Google Assistant Ads – Test or a Bug?

Google Assistant ads? A Twitter user experienced ads being displayed on Google Assistant. Is Google testing ads in this free software, or is it just a bug? If not, what could this mean for reatil marketing? Especially, for strategies in paid media.

What happened?

Twitter use Grennaro Cuofano experienced a text ad being displayed in the results for a Google Assistant search for an Italian Executive MBA programme. He said that Google Assistant’s answer was the same as the SERPs.

Have you noticed that Google is pushing ads results in the voice assistant? @rustybrick @bill_slawski pic.twitter.com/VymSVGn4fx

— Gennaro Cuofano (@fourweekmba) February 13, 2019

if you scrolled down there were organic responses. The answer on the voice assistant pretty much mirrored the search result page on that one. So at the 4th place there was my site

— Gennaro Cuofano (@fourweekmba) February 13, 2019

Is Google Assistant testing ads?

Google Assistant is free and is reportedly installed in over one billion devices, it was only a matter of time until Google rolled out some sort of monetization/advertising system.

If this is a test or a bug, it seems likely that Google will release some sort of advertising on its virtual assistant software. And if this screenshot is anything to go by, only showing a single ad could greatly increase CTRs.

It could be that top ads are shown in Google Assistant, giving better visibility + more reason to fight for top spot. Also, the ads displayed may take on a slightly different form than standard text ads if advertising is ever released.

Google released a statement

“We’re always testing new ways to improve the experience on phones, but we don’t have anything specific to announce right now.”

Although this suggests that it was just a bug, it doesn’t confirm or deny anything. Keep your eyes on Google Assistant for ads being rolled out.