Digital Marketing Apprentice at Seventy9
Much discussion has been had about the potential uses and threats of artificial intelligence within digital marketing. Is it a looming presence capable of eliminating entire sectors, or a tool to streamline work and increase productivity? With an increasing number of people using AI chatbots like ChatGPT, and Google introducing their own “AI Mode” search feature, concerns have been raised regarding how this could impact traditional search results, and by extension paid search ads. If more people begin using these chatbots instead of traditional search engines, could the performance of pay-per-click ads suffer? While AI is changing the ways in which people search the internet, it is also opening new avenues for businesses to find customers through new advertising systems like performance max adverts, as this article will explore.
Google Ads was introduced in 2000, and despite undergoing many changes over the years, one thing has remained fairly consistent. Sponsored results occupy the first spots for any given query, allowing users to easily see adverts relevant to their search. However, nowadays many Google Searches provide an AI overview, collating information from across the internet in a summary that aims to quickly answer the user’s search. More often than not, this appears above even paid ads, meaning certain users will click a link through this overview. This minimises the chance of them paying attention to the paid results.
Meanwhile, the AI Mode chatbot only provides a handful of answers to any given query. Instead of Googling for “digital marketing companies near me” for example, you could ask AI Mode, which will give you a direct answer, bypassing the chance of seeing an ad. Additionally, the results it gives are typically for bigger businesses that have a strong presence all across the internet. This poses a risk to smaller business that rely on search visibility and pay-per-click ads to find new customers. Is it possible to capture the attention of audiences and compete with these new AI tools? We say yes, and the answer is to fight fire with fire.
For better or worse, AI is clearly here to stay, as companies continue pushing it and investing into AI-focused platforms. To avoid losing ground to chatbots, AI can be used to streamline your own campaigns. This doesn’t involve generating marketing materials but rather taking advantage of the algorithm to ensure maximum success. How can you achieve this? Through performance max campaigns.
Performance max allows advertisers to run one campaign that reaches across all of Google’s network. This covers traditional search, display ads, YouTube, shopping, discover, Google Maps, and Gmail. To put it simply, these campaigns use Google’s machine learning AI to optimise budget, bidding and so on. This ensures that you can achieve your set goal, whether that be leads, website visits, or sales. Traditional search campaigns require you to apply settings for each ad to be shown to customers. Performance max campaigns differ, letting you upload a variety of different assets, from headlines to descriptions to images and videos. Google’s AI then assembles these in an order based on the user’s intents and preferences, combined with your audience signals. This helps your ad catch the attention of the right person, proving to be a very dynamic form of advertising.
Performance max takes some of the burden off of the advertiser, allowing them to increase their reach across a variety of different platforms using just one campaign. At Seventy9, we run performance max campaigns for a large number of our digital marketing clients and have found great success with them – for several clients it is by far their highest performing campaign!
While chatbots and AI platforms are rising in popularity, search engines aren’t going anywhere any time soon, and neither are search ads. Skilful optimisation of your campaigns and expanding into a variety of different campaign types can help you future proof your marketing. There’s no better time than now to create a performance max campaign. You can use the quick start-up guide below to see how to create your own. Or alternatively, we can do the work for you – through our digital marketing management services, we will create and manage a performance max campaign for you, sending you regular updates on your progress.
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