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Gemini: Google launches first AI search ad features

Google’s long-awaited Gemini AI model has finally been launched, with its first integration being for ads. So, advertisers are to experience this initial rollout, which is set to be followed by many more Gemini integrations.

A chatbot-style conversational experience will now meet users of Google Ads in the UK and US. This will be extended to all English language advertisers in the coming weeks. But what does this mean and how will it affect marketers looking to manage campaigns?

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AI-enabled features

In theory, the new AI features should make the process of using Google Ads easier than ever. The search giant says all you need is your website’s URL and AI will help you do the rest. This will be achieved through ad content generation and keywords, with assistance on everything from headlines and images to keywords and sitelinks.

Advertisers’ autonomy

Control over what goes into the campaign will remain with the advertiser, who can use the chat function within Google Ads to refine the offering. It will be up to them to decide if the AI-generated assets meet the criteria for optimising the campaign they’re set to publish and whether manually inputting an alternative is required.

Multiple applications

As with all digital tools, the ways in which Gemini is utilised within Google Ads will depend on the needs of individual businesses. Smaller organisations may find it enables them to create campaigns more efficiently, scaling creative and plugging gaps in their own marketing teams with the AI technology.

For larger firms, a different approach may prove effective. For example, Gemini could represent an additional stage of advertising testing prior to advancing concepts into fully-fledged campaigns. This too could result in improved efficiency and a better use of resources over time.

Sitelinks

Gemini will offer advertisers more suggested sitelinks, which are the links that take users to specific pages on your site. They are an important device in advertising and can be changed to reflect special offers and promotions or seasonal offerings without the need to create new ads. AI’s influence in this area should help to make this element of campaigns more intuitive.
Google itself suggests providing at least four sitelinks complete with descriptions for all high-volume ad groups and campaigns. This is where those AI-generated suggestions are likely to come in particularly useful.

Images

Image generation is going to be one of the biggest areas revolutionised by AI through Gemini. All of those created in this way in Google Ads will automatically be given an invisible watermark by DeepMind-powered SynthID. Open standard metadata will also be included to make it clear they are the product of AI.

Shashi Thakur, vice president and general manager of Google Ads, said: “As search becomes more visual, we’ve heard advertisers tell us that it can be challenging to create compelling images that drive performance. That’s why we designed the conversational experience to suggest images tailored to your campaign using generative AI and images from your landing page.”

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