The AI-powered Search Generative Experience or SGE, currently available to select users who’ve opted in to try it, is the biggest change to the Google search result pages in more than a decade. With the integration of generative AI, Google search pages will now show information in a manner similar to ChatGPT, ultimately impacting our browsing behaviour and consumption habits.
While Google is still to announce a date for its universal rollout, some industry reports, however, have stated that SGE’s format could negatively impact publishers’ revenues and lead to a decrease in ad visibility and performance.
When contacted by exchange4media, Google noted: “It's premature to estimate the traffic impact of our SGE experiment as we continue to rapidly evolve the user experience and design, including how links are displayed. We’ll continue to prioritize approaches that send valuable traffic to publishers, and in fact, we are showing more links to sites with SGE in Search than before, creating new opportunities for content to be discovered.”
There have been several doom and gloom reports on the drop in search traffic as consumers move out of walled gardens, and browse and surf the web through different apps and devices, depending on the need of the moment. Other industry stakeholders are also looking to drive consumers to the open internet.
Ishan Chaki, Senior Media Buyer, Adbuffs, believes SGE will change user behaviour significantly. “Currently, on a regular search page, users click on results and visit websites for further information. This generates a huge amount of outbound traffic. With Generative Experience, users will be interacting more with the AI and visits to websites will be reduced. This not only impacts click-through rates but also ad revenue.”
“Having said all that, we must remember Google generates a large amount of revenue from Ads. At the same time, SGE is still in development. In our tests, a lot of time generative AI did not show up for many search terms. While a reduction in traffic and revenue is expected, it is not right to decide on a number at this point. Given Google is one of the largest ad service providers, it will try to minimise the impact on ad revenues as much as possible,” he added.
Ashutosh Nagare, Vice President – Head of Performance Marketing, Interactive Avenues, notes that since the SGE offers instant results to queries posted by end-users, it will keep users engaged on Google search pages and can potentially lead to a substantial drop in traffic, consequently impacting digital ad revenues for publishers.
“The interesting part here is that users can modify their search as per the output and find relevant results right upfront without clicking on any links or navigating to any organic listings. However, it’s too early to comment on whether the product will be a great success in keeping users engaged. There was a similar hypothesis around voice-generated search a couple of years back, but the growth of voice search hasn't reached the anticipated goal,” he adds.
Russhabh R Thakkar, Founder and CEO, Frodoh World, says the actual impact would depend on various factors, including the adoption rate of the new search engine, its effectiveness in delivering relevant results, and how publishers adapt their strategies to accommodate changes in traffic sources.
“This "middleman squeeze" could occur if SGE becomes the primary source for basic information, leaving publishers invisible and their content uncredited. However, this potential disruption also opens doors for publishers who can adapt. By focusing on creating high-quality, in-depth content that caters to niche audiences and complex topics, publishers can shift their focus from clicks to value,” he says.
Nagare notes, “On the performance of search ads, so far, we haven’t seen any significant impact, as not many users have opted in for the SGE experience. However, the impact might differ across categories wherever it's been opted into. The snippet of SGE comes after product listing ads, categories like e-commerce, retail, beauty, fashion, and lifestyle might not see much impact.”
Other categories that primarily depend on search will have to bid for the top position to appear on top of SGE results and try experimenting with ad copy to drive attention and clicks from relevant user queries.
Chaki adds, “Yes, we will have to modify the way we currently create ads and content to adapt with the new changes but as long as the ad copy and website content are relevant, appealing and serving users’ requirements, performance won’t be an issue whether SGE is present or not.”
Additionally, Google might integrate new ad formats within SGE, offering publishers fresh revenue streams if they adapt their content and ad strategies to these new formats. “Ultimately, the key to success lies in building trust and becoming a recognized authority. By consistently delivering high-quality content and establishing a strong brand, publishers can ensure users actively seek them out for deeper dives and reliable information, even if they encounter snippets of that information on SGE,” says Thakkar.
