AI is the topic on the tip of everyone’s tongue. The recent popularity of conversational LLM AIs and AI art generation has made a big splash, drawing attention to self-learning algorithms and what they can do given enough data to generate new responses.
Considering this surge of popularity, it’s no surprise that AI is having an equally profound impact on digital marketing, but not in the ways you might think.
Artificial Art vs Data-Driven Insights
What everybody has been talking about are the types of AI that people can use every day. LLMs like ChatGPT and AI art generators like Gemini or Midjourney have transformed the world’s view of what AI can do. While digital marketing has delved into the possibilities of these highly visible forms of AI, we know that the real transformation in marketing isn’t in banners or AI-generated text; it’s in the data.
Data-driven analysis is where AI truly shines for any aspect of business. In marketing, AI has made it possible to derive truly useful targeting, personalization, and refinement information from vast quantities of both online and internal data.
Tasks that were once extremely time-consuming or guesswork have given way to high-speed completion and highly accurate insights that can be used to better identify, reach, and connect with audiences.
AI in Campaign Testing and Targeting
Nothing runs a battery of tests and compiles data like an AI algorithm. AI can sort campaign A-B testing and identify the most effective results, refine, and A-B test again far more quickly and efficiently than a team of human marketers. This has allowed digital marketers to optimize their ad spend, identify niche opportunities, and select the best-performing marketing strategies in record time. The hours and effort saved by AI campaign testing and targeting has been monumental thus far, and we see this technology continuing to guide digital marketing into the future.
Advanced Personalization
Customers want to see content that is relevant to them. They want to see products and features that they would personally find useful in styles they find appealing. Whether in targeted search ads, website banner ads, social media feed ads, or direct email marketing, personalization is the best way to get a customer to respond positively to your marketing efforts.
By today’s refined targeting potential and AI’s ability to identify personal preferences in vast quantities of data, that desired level of personalization is now possible. Platforms like Amazon have been using search and shopping history for years to provide personalized product suggestions integrated into almost every page. Marketing AIs bring that capability to digital marketers everywhere.
It is now possible to target customers on almost every platform with ads they are truly interested in and products that can benefit their lives. This leads to far higher response rates, and more positive brand relationships. When used in email marketing and customer accounts, it also fosters positive brand experiences and enriches customer loyalty.
Trend Predictive Analysis
Another aspect of analysis where AI excels is predictive analysis. AI can look at historical data and predict what is likely to come next by identifying patterns. In digital marketing, the ability to see new trends coming is extremely useful, allowing marketers to create campaigns that capture public sentiment and jump ahead of the competition.
This goes beyond predicting the exact day that the holiday rush will begin based on previous years. AI can also analyze what people are talking about and changes in buying activities to predict which products or concepts are on the rise.
AI Artwork vs Stock Photos
Circling back to the more visible AI trends, we are seeing more AI art appear in advertisements. This ranges from celebrity deep-fakes to AI-generated hero banners for digital articles. However, this brings with it some serious considerations and controversy.
Better than Stock Photos
On one hand, AI artwork is a way to step out of the purgatory of stock photos, free or paid, stock photos are generic images that customers eventually see several times in different ads, websites, and articles. AI artwork, however, is original every time and can be custom-tailored to the exact subject and style that the marketer desires.
The Uncanny Valley
The uncanny valley is the unnerving bridge between human and not-human. Robots often fall into the “valley”, and so too does AI artwork. The next time you see an AI-generated image of a human, look at the hands. There is usually something wrong, from the number of fingers to the angle of the knuckles.
Many people “don’t like AI art” for these subtle and disturbing reasons that they may not even fully realize.
Copyright Issues
There is also some serious controversy surrounding AI art, considering that these AI “artists” were trained on millions of real artists’ work that was not provided or paid for. They are reformatting that work into new images, but the not-totally-legally obtained originals are still being used as source material.
AI Copywriting
There has also been considerable controversy regarding the use of AI to write anything that is used commercially or credited to a human writer. LLMs like ChatGPT use a conglomeration of online written works to provide answers and compose documents. However, the AI is not always right and is incapable of fact-checking itself. It often gives wrong answers. It also writes in the “uncanny valley” with certain cadences and repetition that make many readers uncomfortable.
When it comes to writing, AI can be useful for brainstorming and outlining, but most professional marketers have come to agree that it’s not ideal for customer-facing copy.
Implementation Hurdles
Lastly, AI requires considerable cost in both money and training to implement in a new digital marketing environment. The resources required to purchase and run AI software are still above the pay grade of most small and even medium-sized businesses. It also takes several months of training and setup before a team is ready to benefit from the advanced insights or personalization potential that today’s marketing AI tools have to offer.
Begin Your AI Marketing Evolution with McAllister Marketing
AI has great promise and potential in digital marketing. It’s capabilities are transformative once a system is fully integrated with your digital marketing workflow. Whether you are a small business looking to begin experimenting with AI or a large enterprise ready to take full advantage of these advanced tools, McAllister Marketing can help bring your marketing strategy to the cutting edge.
Let us help you master the subtleties of AI marketing and swiftly overcome the challenges. Contact us today to get a quote.