Speakers at Google’s Marketing Live event demonstrated how they will use user search queries and AI preview content to deliver interactive shopping ads that will push organic search results even lower, saying that Google is “ffocused on opening new opportunities for your business.»
Google: we are not building a better search engine
The first speaker, Philipp Schindler, Google’s executive vice president and chief business officer, said out loud what Googlers normally don’t do when he said the purpose of search results is to display advertising.
He made the remark in the context of a new AI video tool that will help YouTube creators create more content.
At 18:19 of the event, Schindler boasted:
“We collaborated with some truly talented filmmakers, musicians and artists, and the results were nothing short of incredible. Soon, we’ll be integrating video into short films, opening up a whole new world of creative possibilities for you and your brands. Imagine every creator with the power of AI in their pocket.
So what does all this mean for you? More creators creating quality content attract more viewers, which means more reach, engagement and ROI for you. We’re not just building a better search engine or a better YouTube. We strive to open new opportunities for your business.
The claim that Google uses insights and AI search to increase reach and ROI for advertisers is not the only one. The next two speakers made the same point.
Search Ads and Shopping in AI Previews
The next speaker was Vidhya Srinivasan, VP/GM of Advertising at Google. It begins by describing how search experiences will drive traffic to websites. Then quickly shifts gears to show how interactive advertising will push organic search listings literally beyond the view of users performing search queries.
After 30 minutes of video, Srinivasan explained:
“AI insights will appear in search results when they are particularly useful beyond what search offers today. As we continue to test and evolve the search experience, we’re going to stay very focused on sending valuable traffic to publishers and creators. But then, more exploration possibilities for users lead to more choice and more choice leads to more opportunity for advertisers.
You may have noticed that we already serve ads above and below the AI previews. These ads match the user’s search query. We will now begin testing Search and Shopping ads in AI previews for users in the United States.
What’s also new is that we’ll match these ads not only to the context of the query, but also to the information in the AI previews. And as always, ads will be clearly labeled.
1. AI Insights – No Organic Listings
2. Scroll down for Shopping Ads
She then described an example of wrinkled clothes while traveling and turned to Google search to find ways to prevent wrinkles. It shows search activity for travel hacks and shows how organic search results are pushed under the AI Previews feature and new search and shopping ads that contain product images and appear much more than n any search result.
She explained how the new AI Overviews shopping ads will be there to convert searchers:
“Thanks to the AI insight, I quickly found a few common travel tips that looked promising. As I looked through the many options that presented themselves, I found a really interesting solution, an anti-wrinkle spray that I had never heard of before. So perfect. I want to try this.
Now, with this feature, I can just click on this ad right away, right here, and buy it.
As you can see, we simply make it easier and faster for consumers so they can act immediately. So this is just one example of how we use Generation AI. There are many more, and we’ll start with more apps in Search Ads.
3. Targeted Ads Based on AI Insights
Google search is the bait
Google search engineers use the most advanced technology and data to create the most useful search results ever in Google history. It’s the best ever recorded. But according to the real people behind Google, the goal of Search is not to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” but to create more “reach, engagement and ROI.” for advertisers. Sam Altman was right to call what Google is doing dystopian.
The SEOs were designed by social engineering
Social engineering is the management of people’s behavior in order to get them to function in a certain way. Google has integrated much of the web ecosystem into concepts like Core Web Vitals along with Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness in order to satisfy users that Google apparently never intended for them.
It’s not the fault of Googlers who put all their heart into perfecting search. They do a good job. But it is clear that Google’s mission is no longer to make information accessible and useful. Perhaps what can only seem like a dystopian horror, Google has managed to get the search community and publishers to focus on creating useful content so that advertisers can use it to generate more return on investment for advertisers.
It’s not just SEOs and publishers that have been used for the benefit of advertisers.
Watch the Google Marketing Live 2024 keynote
Featured image by Shutterstock/pikselstock
News Source : www.searchenginejournal.com
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