ChatGPT vs Bard... & what it means for Google Ads

Can we all just take and deep breath and stop freaking out about ChatGPT?

I get it is an amazing tool which has amazing possibilities. But at the moment, ChatGPT is still in its very early days.

Being all in on Google Ads, I am constantly asked whether I am worried about ChatGPT being the Google killer.

And yes, while Google’s launch of Bard was not the best, it has some clear differences and strengths over ChatGPT, which I believe puts Bard & not ChatGPT in the pole position at the moment. 

Obviously, as I said at the start, we are in the very, very early days of AI features being available to us, the general public, but this is not new, and companies like Google have been actively investing & developing suites of AI products for coming up to a decade now. 

So if you look past the news headlines and YouTube videos being released just for views from the same channels that told you how to make $100k online with Google certifications, now quickly rebranding to become ChatGPT experts.

There is a much deeper conversation happening around AI tools like ChatGPT and Bard.

With the wide consensus being:

• Both Bard and ChatGPT are really impressive tools.
• But at the moment, both can give incorrect answers and bias.

But the core difference is data and information:

• As we know, ChatGPT currently only has data up until 2021, which will be updated continually.
• While Bard will gather information from data and sources that are already available on the internet. Meaning that Bard will have access to the most up-to-date information and will be able to provide more current information.
• While Chat GPT is prone to making up facts and making up stories, Google’s Bard AI is thought to provide more accurate data to users. Because of Google’s massive data collection, Bard AI has an advantage over other AI platforms, such as Chat GPT, in terms of the depth and breadth of information it can access.
• Bard will be able to turn difficult topics into easily digestible, chit-worthy chunks. The goal is to spread knowledge in a clear way that encourages learning in everyone, including children. Chat GPT, on the other hand, generates content in response to a text prompt.

This then brings us to Blake Lemoine, an AI expert and former engineer at Google who got fired for saying that Google’s LaMDA chatbot is sentient.

This guy was tasked with pushing Google AI LamDa as far as it could, focusing on removing gender, racial & religuous bias.

Importantly just after ChatGPT was launched, he tweeted this in a reply:

“I love how people are talking about how ChatGPT is gonna replace Google while Google just quietly uses a more advanced dialogue system behind the scenes. ChatGPT is a big step in the right direction but they’re still a few years behind Google.”

So what’s my view…

Personally, as much I love Google Ads, I have wanted a significant competitor for quite some time now, and this is because when you have a company with 93-95% of market share they often get lazy when it comes to things like customer support.

And anyone who has dealt with Google Ads support - especially over the past 3 years - knows that it needs a lot of work.

Even for larger clients spending well over $100k a month in Ad spend, you can’t get any real answer to simple issues.

So for me, I welcome Bing taking on some market share as it will push Google to start investing more in important areas that affect all businesses, like customer support.

Think about it, in what other industry could you have a client spending more than $200k a month in ad spend and not have direct access to a client manager?

If ChatGPT & Bing can take some market share from Google I see this as a positive for the whole PPC industry. 

Now to where I think this will end…

I know that this is a big risk, and in 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or 2 years from now, I could look very silly.

But my strong view is that:

• Mircosoft & OpenAI’s chatGPT will become a market leader in business AI software providing open source AI driven software for companies
• While Google’s Bard will be successfully integrated into Google search, gmail, google calander and all of its other tools

And, my biggest recommendation is that this won’t kill the PPC industry.

And the reason for this is that ChatGPT and Bard are conversational in there, so they give you information on questions you ask but are unable to give you information on recent reviews or any important notifications like that there is a new hotel or construction site right next door for the next 3 months. 

And this is where Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s ChatGPT will differ because of Google’s significant data that it has on all users. It will be able to better tailor responses with the ability for paid ad links. 

And let’s not forget that Google has been rapidly changing Google Ads to be intent-based since 2015, and you can now see how campaigns like Performance Max are well suited for more integration with AI instead of traditional, which is where Bing Ads is still stuck, with a small & limited search based paid ads option. 

• So will ChatGPT change the game and become profitable a big - YES
• Will it take some marketshare from Google Ads in paid ads - I HOPE SO
• Is ChatGPT a Google Killer - NO

While Google Ads will continue to change, and I am sure that there will be more and more significant changes, Google Ads will continue to be a required investment for any business wanting to safeguard and scale its business over the next decade.