How AI is impacting Paid Advertising

I recently wrote about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on search algorithms. This blog continues that series to take a look at how AI is impacting paid advertising.

Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn and other digital ad platforms have been introducing AI principles in all aspects of ad campaign creation, management and reporting. Similar to AI’s impact on search algorithms, it has been playing a part in digital ad platforms for a longer period of time but now has become fully entrenched in all aspects of paid campaign creation and management.

Here are some of the ways that AI is impacting paid campaigns:

Smart bidding

AI-driven smart bidding has led to less manual bid management. Campaign managers can provide signals to optimize bids based on user behavior, device, location, time of day and other factors which allow for more efficient management of large campaigns. 

Automated bid adjustments allow the smart bidding system to change bids based on signals provided by the campaign manager and will shift bids accordingly.

Smart bidding systems also learn from past performance and will adjust bids according to best performing signals. Clearly defining your strategies and goals will allow smart bidding systems to learn what works best and optimize your campaign for best performance.

Elliance Viewpoint: Based on each client’s campaign, we assess what signals need to be provided to the algorithms to adjust the smart bidding strategy. Some campaigns will need location signals, some will need device signals and some may need time of day. Based on performance we will adjust signals accordingly to improve performance for each client campaign.

Automated Campaign Management

The name of the game is managing your campaigns as efficiently and effectively as possible. With predictive modeling capabilities in AI systems, they offer recommendations which can be applied automatically to minimize time for management.

Elliance Viewpoint: That being said, our philosophy at Elliance, a digital marketing agency that manages a lot of paid campaigns for clients, is not to leave all the management of campaigns to the AI algorithms. Providing the right signals and closely monitoring the changes and judiciously accepting recommendations is a really important aspect of campaign management.

Dynamic Ad Generation  

AI-powered tools can generate ad copy and creative elements dynamically based on user behavior, preferences, and context. Predictive AI can create personalized ad messages that are more likely to resonate with audiences, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates. But we still need to very closely monitor automated creative creation to make sure the right information is being displayed. 

Elliance Viewpoint: For client campaigns that we manage, ads are created by our in-house creative team. Any creative adjustments offered by algorithms are assessed carefully before we apply them. In some cases, we do not accept the AI-recommended adjustments as they are not in line with our campaign’s focus.

Predictive Performance Capabilities

AI algorithms process vast amounts of data to develop patterns which human analysts may take a long time to process. This is the strongest aspect of AI capabilities for paid campaigns. The ability to learn quickly and switch gears if needed. The AI algorithm will learn which aspects of the paid campaign are working best and based on the past performance data, they’ll be able to predict which campaigns, audiences and ads are likely to perform best. 

Elliance Viewpoint: We keep a close eye on the performance of our campaigns that we manage. The algorithms adjust pretty quickly based on the signals they receive. Closely monitoring the campaigns’ performance helps us adjust quickly and reorient if results are not where we need them to be.

Currently, paid campaign managers need to input strategic goals, define target audiences, closely monitor campaigns, and make sure that the algorithms are aligned with those goals and the brand’s values and messaging. AI is here to stay and there is no doubt that it is changing paid advertising. But if we use AI as a tool, it can make our lives a lot easier. 

Elliance, a paid advertising agency, brings prosperity to clients through digital campaign management services to grow your brand’s share of mind, voice and market. View our work with various clients and consider partnering with us.