Ads in Chatbots Have Arrived. Here’s What’s Working—and What’s Not

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Anthropic is holding firm on the pledge made in its Super Bowl commercial this year to keep Claude ad-free. The company’s recent IPO filing didn’t even mention the possibility of selling ads to make money from the AI chatbot. It’s easy to maintain the high ground with about $112 billion in investor cash.

Anthropic 坚持其在今年超级碗广告中做出的承诺，即保持 Claude 无广告。该公司最近的 IPO 文件甚至没有提及通过 AI 聊天机器人投放广告来盈利的可能性。在拥有约 1120 亿美元投资者资金的情况下，保持这种高姿态并不困难。

The chatbot industry, though, may find selling ads necessary to defray the high costs of generating AI responses. OpenAI is all in, with over 100,000 customers advertising in ChatGPT since ads debuted there in February. Last week, Google expanded ads in its search chatbot AI Mode to 10 more countries beyond the US and declared that users “find them highly relevant.” Advertisers are far from satisfied with the experience, but they expect it to improve.

然而，聊天机器人行业可能会发现，投放广告对于抵消生成 AI 回复的高昂成本是必要的。OpenAI 已全力投入，自 2 月份在 ChatGPT 中推出广告以来，已有超过 10 万名客户在其中投放广告。上周，谷歌将其搜索聊天机器人 AI Mode 中的广告扩展到了美国以外的 10 个国家，并宣称用户“认为它们非常相关”。广告商对目前的体验远未感到满意，但他们预计情况会有所改善。

Ads stand to be particularly vital for the long-term viability of niche chatbot platforms, which can’t rely on the same degree of venture capital largesse as the top AI labs or the massive revenues of tech giants. I recently spoke with Koah Labs, one of a number of new ad technology companies focused on AI experiences. The San Francisco startup markets itself as bringing ads to over 200 apps, such as DeepAI, which offers tools for creative queries, and Liner, which focuses on providing citations in AI answers. It works with brands like telehealth giant Hims and flower delivery service UrbanStems.

对于利基聊天机器人平台而言，广告对于其长期生存至关重要，因为它们无法像顶级 AI 实验室那样依赖风险投资的慷慨资助，也无法像科技巨头那样拥有巨额收入。我最近采访了 Koah Labs，这是一家专注于 AI 体验的新兴广告技术公司。这家旧金山初创公司称其已将广告引入 200 多个应用程序，例如提供创意查询工具的 DeepAI，以及专注于在 AI 回答中提供引用的 Liner。它与远程医疗巨头 Hims 和鲜花递送服务 UrbanStems 等品牌均有合作。

Koah has attracted just a tenth of the advertisers OpenAI has, but CEO Nic Baird still believes he’s getting a good sense of what’s working and what’s fuzzy as chatbots take over from traditional search engines—and what their rise will mean for your AI experiences.

尽管 Koah 吸引的广告商数量仅为 OpenAI 的十分之一，但首席执行官 Nic Baird 仍然认为，随着聊天机器人取代传统搜索引擎，他已经很好地把握了哪些策略有效、哪些尚不明确，以及它们的崛起对用户的 AI 体验意味着什么。

Machine-Crafted: Ads composed partly by AI rather than fully by a human generate double the clicks, Baird says. It’s difficult to assess exactly why, but AI-generated marketing copy likely feels more natural next to the output of an AI model.

机器创作：Baird 表示，部分由 AI 而非完全由人工撰写的广告产生的点击量是前者的两倍。虽然很难准确评估原因，但 AI 生成的营销文案在 AI 模型输出的内容旁边可能显得更加自然。

Because ads shown by Koah are grounded in product details and imagery supplied by the advertiser, users don’t seem to be encountering AI-hallucinated, erroneous information. But some advertisers, such as drugmakers, face government requirements on what they must—or cannot—say in ads, Baird says. These companies default to more human control over their ads, generating weaker results, according to Baird.

由于 Koah 展示的广告基于广告商提供的产品详情和图像，用户似乎并未遇到 AI 幻觉产生的错误信息。但 Baird 指出，一些广告商（如制药商）面临政府对其广告内容必须或禁止提及事项的规定。据 Baird 称，这些公司倾向于对广告进行更多的人工控制，从而导致效果较差。

Since ads with dull messages or that feel like clutter could drive users away, the onus is on ad tech companies to find a middle ground that’s engaging to users without triggering risk-averse brands. That balance might be harder to strike when a human is out of the loop.

由于内容枯燥或令人感到杂乱的广告可能会赶走用户，广告技术公司有责任找到一个中间地带，既能吸引用户，又不会触动风险厌恶型品牌的神经。当人类脱离这一环节时，这种平衡可能更难实现。

Creative Targeting: Google searches for “help with stress” are likely to bring up ads for therapists. Chatbots can get more creative, in Baird’s view. For instance, ads for spas have performed well within Koah’s network when shown after users’ prompts related to “stress,” he says.

创意定位：在谷歌搜索“缓解压力”可能会弹出治疗师的广告。在 Baird 看来，聊天机器人可以更有创意。例如，他说，当用户输入与“压力”相关的提示后，Koah 网络中展示的水疗中心广告表现良好。

The key difference, according to Baird, is that Koah can select and customize the ad based on “not only the prompt, or the Google search, but also the response from the AI platform, which brings context from the rest of the conversation thus far.” In addition, chatbot prompts tend to be at least double the length of Google queries, giving Koah more information to determine a relevant ad.

Baird 认为，关键的区别在于 Koah 不仅可以根据“提示词或谷歌搜索”来选择和定制广告，还可以根据“AI 平台的回复”来定制，因为这带来了对话其余部分的上下文信息。此外，聊天机器人的提示词长度通常至少是谷歌查询的两倍，这为 Koah 确定相关广告提供了更多信息。

Baird claims users are accustomed to navigating through multiple topics within a chatbot conversation, which could make them more receptive to adjacent marketing than they are in traditional search. Koah says users are clicking on about 3 percent of ads, about on par with the performance of the more mature Google ads system.

Baird 声称，用户已经习惯在聊天机器人对话中浏览多个主题，这可能使他们比在传统搜索中更容易接受相关的营销内容。Koah 表示，用户的广告点击率约为 3%，与更成熟的谷歌广告系统的表现相当。

All the Context: When called on to show an ad, Koah generally receives a user’s entire conversation up to that point to help inform what it displays. While traditional search queries generally look for specific information, people often use chatbots as not just conversation partners but confidants. It’s unclear whether users will accept the privacy trade-offs that come with personalized chatbot ads as they begin to proliferate.

全方位上下文：当需要展示广告时，Koah 通常会接收用户到目前为止的整个对话内容，以帮助决定展示什么。虽然传统的搜索查询通常是为了寻找特定信息，但人们往往不仅将聊天机器人视为对话伙伴，还将其视为知己。随着个性化聊天机器人广告开始激增，用户是否会接受随之而来的隐私权衡尚不清楚。

Baird says Koah anonymizes the queries it receives and stores them in a de-identified way, but he declined to comment any further on the data collection and storage. While acknowledging that personalization can become intrusive, he argues that there are benefits for users and advertisers alike as the tech matures. Nonsensitive information about chatbot discussions, for instance, could inform personalized content on the page that loads after an ad click. Perhaps someone expressed interest in a specific feature, or the AI model didn’t highlight a particular downside of a competing product. The advertiser could fill in the gap.

Baird 表示，Koah 会对其接收到的查询进行匿名化处理，并以去标识化的方式存储，但他拒绝就数据收集和存储发表进一步评论。虽然他承认个性化可能会变得具有侵入性，但他认为随着技术成熟，这对用户和广告商都有好处。例如，关于聊天机器人讨论的非敏感信息可以为广告点击后加载的页面提供个性化内容。也许有人表达了对某个特定功能的兴趣，或者 AI 模型没有强调竞争产品的某个缺点，广告商可以填补这一空白。

Koah doesn’t have data on whether people actually want these customized pages, but the tech industry has long argued that people prefer when ad experiences feel relevant. Having the conversation history also could benefit advertisers when Koah enables retargeting, or repeating, an ad to the same user.

Koah 没有关于人们是否真的想要这些定制页面的数据，但科技行业长期以来一直认为，人们更喜欢感觉相关的广告体验。当 Koah 启用重定向（即向同一用户重复展示广告）功能时，拥有对话历史记录也可能使广告商受益。

Negative Triggers: By Koah’s estimate, one out of every four chatbot queries about a retailer or brand concerns a return, exchange, or other support issue. Baird believes chatbots provide an opportunity not replicated easily elsewhere for advertisers to address what they might politely call a “customer success” matter.

负面触发因素：据 Koah 估计，每四次关于零售商或品牌的聊天机器人查询中，就有一项涉及退货、换货或其他支持问题。Baird 认为，聊天机器人为广告商提供了一个在其他地方难以复制的机会，可以解决他们礼貌地称为“客户成功”的问题。

He expects manufacturers and retailers will eventually target disappointed customers to remind them about warranties, engage them in an AI-intermediated support, and potentially steer them away from a more costly customer service interaction. It’s possible that the AI chatbot’s response may provide users with similar help, but buying an ad guarantees companies get their message across.

他预计制造商和零售商最终会针对失望的客户，提醒他们保修事宜，让他们参与 AI 中介的支持服务，并可能引导他们避开成本更高的客户服务互动。AI 聊天机器人的回复可能会为用户提供类似的帮助，但购买广告可以确保公司传达其信息。

The ideal outcome is users reaching resolution they can live with more swiftly than through other means. In the worst case, it’s a wasted ad buy and a more irate consumer.

理想的结果是用户比通过其他方式更快地达成他们可以接受的解决方案。最坏的情况是，广告投放浪费了，消费者反而更加愤怒。

Great Unknown: None of the apps Koah currently serves ads in offer users AI agents that can shop on their own. However, apps like Instinct and Meta’s Muse are starting to take over shopping cho

巨大的未知：目前 Koah 提供广告服务的应用程序中，没有一个能为用户提供可以自主购物的 AI 代理。然而，Instinct 和 Meta 的 Muse 等应用程序正开始接管购物选择。