Google, AI, ML, and Ads
Google has primarily relied on their algorithm, PageRank to rank search results, and a separate algorithm known as Ad Rank that determined which ads to run with particular search terms. But, to determine how much Google should set the prices per click on different search queries is determined by auctions. In order to help advertisers optimize their ad campaigns, Google and similar search engines employ machine learning techniques and AI based off of the advertisers budges and goals of the ads.
Recently though, this has gotten a lot more complicated. In September Google announced a plan to overhaul its current algorithms in order to get one’s that are better suited for mobile devices and mobile searching. Some of the changes to Google that have prompted this overhaul are the addition of “stories” (similar to those of Facebook and Snapchat) which will appear alongside relevant search results, an image search feature that will use AI to understand what a photo is showing and return related search results, and the addition of a “feed” where Google uses information from your device to show you news and different articles related to your interests.
Google’s addition of stories provides a whole new opportunity to yield revenue and run ads. Both Facebook and Snapchat run ads on their stories products so it will be interesting to see how Google sets up ads in comparison to Facebook and Snapchat. Additionally, with the new feed feature, Google can display ads within the feed and even have sponsored articles appear in the feed. Both Facebook and Twitter display ads and sponsored content in their feeds, and now Google can do the same. It is very interesting how the shift from desktop to mobile content opens up a whole new space for new types of advertisements all within the same search engine. It will be interesting to see how Google’s ads will be displayed and priced and how that compares to similar companies like Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter.