A Smarter Future:  4 Ways Artificial Intelligence is Changing Advertising

There’s no question that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the future of marketing. We know this because it’s already changing the present. From making it easier and more affordable to reach your audience to automating every step of the creative process, AI is helping marketers simplify and strengthen their strategies in new ways.

And as AI becomes more accessible, it’s having an increasingly greater impact. Today, 84% of marketers reported using AI somewhere in their acquisition and retention engines, which is almost 3x just two years ago (State of Marketing Report).  So how are these savvy strategists using AI to elevate their campaigns? Let’s dive into the ways in which AI is accelerating advertising for brands.

What is Artificial Intelligence? 

We’ve all heard of it, but not everyone knows exactly what Artificial Intelligence is. So we’ll simplify it for you.

Artificial intelligence refers to the systems or machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. This technology not only performs specific tasks, but will also iteratively improve themselves based on the data they collect.

Four Ways AI is Changing Advertising

Artificial Intelligence is shaping a pretty incredible future across all areas of connectivity. But we’re already seeing a major impact on the advertising world. Here’s what that looks like. 

• Better Data & Audience Discovery
  First-party data can be complex — it’s often fragmented and not very organized. But it’s also super important to have. Now that Chrome and Apple have announced their breakup with third-party cookies, marketers are relying even more on first-party data to power their campaigns and target their audience. AI brings clarity to data. According to Salesforce, 64% of customers start their purchase journey on one device and finish on another, making it fairly common for marketers to have over 12 major sources of customer data to analyze.

  AI works with these platforms to significantly improve identity “matching” and resolve discrepancies, which makes understanding your audiences a lot easier and more effective. Its technology ensures that no matter what system the data is coming from, it’s mapped using a common model to ensure greater consistency and accuracy.

   

• Stronger Segmentation & Targeting
  Personalization is no longer an option; it’s an expectation. Millennials have led the charge in demanding relevant and timely experiences, and the rest of the world has followed suit. Thanks to AI, now all you have to do is talk about something, and you’ll see it on your computer screen an hour later.
  
  Through machine learning, AI has the power to uncover the attributes and interests of your customers and prospects through their navigation and conversations online. Search for a couple of cars online, and AI will use this information to determine the type of driver you are. It can help dealers show you exactly the type of car you’re interested in automatically, and even personalize those ads based on specific features they think you would like. Instead of playing guess and check based on broader criteria like age, demographic, or even choice keywords, AI offers a smarter way to segment audiences using actual behaviors so you can target customers at a level of depth that human analysts could never achieve. And with Google buying out more and more of the digital world, this retargeting works across multiple social platforms and devices for optimal reach.

  The higher quality this targeting becomes, the more effective and cheaper it will be too. Think of it like shooting a target with a sniper rifle rather than a shotgun. Bullseye.

   

• Faster Content Creation
  Building campaigns have never been easier either, starting as early as the decision-making in content creation.  With AI-powered software, marketers can drop in a language, keywords, a short audience description, and their preferred tone, then just let AI do the rest. Utilizing this guidance, the AI technology will present copy from a massive database of content based on your topic to choose from. Paragraph by paragraph, you’ll select new content that develops the story. 
  
  The same capabilities apply to asset selection. Based on the keywords a marketer provides, AI-powered software can generate the most relevant images for their campaigns. Rather than searching through stock photos, you’re given the most optimal images for your campaigns. And based on the choices made from the information provided, the technology will learn and improve its selection moving forward.

  If you’re in need of a voice-over for your video content, you can input a message and choose what type of tone, gender, and language you want based on your specific objective; all of which simplifies the creation process and significantly decreases the costs versus hiring a voice-over actor.
  
  

• Smaller Marketing Teams
  While marketers get to enjoy the benefits of AI, developers are loving it just as much. All of this pre-created content and collected data has to be stored somewhere. And it also has to be managed and applied. That’s where there’s a ton of opportunity for developers.
  
  The need for in-house creatives and data analysts may be shrinking, but development teams will continue to grow. That’s great for startups and businesses looking to keep internal costs low as subscriptions to many of these technologies are a lot lower than an employee’s salary. But for you writers and data interpreters out there, don’t worry — the way in which these positions exist will simply evolve — just as they always do.
  
  Instead of content creators working for agencies, they’ll be reporting to the software and tech teams creating these AI-powered tools. And with quicker processes and smarter execution, the opportunity for new positions and further innovation only grows. Here’s some perspective: did you know that none of the top 10 jobs from 2010 even existed in 2004?

  With AI advancing technology faster than ever before, the future for marketers is wide open.

   

Speaking of the Future — What’s that Look Like?

For the time being, most tech companies simply have their sights on fine tuning their algorithms to work faster and more accurately — which is no small undertaking.  When Mark Zuckerburg revealed the Metaverse was still about 5-10 years off, it’s safe to say you had some disappointed marketers. But like all digital innovations, it will take time and be an on-going journey of harnessing the power of AI. The future, however, certainly looks a lot smarter.

To learn more about the impact of AI on advertising or how Assemble can help you improve your strategic processes to deliver more relevant and effective campaigns, contact us today.