You may have first heard the term artificial intelligence in a somewhat far-fetched sci-fi film like The Matrix or The Avengers: Age of Ultron, thinking that once the film ended, that would be the limit of its capabilities. But since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, digital performance marketing experts have been wondering how AI will alter the industry.
In the last few years, AI has been used to enhance digital marketing efforts across a variety of channels to better understand customer behaviour, predict their needs and make personalised recommendations.
The rapidly scaling business of AI is set to play a pivotal role in helping companies remain competitive in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
Struggling to keep up with the various machine-powered advances and how they can boost your business?
Let the Prebo Digital team (which was recognised as a Google Premier Partner for the second year running in 2023) hold your hand and guide you through how artificial intelligence can boost your marketing efforts.
Definition of AI
Before we get too carried away with outlining the numerous benefits of machine learning, let’s unpack the basic layman’s definition for artificial intelligence.
Def: AI is the simulation of human intelligence by machines to perform tasks that would typically require humans to be at the forefront. For example, visual perception, speech recognition, decision making and language understanding.
Here are 6 ways AI can benefit your business:
#1 Optimisation of your campaigns
Increased conversions and improved ROI are the outcomes any business owner or marketing head wants to achieve when they invest time and money into a strategy. And this is exactly what AI proposes to do – in half the time.
Through process automation and data analysis, organisations can gain insights to make more informed, data-driven decisions.
Since they are faster, more efficient and further reaching than traditional tools, AI tools are capable of processing large amounts of data (such as click-through rates (CTRs), conversion rates and customer demographics) in real time to optimise campaigns.
One of the ways Prebo Digital uses AI is to analyse ad copy and creative to determine which variations are most effective at driving conversions and improving CTRs. (Read our previous blog discussing AI in the field of content writing and SEO for further insights). More examples include adjusting budget allocation and bidding strategies by identifying high performing campaigns and ads, identifying audiences to target or messaging to use based on data-driven insights.
#2 Helpful predictive analysis
In an online world where consumers are present 24/7, they are looking for immediate solutions to get the information they want – just the way they want it.
AI is not only a responsive and efficient way to assist customers and ensure their satisfaction, it also transforms businesses by automating simple tasks and enabling teams to make deep predictions.
Predictive analysis effectively uses statistical algorithms and internal and external data to forecast future trends, enabling businesses to improve their offering through optimisation of inventory management, improved delivery times, increased sales and reduced costs.
According to Forbes, AI is expected to grow to a $309 billion industry by 2026, with 44% of executives reporting decreased operational costs as a direct result of AI implementation.
#3 Automation of media buying
It is estimated that AI can create data insights 1 000 times faster than a human being. This means that most AI developments take advantage of the sheer volume of data processing that human resources fail to offer in order to reduce the amount of effort and personnel needed to optimise marketing campaigns.
To stay ahead of the competition, businesses need to leverage AI to inform their media buying decisions.
As a Google Premier Partner, we at Prebo Digital have access to the latest AI powered Google campaign types sooner, ensuring we give our clients the best tools for growth. An example of an AI powered campaign that we use is Performance Max, which enables performance advertisers like us to access all the Google Ads inventory from a single campaign. Performance Max is designed to complement keyword-based search campaigns to allow businesses to discover more converting customers from all Google channels (including YouTube, Gmail, Display, Search, Discover and Maps), to get the best results. As an example, for one of our retail and ecommerce clients, we managed to generate 10x more revenue from feed-based campaigns and achieve a 355% improvement in ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), compared to smart shopping campaigns.
#4 Targeted customer personalisation
Ever wondered how businesses tap into a person’s online browsing history and suddenly they see the dress or suit they swooned over on an online store advertised for a discount deal in their email inbox and Facebook feed? That’s the power of AI.
AI powered businesses use data collected from user behaviour to set up retargeting or upselling/cross-selling strategies and campaigns.
This not only increases the chances of conversion in the short term, but helps your business by improving data insights for future marketing strategies.
Prebo Digital makes full use of this through targeted marketing campaigns on each of our client accounts to ensure relevant ads are displayed to a new, relevant audience as well as retargeting campaigns to encourage users to complete the action (be it making a purchase or completing the lead form).
#5 Chatbot services
Described as time-saving, customer-centric machines that take advantage of AI’s natural language processing, ChatBots are becoming the way of the future.
They can be left to respond to customer queries using historical data to inform the most frequently asked questions, saving customer service agents time and effort and freeing up opportunities for them to reply to the more challenging and complex questions.
By providing instant engagement, Chatbots enable businesses to improve customer service.
#6 Measurement and analytics
The beauty of AI is that it can be used to process huge amounts of data, saving time and resources.
Thanks to AI, machines have analytics capabilities exceeding that of humans (with the correct human prompting action of course).
Artificial intelligence allows organisations to bring together disparate data sets, automate data models for scale and shrink optimisation cycles by automating insights. Use it to track key performance metrics including click-through rates, conversion rates and customer lifetime value. And then use this data to optimise campaigns and improve overall marketing performance.
This means that AI effectively increases the effectiveness and efficiency of the marketing analysts’ job.
Prebo Digital, for example, has the expertise to analyse large sets of data using Bigquery, turning this data into easy-to-digest actionable insights.
With the launch of GA4, we will also have access to predictive audiences (which groups and analyses how users will behave in future, instead of relying exclusively on past behaviour) on certain clients and can feed these audiences into our Google Ads campaigns to further improve performance of campaigns.
Where to from here?
There’s no doubt that AI is a powerful tool that you cannot ignore in 2023. With the power to streamline business processes and integrate it with your marketing efforts, how can you get in the game and begin reaping the benefits for your business?
The process of starting with AI can feel overwhelming and difficult to understand with so many options out there.
Where do you start?
We suggest that you begin by connecting with us at Prebo Digital (a performance marketing agency that’s leading the way in harnessing the power of AI to get the best results for clients), to point you in the right direction as you take the leap into the somewhat clouded age of AI.