Today in Digital Marketing - Google Bets the Farm on AI-Based Ad Campaigns

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Tuesday, May 23rd. Today, Google puts all its chips behind AI-driven ads. But will the marketing industry take the bet? Also, Twitter is republishing tweets you may have deleted, a creepy Facebook bug sends unintended friend requests, and an embarrassing blunder has one brand rethinking its influencer marketing strategy. I'm Todd Maffin. That's Ahead, today in digital marketing. Well, prepare for the advent of generative AI in Google Ads. The company today introduced a range of new generative AI advertising products at its Google Marketing Live conference. Perhaps most notably, Google search ads will soon automatically adapt to queries using the AI tech. Last year, the tech giant rolled out automatically created assets for search ads, which use content from landing pages and existing ads to generate headlines and descriptions. Now, Google will expand on this process with generative AI, enabling search ads to dynamically adapt to user queries. By using the context of a search, AI can use content from a business's landing page and

Starting point is 00:01:10 existing ads to create a new headline that aligns more with the query. For example, if a user searches for skincare for dry, sensitive skin, the AI can write a headline like Soothe Your Dry Sensitive Skin. Google also introduced a new natural language conversational experience within Google Ads that automates campaign creation. With this new tool, brands and marketers will be able to add a preferred landing page from their site and Google AI will summarize the page. Then it will create assets for your campaign, including relevant and effective keywords, headlines, descriptions, images, and more.

Starting point is 00:01:49 These suggestions can be reviewed and edited before you deploy them, of course. Google also said it's bringing generative AI to performance max campaigns. Once advertisers provide their site, Google AI will learn about the brand and populate the campaign with text and other relevant assets, including suggesting new generated images.

Starting point is 00:02:13 Google also detailed its plans today for running search and shopping ads in its AI chatbot within search. The company recently demonstrated how ads could be displayed above and below the chatbot experience. With these ads, when users search for, say, a new bike with the generative AI feature, they receive information on factors to consider when buying, along with matching product recommendations. Users can then ask follow-up questions or explore other suggested next steps. Throughout this experience, search ads will continue to be displayed in dedicated ad slots on the page. But today, Google said it will also soon test ads

Starting point is 00:02:52 that are directly integrated within the conversation. These ads will appear alongside relevant queries and will be introduced in the coming months. For example, someone searching for outdoor activities in Maui might define their search to include activities for kids and surfing. Once that's done, the consumer may see an ad for a travel brand promoting surfing lessons for kids in that area. Google says these ads will be clearly labeled as sponsored

Starting point is 00:03:20 using bold black text. Google is also bringing AI-generated images to advertisers. The company today introducing Product Studio, a new tool that will let brands and merchants create product images for their ads using generative AI. This tool will be free. Brands will be able to create new images within Merchant Center Next. That's its platform for businesses to manage how their products show up on Google.

Starting point is 00:03:49 You'll be able to add a product, remove a background, generate a scene, improve image quality and a bunch more. Product Studio will roll out in the U.S. later this year. These features will also be available to merchants using the Google and YouTube app on Shopify. So those are the headlines. What does it all mean for digital marketers and media buyers? For some analysis, I'm joined by Jill Saskin-Gales. Jill spent six years at Google Ads helping some of the biggest brands with their campaigns. Today, she runs the excellent Inside Google Ads training program and was a panelist in this morning's pre-event tailgate that we did. So Jill, big day. I don't think a ton of surprise that AI was the focus, but how much does this change the job of a PPC

Starting point is 00:04:36 practitioner? It changes the job a lot, but not in the way most people think. It's not that AI is coming for our jobs big and scary. AI is being incorporated into ad creation, into targeting, into every single aspect of the Google Ads process. But of course, that AI needs to learn on something, right? Artificial intelligence doesn't bring its intelligence from thin air. It learns from something. And the thing it learns from is your website. As PPC practitioners, so often we've been focused on the media buying and our job is done when someone gets to the website. Now, I think our jobs are continuing to change

Starting point is 00:05:09 and focus on the importance of landing page optimization, conversion rate optimization. If your client or if you do not have a well-structured, well-thought-out web page with lots of great information that can be understood by the AI bots, then your Google ads are not going to perform well. And Google has always tried to get us to sort of use our website integrated with their systems. They've done this in the past through schemas primarily, where if you're a recipe website, there's a recipe schema. If you're a movie review site, there's a review schema.

Starting point is 00:05:40 But this AI does not rely on those sorts of quasi-API tricks, does it? Correct me if I'm wrong, but does it not just look at the website like a human would? Exactly. It's smarter than that. You know, that's exactly what machine learning is. Rather than feeding it a set of rules, if schema is travel, then run it this way, it just looks at it and understands it the way a human would because it's seen thousands, if not millions of other websites like that. Yeah. You know, the focus of the real audience of a website has changed over time, right?

Starting point is 00:06:11 I mean, the web first started, of course, the most important people looking at our websites were people. Then the search engines came along and we all had to make sure that the way a search engine looked at our website was important. Will we now have to consider how the virtual eyes of an AI algorithm will see our site? I think this is a welcome change towards going back to the eyes of a human. You know, a year ago, I was saying that it was the best time to become a GA4 expert because over the last year, we've all needed experts in GA4. This is really the time for SEO experts to shine in the world of paid ads.

Starting point is 00:06:44 They have this expertise. Their jobs have really been changing too. And I think it's a welcome change for all of us that we no longer have to do dumb stuff just to get computers to understand our websites. Like create great content for humans and you will do well. And by the way, that's not just a PPC thing. I would say that applies to social media and content marketing in general. Create great content for humans and you will do well. Does this have any impact on the ad auction? Like if AI is writing copy now and creating images and we end up flooding the platform with computer generated campaigns, what impact does that have on things like CPM and CPC? It's interesting. You know, we spoke earlier on our tailgate about the fact that queries are going to be so much longer. Usually a query has two, three, four words in it, you know, best flights to Maui, accounting software for small business, right?

Starting point is 00:07:34 But now your query is going to be this multi-sentence prompt or conversation that we're having with the AI. So in a way, we could actually see CPCs decrease because there are so many more varied queries and advertisers may not catch up right away to broadening, yes, we all love broad, broadening the scope of queries they're advertising against. I think it's also going to bring a lot more inventory. The auction is all about supply and demand. So, you know, over time, CPCs always rise. That's a truism. But in the short term, those who can jump on this quickly and figure out how to take advantage of this automation and not be scared of AI, I wouldn't be surprised if

Starting point is 00:08:10 we see some lower CPCs to start. Honestly, as a marketer, I was a little disappointed that the scope of today's announcements was just so AI focused, but certainly lots to take in. Absolutely. But I will say overall, something that I saw Ashwin Balakrishnan write on Twitter, he works at Optimizer, is that never mind the product announcements are from like a PR perspective, this GML sucked, I'm paraphrasing. And I agree in that respect. We all have a lot of anticipation and what's going to happen. And all Google said was AI, AI, AI, AI, AI, AI.

Starting point is 00:08:41 There was nothing like brand new or innovative. It's just we've added AI to everything. You know, they didn't talk about the topics we want to hear about like keywords or like privacy. It was just AI. It was almost like AI wrote the announcements about AI. So I think overall, it was a pretty boring event. And you know what? Like we'll take boring. Everything's always changing so quickly. These all just felt like incremental changes to Google ads, nothing like performance max, which completely changes the way we have to operate. So focus on your website and embrace change as always, and you'll do fine with Google Ads this year. Jill, thank you. Thank you, Todd.

Starting point is 00:09:16 Jill Saskengales runs the Inside Google Ads training program, which you can learn more about through our affiliate link at b.link slash gatraining. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen.

Starting point is 00:09:57 Well, yesterday on Twitter, Bloomberg reported that there was an explosion outside the Pentagon and tweeted out a photo of black smoke rising from the building. Except Bloomberg didn't tweet anything. At least not the real Bloomberg. No, in a development that will shock absolutely nobody, a fake Bloomberg News account posted it. A fake account with a verified blue tick mark. And that apparently was enough to convince many other accounts and websites to report on the non-existent explosion.

Starting point is 00:10:23 It shook enough people that even the stock market briefly took a dive. Vice reported that the fake news report was seen by millions of people, many of whom just sort of blindly retweeted it. One journalist quoted in the piece pointed out that several signs show that the picture itself was created by AI, including things like how the fence line blends with the crowd barriers, and oh, how there are no other pictures or videos about this so-called event happening online. Twitter's owner Elon Musk says community notes lets users fact-check information, but this approach has limitations as it cannot operate in real time.

Starting point is 00:10:58 So if a hoax spreads fast, like this one yesterday, it can still cause concerns before it is community noted. Meanwhile, the Twitter bug appears to be causing deleted tweets to reappear. Some users are reporting that old posts and retweets are being resurrected with instances of tens of thousands of tweets resurfacing after deletion. Although the extent of the bug's reach is not yet clear, if you have deleted content on your brand's account or your personal account that you wanted to keep in the past, it might be a good idea to check your tweets. From resurrected tweets to a Facebook bug that had some users accidentally friending their old boss.

Starting point is 00:11:44 The social network experienced a glitch last week that some users accidentally friending their old boss. The social network experienced a glitch last week that sent an automatic friend request to every single profile users clicked on. Meaning that individuals innocently creeping through profiles like their co-workers or their ex's new love interest might have unknowingly sent them a friend request. Medic confirmed the issue, said it was a bug in the Facebook app, which has since been fixed. And finally, skincare brand Biore is facing backlash over an influencer marketing campaign regarding a school shooting. In the campaign, an influencer who graduated from Michigan State University posted a sponsored TikTok on behalf of the beauty company. In that video, she discussed

Starting point is 00:12:31 how the school shooting affected her mental health while showing her doing things like relaxing and using skincare products. So countless obstacles that made us here from a school shooting to having no idea what life is going to look like after college. I'm partnering with Biora Skin Care to strip away the stigma of anxiety. We want you to get it all out. Not only what's in your pores, but most importantly, what's on your mind too. The video was quickly removed within 24 hours of its release due to widespread criticism on social media. Many people saying it was insensitive.

Starting point is 00:12:59 Users also pointed out the startling contrast between the video's upbeat tone and the gravity of the tragedy being referenced. The company apologized on Sunday for the campaign, acknowledging the lack of sensitivity and inappropriate tone surrounding the tragic event. Remember, you can get this podcast as a daily email newsletter too. It comes out about an hour before the podcast drops. Just go to todayindigital.com slash newsletter or tap the link in the show notes. And it's not written by AI. See you tomorrow. I will be.

Today in Digital Marketing - Google Bets the Farm on AI-Based Ad Campaigns

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