The technology around Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been quite impressive in the last few months. If you read our post yesterday of the New Bing, you can get a glimpse of an application of this new AI technology. One thing that’s important to consider when looking at new technologies is it’s financial stability and longevity. Big Tech has a reputation of “scaling” their businesses with venture capital (VC) funds in the hopes that a large user base will produce revenue opportunities in the future. Often times, those companies realize that they can’t find a way to monetize their users enough to pay for the operating costs of their huge user base. Negatively changing the platform to extract funds or completely shuttering the business all together are possible outcomes for these new technologies.
In this post, I want to focus on how the New Bing is an evolution of the traditional search engine and how these new AI technologies enable even more web advertising services.
Accelerating the Search Buying Funnel
The search engine buying funnel is a concept that describes the stages that searchers go through on their way to making the final purchase decision using search engines. It is based on the idea that searchers use different types of keywords depending on their location in the funnel and their level of interest and intent. There are different models of the buying funnel, but one of the most popular ones is the AIDA model, which consists of four stages: attention, interest, desire, and action. These stages are:
- Attention: This stage involves customers knowing a product or service exists and becoming aware of their problem or need. Searchers use broad and generic keywords to explore their options and learn more about the topic.
- Interest: In this stage, customers actively express an interest in a type of product or service and start to compare different solutions. Searchers use more specific and descriptive keywords to narrow down their choices and find relevant information.
- Desire: In this stage, customers develop a preference for a particular brand, product, or service and move closer to the purchase decision. Searchers use more targeted and commercial keywords to evaluate the features, benefits, and prices of their preferred options.
What’s interesting about the New Bing search with AI chat is that it completely upends this by creating interest in the topic by accelerating the Search process. Below is an example of a search I did recently:
I was searching for solutions for some flooding that is happening in our backyard and Bing did a range of searches and summarized those searches with a brief mention of French drains. I asked to tell me more about French drains and it gave me a more comprehensive answer along with search shopping ads. While you may recoil by seeing ads within here, this is no different than the ads we see within a traditional search engine. In fact many people utilize these ads, much to the benefit of our clients.
AI Chat Advertising
Chat advertising is similar to search advertising in some ways. Both types of advertising are based on the user’s query or message, and aim to provide relevant and useful ads that match the user’s intent. Both types of advertising also use bidding and auction mechanisms to determine the ad placement and pricing, and use metrics such as impressions, clicks, and conversions to measure the ad performance and effectiveness. Both types of advertising also follow the same policies and guidelines to ensure the quality and safety of the ads.
However, chat advertising also differs from search advertising in some ways. Chat advertising is more dynamic and adaptive than search advertising, as it can change and update the ads based on the user’s conversation flow and feedback. Chat advertising is also more conversational and natural than search advertising, as it can use natural language and emojis to communicate with the user. Chat advertising is also more creative and entertaining than search advertising, as it can use humor, storytelling, or gamification to engage the user.
The Future is Bright
This early preview shows how not only search engines itself can be profitable as a business, it also shows how small businesses can leverage web advertising services to grow their visibility and reach to sell their products and services. We can assist with web advertising services for our clients and we would love to talk to you about how we can help!
