Dischler says the company will be “diligent” in monitoring the quality of images and text generated by the new features, some of which are available to advertisers in beta form already. Google is launching some of them more broadly than its top rival, Meta, which announced earlier this month that it was initially inviting select advertisers to try out its own generative AI features.
Offering generative AI in ads is likely expensive, because the computing costs to operate text- and image-generating models is sky high. At a conference last week, Meta AI executive Aparna Ramani said generating an output from those kinds of models is 1,000 times more expensive than using AI to recommend content and curate users’ News Feeds.
One of Google’s new features out now adapts the text of English-language search ads based on what a person typed into the company’s search box and Google’s data on the advertiser. Previously, each time a person searched, algorithms would have to select text to display from a collection an advertiser had manually written in advance.
With the text generation option, a search for “skin care for dry sensitive skin” could trigger an ad for skin cream with the auto-generated text “Soothe your dry, sensitive skin,” Dischler says. That may not seem revolutionary, but making ads more closely match searches could increase the chances of users clicking.
Google is also using its text-generation technology to offer a chatbot that ad customers can use to get suggestions for search keywords worth advertising against and text to go in those ads. “We would love to be able to offer personal support to millions of advertisers, large and small, but we think this is the next best thing,” Dischler says.
The Help Me Create My Ad prompt draws on Google’s data on past campaigns and analysis of a customer’s website and will be available to select US advertisers in English in July. Its design is similar to the company’s Help Me Write feature being tested in Gmail and Google Docs, which WIRED’s review found to be a good creative aid but also sometimes a stuffy writer that perpetuates stereotypes.
