The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked concerns about job security across the whole digital marketing industry. As AI continues to advance and automate, some digital marketers worry that their roles will become obsolete, at least that is what several publishers want you to believe (BBC, Hubspot, MarTech). However, as a digital marketer who regularly utilizes AI-powered tools, I can assure you that this fear is unwarranted. In fact, AI is a powerful tool that helps us work more efficiently and creatively than ever before.
Digital marketing and performance marketing go hand in hand, and guess what? Both are data-driven. This makes AI the perfect match for digital marketers like me. AI tools excel at data analysis, making it faster, more efficient, and more accurate. However, they do not possess the unique market insights and ability to interpret data in context that human marketers bring to the table. As an experienced digital marketer who regularly utilizes AI-powered tools, my goal is to share my knowledge and provide you with valuable tips that will help you navigate the world of AI in digital marketing. I want you to embrace AI as a powerful ally that can enhance your work and drive better results. So, let’s dive in and explore how AI can empower you as the protagonist of your digital marketing journey.
AI for Attribution
Remember the days of last-click attribution? We used to measure the success of a campaign based on where was the last interaction a customer had, before they bought something or filled out a form from your website. This gave us an incredibly 2-dimensional view into how that user became a customer because we only recorded 1 interaction, the last one. Now, we have data-driven attribution where we are recording every interaction. Fueled by machine learning, data-driven modelled attribution creates a full picture of the user journey, giving credit to top-of-the-funnel campaigns like social media and video. We know that a user needs more than one interaction with a brand in order to make a purchase, so we have to measure it this way as well.
With AI attribution modeling, you can now justify the importance of branding, demonstrate how YouTube campaigns drive sales, or showcase how programmatic ads impact organic search. Armed with this data, you can build a compelling case for investment in brand awareness campaigns and develop a holistic marketing strategy that resonates across all levels of the marketing funnel. This makes the job more interesting and dynamic, as now you can focus on developing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that caters to all levels of the marketing funnel, moving away from the outdated concept of a linear funnel.
AI for Bidding Strategies
I’ve been optimizing campaigns in Google Ads for 6 years now. When I began in 2017, my first campaigns almost exclusively used “smart” automated bid strategies with a target cost per conversion or ROAS. I never experienced manual bidding en masse, but from what I have been told, AdWords professionals would adjust each bid for each keyword almost daily. Working with enormous Excel sheets and spending the majority of their time on increasing or decreasing each bid to get the lowest possible cost per conversion.
Today, manual bidding may be used for particular experiments, but I would say that 99.8% of my keyword bidding is automated. And I want more of it! In these short years, enhanced bidding has improved immensely and allows for bidding across campaign types (like in Performance Max) and even across on- and offline sources of revenue. Leverage the AI modelling to forecast where the budget will be spent next, so you can proactively create a strategy that will complement the trends, rather than being always one bid behind.
AI for Keyword Research
Keyword research is the backbone of successful search engine advertising and optimization. AI-powered tools can be your secret weapon for uncovering hidden opportunities and refining your keyword strategy. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner and SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool leverage AI to generate a list of related keywords along with essential metrics like search volume and competition.
But that’s not all. You can take keyword research to the next level by harnessing generative AI models like GPT-3. By providing a seed keyword, you can prompt the model to generate unique keyword variations or long-tail keyword ideas. This combination of AI-powered analysis and generative AI keyword generation enables you to discover valuable keywords, refine your strategy, and optimize your content for better search visibility.
AI in Personalization
AI plays a crucial role in personalizing the customer experience in digital marketing. According to recent statistics, in 2023, 52% of consumers expect offers to always be personalized. AI-powered tools such as recommendation engines, dynamic website content adjusters, chatbots, and customer segmentation tools enable you to deliver those tailored experiences. Through automated modelling you can analyze customer data, behaviors, and preferences and automatically segment audiences into distinct groups inside your data management system, ensuring that you own the group segments as 1st party data. This segmentation allows you to create personalized marketing campaigns that deliver targeted messaging, content, and offers for specific customer needs. Engaging customers on an individual level, providing them with relevant and personalized content can, in my personal experience, deliver up to 45% improved conversion rates.
Generative AI for Content Creation
Content creation is at the heart of digital marketing, and AI can be your creative companion. AI-powered tools automate the process of generating text and visual content, saving you time and boosting your productivity. Advanced language models like GPT-3 can generate written content such as blog articles, product descriptions, and social media posts with remarkable accuracy. Additionally, tools like Canva or Adobe Sensei, create visually appealing graphics (like the cover image on this blog for example), social media posts, or simple ad banners without much effort. However, it’s critical to remember that AI is a tool that enhances my work rather than replacing it. While AI can automate certain aspects of content creation, it does not possess human creativity, and more importantly, does not have that innate understanding of client needs, or the ability to strategize. As a marketing professional, my role is to understand my clients’ creative requirements and ensure that the content aligns with objectives and brand guidelines. Generative A is powerful addition to our arsenal, enabling marketers to streamline certain aspects of content creation, but it cannot replace the expertise, understanding of clients’ needs, and the ability to create tailored content that follows brand guidelines.
As the protagonist of your digital marketing journey, the power of AI is at your fingertips. Tapping in AI as a valuable tool can revolutionize your approach to digital marketing and drive remarkable results. Rather than fearing its impact, harness its capabilities to enhance your work and unlock endless possibilities.
AI is not here to replace you, but to empower you. It automates repetitive tasks, provides valuable insights, and optimizes your campaigns for better performance. By embracing AI for attribution, bidding strategies, keyword research, personalization, and content creation, you can stay competitive and deliver exceptional experiences to your audience.
Disclaimer: I utilized ChatGPT in the process of creating this blog post.
