Google in Emergency mode: Disruption in the paid marketing landscape

“If you rest, you rust” - A common phrase used in Southern Africa to describe the nature of comfortability and complacency. A sentiment that has come to Google seemingly all too late.

Ironically before the advent of ChatGPT and other mainstream AI tools, many believed that the company that would herald in a new world of AI-powered productivity, creative and business tools would be Google’s parent company Alphabet. It seems Google and Alphabet have been beaten to the punch.

“Ngisutse” - the siSwati phrase meaning one is full, content or has slightly over-eaten and is now satisfied after a great meal. As with most Bantu languages, siswati is a highly contextual language. While this phrase has connotations of success, it also is implied that this is the moment when we are most vulnerable to power shifts from competitors as complacency sinks in. Google as the global online marketing giant has not felt direct competition to its bottom line business model (Ad space revenue) in almost a decade when the company was arguably a completely different organisation. Those who have been working with Google marketing tools for years now will be all too familiar with the assumption that Google was unshakable in its dominance of business tools, marketing and learning tools. And seemingly for good reason, Google has become its own verb in our daily lives… Just Google it!

Google has forgotten, heavy is the head that wears the crown.

With the software giant’s CEO Sundar Pichai declaring “Code Red” it seems he has struggled to adjust the international giant quick enough to combat a well thought out recovery strategy of Microsoft. Over the past year Mr Pichai has been attempting to streamline the company away from the many non-profitable business models that created value with the company but not significant revenue, dubbing the measures a “simplicity sprint”. The unfortunate side of this is the downsizing of approximately 12,000 employees who did not qualify for his efficiency or usefulness standards; changing the perception of the company as one of the tech giants that does not treat employees like just another number, (looking at you Jeff B). CNBC reported that “the company on Tuesday reported its second consecutive quarter of weaker-than-expected earnings and revenue. Revenue growth slowed to 13% in the quarter from 62% a year earlier, when the company was benefiting from the post-Covid pandemic reopening and consumer spending was on the rise.” (Elias 2022)

Large projects that could have diversified Google’s entire business model have been cut, such as Stadia, Google Pixel slate & 2023 Pixelbook, and various other R&D projects at their Area 120 labs. The shift indicates that Mr Pichai and his co-execs have now realised the cost of complacency and have moved to optimise their budget toward AI tools maintaining dominance of the digital marketing landscape through their Natural language modelling tools based off of LaMDA. The question for the public now, is Google's hesitancy to release a language model to judge the landscape to their detriment or will it give consumers, businesses and agencies a more refined AI language tool?

AI in paid marketing campaigns

Google has positioned itself at the centre of almost all revenue avenues of what is considered modern mainstream online marketing. The common sentiment across the modern paid media landscape is that ‘all roads lead to Google’. The list of companies that have managed to avoid using Google in the Ad revenue models are Alphabet’s main competitors; the likes of Meta, Verizon (Yahoo’s parent), Microsoft, Amazon and twitter. Looking at Google Search as an ecosystem service on its own, might well be the largest digital ecosystem on earth by user count.

Google is our modern day oracle service (oracles of greece not california), with an instant answer to any conceivable question in seconds, in everyone’s pocket. And for Google this means an instant and seamless revenue stream in every pocket.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) models that serve as the foundation or father of internet advertising business models - Google’s largest revenue stream - have been directly challenged by Microsoft’s integration of OpenAI’s technologies into their ubiquitous Microsoft Office software. Microsoft runs its own Ads ecosystem (MSAN) as a competitor to Google but has been notorious for high campaign costs, ineffective audience targeting and unappealing ad designs has long been overlooked as a supplement to campaigns rather than a basis.

While each major Web2 and Web3 website should have some sort of social interaction and ad revenue generation method, only the larger sites maintain their own frameworks for Ad revenue generation. Google Adsense picks up these gaps by bringing the majority of the world’s websites into their Ad ecosystem; allowing businesses and content writers to focus on content rather than Ad revenue admin. With Bing’s superior query answering dynamic, Google loses on multiple fronts. Sridhar Ramaswamy, who oversaw Google's ad team between 2013 and 2018, said ChatGPT could prevent users from clicking on Google links with ads, which generated $208 billion — 81% of Alphabet's overall revenue — in 2021 (Mok, 2022). Bing prevents ad revenue generation from Search on google and further on any website that uses Google’s Adsense and analytics technology to place ads on their website - A vital source of income for smaller informational websites and businesses that depend on Ad revenue.

Google has been hesitant to deploy their AI tools outside of AI generated audience segments that GoogleAds and Youtube marketers will be familiar with. From Jasper.Ai for creative, AI Keyword generator tools, automated content writers, and SEO AI tools, there are already a wealth of online AI tools that enhance the quality of paid search, paid social, email marketing and paid display & video campaigns for digital marketers to make use of. The difference is these tools had previously not threatened Google’s bottom line, rather they encouraged the use of Google’s services as Google rewards the increased quality of campaigns.

Microsoft AI integration

Innovation & disruption have become currency in the information age. With no significant social media platform assets and an unappealing paid search platform, Microsoft has never been a significant threat to Google from a direct competition route. Microsoft relies on its licensing of Windows, still the most widely used desktop operating system worldwide, to generate revenue. In addition, we cannot leave out their Azure cloud services, XBOX, and Microsoft 365 as honourable mentions for contributing significantly to Microsoft’s overall revenue. All of these revenue streams have shown significant threats by innovations from competitors and have repetitively shown Microsoft's inability to creatively adapt and overcome disruptions such as ChromeOS, the SONY PS5, Amazon’s AWS and Google’s Cloud services. Their dominance has only been perpetuated by large enterprises' reliance on Microsoft Office and business tools, while the average consumer, agency head or small business owner have increasingly moved to Apple for a more creative ecosystem or ChromeOS for learning tools and ease of use. In addition, Microsoft held a larger hold of developing markets where high speed internet connections were not as readily available so ChromeOS is not a viable option.

The largest factor influencing the shift of everyday consumers is the end of the day money. ChromeOS is free, Google’s office tools are free unless you want to become a developer, and because they are all cloud based, integrate much more seamlessly with other technologies. Microsoft Audience Network and Bing Ads to most digital marketers was only useful as a method to target a corporate audience while at work and supplement Google search audiences to meet target audience reach metrics.

”Microsoft's share of the search ad market is small: it made nearly $18 billion in ad revenue last year, far smaller than the $224 billion Google made in gross ad revenue last year” (Chowdry, 2023).

Considering for the past decade, Microsoft has had competitors ‘coming for their lunch’, and steadily increasing revenue shares in multiple markets, it becomes clearer that the acquisition of OpenAI was a last major effort by CEO Satya Nadella to turn the company away from the dated practices of the Gates era.

Outside of the consumer technology enthusiast community, many forget that IBM and Microsoft’s dominance predates the boom of silicon valley. And this single fact is shown in the culture difference between Microsoft and Google, reflected in every business decision. Retrospectively, Bill Gates resigning from directing the tech giant might have been one his smartest decisions. Comparatively Mr Nadella’s leadership has been a significant boon to Microsoft’s change of direction. The two that from a consumer standpoint have made significant improvements to the image of Microsoft as competitive is the movement to bring Microsoft Office 365 completely online similar to the Google Docs while charging a premium for those who need the full suite of Office tools offline on their system. And with this full suite of office tools with a largely established user base now powered by OpenAI, this has solidified Microsoft’s place in the increasingly competitive consumer computing landscape.

The questions for you as a digital marketer are how will this change your workflow? How will this affect the type of campaigns you run and your KPIs? Which audiences will be harder to reach or will be less profitable?

With Bing now reducing the need to actually read through an entire website through instant answers, there is a precarious balancing act where they will be slightly decreasing their own Ad revenue in favour of a larger user base.

QUEUE Google’s Bard. After a rushed keynote speech by Google’s team that introduced Google’s answer to the new bing, the developers of Google’s Bard tool have shown public disapproval of the CEOs presentation of the tool as a one-fix-all solution to Bing’s update.

“Bard is separate from Search, so talking about the Search screenshots in the context of Bard isn’t accurate. Bard is one thing, and then generative AI features in Search are separate. Bard is a standalone experience, not in Search.”

With Google employees professing the tool is more than just Search, one thing is certain; Google is scrambling, panic is not usual for them and the lack of unity shows. One thing is for certain, the decades long battle between tech giants is only heating up.

Keyword Research & Audience targeting with AI

MarTech & AdTech are two industries that follow trends closely behind the software technology industries and are usually the vehicles for revenue generation in each space; one feeds the other. Marketers need to understand that to stay competitive, you and your team need to constantly be moving with the disruptions. Learn to use change to your advantage. Change is the nature of the world and learning new tools and skills is how you stay ahead of the game.

ChatGPT is a magnificent tool for keyword research, audience targeting ideas and has the ability to reduce the length or structure of your workflow. ChatGPT has become an instant market leader, but is not the only tool available to you.

Below I have collected some of the best AI tools currently available to digital marketers that significantly help you achieve your complex KPIs:

Here are the top 6 Keyword Research and Audience targeting digital marketing tools powered by AI in 2023 and a brief summary of each:

1. Google Keyword Planner: Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that allows users to find keywords relevant to their business or industry. It provides data on search volume, competition, and suggested bids for AdWords campaigns. It is an essential tool for planning and executing a paid media campaign.

2. Ahrefs: Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO tool that helps businesses improve their organic search rankings, track their backlinks, and conduct keyword research. It has a feature called "Keywords Explorer" that helps businesses find new keywords related to their niche or industry. It is a great tool for creating a keyword strategy for a paid media campaign.

3. SEMrush: SEMrush is an all-in-one digital marketing tool that includes features like SEO, PPC, content marketing, and social media marketing. It has a feature called "Keyword Magic Tool" that helps businesses find long-tail keywords and create a keyword strategy for a paid media campaign.

4. KWFinder: KWFinder is a keyword research tool that helps businesses find long-tail keywords with low competition. It also provides data on search volume, CPC, and difficulty. It is a great tool for finding low-competition keywords to target in a paid media campaign.

5. AdEspresso: AdEspresso is a Facebook and Instagram ad management tool that allows businesses to create, manage, and optimise their ad campaigns. It uses AI to suggest targeting options based on the user's campaign goals and audience characteristics. It is a great tool for audience targeting in a paid media campaign.

6. WordStream Advisor: WordStream Advisor is a digital marketing tool that includes features like PPC, SEO, and social media marketing. It has a feature called "Keyword Tool" that helps businesses find new keywords related to their niche or industry. It also provides data on search volume, CPC, and difficulty. It is a great tool for creating a keyword strategy for a paid media campaign.

In a paid media campaign, these tools can be used to identify relevant keywords and target the right audience. By conducting keyword research and analysing audience characteristics, businesses can create effective ad campaigns that reach their target audience and drive conversions. These tools also provide data on search volume, competition, CPC, and difficulty, which can help businesses make informed decisions about their ad spend and optimise their campaigns for better performance.

Here are the top 7 Artificial Intelligence tools that can be used to build creative assets for social media campaigns:

1. Canva: Canva is a graphic design tool that uses AI to suggest layouts, fonts, and colors for social media posts. It has a vast library of templates and design elements that can be customized to create unique and engaging social media graphics.

2. Adobe Sensei: Adobe Sensei is an AI-powered tool that helps businesses automate repetitive tasks in the design process, such as selecting images and creating layout variations. It can also suggest new design ideas based on a brand's existing content and style.

3. Lumen5: Lumen5 is a video creation platform that uses AI to transform blog posts and articles into engaging social media videos. It can suggest images, music, and transitions based on the content of the article and the brand's style guidelines.

4. RelayThat: RelayThat is a design automation tool that uses AI to create hundreds of social media graphics with a few clicks. It can suggest layouts, fonts, and colors based on a brand's existing content and style guidelines.

5. Smartly.ai: Smartly.ai is a conversational AI platform that allows businesses to create chatbots for social media messaging apps. It can automate responses to common queries and offer personalized recommendations to users based on their previous interactions with the brand.

6. Hugging Face: Hugging Face is a natural language processing (NLP) tool that can be used to create chatbots, voice assistants, and other conversational interfaces for social media platforms. It uses AI to understand the intent behind user queries and provide relevant responses.

7. Jasper AI: Jasper AI is a natural language generation (NLG) tool that uses artificial intelligence to automatically generate human-like text. It can be used to create product descriptions, marketing copy, social media posts, and other types of content. By automating the content creation process, businesses can save time and resources while still delivering high-quality content. Jasper AI can also help businesses improve their SEO by generating unique, keyword-rich content for their website and social media channels.

In a social media campaign, these AI-powered tools can be used to create engaging and visually appealing content that resonates with the target audience. By automating repetitive tasks and using AI to suggest design elements, businesses can create social media assets more efficiently and with less manual effort. These tools can also help businesses personalize their messaging and interactions with customers, improving engagement and driving conversions.

References

Collins, E. (2021, May 18). LaMDA: our breakthrough conversation technology. Google. https://blog.google/technology/ai/lamda/

Elias, J. (2022, August 1). Google CEO tells employees productivity and focus must improve, launches “Simplicity Sprint” to gather employee feedback on efficiency. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/31/google-ceo-to-employees-productivity-and-focus-must-improve.html

TechCrunch is part of the Yahoo family of brands. (2022, September 14). https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/14/google-cancels-half-the-projects-at-its-internal-rd-group-area-120/

Mok, A. (2022, December 22). Google’s management has reportedly issued a “code red” amid the rising popularity of the ChatGPT AI. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/google-management-issues-code-red-over-chatgpt-report-2022-12?international=true&r=US&IR=T

Pichai, S. (2023, February 6). An important next step on our AI journey. Google. https://blog.google/technology/ai/bard-google-ai-search-updates/

Chowdhury, H. (2023, February 14). Microsoft and Google will duke it out over Silicon Valley’s true financial driver: ads. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-and-google-battle-over-online-ads-2023-2?international=true&r=US&IR=T#:~:text=Microsoft's%20share%20of%20the%20search,last%20year%2C%20the%20analysts%20wrote.

Goodwin, D. (2023, March 6). Google: ‘Bard is not Search’ Search Engine Land. https://searchengineland.com/google-bard-is-not-search-393938