How AI Is Changing Marketing
As AI does begin to mimic human intelligence — which is coming — marketers can continue to be freed up to focus on more and more of the job responsibilities that got them into the industry in the first place.
THE FIRST JOBS impacted by artificial intelligence were ones based on the functioning of a task — jobs like auto manufacturing, food service providers, etc. Rapidly, we’re seeing AI start to revolutionize a different tier of jobs: those based on problem-solving like bookkeeping and accounting.
The final phase in AI impacts will likely come in creative jobs. AI may not be able to replace creativity from humans fully, but you’re fooling yourself if you think AI won’t deeply impact creative industries.
Marketing is a creative industry. As the founder and CEO of a marketing company that’s worked with top-tier brands like Red Bull and Crocs, I am keeping my eye on how AI will infiltrate my space… not because I’m worried about the machines taking over, but because I want to use AI to free up my marketing experts to do the things only they can do!
The Status Of AI In Marketing
Right now in the marketing world, AI works as machine learning. Imagine if a machine can watch two paid search advertisements perform in real time and funnel more budget towards the ad that performs better. Well, it can.
This makes plenty of sense, but that lack of human insight can make a real difference. What if the ad performing better is an offer for 40% off? Of course, that will garner more clicks than a branding or product-based ad! But that branding ad is doing the leg work of improving brand trust and sentiment.
We see this kind of AI capability in a lot of tools on the market right now.
• ChatGPT: The buzziest of AI technologies right now can go a long way in your marketing. It helps automate customer service responses and capture information. But it doesn’t understand the quality of the work it’s creating. It can’t measure sentiment or trust associated with the copy — just hard data.
• Programmatic Ads: Programmatic ads are good at putting money where the obvious data is, and they’re good at optimizing themselves. They lack, however, the ability to understand top-of-funnel tactics that need nurturing. There are plenty of services that mirror what programmatic advertising does with some notable tweaks, but they all still have the same blind spots surrounding human emotion.
• Content and SEO Copywriting: Plenty of tools can craft language designed to get clicks or leverage keywords, but in the age of Google’s “helpful content†update, even that can only get you so far. Search engine algorithms stay one step ahead of AI developments and continue to insist upon personality and helpfulness, rather than just strategy.
What’s Next For AI
I’ve pitted my own in-house experts here at Hawke Media against the machines in all of these marketing fields, and 100% of the time, the human outperforms AI. Is that because Hawke Media only has the smartest marketing experts in the world? Well, yes… But it also highlights the limitations of current AI.
All of these tools are based on historical data. Usually, this kind of asset outperforms that kind. So far in a campaign, message A converts at a higher rate than message B.
However, you could put all the historical data known to man in an AI tool and it still couldn’t compete with a human because the AI is not able to respond to real-time data.
The next steps for AI in marketing are to get AI that has holistic views and real-time insights.
Holistic Data
The birds-eye view lets the machine (or the person behind the machine) see how others are performing in the same mediums, both their competitors and those in entirely different industries.
For example, a machine can help craft verbiage in your email to garner more clicks to your website. That’s great. It’s not helpful if your emails are still converting at 10% lower than your competitors. A machine — or even a human — with insight into your own performance is great, but it falls short without a holistic view of your industry.
Real-Time Data
Real-time data is essential because it accounts for flukes you can’t anticipate when launching a campaign. It’s also the most obvious area for improvement in machine learning.
If AI software sees your ad performance suddenly plummet, it will probably assume something’s gone wrong and shut the ad down entirely. With holistic, real-time data, you may find that all ads on a particular social network were suddenly handicapped. Or you may know that a large-scale event caused a sudden shift in buying patterns. (A machine likely couldn’t anticipate the pandemic.)
These kinds of things don’t mean you should stop spending in the space. These seismic shifts require context, discussions and brainstorming among experts.
The Continuing Evolution Of Marketing
Marketing first began around 1450 with the invention of brochures and flyers. From then through the age of telephones and televisions, marketers took the approach of broadcasting their messaging. With the rise of digital marketing starting in 1995, marketers are now responsible for the customer journey from awareness to brand loyalty.
AI is not something to be afraid of in the marketing space. It’s just the next step in the evolution of our creative careers. Right now, AI has the same processing power as the human brain, but it still can’t mimic human intelligence.
This stage clears marketers up to focus on the creative roles that only they can deliver. Instead of monitoring day-to-day analytics, design creative, user-test messaging or develop an approach no one’s ever tried before.
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This article is written by Rolling Stone and originally published here.
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