The rise of AI in digital marketing

How to use machine learning to improve your strategy

In today's fast-paced world, the term "artificial intelligence" (AI) is becoming increasingly common. From self-driving cars and virtual assistants to personalized recommendations on streaming platforms, AI is revolutionizing various aspects of our lives. But what exactly is AI and how does it work? This article aims to demystify the concept of artificial intelligence and shed light on its potential applications in marketing.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are transforming the marketing sector. What's more, they're creating an advantage for companies using them to get ahead of their competitors by tackling some of marketing's toughest challenges - personalization, instant optimization, and dealing with massive amounts of data.

What is artificial intelligence and machine learning?

Before we get into the marketing side of things, let's take a second to establish what artificial intelligence and machine learning are.

Artificial intelligence is simply any form of intelligence demonstrated by a machine, rather than the natural intelligence inherent in humans. When most people think of artificial intelligence, they think specifically of computers that replicate some level of human intelligence.

Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that allows systems to find new and better solutions automatically by learning from mistakes. The more data and experience an algorithm has access to, the better it becomes in the future.

How to use machine learning for digital marketing

Generally speaking, AI and machine learning have the potential to revolutionize digital marketing by increasing ad personalization, return rates, and impact. As AI develops further, new applications of this technology are likely to emerge in digital advertising. Let's uncover some of the applications of AI in today's digital environment:

1. Personalized experience

Personalisation matters to consumers. Studies show that 90% of consumers prefer brands that remember who they are and, as a result, provide relevant offers and recommendations. What's more, if they don't get a personalized experience, more than half of consumers would switch to a competitor. Many businesses are using AI algorithms, taking into account the purchase history, items in the cart, and browsing habits of their consumers to meet their needs so that more of them become regular customers.

AI algorithms can personalize content based on customer browsing behavior, based on demographics and preferences. AI can help marketers personalize their advertising content and offer. This improves the customer experience and eases the process of creating more targeted and effective marketing campaigns. And more specifically:

• Marketers can send personalized offers and product recommendations to customers by analyzing their behavior with AI.
• AI allows companies to track customer browsing habits and recommend products in real time.
• AI-powered chatbots can recommend products and answer questions quickly.
• AI can analyze customers' preference history and recommend videos or visual content relevant to them.
• AI can analyze social media, product reviews and surveys to help brands personalize their ads.

2. AI powered chatbots

AI-powered chatbots can support digital marketing campaigns by providing personalized customer support, collecting data for analytics, while increasing engagement and customer satisfaction.

Digital marketing campaigns can benefit from AI-powered chatbots in the following ways:

• Chatbots improve customer service and reduce support team workload by providing 24/7 customer service.
• Chatbots can converse with users and increase engagement and time spent on a website.
• AI-powered chatbots can recommend products, provide personalized recommendations, and offer discounts or promotions based on user behavior and preferences.
• Chatbots can collect email addresses and phone numbers to generate leads.
• Chatbots can analyze user data to find trends to improve a business's marketing strategies.

3. Forecast analyses

AI algorithms help businesses understand their customers even better. Machine learning algorithms can analyze large amounts of data from social media, websites, and customer feedback. This data can predict customer behavior and identify trends such as product purchases or abandonment. It can also help improve the products and services offered by the business.

AI-powered analytics can help digital marketers make better decisions to meet consumer needs and retain lapsed customers.

4. Targeting by AI

AI algorithms can identify patterns in user data and predict which users will engage with a specific ad. This provides deeper insight into customer behavior, personalizes messaging, predicts future behavior, and optimizes campaigns in real-time, helping businesses target their ads.

Artificial intelligence algorithms can identify patterns and trends in a large set of data such as customer behavior, buying habits, and demographics. This analysis can help businesses choose the best ad audiences.

AI-based real-time optimization technology can monitor the performance of ad campaigns and optimize their effectiveness and results in real time. For example, AI can adjust the targeting or messaging of an ad based on how well it is performing.

Examples of this are Performance Max and Smart campaigns in Google ads.

5. AI-generated quality content

AI technology can help marketers save time, improve content quality, and increase campaign effectiveness based on data and user preferences, AI-based content creation tools can create more engaging and relevant content for blogs and social media content.

Digital marketing campaigns can benefit from AI-based content generation tools in the following ways:

• AI-powered content generators save time and money. AI-powered content creation tools can write product descriptions, blog posts, and social media content.
• AI-powered tools can personalize content based on user behavior. Chatbots can use AI to personalize responses based on a user's past interactions with a brand.
• The resulting data can optimize content using AI. An AI-powered tool can analyze which headlines or images get the most clicks and adjust the content.
• AI-powered tools can edit and correct content for grammatical and spelling errors, making it extremely professional and aesthetically pleasing.

6. AI-based voice search

AI-based tools can help businesses understand how people use voice search and what keywords and phrases they use.

Chatbots, which we mentioned above in the article, can quickly and easily answer users' questions. Businesses can use chatbots for customer support, FAQs, and sales funnel guidance and have Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant deliver these ads.

The data collected can also help businesses spot trends, optimise content and drive digital marketing development.

7. AI-based image/video recognition

AI can identify objects, people and other elements in images and videos. Here are a few ways AI-based image and video recognition algorithms can help businesses create more relevant and engaging visual content:

• Automated tagging: AI algorithms can automatically tag images and videos with relevant keywords, making it easier for businesses to search, categorise and create more engaging visual content.
• Search accuracy: AI-based image and video recognition algorithms can improve search accuracy. This helps companies quickly find visual content for their digital marketing campaigns.
• Visual content analytics: AI algorithms can identify patterns and trends in visual content, helping businesses create better visual content.
• Creative inspiration: AI algorithms can suggest new visual content based on trends and user preferences.

8. AI-driven A/B testing

AI-powered A/B testing tools can help companies test and optimize their marketing campaigns to improve performance and reach their goals faster.

AI algorithms can randomly assign traffic to different web page or ad variations to set up A/B tests. This saves time and money compared to manual A/B testing. AI-powered A/B testing tools can customize test variations based on user data, allowing businesses to test different variations for different segments of their audience. This can help businesses deliver more relevant and engaging experiences to their consumers.All of which can increase conversions and accelerate marketing goals.

9. AI-powered marketing automation

AI-powered marketing automation tools can automate email, social media and data analytics tasks, allowing businesses to focus on strategic and creative tasks to increase sales and improve their marketing strategy.

By analysing customer data and behaviour, AI algorithms can provide insights into customer preferences, interests and actions. Using this data, companies can better target their ads and gain insights into their clientele.

For businesses, AI marketing saves a tremendous amount of time, and for consumers, it creates a greater likelihood of seeing the content they like. Frankly, if you don't integrate AI into your digital marketing efforts, there's a good chance your competition will leave you breathing its dust. AI complements human intelligence to make processes dramatically more effective and efficient than they've ever been, and it's only going to get better from here. The most important advantage of AI and machine learning is that it makes it easier to anticipate users' needs by learning from their behavior. The better you can meet the needs of your customers, the happier they will be.

If you have any questions about digital marketing, don't hesitate to contact the team at ADvantage Digital Agency.