Google will soon start testing search and shopping ads in its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search experience in the US, the company said on May 21, days after rolling out the feature to consumers across the country.
This move is part of the company's efforts to monetise its AI offerings, even as the tech giant seeks to reimagine its flagship search product in the generative AI era.
On May 14, Google said it is rolling out AI Overviews to all consumers in the United States with plans to take it to more countries soon. This rollout came after the company's nearly year-long experiment with its Search Generative Experience (SGE).
With this rollout, Google had said that "hundreds of millions" of users will have access to AI Overviews, and the company expects to make it available to over a billion people by the end of the year.
In a May 21 blogpost, Vidhya Srinivasan, Google’s vice-president and general Manager for ads, said that ads will appear within the AI Overview in a section labeled as “sponsored” when they are relevant to both the query and the information in the AI Overview.
These ads will appear from the advertisers' existing Search, Performance Max, and Standard Shopping campaigns, with no action needed from advertisers, Srinivasan said.
Last month, Alphabet chief business officer Philipp Schindler said during the company's earnings conference call that the search giant is experimenting with ad formats, including search and shopping ads alongside search results in SGE.
Read: Ads, cloud, subscriptions: How Google parent plans to monetise its AI offerings
In the blogpost, Srinivasan said that people find the "ads appearing above and below the AI-generated overview helpful" in early testing.
Google also showcased an example of how ads would appear in the AI Overviews experience.
In the example, a user asked 'how do I get wrinkles out of clothes', following which Google provided an AI-generated answer stitched from various web sources. After this, a separate section marked 'Sponsored' offered a carousel of ads for products that can make the clothes free of wrinkle.
The company said it plans to test new formats in the future, along with getting feedback from advertisers and the industry.
New ad experience for complex queries
Google said it also testing a new AI-powered ad experience in its flagship search product that aims to help guide people through "complex purchase decisions".
For instance, if one searches for “short-term storage”, Google will show an ad for a storage facility that will lead people to a dynamic experience where AI can help them figure out what they need.
If a person shares details, like photos of furniture and their budget, this feature will also recommend the storage unit sizing and packing materials with a link to purchase on the website.
With these features, Google aims at boosting its search ad sales, a big revenue generator for the tech giant. Google had generated $46.2 billion revenue from its Search and other revenues segment in Q1 2024, registering a 14 percent year-on-year growth.
Read: YouTube, Google Cloud to hit $100 billion in annual run rate in 2024: Sundar Pichai
Last month, Google parent Alphabet's chief executive Sundar Pichai had mentioned that advertising is a key part of the company's strategy to drive monetisation of its AI technologies and products.
Google rolled out Gemini models into Performance Max campaigns in February, helping advertisers create more effective campaigns and build creative assets at scale.
In the blogpost, Srinivasan said advertisers will be able to soon share their font and color guidelines in Performance Max, as well as provide image reference points to generate new variations of their marketing assets.
The company is also introducing new image editing capabilities so advertisers can try adding new objects, extending backgrounds, and cropping to adapt images to any format, size and orientation.
Retailers will be able to highlight their products from their Google Merchant Center feeds and take advantage of these editing capabilities, Srinivasan said.
Demand Gen campaigns, which enables advertisers to serve visually appealing, multi-format ads across Google's products such as YouTube, Gmail, and Discover, will be available for advertisers on the company's platforms such as Display & Video 360 and Search Ads 360.
"We’re introducing new formats and features (on YouTube Shorts) to help businesses engage with these viewers, including vertical ad formats, ad stickers to drive action, and new animated image ads automatically created from images in advertisers’ accounts and Demand Gen product feeds" Srinivasan said in the blogpost.
Generative AI tools for retailers
Apart from these, Google announced new tools and features for retailers enabling them to use generative AI features to create more effective product imagery that reflects their brand style along with three new immersive ad formats.
Advertisers will be able to soon enhance their shopping ads with immersive visuals, including a virtual try-on feature, and generated 3D ads. Shoppers will also be able to dive deeper into an ad to see product videos, summaries and similar products provided by the advertiser, she said.
Product Studio, the tool which helps merchants unique product imagery using generative AI, is also being rolled out to India and Japan in the next few weeks, the company said. The tool is currently available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada through the company's Merchant Center Next platform and the Google and YouTube app on Shopify.
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