Speakers at the Google Marketing Live event demonstrated how they will use user search queries and AI report content to serve interactive shopping ads that will push organic search results further down, saying that Google is “faimed at opening up new opportunities for your business.“
We like to think that Google Search engineers are in charge of search results, but as the DOJ antitrust court has shown, engineers are increasingly just co-contributors to SERPs, along with other teams in advertising and corporate SVP layers. contributing and deciding what those SERPs end up looking like. I suspect that if the search team had their way, the SERPs would look different than what they have become.
Google: We’re not just building a better search engine
The first speaker, Philipp Schindler, SVP and Chief Business Officer at Google, said out loud what Googlers don’t normally do when he said that the purpose of search results is to serve advertising.
He made the remarks in the context of a new AI video tool that will help YouTube creators create more content.
At the 18:19 minute mark of the event, Schindler boasted:
“We worked with some really talented filmmakers, musicians and artists and the results were just incredible. We’re bringing video to shorts soon, opening up a whole new world of creative possibilities for you and your brands. Just imagine every creator with the power of AI in their pocket.
What does all this mean to you? More creators creating higher quality content attracts more viewers, which means more reach, engagement and ROI for you. We’re not just building a better search engine or a better YouTube. We are focused on opening up new opportunities for your business.”
The claim that Google is using AI and search insights to build reach and ROI for advertisers isn’t the only one. The next two speakers made the same point.
Search and Shopping ads in AI reports
The next speaker was Vidhya Srinivasan, VP/GM, Advertising at Google. First, it describes how search will drive website traffic. Then quickly switch gears to show how interactive advertising moves organic search listings literally out of sight of users entering search queries.
After 30 minutes of the video, Srinivasan explained:
“AI insights will appear in search results when they are particularly useful beyond what search offers today. While we’re still testing and developing search, we’ll remain fully focused on sending valuable traffic to site owners and creators. But then more avenues for user exploration leads to more choice, and more choice leads to more opportunities for advertisers.
You may have noticed that we already show ads above and below AI reports. These ads match the user’s search query. We’re now starting to test Search and Shopping ads in AI reports for US users.
What is also new is that we will match these ads not only to the context of the query, but also to the information in the AI reports. And as always, ads will be clearly marked.”
1. AI Listings – No organic listings
2. Scroll down to Shopping Ads
She then described the example of wrinkled clothing while traveling and turned to Google Search to find ways to prevent wrinkles. It shows travel hack search activity and shows how organic search results are being pushed under the AI reporting feature and new Search and Shopping ads that feature product images and appear far more than any other search results.
She explained how AI Overviews new shopping ads will serve to convert searchers:
“With an overview of the AI, I quickly found some common travel hacks that sounded promising. As I went through the many options that came up, I found a really nice fix, a wrinkle release spray that I had never heard of before. So perfect. I want to try it.
Now with this feature I can click on that ad right away and buy it.
So as you can see, we just make it easier and faster for consumers to act immediately. So this is just one example of how we use Gen AI. There are many more, and we will start with more applications in search ads.”
3. Targeted ads based on AI insights
Google search is bait
Google’s search engineers use the most advanced technology and data to create the most useful search results ever in Google’s history, the best it’s ever been. However, according to the people actually in charge at Google, the purpose of search is not to “organize information from around the world and make it universally accessible and useful,” but to create greater “reach, engagement and return on investment” for advertisers. Sam Altman rightly called what Google is doing dystopian.
SEO was created in social networks
Social engineering is the manipulation of people’s behavior in order to make them perform in a certain way. Google has encouraged a significant portion of the web ecosystem to embrace concepts like Core Web Vitals (CWV) as well as Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (EEAT) to rank on Google and satisfy users. A lot of time, effort and money went into upgrading the website and it was all managed by Google.
But for what purpose? Was it all in the service of “opening up new opportunities” for advertisers?
It’s not the fault of Googlers who put their hearts into making search better. They do an excellent job. But it’s clear that Google’s mission may no longer be to make information accessible and accessible. Taking what was said at this conference at face value, it seems that all of this could have served to create greater reach and return on investment for advertisers.
Watch the Google Marketing Live Keynote 2024
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