Blog post
Transforming Search and Advertising with Generative AI
Earlier this year, we began the incredible journey of reinventing search with the launch of the new AI-powered Bing, your copilot for the web. We have defined a new way to search and find answers – and with more than one billion chats, we have forever changed the way people find information online.
This new way of engaging with search is resonating with consumers around the globe, particularly younger searchers. Our demographics data shows that Chat usage skews to young adults across all verticals and that people using Chat are completing their tasks more quickly, with fewer but more complex queries than those engaging with traditional search. We also see that people searching on Chat take about half the time of traditional search to reach a decision. And perhaps most importantly, people report a more satisfying experience when using Chat.
We’re seeing the impact of this globally, with more people coming to Bing and Edge than ever before. Mobile page views in Edge are increasing as a result of Bing Chat, and Edge continues to grow, taking share for nine consecutive quarters.
With data like this, it is exciting to envision the opportunity artificial intelligence will bring to the world. The announcements we made as a company today make this future even more tangible, underscoring the power and promise of generative AI for advertisers and publishers.
We are creating more engaging experiences: Introducing Compare & Decide Ads
Bing Chat has opened up new opportunities for advertisers to reach consumers as they engage across the open web. With the power of generative AI we have been creating more relevant, visually rich, and immersive content that changes dynamically to match the advertiser’s goal and consumer intent, including ensuring that our most popular search ad formats are extended into Chat. Since February, we’ve launched Text Ads, Shopping Campaigns, Multimedia Ads, Hotel Price Ads, Property Promotion Ads, Tours & Activities Ads, Cruise Ads, Credit Card Ads and Automotive Inventory Ads in the Chat experience.
However, we know from our user behavior research that Chat offers a different opportunity to engage with consumers. As a result, we are creating new ad formats designed specifically for Chat called Conversational Ads and today, we are announcing the first of our Conversational Ad experiences: Compare & Decide Ads.
One of the things we often see people ask Chat is to summarize options and contrast pros and cons. For example, a user may be looking to buy a new car and considering several different manufacturers and models.
Compare & Decide Ads pull all the relevant data of various car models into a succinct table so the user can easily evaluate different options based on the criteria they find most important. This experience is intended to run across all verticals where we have relevant feed data, including retail, travel and auto.
We will bring Compare & Decide Ads to closed beta in early 2024.
Compare & Decide Ads represent just one of many areas that are actively being worked on to tailor ad formats to the unique way that users experience search in Chat. We can’t wait to share more about some of these new experiences soon.
We are democratizing AI: Our first Ads for Chat API partners
Microsoft has a strong history as a democratizing force for technology and our vision for AI aligns with our mission to help every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.
In May, we announced our Ads for Chat API which provides publishers, apps, and online services the ability to customize their own Chat experiences with ads. We are delighted to announce today that Snapchat and Axel Springer have become the first publishing partners to utilize our API, embedding the technology into Snapchat’s My AI chatbot and Axel Springer’s Hey_ (hey.bild.de).
And the audience opportunity is huge. Snapchat reaches over 750 million people every month, on average, and Snapchatters send billions of visual messages, known as Snaps, to close friends and family every day. Today Snapchat’s My AI chatbot is amongst the largest consumer chatbots available, as over 150 million people have sent over 10 billion messages within it.
Snapchatters have been using My AI to receive real-world recommendations and learn about topics spanning food and dining, beauty and fitness, shopping and gadgets and more. Now My AI can offer Sponsored Links that surface relevant content and experiences, that feel natural to the conversation flow, to Snapchatters from select partners.
In addition, Axel Springer’s product Hey_ (hey.bild.de) on BILD.de, which is powered by Microsoft Azure Open AI Services with advertising monetization supported by Microsoft Advertising’s Ads for Chat API, enables advertisers to reach BILD.de users who engage in a total of approximately 16-17 million visits per day.
We continue to listen to feedback from our advertisers and partners as we evolve our API offerings to influence the next waves of innovation in generative AI. We look forward to welcoming other partners and supporting their chat experience needs.
We are here by your side: Coming soon, Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform
Today we are announcing Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform, specifically designed for advertisers and agencies. Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform combines the power of natural language conversations and generative AI to simplify and enhance your experience with the Microsoft Advertising Platform, including getting content recommendations, quickly accessing help and more.
Our vision with Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform is for you to have a real-time intelligent assistant by your side 24x7 to help you achieve your advertising goals. From creating faster to completing tasks with ease and getting critical insights and recommendations, all you will need to do is ask Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform.
On first step in this journey, Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform will help you through many aspects of the campaign creation process, including recommending images to best serve your campaign based on your business’ key selling points and search trends. Or if you prefer, you can generate new images using our asset library. It’s as simple as describing the images you want to create for your ads; we take those prompts and surface suggestions for you to choose from.
Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform can also recommend headlines and descriptions for you, enabling you to then fine tune for things like tone to fit your brand's voice.
Using Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform, you can tailor content, design, and strategies to your branding and advertising goals, creating stunning and effective ads in minutes.
We are testing soon with a handful of advertisers before bringing it to open beta in the coming months. We look forward to bringing even more expansive capabilities based on your feedback.
What’s next
With Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform, Compare & Decide Ads, and new Chat Ads partners, we are making progress in this new era of generative AI. Over the coming months we will share more functionality for Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform and new Conversational Ad formats, as well as continuing to identify ways to democratize this incredible technology to transform the advertising industry.
Generative AI represents a massive opportunity for all. It creates new value with real purpose. It creates opportunities for advertisers, drives traffic for publishers, and delights consumers. The era of AI is here, and we’re just getting started. Want to learn more? Sign up for our generative AI webcast in November!
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