• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 18, 2024

Google AdSense has launched an Ad Intents format, giving publishers a new option for Auto ads to appear on their websites. The ads, which are for many types of industries, are automated.

Advertisers can choose to have Auto Ads serve up as “ad intents," which the company describes as a “format that places links and anchors into existing text and pages on your site related to your content” without the use of third-party cookies.

The links take the user to a Google search result page containing organic results and paid ads. 

The format, which is opt-in and “entirely optional,” according to Ginny Marvin, Google Ads Liaison, could mean additional revenue for publishers who opt into Auto Ads.

It also could mean the additional site traffic that would have gone to a publisher’s placement ad could go to a Google search-engine results page (SERP).

“There’s also an option to use ad internet anchors, which place anchors at the bottom of the page,” wrote Marvin in a post on X.

She explained that when a user closes an ad intent dialog, they remain on the same page on the publisher’s site.

Publishers earn revenue when a user clicks on any of the ads in the dialog. 

Some who use Google’s ad and organic search services were “suspicious” of the new feature, saying that this is the type of ad that interrupts the user journey. “It looks/sounds like G has entered the affiliate space, right after slapping hundreds/thousands of sites for it,” wrote Darth Autocrat in a posted comment on X. 

Autocrat also accused Google of stealing traffic from sites and “actual site visitors” by “directing traffic back to Google” through this feature.

Ad intents works by scanning pages for opportunities to help user find something they might be looking for. When a user interacts with a link or anchor, it opens a dialog that shows users relevant organic search results with ads. The goal is to help publishers increase earnings. Publishers get paid is a user clicks on an ad in the dialog.