Rise of AI in marketing and what it means for agencies like us!

“Well, what does it mean for you guys?”

“You’re going to be out of a job!”

“Has anyone seen Terminator!?”

These are just a few of the comments we’ve had when discussing the rise of AI in marketing with clients recently. These comments seem to have intensified since ChatGPT released their app at the start of 2023. It has put AI and the potential of content production, both copy and visual, into the mainstream. My mum asked whether it would affect my work at the weekend and she still thinks I work in IT.

The truth is that AI (and before that advanced automation) has been part of marketing and digital marketing for some years. The concept isn’t new to marketers, and we’ve got used to it. Savvy marketers have had to adapt and learn how and when to incorporate AI.

Adapting and learning

Managing social campaigns for clients has meant that we’ve had to adapt and learn how the platforms constantly change their algorithms to ensure posts maximise their visibility and reach.

Running paid social campaigns has meant we’ve had to judge when and when not to use their suggested targeting features by testing manual vs automated audiences.

The learnings built up via AI in email platforms from analysing millions of emails has helped us improve our clients’ email KPIs.

Google Ads have evolved to include AI in their technology over several years – from Smart Display and bid automation to Smart Shopping and most recently Performance Max. The latest offering combines several previous individual networks e.g., Display, Shopping, YouTube and Local, working to one, or a combination of, conversion goals. It asks advertisers to trust in the algorithm to choose the best method in serving an ad.

These are a few instances where AI has been incorporated into the marketing mix but there are many more.

Human judgement and intuition

The common thread connecting each of these examples is that human judgement and intuition needs to make the call of when and when not to utilise these features or “best practices”. Whether its Google, Facebook, Twitter or Mailchimp their chief objective will be to drive usage and, in many cases, spend within these platforms.

Communicating the benefits of AI across different marketing channels and being transparent when AI is better than human involvement is critical to driving the best results for clients as we continue to enjoy human relationships with our clients.

Hopefully it will be a while before AI replaces client meetings…