January 10, 2022
When we think of artificial intelligence, we often conjure images from science fiction—and it’s nearly always about smart robots that end up enslaving the human race. While it is far too early to say if the Hollywood trope will truly stay as fiction, in reality, the present form of AI is far less insidious. In fact, AI is a very useful technology that bridges the gap between analytics and the actual implementation of strategy. The future, it seems, belongs to the companies who can truly master AI’s capabilities.
How exactly is AI disrupting the digital marketing world? It can all be summed up to one word: automation. When fed enough data, AI is quickly able to analyze, understand, and execute the appropriate responses to any situation, even without human input. While that in itself opens the door to new and exciting possibilities in other fields, AI has found direct applications within digital marketing.
Here are three ways that AI has transformed the way we do business online.
- Programmatic Ad Targeting
Every marketer knows how tedious the ad buying process is. When done correctly and with due diligence, it involves long, drawn up meetings with sales teams, drawing up of terms, execution, and a lot of monitoring. AI simplifies that by matching user-reported data to the advertiser’s criteria, automatically placing bids on impressions, and displaying winning ads—all in a fraction of a second.
If this process sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because this process is what Facebook uses in its advertising ad auction process. To win at programmatic ad targeting, marketers and advertisers are given access to conveniently organised data to create custom customer profiles. This allows them to get closer at "winning" the ad auction process, which requires no manual input aside from the initial configuration of data.
- Chat Bots
Chatbots are basically programmed to simulate a natural sounding conversation with customers. While initially clunky in a lot of applications, chat bots have enabled companies to streamline customer service by having trained AI to answer the most frequently asked questions.
As one of the simplest forms of AI, chatbots are trained to give predetermined responses based on inputs made by the customer on the other side. Aside from customer service applications though, chat bots are also now being programmed to guide a customer in finding the product or services that they may like. Aside from ensuring consistency in tone, it also greatly reduces the need for actual human intervention in the online marketing and customer service processes, which allows companies to save on costs.
- Dynamic Pricing
While incredibly useful for large scale eCommerce platforms and ride sharing apps, this kind of AI application is actually fairly simple. Just as a shopkeeper may lower the price of their goods because of an abundance in supply but lower demand, so too does an AI repricer. The only difference being that it does it’s job in a matter of seconds, and does for hundreds—if not thousands—of products at a time using real time data with virtually no lag.
Conclusion
AI disrupts marketing by quickly processing data and making business decisions using good data. Aside from making accurate predictions at a speed faster than most humans can, it also greatly reduces costs. Given how much it has advanced in a short time, it’s fair to assume that the companies who can master the use of AI in digital marketing will dominate their respective niches in both cost-efficiency and scalability.
Rapid Boost Marketing is an Edmonton-based digital marketing company. We provide services in search engine optimization, website development, and marketing strategies, to name a few. Get in touch with us today to schedule a free consultation.
