Google has announced that it plans to bring adverts to its new AI Overviews product.
Google released its AI Overviews recently, giving Search users more contextual, AI-generated answers to their search queries, rather than a list of results. Google has said that users are more satisfied with their search results and find ads appearing above and below the overview helpful.
Google added that this new ad format was designed to help people discover new brands and make informed purchasing decisions. Ads will continue to feature the “Sponsored” label.
“Imagine this: You’ve just spent the day at the park and now your jeans are covered in grass stains. You turn to Google and ask, “how do I get a grass stain out of jeans?” AI Overviews provides a number of helpful solutions, ranging from using common household products, to commercial products like stain removers. Instead of needing another search to find the right product, relevant Shopping ads appear right within the AI Overview, allowing you to quickly and easily find the perfect stain remover,” wrote Shashi Thakur
VP/GM, Google Ads in a blog post.
These AI Overview ads are available to users in the US now.
Google is also bringing shopping ads to its Lens searches. Lens searches allow users to tap on an image of a product, with Google then providing more information about them.
The company said that is recording 20 billion monthly Lens searches, 20 per cent of which are shopping-related. Come the end of the year, advertisers will be able to place Shopping ads above and alongside visual search results.
“For example, let’s say you’re shopping at a mall and a backpack displayed in a store’s window catches your eye. You want to learn more — and check if there’s other colors available — but you’re in a hurry. Simply tap the Lens icon in the search bar and snap a photo or upload one from your gallery to learn more about the product. Lens will bring together our advanced AI models and Google’s Shopping Graph — which has information on more than 45 billion products — to identify the exact item in your photo,” added Thakur.
Starting this week, users will see key information about the products they’re looking for such as reviews, price comparisons across retailers and where to buy. Google’s testing shows that with this new Lens feature, shoppers are more likely to engage with information in this new interface. This is being rolled out for Android and iOS devices in select countries.
