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Will Google’s New AI-Powered Ads Drive More Traffic To Your Site?

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Published on October 4, 2024

google ads dashboard with magnifying glass over the words google ads

Yesterday, Google announced that ads in both AI Overviews and Google Lens are now live across the search engine. The former is available for mobile users in the US and the latter has been rolled out across Android and iOS devices in select countries.

What You Need to Know

AI Overview Ads will appear within commercial queries, such as the example Google provided: “how do I get a grass stain out of jeans?” AI will then present products that could be used to remove this stain, alongside the textual overview.

Google says these ads may appear above, below, or within the AI overview. From previews, they will appear similarly to those on the Shopping Tab and will display the product’s image, price, retailer, and Google reviews.

News of initial testing for AI overviews was unveiled back in May at the Google Marketing Live. Yesterday, Google said feedback from this testing was very positive:

“We’ve seen that people are finding ads directly within AI Overviews helpful because they can quickly connect with relevant businesses, products and services to take the next step.”

Google is confident that shopping ads within Google Lens will have similar results:

“Testing shows that with this new Lens feature, shoppers are more likely to engage with information in this new interface.”

This feature will combine AI with Google Shopping Graph data to identify the product within the image and present “reviews, price comparisons across retailers and where to buy.”

Connecting Users to Relevant Businesses

Google’s AI Overview takes up valuable space at the top of the SERP, and featured pages have seen a huge increase in traffic. Undoubtedly, sites featured in the AI Overview and Google Lens shopping ads will see the same increase in traffic, from high intent buyers looking for an answer to their search query. Hopefully, this will provide an extra avenue for sites trying to recover from the continued SERP volatility since the core update.

On the flip side, ads will increase the size of the AI Overview box, so there’s a very real possibility of ads negatively affecting traffic to organic search results that don’t make the cut.

How Do I Make My Ads Appear?

To appear in the AI Overview or Google Lens ads, Google has advised that there isn’t any action to take, other than to continue doing what you’re already doing:

“You can show ads in these experiences with your existing AI-powered Search ads, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. There’s no additional action required.”

As of now, we can expect to see a gradual rollout of integrated shopping ads globally, according to Google’s announcement.

Written by:

Annie Angus Writer

Annie Angus is a Writer for Website Builder Guide with a passion for shaping jargon-heavy research into digestible content. She has previously researched and written about industries ranging from tech to fashion, and now, after testing our top website builders such as Wix and Squarespace, she is enthusiastic to share her findings with our readers. With first-hand experience in utilizing social media and online marketplaces to grow a small handmade clothing business, Annie understands the priorities and concerns held by SME owners, and knows precisely what they look for in a website builder. She combines this unique perspective with her knowledge of website builders to produce engaging content spanning all areas of the small business journey, from creating a strong website to growing and maintaining an audience.