From Zepto to OTTs, Google sees brands riding the AI wave across Shorts and Search

AI is driving new ways of advertising.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping advertising — slashing content creation timelines, driving sharper targeting, and unlocking new channels like Shorts and Connected TV (CTV), said Google.

"Early adopters of generative AI have reported that content generation is now up to four times faster and copywriting up to five times faster. So it's a real force multiplier for advertising," said Dan Taylor, Vice President, Global Ads, Google, during a media roundtable on April 22.

The search giant shared the example of quick commerce firm Zepto which cut its video asset creation from a weeks-long process into just a few hours using Veo Craft. The Q-comm firm added motion to every image, elevating the video’s aesthetics and driving 11 percent more efficient installs at twice the scale.

Taylor said Google recently announced that with the help of Imagen 3, which is part of Gemini, advertisers can now use text prompts to generate images that contain people and faces. "This makes creating content and relevant advertising even easier. So, things like this tell me that AI is fundamentally changing not only our daily behaviours as people but also expanding opportunities for businesses," he added.

Marketers who have deeply integrated AI tools report 60 percent greater revenue growth than their peers, according to a study done by BCG and Google.

The technology firm gave an example of a leading streaming service that wanted to understand the performance lift from YouTube's formats like Shorts and CTV.

Google's Ads Data Hub was used for a study across multiple show launches. The study found that two-format exposure increased conversion rates by 200 percent.

Reaching a wider audience

Tools like Dynamic Search Ads with Smart Bidding and 1P audiences have helped brands reach new users. A leading Indian food delivery and dining platform used the tool to reach new users, which led to 8 percent uptick in user acquisitions.

"Today, more than 80 percent of Google's advertisers are already using at least one AI-powered search app," Taylor said.

He said Google's AI Overviews, launched last year and now available in over 100 countries, is resulting in consumers visiting more websites and seeing more relevant ads.

"People who use AI Overviews search more, they're more satisfied with the results and they are visiting a greater diversity of websites. We also know that people who are engaging with AI overviews are finding the ads helpful because they can quickly connect with relevant businesses, products, and services. With the launch of AI Overviews, we've seen the volume of commercial queries increase," he said.

Another reason people are searching more is because now they can search what they see, Taylor added.

"With Google Lens, people are searching with their phone camera and they're searching what they see more than ever before. Lens queries are one of the fastest-growing query types, with usage reaching 20 billion visual search queries every month. One in every four of these visual search queries made using Google Lens has a commercial intent meaning they're interested in a product or service."

Search and YouTube are turning passive scrolling into active discovery, leading to purchase decisions.

Case in point, Puma India wanted to explore opportunities across different touch points in the customer journey in a holistic fashion. The sportswear brand identified website purchasers as their campaign goal, aiming to reach in-market visitors who had not converted. Performance Max (campaigns in Google Ads which are automated and goal-based) helped Puma scale, resulting in a 35 percent lower cost per sale compared to all paid channels and 66 percent higher ROI (Return On Investment), Google said.

CTV gains traction

Connected TV is another space where both consumer and advertiser traction is growing.

The technology firm said that about 82 percent of YouTube CTV viewers in India prefer watching YouTube over linear TV.

In India, over 50 percent of YouTube CTV watch time is on content that is 21 minutes or longer.

Due to this shift, an increasing number of advertisers are prioritising building CTV campaigns into their media strategies.

It gave the example of automobile manufacturer Kia, which was looking for a way to drive more actionability from their CTV campaigns and bring viewers onto their website. In the build-up to the 2024 festive period, it leveraged the QR Codes experience with YouTube CTV for Kia’s Seltos campaign. The campaign saw an OTP-verified conversion rate increase of 3.6 times.

Marketers are also tapping into the traction for YouTube Shorts. They are embedding Shorts into AI-powered video reach campaigns to expand reach, improve conversions, and optimise ad mix. For instance, Tira Beauty leveraged a video reach campaign using Shorts exclusively to reach new customers and drove massive impact on consideration, with an average relative search increase of 228 percent.