Previously focused on organic listings, Google revealed at Marketing Live that AI Overviews will now also include ads related to the search query. For example, a search for “how to clean an oven” could trigger ads for cleaning products within the AI Overview.
AI Mode takes Overviews a step further by anticipating users’ intent and likely follow-up questions beyond the initial query. This feature, referred to as “fan-out” results, aims to provide users with more comprehensive and relevant information based on their search intent, rather than just keywords.
Google highlighted the shift towards user intent-driven search results at Marketing Live, emphasizing that both AI Overviews and AI Mode will now include ads based on searchers’ intent, rather than just keywords. This evolution aligns with Google’s promotion of broad match keywords and campaign types that focus on broad themes rather than specific keywords.
In line with this trend, Google introduced the AI Max for Search campaign type, which requires only broad match keywords, generates dynamic ad copy, and selects landing pages likely to yield the best performance. Advertisers are encouraged to provide audience signals such as first-party data and custom segments to help Google’s AI deliver more relevant ads to users.
Quality website content has always been crucial for driving conversions, and it is now even more important for paid search as Google displays text from the website in ads. Advertisers can enable a setting in Google Ads to automatically create assets based on website content, improving ad relevance and performance. It is recommended that advertisers opt in to this setting to fully leverage AI technology for their ad campaigns.
Overall, the presentations at Marketing Live emphasized the dynamic nature of Google Ads and the importance of engaging content for ad effectiveness. While advertisers still need to write compelling ad copy, AI technology will personalize ads to each user based on their search intent. By focusing on producing quality content and providing relevant audience signals, advertisers can enhance the performance of their ad campaigns in the AI-driven landscape of Google Ads.