Marketers and advertisers know that AI has been heavily featured in the news. Typically, articles that highlight AI tools focus on the ability of the chatbots to provide thorough answers and expand on a simple question in great detail. There have also been discussions about AI replacing people. While we don’t agree with that, we do believe paid search represents a key AI battleground. 

How companies like Google and Microsoft leverage this technology into their search platforms may determine which search engine is #1 in the future. The search platform that can provide the better user experience, enhanced with the power of AI, will gain a critical edge over competitors, drawing in more users. 

If we take a closer look at Microsoft and Google, we can see how the two companies leverage AI slightly differently.

Microsoft Ads leverages ChatGPT on Bing

Microsoft is partnered with ChatGPT, probably the most well known AI, and leverages it on their search platform bing.com. Microsoft users that are signed in, and navigating from the Microsoft Edge browser, will experience the ChatGPT partnership to its fullest. 

The integration of Microsoft and ChatGPT will influence behavioral change. It’s likely that users will interact with bing.com more frequently, and download the edge browser. For search practitioners who advertise on both Google and Microsoft platforms, be sure to closely monitor performance of the leads from each engine. This has always been the case, however, AI may impact the volume of available traffic from bing.com compared to historic performance.

Google Leverages Bard in their AI “Fight” with Microsoft

Bard is the conversational AI tool developed by Google. Think of it like ChatGPT, but created by Google. You can have conversations with Bard similar to how you can talk with ChatGPT.

Google is the leader in the search market and is not going to relinquish their #1 position. Right now, Google’s Bard is found on its own at bard.google.com. It’s likely Google will integrate the Bard model and chat ability into their primary search platform, google.com.

What does this mean for search advertisers?

As consumers grow more accustomed to interacting with AI to ask questions, the questions they type into a search engine will likely get longer, not shorter. So, what does this mean for search advertisers? We recommend implementing or considering the following: 

  • If you previously shied away from broad match queries as a result of lower performance, test out a strategy that instead implements these match types. 
  • Continue to evolve your bid strategy. Broaden your test parameters to determine where your audience is in their search journey.
  • Implement copy variety. Advertisers who leverage all ad types, formats, and number of headlines will be rewarded with increased performance. Users who don’t provide the engines with the maximum number of headlines and descriptions will see decreased performance as there will be fewer options to match with the AI results and conversations.

AI is ushering in a new wave of opportunities for search marketers. Adapting your strategy in real-time will help increase your performance among a shifting search landscape.