ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and other AI models are transforming how we search the web, offering faster, conversational answers that bypass traditional results pages. As OpenAI adds real-time search and shopping tools to ChatGPT, it's raising questions about the future of advertising, content monetization, and Google's long-standing dominance. While LLMs promise a better user experience, they may soon face the same trade-offs around trust, bias, and monetization that shaped Google. Consumers, however, stand to benefit from more innovation and competition in how search works.

In the ever-evolving landscape of Paid Search advertising Broad Match has emerged as a key player, touted by both Google and Bing as the gateway to expanded reach and enhanced performance. Our data-driven exploration seeks to unravel the intricacies of these offerings and gauge the fulfillment of such promises. Here's what the data tells us about the unique paths Bing and Google are carving through their AI-integrated algorithms and what that means for the future of search advertising.

MotiveMetrics' Chief Science Officer, Kyle Thomas, joined the AI4 panel on AI Driven Customer Acquisition, Aug 8, 2023 at MGM in Las Vegas. The full panel discussion is available HERE, but our favorite highlights are shown below.

Kyle opened the panel by sharing how the company started during his PhD research in Experimental Psychology at Harvard University. Initially, MotiveMetrics analyzed text from Social Media to develop customer profiles, understand consumer motivations and inform marketing communications. Today, in Paid Search advertising MotiveMetrics' focus is to conquer the "last mile problem" presented by Generative AI systems.

Over the last 10 years paid search has evolved from a keyword-targeting system to a match-making system in which content-to-intent alignment as determined by advanced AI models are the primary driver used for audience targeting. This has dramatically increased the importance of ad copy in Paid Search, making it more important than keywords or match types for audience targeting and performance.  In this post we will review a recent case study that proves unequivocally that ads are the new keywords.