How is artificial intelligence affecting Google Ad campaigns? Attendees to the IRgA Webinar on September 10 titled “Is AI Killing Google Ads?” learned that it’s not a simple situation. Both technologies are important, and companies that know how to use both are more likely to succeed.
The presenters were Kevin Vaughan, who consults on how small businesses can maximize AI searches, and Annaliese Vance, who helps clients create successful Google Ad campaigns.
Here are six take-aways from the event. This just scratches the surface! To watch the recording of the webinar, log into the Member Portal and click on “Reports and Recorded Webinars” on the left. This webinar is currently the top item.
Note: Vaughan will also be a presenter at the IRgA Workshop about how artificial intelligence is affecting reprographics in Nashville, October 15-16. Click here for details.
Negative Keywords Are Important, Too
In your Google Ad set-up, include negative keywords when appropriate. These are words or phrases you DON’T want to be associated with. Vance gave the example of a lighting company that was getting a lot of inappropriate traffic from people searching for the word “chandelier” when they wanted the popular song by that name, not an actual light fixture. So her company created a negative keyword phrase that made sure anyone searching for the song would not see the lighting company’s ads (and eat up their ad budget).
Forget Keywords, Answer Questions Instead
If you’re optimizing for artificial intelligence searches, you should focus on answering questions, not keywords. That way someone asking an appropriate question will see an answer from your site and, maybe, click on it.
Vaughan gave this example: If a customer wants banners for an event, they may type this into an AI search: “I have this event coming up. I need banners done. I've got a short timeframe." The AI engine will analyze that request and quickly figure out which local websites seem to meet the needs of that user – hopefully including yours! – and create a summary that appears at the top of the search page.
“Since we're not chasing keywords anymore, there is no page one of Google,” Vaughan said. “That was always the goal. I'm gonna optimize for this keyword, I'm gonna optimize for this search, I'm gonna end up on page one and get as high on that list that I can. Well, a lot of things have changed because there is no page one. Things are starting in that chat engine instead.”
Artificial Intelligence is Not Killing SEO
“AI is not killing what the old framework and process was, because SEO is still foundational,” Vaughan said. “All of the elements that you've done in the past -- fast site speed, good architecture, schema markup, all the technical aspects behind the scenes -- is still important because that becomes part of what AI is looking for, in addition to building trust and authority.”
Bots Can Eat Up Your Ad Budget
For a variety of reasons, “bots” like to fill out forms with fake information. They might do this in hopes of spreading links they are promoting, or to generate phony leads that disrupt a competitor or trick a company into calling or emailing someone, thus giving up data. Regardless of the reason, these bots can eat up your ad budget, Vance said.
“We had a client that almost got put out of business by bots,” she said. “Basically 40% of their monthly budget was getting eaten up by bots. And it took us a minute to catch it because they're really, really sneaky.”
AI Searches Often Lead to Regular Google Searches
The premise of the panel discussion was that AI is killing Google Ads, but in fact, when people use AI searches, they often follow up with a regular Google search to get more details or fact check what AI said. Or to place an order.
“They're starting on AI, they're doing their initial research, comparisons, reviews, things like that, but they want to fact check what AI said,” Vaughan said. “So then they’re dropping over into Google because that needs to be verified. That's why the paid ads kind of cement the validity of search.”
People Who Start with an AI Search Buy More
B-to-B purchases are often complex, so rarely does a potential customer take a clean path from a search to a purchase. Vaughan said that data shows that people who start with an AI search are more likely to convert to a customer than those who start at Google itself.
“The data is showing is that the conversion rate for an ‘AI-trained’ visitor is over four times higher than a traditional organic visitor,” he said. “Somebody that’s AI first that has gone through that research phase up front, they’re converting four times higher and they’re spending 48% more typically.”
Remember: Vaughan will also be a presenter at the IRgA Workshop about how artificial intelligence is affecting reprographics in Nashville, October 15-16. Click here for details.