By: Olumide Balogun, Director, Google West Africa
For the better part of a century, the blueprint for advertising was built around interruption. Businesses pushed their messages out to everyone on TV, in magazines, and on the radio, hoping the right person might see or hear their ad. This was a ‘one-to-many’ strategy, where success meant reaching as many people as possible, as often as possible.
Then, about 25 years ago, mainstream search changed everything and flipped the old model completely. Instead of businesses just pushing ads out, customers started actively searching for what they needed. This big shift from ‘interruption’ to ‘intent’ acted as a powerful equalising force for businesses, and its evolution continues to define the trajectory of e-commerce in Africa..
This week, as the industry reflects on the 25th anniversary of Google Ads, this moment serves as a natural stock-taking opportunity. It is a time to examine not just how far we have come, but where the accelerating pace of technology is taking us next.
The Journey to a More Relevant Web
Those early days were full of rapid innovation. It began with a model for intent-driven advertising, where a business could appear as a potential customer was searching. This was quickly followed by a crucial pivot: pricing based on a Cost-Per-Click. This established a new standard of accountability, as advertisers only paid for actual engagement.
The most important principle, that ads must be helpful to the user, was codified around 2005. Concepts like Quality Score and Ad Rank ensured that an ad’s position would be based on its relevance, not just the highest bid. This guiding principle has remained constant. This ecosystem expanded, adding ways for publishers to monetize content and embracing the massive shifts to video on YouTube and the rise of the mobile phone.
The New Language of Curiosity
Today, we are in the next major shift, one driven by a fundamental change in consumer behaviour and the mainstreaming of AI. People’s curiosity is outgrowing the simple keyword. Users are now asking incredibly complex, conversational queries. They ask nuanced, natural language questions, seeking deep analysis and comparisons.
Furthermore, we are moving beyond text. We are beginning to search visually, using our cameras to ask questions about the world around us. This trend is already established. Google Lens, for example, now processes over 25 billion visual searches monthly. We see this curiosity extend to video, where YouTube has evolved from a simple library into a primary platform for research and discovery, driven by a trusted creator economy where people make informed decisions.
The Predictive Response to a New Behaviour
This new, complex language of curiosity means traditional, manual media planning cannot possibly keep up. No business can manually predict every conversational or visual query.
This is where AI, which has been foundational to the ad ecosystem for over a decade, becomes the necessary response. It provides new business capabilities. AI-powered campaigns allow a business to provide its strategic goals and creative assets, and the technology embraces a predictive approach. It matches the business’s goals to these new moments of intent, wherever they happen.
This is not a future-state; it is a current reality. More than 80% of advertisers already use at least one AI-powered search product. The results are tangible. Advertisers who adopt these tools are seeing, on average, 27% more conversions, and marketers who deeply integrate AI tools report 60% greater revenue growth than their peers.
The Next Frontier: The Automated Future
The next logical frontier is what the industry terms agentic capabilities. The promise is simple: less effort for better results. These AI systems will not only predict the right ad but will also help build and optimize high-performing campaigns with significantly reduced manual effort.
I am often asked if ads will be needed in this new world. I see this differently. While agents will help find things faster, advertising will remain a crucial tool for brand discovery and building consumer loyalty. The real power lies in how agents and advertising will work together to create a more seamless path from discovery to purchase. The tools will always evolve, but the mission remains: to connect people, at the moment of their need, with the most relevant and helpful answer.
