Maintaining Quality PPC in an AI-driven World

AI has become a prominent tool and discussion point with a never-ending list of capabilities. Whether you use it to plan out your meals, or re-write your emails, it can be tempting to lean entirely on what the LLMs recommend and suggest. In some instances (next week’s dinner for example) there’s no reason to doubt it. However, when it comes to AI for PPC we recommend balance and a human touch. 

There are certainly developments when it comes to AI and Ads. From a Paid Search perspective, we have new ad formats, campaign types, and tools offering recommendations and top-level insights at the touch of a button.  

At the other end of the scale, we also now have Google’s AI Overviews on the SERP; potentially impacting Ad visibility at the top of the page, as well as in-platform recommendations that might not always be in the best interest of your unique goals and targets. 

What has moved towards AI in Google Ads?

Things really kicked off with Google’s Performance Max – the mysterious black box of limited reporting – trusting the system to do what it does best; whilst waiting for more tools to be introduced to give us back control. With the recent introduction of the channel performance report (Beta), what we’re seeing for most non-ecommerce clients, is that this may as well just be another search campaign with alternate targeting methods. (Context: some recent clients have found spend to be ~98% search with a tiny portion to display.) 

And now, we’re seeing further introductions of AI products with AI Max. A search campaign variant with limited targeting control with the promise of efficiency from AI Integration. I’ve not personally tested this new format so far, but if I do, I can assure you that it will be with cautious budgets and sceptical reviews of reported performance. 

Ways to utilise AI for PPC whilst still making decisions

So outside of these specific google ads tools, what are some examples of how can we use AI for to boost our work in PPC?  

Account Restructures & Keyword Grouping 

• Giving ChatGPT a list of keywords to assist with grouping ad theming can speed up processes for new account builds or restructures; and gives you chance to review the work before anything is implemented. Additionally, using this same method for identifying wasted spend on search terms can be beneficial for learning what can work for your account and what doesn’t.  
• Both uses of the tool here allow you to maintain oversight and control over the final output. 

Assistance with script writing

• Realistically not many of us are experts in writing scripts – especially from scratch; but we occasionally will have ideas for scripts that haven’t made it to various online libraries so far. This could be where tools like ChatGPT comes in – writing snippets of code to test and implement (with us carefully verifying the impact of what’s happening there) to achieve an outcome in building a report or highlighting anomalies without the previous expertise is one promising use for the tool.   

What can we do to mitigate the negative impact of AI overviews on Paid Search?

With AI overviews answering a question or query without the need for a click, we need to ensure our ads offer unique value in order to stand out. Whether that’s to highlight promotions or tailored messaging to your specific audiences - delivering something through our ads that the AI summary won’t include is where we can find our edge.   

By building a strong brand presence and authority through additional AI Search and SEO practices we can also increase the chance of being featured within the AI snippet – potentially positively impacting both paid and organic performance through stronger CTRs and overall site traffic. Having had past clients recently reach out due to traffic drops in their sectors, this has been my key recommendation when finding AI overviews as a presence on their top keywords.  

Focusing on enhancing quality scores and funnelling traffic through your top performing campaigns by mining any Pmax campaigns for keywords has been a successful strategy for many of my accounts – analysis showed CTR and CVRs both significantly higher on search vs Pmax (which as it turns out, was basically Search+), so refocusing the traffic to those strong search campaigns really drove strong performance.  

AI and PPC Management: Final thoughts 

AI’s role in PPC – and the wider search landscape – is still evolving and so I would naturally caution fellow search marketers to take AI-based PPC outputs with a heavy pinch of salt.  

I can also of course recognise the time-saving benefits of some use-cases for AI and PPC and we are always keen to discover, test and action things that will benefit our clients and their performance.  

What AI can’t replicate, however, is the strategic insight, nuance, and client understanding that comes from years of hands-on experience. As such, the most effective future for PPC will be one where AI supports - rather than replaces - the expertise of skilled professionals.