This is part two of our series on AI’s impact on paid media. In part one, we explored how increasing automation is limiting control and transparency in platforms like Google Ads… Now, we turn to what brands can do about it.
PPC has long benefited from the “halo” effect – where paid spend drives a further proportion of organic traffic via increased presence and brand recognition. Are you still banking on that? If so, we’d suggest you think again, given that safe haven is now rapidly shrinking. Recent trends, through first and third-party analysis, have shown a sharp decline in organic click-through rate since the introduction of AI-featured snippets. What use do users have to click onto your website for if the information they’re seeking is readily available on the SERP? For our client Nuts Group, we’ve seen a 55% increase in organic impressions year-on-year, but a drop of 45% in terms of overall click-through rate, hampering growth efforts.
While on the surface, this might feel like a purely SEO problem, it also erodes the age-old assumption that PPC helps lift all other channels by wiping out a significant portion of added traffic and sales. For many brands, Nuts Group included, this puts far more pressure on paid channels to drive standalone performance, in addition to changing how we calculate both channel-specific and overall ROI.
While Google advertising still has, and always will have, its place, many brands are now exploring diversification as a response to recent developments. Platforms like Bing offer transparency and less AI-driven features compared to Google. Paid Social channels such as Meta and TikTok provide richer creative opportunities (as they always have) but additionally allow us to hit users and stick in their mind before they have to make a decision on a SERP. Arguably, if we can hone brand recognition in a user’s mind through Paid Social, we can take the decision-making process between us and competitors out of the equation completely and avoid unnecessary bidding wars.
For Nuts Group, we’ve begun testing further campaigns outside of Google Ads as a counter to automation-driven inefficiencies. On Paid Social, we’ve seen great success not just in terms of return on investment when it comes to Paid Social revenue, but also huge gains year on year when it comes to brand search recognition as we’ve improved our creative and brand messaging. Beyond that, CPAs on Bing are emerging as a real alternative to Google if you can live with lower volume ceilings.
AI isn’t going anywhere. While its overtness may decrease in time (as we’ve already seen steps towards with “AI mode” testing), the benefits it brings to PPC, and digital marketing at large, are too seismic for the genie to be put back in the bottle now. We simply need to be prepared to operate around its shortcomings in visibility, attribution and control. The human element (judgement, creative input, and strategic thinking with a willingness to challenge) is more important than ever as a counterbalance. Rather than pulling every lever ourselves in our advertising space, we’re now settling more into a role as an overseer, which comes with the advantages and drawbacks already discussed.
Brands that thrive in this new era will be those who understand that AI is a tool, not a replacement. While it can bring efficiencies and insights, it can also drive a strategy completely down the wrong path if let loose with minimal human oversight. That’s without even addressing the strategic evolution required to sidestep those problems, which AI itself has introduced to the landscape, CTR problems being one of the most overt.
Clients such as Nuts Group used to be able to broadly rely on a simplistic enough PPC model: more spend equals more returns. This is simply no longer the case. Our experience here has taught us that, now, only a blended approach will return the results we need. That includes embracing AI where we can see its benefits, but also acknowledging the need to expand efforts beyond Google Ads and base PPC, given this is, unfortunately, where a bulk of AI downsides have coalesced.
Author: William Sharp, Account Manager, Door4
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