Matalan’s AI search ads are performing better than ones written by humans

Turns out, AI applications aren’t just useful for cutting marketing production costs. U.K. clothing retailer Matalan has found they can also be used to drive website traffic by juicing the placement of Google Shopping ads.

The retail brand and its media agency Havas Media U.K., placed AI-written copy in product descriptions on Google Shopping ads for men’s suits in the spring, and saw that search impressions increased by up to 16% compared to human-penned copy. The reason for the increase? Google’s ranking algorithms preferred the keyword-heavy sentences penned by ChatGPT over more descriptive copy written by people.

The tactic was considered so promising that Matalan has begun piloting it on other product categories, including children’s shoes, homewares and womenswear. ”We find Google Shopping to be one of the best ways to drive our online performance and ensure that our products are reaching customers,” said Ali Jones, Matalan’s chief customer and omnichannel officer, in an email.

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