What to remember about Think Digital 2024

"You can be good at AI, or bad at business." The long intro emphasized embracing AI and how it can help people and businesses grow. After 2023 was the breakthrough year for AI, 2024 should be the year when AI can really prove its worth. From planning campaigns to creating materials to analyzing results: AI can and will be able to play a role in everything. A narrative that few of us will find new to our ears.

Google already announced a lot of innovations for Google Ads last year, based on AI. Following the example of ChatGPT, Google then showed a kind of chat environment within Google Ads to make setting up campaigns easier and faster. In it, users can specify a landing page, after which AI summarizes the page and generates relevant keywords, headlines, descriptions, images and other assets for the campaign. Marketers can view and modify these suggestions before deploying them, setting up their campaigns in an interactive and intuitive way. With a virtual colleague helping them live.

Following that announcement, Google began automatically generating search ads with headlines and descriptions based on the content of landing pages and existing ads. This feature will soon be enhanced with generative AI to make search ads more effective and better aligned with search queries. A logical next step, after Google launched Gemini for the general public earlier this year.

Google wouldn't be Google if it didn't have a commercial sauce. In the second part, the keynotes delved into Performance Max, an AI-based campaign type that generates unseen high conversion results. AI then optimizes your bidding and targeting in real-time to get the best results, across channels. With Pmax, you can reach your target audience on YouTube, Gmail, Search, Discover, Maps and other channels, all in 1 campaign.

Admittedly, we too were excited about the new campaign type 2 years ago when it was launched. More conversions AND help from AI? That was a no brainer. But soon pitfalls surfaced:

1. Little transparency. Although the campaigns delivered good results, it was difficult to report exactly how that came about because Google simply didn't report it. As a result, Pmax was quickly labeled a black box.
2. Emphasis on Shopping. On average, a lot of money goes into Shopping campaigns. Not surprisingly, the best examples come from e-commerce websites. Pmax seems to excel in performance when it can work with large product feeds.
3. Lots of conversion data needed. In our tests, it quickly became apparent that very large amounts of conversion data are needed to achieve great success. For the bulk of advertisers, who do not carry the name JYSK or Omoda, Pmax is not a walk in the park. Both brands were cited in the keynote but, in my humble opinion, do not fully reflect reality. In a b2b context, Pmax mostly did not work properly, perhaps due to less conversion data. The rate at which JYSK sells furniture or accessories is a lot faster than the rate at which a b2b sells its services.

Enough reasons for us not to simply trust the good news show that Google often tries to make of it. But in the near future, that does seem to be changing. Murtaza Lukmani, Product Lead of Performance Max, announced more transparent reporting and more control for advertisers over the how and what of Pmax campaigns during the keynote.

1. Lean in. There's no point in resisting AI. It's here to stay and it's up to us to use it in marketing in a meaningful way. Whether that's strategic, creative or analytical.
2. Prioritize trust. Users want to be able to work in trust. As people spend more and more time online, the future will become even more digital - and thus privacy even more important. Google already anticipated this with the introduction of Consent Mode v2.
3. Choose your partners well. AI is evolving at lightning speed and will have a lasting impact on our society. In addition to the great benefits, this rapid development also brings with it ethical issues that we cannot ignore. In that quest for ethics, consumer privacy must always remain paramount.

The announcements show that Google has taken the many feedback to heart. So it seems they are worthy of another test. That AI can play a major role in digital advertising is self-evident, but then it must be done clearly and transparently. We seem to be moving in that direction now, making the final breakthrough of AI in Google Ads a reality. Last but not least, another important tip from the smart heads at Google: "AI won't take your job, but someone using AI will."