From predicting consumer behavior to discovering patterns in large data sets, AI has made a significant impact on the marketing industry.
As AI-driven automation steadily takes over digital marketing, many speculate that marketers’ jobs will become obsolete.
While AI can be used in countless ways to help businesses succeed, marketing is still much too nuanced to be completely replaced by it.
With its power to collect and analyze massive amounts of data quickly and efficiently, artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing digital marketing at a remarkable speed.
One of the benefits of AI in digital marketing is its ability to deliver businesses valuable insights into their customer base. This, in turn, enables marketers to tailor the entire digital experience – including campaigns, content, and messaging – to the needs and wants of their unique audience.
Along with personalized messaging, today’s consumers expect brands to be always on. Arguably, the only way to achieve this level of personalization is through AI.
Many brands are now using chatbots to reduce workload and provide customers with an instant reply, 24/7.Typically, chatbots are programmed to offer set replies to frequently asked questions and redirect customers to a human agent if the query is too complex. This means more efficient customer service and better opportunities for monitoring data and gaining consumer insights.
Digital advertising has evolved exponentially thanks to AI and machine learning. These technologies have made way for automation, replacing the old manual methods with unparalleled speed.
Before AI took over ad platforms, most marketers spent a big portion of their time making ‘micro’ decisions, often at the keyword and CPC bid level.
At the keyword level, these micro-decisions would often be guided by factors such as whether or not a certain search term had enough conversion volume to be pulled out of a board match campaign and put into an exact match single keyword ad group.
Conversely, at the bid level, many marketers would decide on whether to increase or decrease a bid by a few cents or add a bid modifier to a location.
Today, however, savvy marketers are beginning to realize that AI-driven automation on ad platforms such as Google Ads is inevitable. As a result, these micro-decisions are evolving into much more strategic macro-decisions that help marketers answer questions such as:Am I using the right bidding method, and what to do if smart bidding doesn’t perform? Should I test Target ROAS as opposed to Target CPA? Can I create a new conversion type from some offline event and bring that back into the ad platform?
While data can help you discover what best resonates with your target audience, it does not have the ability to produce new ideas.
Fundamentally, to keep the attention of your customers you will need empathy and creativity – skills that algorithms simply can’t replicate.From messaging to services and landing pages, creativity remains the X factor in marketing. It’s a reflection of deep empathy, allowing marketers to meaningfully engage people across their online journeys.
Using AI to automate methodical marketing actions, however, can help you free up time and focus on enhancing your digital presence and planning future campaigns.
As AI continues to expand, it’s becoming essential for marketers to keep up to date with new processes, tools, and techniques. Remember: continuously providing your teammates with valuable resources is key for maintaining a powerhouse digital marketing team.
AI is already excelling at automating repetitive tasks and tackling tedious work. But does that mean that it will eventually replace our digital marketing teams?
Unlikely. In fact, marketers are – and will continue to be – vital for cultivating brand culture, interpreting results, developing strategies, and simply being creative.
At the end of the day, AI and technology advancements are here to help us improve business processes and enhance audience targeting, allowing us to be more strategic and effective marketers.
Success now and in the future requires getting the right balance of strategic and creative thinkers on your team. Here are the must-have roles in any digital marketing dream team.
My job is to match talented, motivated marketers with high-growth companies, arm teams for success, and then get out of the way.
