Brendon Kraham on AI in Search: new frontiers for advertisers in 2024

In a recent interview on October 3, 2024, Brendon Kraham, VP of search and commerce, global ads solutions at Google, shared his insights on the company's latest AI-powered search innovations. His comments shed light on how these advancements are reshaping the advertising landscape and user behavior.

According to Kraham, Google's long-term investment in AI has always been aimed at improving Search. He notes a persistent trend: "Each day, 15% of the searches on Google are new. What's amazing is that this statistic has remained true for over a decade." This ongoing novelty in user queries underscores the need for continuous innovation in search technology.

Kraham emphasizes that AI is expanding Search capabilities beyond traditional text-based queries:

• Users can now search using cameras
• Voice commands are becoming more prevalent
• On-screen content selection is possible

He views these developments as highly beneficial for advertisers, stating, "It means more opportunities to get in front of their customers. It gives us better signals of intent to connect people with relevant ads. And, most importantly, it gets consumers from discovery to decision even faster."

Visual Search

Kraham expresses particular excitement about visual search, highlighting Google Lens as a rapidly growing query type. He reveals:

• Lens processes nearly 20 billion visual searches monthly
• Users aged 18-24 show the highest engagement with Lens

Recent enhancements to Lens, as outlined by Kraham, include:

1. Integration of video search capabilities
2. Improved results pages displaying key product information
3. Reviews and price comparisons across retailers
4. Direct purchase options

AI Overviews: Transforming Complex Queries

Kraham describes AI Overviews as "a supersmart, superfast librarian who has read everything on the web." He explains its significance:

"It's like Google Search with superpowers. It's not just summarizing; it's actually understanding what you're looking for and delivering a more helpful, more relevant response, every time."

Kraham shares several positive outcomes since the U.S. launch of AI Overviews:

• Users search more frequently
• Higher satisfaction with search results
• Greater diversity of websites visited for complex queries
• Increased engagement from younger demographics (18-24 age group)
• Higher quality clicks to websites from search result pages

He notes, "When people click from search result pages with AI Overviews, these clicks are higher quality for websites — meaning users are more likely to spend more time on the sites they visit."

Google Search's enduring role in the purchase journey

Despite the rising popularity of social platforms, Kraham asserts that Google Search maintains a crucial role in consumers' purchase decisions. He explains:

"The fact is, today's shoppers are open-minded. They're looking for brands to understand their needs and provide relevant suggestions, but they aren't necessarily set on a specific brand or product."

Kraham emphasizes the distinction between discovery and decision-making: "Discovery happens in lots of places: YouTube, social platforms, out-of-home advertisements, word of mouth. But decisions happen on Google Search."

He cites consumer behavior patterns to support this claim:

• Consumers often use Google to research products seen on social media
• The incidence of spontaneous social media-inspired purchases is low
• Most online purchases involve planning and research
• Socially influenced purchases often lead to even more platform use for evaluation

Kraham adds, "From discovery to decision, people turn to Google because they trust it; consumers are more likely to say that they trust Google 'to provide them with the most relevant information and content' as compared to other top online platforms."

AI's impact on advertising performance

Kraham emphasizes the value of Google Search for advertisers: "The beauty of Google Search is that people tell us exactly what they are looking for. And, to a business, that signal of intent is the most valuable signal in the world."

He highlights how AI improvements in Search translate to better advertising outcomes:

"AI is expansionary for Search. Innovations like Lens and AI Overviews allow us to capture more searches and even stronger signals of intent that we use to connect highly qualified users with the most helpful ads."

To illustrate the effectiveness of Google's AI-driven advertising, Kraham cites a study by TransUnion among U.S. retail and consumer electronics advertisers in 2023:

• Performance Max campaigns driven by AI showed 19% higher return on ad spend compared to AI-powered and automated performance campaigns on the largest social platform by share of spend

Kraham's vision for the future

Reflecting on Google's long-term AI strategy, Kraham states, "We've been investing in AI for decades now, and our goal in doing so is to help our customers get more return on their ad spend and meet their business objectives. We want to help them build better ads, so they can build a better business."

Key takeaways from Brendon Kraham's insights

• AI is expanding search capabilities beyond text, including visual and voice search
• AI Overviews enable more complex queries and deeper content exploration
• Google Lens processes nearly 20 billion visual searches monthly
• Despite social media growth, Google Search remains crucial in purchase decisions
• AI-driven advertising campaigns show improved ROI compared to social platform campaigns