Google to start experimenting with ads in AI content

In a wide-ranging interview on the podcast Silicon Valley Girl, Robby Stein, VP of Product for Google Search is positive about how advertising could get even more granular with all the extra information people can provide in their AI products, saying;

Ads not going away
— I don’t see them [ads] going away. The way people are using Google Search isn’t really changing, what is happening is that it’s expanding [with AI services], he opines.

He says, to be included in Google’s AI products, companies need to focus more on making their data available.

— It [AI] doesn’t use ads information, he claims, — it uses what’s available on the web through Google’s own information system.

So to be included in the results, it’s important to claim your local business, put some menu or product information in there, and be eligible for reviews — as no ads products are available just yet.

Opportunity for the future
— What’s happened is all these new things, like you can take pictures of your shoes, or you could list five sentences in a local restaurant search, and you can put that into Google as well, he says, — I think it’s an opportunity for in the future to be even more helpful for you, particularly in advertising contexts.

— So we’ve started some experiments on ads within AI Mode and Google AI experiences, and I think you can see some of them there soon.

He adds that Google is focused on creating great consumer products, «first and foremost.»

People offering more granular information
The general takeaway for how Google is thinking about AI ads, he says, is that they are looking for new and novel ads formats based on the fine-tuned information people can plot into AI systems.

— So these are things we are thinking about, I’d say it’s early days in finalizing how ads will kind of appear in these systems, but it’s something we are thinking about, he says.

Read more: Silicon Valley Girl podcast (relevant bits start at 8 minutes), Search Engine Land was first to report.