Thanks to ChatGPT, AI – both its benefits and controversies – have been in the news for the past year. We discussed how Microsoft Ads is leveraging AI, and touched on Google’s Bard. In today’s post, we’ll discuss where you can leverage AI immediately within Google’s environment, and when you should be cautious with AI. 

Which Industries Should Leverage AI Immediately within Google Ads

There are several industries that will benefit immediately from leveraging Google’s AI. Before we dig into the specific industries, let’s look at some general themes that work best with the implementation of AI.

  • You have 1,000’s of pages on your website.
  • Your pages are the source of truth for your company and you have a team or agency dedicated to the accuracy of information on your website.
  • You have 1,000’s of products on your website that frequently change either from product specs or from an inventory perspective.
  • Your goal is to be proactive in the market and you want to stay ahead of the competition at all times.
  • Your ads do not have to go through a compliance or legal department (if you do have this kind of process, we will discuss it later in the blog).

If you read the bullets above and thought “that’s me,” then great: Let’s look at how AI can help your company reach prospects faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Leveraging Google’s AI Tools For Maximum Campaign Impact

Within Google Performance Max, there is a setting that allows Google to automatically create assets on your behalf, using information that is on your website. 

We have tested this out. In one instance, we couldn’t tell if an ad was written by us, or by AI. It was that well done. 

It’s important to note that this feature is turned on by default. All search teams, managers, and CMO’s should be aware of which settings are turned on by default and which aren’t. You want to avoid a lack of compliance approval or an embarrassing situation.

There are several keys to leveraging Google’s ability to create ads for your campaigns. A few items that you want to consider:

  • The pages on your website must be accurate and up to date.
    • Google will leverage the pages on your website to create the ads. Think of it as the old phrase GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage Out).
  • Exclude pages that you don’t want Google to use. This could be sections of your website, or maybe even entire product lines.
  • Make sure your product feed is also up to date, as you can allow Google to leverage this for ad creation.
  • Measure, evaluate, and report. Have teams, whether internal or an agency, report on automated asset creation performance vs. manual creation.
  • Leverage AI to fill in gaps, not to be 100% of the solution. It can be tempting to let the AI machine do all of the work, but we recommend utilizing it as a tool and partner for your teams instead.

Which Industries Should Be Cautious of Google’s AI

There are industries which should, in AI’s current state, avoid the use of AI for much of their search advertising.

We work with clients in the healthcare and financial verticals. These two particular verticals have strict compliance guidelines. Even if a page is 100% accurate with compliance, there is a chance that the AI generates an ad that may not meet the standards of the compliance department.

If you are in a regulated industry where your marketing efforts go through a compliance or legal department, we recommend that you meet with your compliance teams and show them the capabilities of AI within the platform. Seek guidance from them on what you are allowed to do before you turn on auto creation. 

Next Steps to Leveraging AI

Evaluate your team’s current efforts with Google Ads AI and determine if you can leverage additional features, or if you should reduce your usage based on your vertical.

Additional Resources