Human vs Machine: The Role of AI in Modern Marketing

By Esther Gibson

As AI becomes mainstream, will it replace digital marketers, or should we use it to our own advantage and to the benefit of our clients?

As anybody who spends time online will know, AI has been a hot topic for some time. Whilst it has been in use for years, across a range of applications, from natural language processing to robotics, we are now seeing AI in the mainstream, in ways that we haven’t witnessed before.

Tools such as ChatGPT have become a household name, it seems that everybody has used it at least once, whether to plan an important speech or join in with the latest AI-generated trends circulating on social media. It’s fair to say that AI is here, and it seems here to stay!

There have been whisperings between marketers that AI is coming for our jobs (what if ChatGPT can write ad copy better than I can!? Spoiler: It can’t!), but should we be viewing it as a competitor, or as a tool we can harness to improve our work? As it turns out, there are plenty of ways that we can be using AI as marketers, both to maximise our efficiency and improve our marketing campaigns.

Audience Segmentation

When it comes to segmenting audiences, marketers have historically used demographic factors such as age, gender, job title, and generic interests to inform campaigns.

Whilst demographic targeting certainly has its place, it can be somewhat ‘2D’. Just because someone ticks these boxes doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be the right person to see your ads. For this reason, marketers have seen a shift toward behaviour-based targeting, demonstrated by the release of AI-driven targeting options, such as those found within Google’s Performance Max campaigns.

This integration of AI within ad platforms allows marketers to layer in behavioural targeting, transforming our audiences into something ‘3D’ in a way that hasn’t previously been possible.

For example, if we are advertising a new cell growth medium and decide to target 30+ year old researchers who studied biology, we may miss the mark. Just because the researchers studied biology, it doesn’t mean that they are actively researching cell culture. They may have absolutely no interest in our product. However, if we layer in a behavioural element (for example, users that often visit sites selling cell culture media), we can narrow down our targeting to those most relevant to our product, and therefore the most likely to convert. This ability to integrate behavioural targeting in our campaigns has been revolutionary for marketers, enabling us to segment audiences at a much deeper level.  

Ad Management and Optimisation

As the number of marketing technologies available to us grows, it seems that our jobs are getting harder. The very tools designed to help, can end up bogging us down.  For example, did you know that marketers log in an average of 17 times just to get a campaign out the door? Time is spent on additional processes that could have been spent on ad management and optimisation. We are having to get smarter and more efficient in the way that we go about tasks that are at the very heart of what we do.

Interestingly, using AI can lend a helping hand in these instances (yes, I did say that adding more tools to your toolkit can make things more time-consuming, but hear me out on this one…).

Firstly, many platforms are integrating new AI-tools to help with menial tasks involved in ad management. These are often introduced in the form of a chatbot, allowing marketers to ask questions about their campaigns and to receive information such as performance summaries and optimisation suggestions. Where we would often have to manually review campaigns, these tools provide a quick campaign overview; perfect for sharing with line managers and clients and highlighting optimisations that need to be made.

When it comes to optimising ads, there are a range of tools available across all major ad platforms. For instance, Google’s recommendations tab offers suggested optimisations for your campaigns; from edits to headlines to altering your bidding strategies to improve performance. Whilst this sounds ideal (who wouldn’t want a magic button to optimise campaigns in a single click?), this is where the use of AI in marketing gets a little more complex.

Whilst these recommendations can be helpful (for example, by reminding you that you have forgotten to add image extensions to your campaigns), some suggestions require greater consideration. At Sciad, we are wary of broad match keywords – one of Google’s favourite optimisation suggestions. Working in a niche area of marketing, we often find that using broad match keywords results in irrelevant searches. This not only wastes budget; it also eats into our time, as we need to add extensive negative keywords. It’s important to remember that we should take AI optimisation suggestions with a pinch of salt.  The platforms aren’t here to replace us; they are here to help us in our jobs as marketers.

As the prevalence of AI across marketing technologies increases, harnessing AI to improve efficiency is becoming a key skill; and one that might prove attractive to future employers. It is worth understanding where AI best fits into your workflow.

Competitor Research

Brands have more competitors than ever, which can make keeping track of who your competitors are and what they are doing quite cumbersome.

Whilst competitor research isn’t necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when you think of AI, leveraging its power to carry out competitor research can prove insightful.

It is unlikely that you have time to scan each and every competitor’s website, social media, and mentions to gather the maximum amount of intel, and even less likely that you can do it in under a minute – but AI bots like ChatGPT can do exactly that. Not only can you ask them to carry out surface-level activities such as generating competitor lists and summarising social activity and product news; you can also get a whole new perspective on your brand or product, based on competitor insights. You can ask questions such as:

• If my product didn’t exist, which one would be the best alternative and why?
• What kind of customers care most about my product?
• What value do my products supply to customers?
• Which markets would my product win in?

Whilst these are questions you should be asking internally when working on your product/brand image, asking ChatGPT and other AI bots can highlight perspectives that you may not have previously considered, opening new doors for your marketing – whether it be targeting new audiences or highlighting different features.

It also helps increase the frequency with which you can carry out competitor research. Whereas time limitations meant this may be carried out monthly or less, the speed of AI means that you could perform a surface-level check-in once a week or more. Keeping on top of your competitor research helps you stay at the front of the pack, so finding the most efficient way of doing do this can be game-changing.

Whilst AI can make it more efficient to carry out competitor research, it’s important to remember that positioning is all about perception – the marketing team are the sense makers. For example, just because AI suggests you should focus on your products’ affordability to set it apart, that doesn’t mean that you should – in certain markets, advertising your product as the cheaper option, doesn’t necessarily sell it, and may have a negative impact. The marketing team play a role in taking the information provided by AI and making sense of it.

So, is AI a friend or foe?

Whether it be platform-integrated tools or ChatGPT, AI certainly has a place in marketing. AI can help marketers in many ways, from managing and optimising campaigns to carrying out research – and this is only scratching the surface. As its use becomes more commonplace, we can be certain that there will be many more applications of AI in marketing. Who knows what the future holds?

One thing is certain; no matter how AI advances, it’s important to remember that it really isn’t a human replacement, when it comes to marketing. Nothing can beat our hands-on experience and knowledge that we have as marketers; whether it’s knowing which optimisations to apply or selecting which users to target.

My key message is “Don’t be scared of AI”. Think about it as a tool that can be used to illuminate insights, as opposed to replacing humans. Judging by the example below, I think we can safely say that AI isn’t coming for our jobs any time soon…!