Google AdSense users can now choose to have Auto Ads show as “ad intents” through the platform (in addition to overlap and in-page formats).
What are ad intents. An ad intent is an “intent-driven format that places links and anchors into existing text and pages on your site related to your content,” according to Google.
Google doesn’t rely on third-party cookies for this new functionality.
What it looks like. Those links take the users interacting with it to a Google Search Result page containing both organic results and paid ads.
Here are examples Google shared:
Ad intent anchor:
Ad intent link:
Why we care. This new format could mean more revenue for publishers who opt into Auto Ads, but it could also mean traffic that would have gone to a publisher’s placement ad now goes to a Google SERP. That extra click journey could lose customers on the way.
Implementation. This is an optional functionality that Google has introduced. In response to a post on X accusing Google of stealing traffic share from sites on the SERP, Ginny Marvin, Google Ads Liaison, wrote:
“This new format is opt-in and entirely optional for publishers. Publishers can opt into ad intent links, which converts existing text on their page into links.
“There’s also an option to use ad intent anchors, which place anchors at the bottom of your page.”
