The marketing landscape keeps evolving. From automated advertising to leveraging curated content, the marketing sector as a whole has seen a technological transformation like no other on the back of the pandemic.
However, no development has been talked about more than artificial intelligence. While AI has been around within the corporate industry for a while, only recently has it made steps to improve marketing productivity and success.
After a 2022 survey predicted that a third of all marketing teams now leveraged AI within their strategies, it’s time to see what this technological tool has in store for the marketing world.
“Last year, we witnessed many changes in the advertising world, from increased automation to vertical videos to government regulations and economic challenges,” says Forbes author Serenity Gibbons. “Business leaders can expect many of the same AI and automation changes in 2023. As a result, they should continue preparing to adapt to a volatile PPC world.”
One target group that has dominated marketing attention in the last year are smartphone consumers. With over 60% of mobile users now engaging with at least one PPC ad weekly, they have become the prime reason why marketing teams are turning to AI to help improve their campaign success.
Not only can AI help predict mobile audience behaviour, but it can encourage personalised advertising and content creation, which speaks directly to a demanding mobile generation. Let’s have a closer look at how AI is transforming site strategies in 2023 and delve into the benefits for marketing teams currently struggling to navigate a competitive climate.
The Rise of AI
Artificial intelligence is certainly on the rise. While many of us have heard about the recent developments of ChatGPT and other generative content apps, it may be surprising to know that AI has been around for a long time in the marketing world.
From automating financial predictions to improving the productivity of repetitive tasks, nearly all major marketing institutions will not be strangers to machine learning.
In fact, 60% of marketing teams believe that AI boots productivity tenfold. With the ability to multiply value and make room for more focus on new projects, what’s not to love?
“AI has long been regarded as a potential source of business innovation. With the enablers now in place, organizations are starting to see how AI can multiply value for them,” say experts at Accenture. “Automation cuts costs and brings new levels of consistency, speed and scalability to business processes; in fact, some Accenture clients are seeing time savings of 70 per cent. Even more compelling, however, is the ability of AI to drive growth.”
“Companies that scale successfully see 3X the return on their AI investments compared to those who are stuck in the pilot stage,” the company reported. “No wonder 84 per cent of C-suite executives believe they must leverage AI to achieve their growth objectives.”
As we enter a new ChatGPT-powered era of marketing, 97% of business leaders believe that they will use the open AI language model in some shape or form. Whether this is to aid article writing, or campaign prediction, generating website content will become an automated affair for many.
The question is, what will this mean for the sector going forward? While AI is a powerful tool for success, could it interfere with traditional strategies that have powered markers and advertisers for years?
From PPC bidding to content curation, let’s have a closer look at how AI plans to transform the marketing landscape and decide whether human input is a thing of the past or still a vital component for business success.
3 Ways AI Is Transforming The Marketing Landscape
According to a recent Deloitte study, a whopping 50% of organisations are planning to incorporate AI into their marketing budget in 2023.
Let’s delve into some of the exciting transformations this technology could bring to PPC marketers in a new automated marketing sector.
Content Curation
One of the most popular uses of AI amongst marketers in 2023 has been content creation. If you haven’t yet heard of ChatGPT, have you been living under a rock?
“AI has the potential to both curate and generate content, then place it in front of the right people on the right platforms,” comments Jason Hall, Founder of FiveChannels. “AI can generate viable topics for writers or even develop AI websites based on certain parameters.”
“On the strategy side, AI has the potential to help marketers map out an end-to-end content strategy. Some marketing tools are already providing this feature,” he continues. “I predict it will also be able to generate comprehensive reporting on content initiatives, with little to no human labour involved.”
When thinking about curating content for advertising purposes, it’s time to think about what your target consumers are most likely to search for. With this in mind, you can now use tools such as ChatGPT to curate targeted ad copy and even ask AI to focus in on a particular keyword or phrase.
The key here is to use ChatGPT as a supplement rather than a replacement for humanised marketing. With the ability to automate and generate content in seconds, this piece of tech can certainly come in handy when planning large-scale campaigns, but human input shouldn’t go amiss. While AI language bots are able to mimic human conversation and chatty written tones, they are best used as a guide rather than an author of your blog. However, they are the perfect partners for sourcing titles, trends and stats for a site strategy that stands out.
While AI-generated content still needs some human work, it’s quickly cutting down writing time for marketers and transforming productivity across the board.
Automated Advertising
Automated advertising is music to a PPC marketer’s ears. Placing an ad can be a lengthy process, but incorporating AI into your strategy could make it a walk in the park.
Automation alone has increased global advertising productivity by 1.4% annually. From automatic personalisation to improved retargeting, AI enhancements can shape a customisable campaign for every target lead.
“These systems operate autonomously, placing the right kinds of ads in front of the right kinds of people based on complex algorithms and big data. This is what’s known as programmatic advertising,” says Hall. “With AI, businesses can optimize their return on investment by only placing ads in front of relevant viewers. Ads can be bought automatically and then personalized at scale. Many advertisers are already using this technology.”
When you make a website, it’s important to create content that directly links to these programmatic ads. If your content contains the same persisted keywords as your ads, you’ll not only see more clicks, but you’ll also see less bounce once consumers arrive on your page.
Managing PPC Bids
Artificial intelligence has quickly become the backbone of a number of modern-day marketing strategies. Not only does it enhance campaign planning, audience research and team productivity, but it is quickly unlocking new opportunities for marketers to automate new processes.
One sector of marketing in particular that is benefiting from AI is PPC, otherwise known as pay-per-click advertising.
As defined by Search Engine Journal, “PPC is a form of online marketing where advertisers pay each time a user clicks on one of their ads.”
Think of the common search engines such as Google and Bing. The ad-titled search results that appear at the top of the page are based on ‘paid keywords’ that companies bid for in return for a high SERP score. The better your PPC strategy, the more visible your online store will be to its target consumers.
AI continues to change the game for PPC advertisers. With the ability to automate common processes such as bidding, spend allocation and keyword hunting, marketers quickly gather insights in real-time without the need for manual labour and research.
Better still, AI can also enhance PPC campaign creation too, as well as analytics. From ChatGPT to Google Bard, AI can also help marketers curate content that is keyword rich and directly targeted to their demographic.
PPC bidding can also cost time for a marketing team. Employing AI-powered platforms such as Google Ads to control your PPC bidding can help make your campaigns more effective.
With the ability to curate your own AI algorithm that manages your individual bids, you can adjust your bids autonomously. With AI-powered prediction on your side, you’ll be less likely to bid too low on ads that drive quality leads, which in turn boosts your ROI and reduces overbidding.
A number of industry leaders have automated their bidding process. Take the holiday booking company Trivago for example. Using AI-driven bidding alone, the platform raked in a 36% growth in conversions in 2022.
The key here is still to monitor your performance. While fully automated strategies boost productivity, they also require a more watchful eye. Ensure that you stay within your own budget and tweak any automated solutions that may not sit in line with your overall growth strategy.
An Automated Future?
AI certainly has a long way to go in the world of marketing, but its benefits are not to be ignored. As a team productivity booster, AI not only automates repetitive tasks but can significantly improve campaign forecasting.
As we approach a new era of digital native demographics and constantly shifting trends, AI could help marketers be quicker on their feet in adapting their targeting and advertising strategies.
The question is, could machine learning make traditional marketing redundant? Only time will tell.