Naver has pulled the dates for one of its more controversial search-ad changes. Its plan to show AI-generated summary text next to Powerlink ads, written by Naver’s model from the advertiser’s own landing page, was due to give advertisers an opt-out switch yesterday and go fully live next week. As of this week, neither date stands.
The Naver Ads notice, now on its third update and dated 7 October in the notice list, has struck through almost its whole timetable. Here is how it reads now:
- Test, 29 September – 6 October: ran on part of the traffic and part of the queries.
- Additional test, 8–15 October: struck through.
- On/off setting for advertisers, 7 October: struck through and replaced with “추후 안내”, roughly “details to follow”.
- Formal rollout: 13 October was struck through, then its replacement, 20 October, was struck through too. It now also reads “details to follow”.
The two update notes dated 6 October explain only this much. The first says the schedule changed because of an additional test. The second says that because the additional test schedule is “undetermined”, both the settings feature and the formal rollout “have been postponed”. Naver gives no other reason.
That matters because the old dates are still out there. Agency guides such as AMPM’s 23 September explainer still tell advertisers the switch arrived on 7 October and rollout lands on 13 October. If you planned to turn the feature off this week, you can’t yet, because the control hasn’t shipped.
What Naver is actually building
The parts of the notice that weren’t struck through describe the product, and it’s worth reading closely:
- Naver writes it, you don’t. Its AI model generates the summary from your ad creative, landing page and business-channel information. Advertisers “cannot register or edit” the text themselves.
- Labelled, but not on every ad. The text appears with an “AI ⓘ” label next to your existing creative, in the Powerlink and “more” areas of integrated search on mobile and PC. Whether it shows depends on the query and on its contribution to ad performance. The August pre-test was mobile-only. This round adds PC.
- On by default. No application is needed. It applies automatically to eligible ads, and opting out will be per ad group under the “ADVoost Max 소재 생성” (creative generation) setting, once that setting exists.
- Billing unchanged. Ranking and charging work as before. Clicks on the AI text area are billed normally and rolled into standard click metrics.
- Regulated verticals excluded. Hospitals and clinics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, health functional foods, and finance/insurance won’t get the AI text, “for reasons such as creative review”.
- A seven-day look-back. An “AI 요약 텍스트” tab in ADVoost Max Insights will show which generated lines ran with your ads over the last seven days. That date has been pulled as well.
The clause advertisers should read twice
This is the line that should bother advertisers. Naver says its model generates the text and that Naver “does not guarantee the accuracy and appropriateness” of it. It also says the output goes through an automatic verification step. Then it adds that if a problematic expression, such as something that breaks the law, “originates from materials provided by the advertiser”, the creative and ad “may be suspended without prior notice” and Naver “bears no responsibility”.
So Naver writes the copy, the advertiser can’t edit it, and the advertiser carries the risk if the landing page it was built from causes a problem. The FAQ also nudges people not to opt out. Turning it off carries no penalty, Naver says, but you may “miss the opportunity to improve click performance”, so please “reconsider”.
Why this is an SEO story too
Your landing page is about to become ad copy, written by a model you don’t control. That ties the copy and claims on your landing page directly to what appears in Naver’s ad slots. Stale prices, old promotions and vague offers on the page all become candidates for whatever Naver’s model decides to summarise. Naver’s advice in the notice is blunt: keep your ad information and landing pages accurate.
It also fits a pattern. Naver has already started putting ads inside AI Briefing, and it has shut outside AI out of Blog, Cafe and Knowledge iN. More and more of what Korean searchers see, organic and paid alike, is Naver’s model rewriting someone else’s content.
My view: the delay is the right call. A feature that writes regulated-sounding claims for advertisers without letting them edit anything needed the off switch to arrive before the rollout, not alongside it. Until Naver publishes new dates, audit the landing pages behind your biggest Powerlink ad groups now, while you still have time. More in our Naver News archive.