Google Ads has been using AI and machine learning for years. Smart Bidding automatically sets optimal bids to meet performance goals like maximising conversions or return on ad spend. Responsive Search Ads uses AI to test different ad combinations to find the most effective options. Performance Max campaigns rely fully on AI to determine the optimal ad types, creative elements, targeting, and bids across Google's ad inventory.

Generative AI represents yet another opportunity to innovate.

At their Marketing Live in 2023, Google announced plans to incorporate generative AI into Google Ads including:

• A natural language chatbot assistant for creating search ads by generating assets based on a landing page.

• Generative AI capable of enhancing automatically created assets, making search ads more relevant to search queries.

• Performance Max campaigns using generative AI to create custom ad assets like text and images.

Now, as Google starts to roll out these updates using Gemini - its most advanced AI model to date - advertisers are being sent a strong signal. AI-enhancement is the new normal for relevance.

The promise is a smarter, more dynamic and effective advertising experience that enhances your decision-making, problem-solving, and creative capabilities. However, the aim of simplifying campaign creation and optimisation processes is to not just to save advertisers valuable time.

As AI powered search experiences and user behaviour evolves, Google has to serve its users with more relevant and creative ad campaigns to keep pace. Brands need to do the same or risk falling behind rivals who are more eager to embrace change.

Scaling Ad Creation with Gemini AI

One big challenge for advertisers has always been in being able to create the variety of creative in the volumes needed and at the speed required for a more personalised and targeted ads experience.

Google’s answer is to harness the power of AI to enhance its automatically created assets (ACA) capabilities. These capabilities are also being integrated in Performance Max, an ad product designed to optimise ad placements across all of Google’s ad inventory, including email, search, display ads, and YouTube.

When ACAs were first rolled out, they used content from your landing pages and existing ads to generate headlines and descriptions.

With Gemini onboard, generative AI can help you to scale up asset creation, improving both your ad relevance and performance based on the needs of different customers and formats.

Creating Campaigns Conversationally

If you find building ad campaigns overwhelming, the conversational experience workflow is designed to help jumpstart the process using an AI powered chat-based feature.

After providing a URL to help the AI assistant learn about their brand, advertisers can chat with Gemini, much as they would with a colleague, to get suggestions for campaign assets. These include more effective keywords, headlines, descriptions and images. The AI then generates your assets for review and editing before setting them to go live.

In tests, Google reports that advertisers have been able to improve their quality scores when using the conversational experience. Google measured the improvement in the relevance and quality of ad copy using the Ad Strength metric. Advertisers using the new chat feature were 42% more likely to publish campaigns rated as “Good” or “Excellent”.

These early success stories underscore the potential for AI to enhance campaign performance. Perhaps they even show that Google has set a new standard for pay per click PPC campaign optimisation.

From Google’s internal data, advertisers who improve their search ads from “Poor” to “Excellent” see a 12% increase in conversions on average. With Ad Strength so clearly linked to conversions, it’s hard to argue with the benefits of working with AI to improve your ads.

If you’re an English-language advertiser in the U.S. or U.K., the conversational experience is already available in beta in your account. Here’s how to find it:

1. Log into your Google Ads account.

2. Create a new Google Ads Campaign, as the conversational experience is not backwards-compatible with existing campaigns.

3. Proceed through the Campaign creation process.

4. Opt-in to the conversational experience at the "Keywords and ad" step.

5. Google’s AI will analyse the landing page URL you provide and generate campaign assets.
   

The rollout will extend to all English-speaking advertisers worldwide in the coming weeks, with more languages included in the near future.

Making Ads More Visual

Having eye-catching images in ads is more important than ever if you want to connect with your potential customers. B2B marketers who feel the pain of finding just the right image will be happy to know that the conversational experience can also assist with suggesting suitable ones. Assets can be pulled from your landing pages or generated from text prompts using AI.

To address concerns around misleading content and deepfakes, the AI will avoid generating certain types of content. This includes images of known individuals, content depicting violence or illegal activity, and images that might infringe copyright, such as branded items and logos. However, advertisers are encouraged to review generated or suggested assets carefully to ensure they comply with Google advertising policies and applicable laws.

Google is also taking steps to make sure AI-made images are identifiable. All images created with generative AI will include the SynthID invisible watermark and metadata that indicates how the image was created.

So, if you suspect your customers might be uncomfortable with your company leveraging AI technology, you might want to hold off on cancelling your stock photography subscription while attitudes shift.

For the time being image generation is restricted to English language advertisers. You also need to have an active account with a history of policy compliance that does not fall into sensitive advertising categories.

If you have access, generative AI image tools can be found in Google Ads in several areas:

• During the creation of a campaign

• While editing an advertisement or a Performance Max asset group

• In recommendations, for example, for an image asset or Ad Strength improvement

This tool could be a game-changer for busy B2B marketers,  making it easier to create ads that stand out and connect with people. By using AI to handle the heavy lifting in creating visuals, advertisers can spend more time on strategy and creativity.

Ready or Not, The Future of Online Ads is AI

Google's introduction of Gemini into Google Search ads represents a significant opportunity for marketers to leverage AI-driven insights and creativity to craft stronger online advertising campaigns using guidance from the undisputed search engine leader.

Dismissing the changes as an optional extra could leave search result page visibility and competitiveness at risk in the years ahead. As Google keeps improving these tools, staying up-to-date and using them creatively will be key for anyone wanting to stand out in digital advertising.

More announcements are hotly anticipated, including further Gemini model integrations, improvements to image generation models, and image editing tools.

Want expert guidance on using AI to improve your workflows without losing your brand’s identity? Stay in touch with 1827 Marketing to learn how to leverage powerful technology to become a serious player across all your communication channels.