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Since first introduced in February 2019, generative AI has become increasingly publicly conceptualised as a powerful technology, with the potential to deliver vast transformations within every corner of the economy. The marketing industry is no exception, as AI integrations infiltrate campaign set up, optimisation and asset creation. Modern advertising runs on AI, and almost every ad you see will have been touched by it.
Chat GPT, which stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, is a “large language model used in artificial intelligence” with continually expanding capabilities. It can answer maths questions, analyse and report upon complex datasets, and synthesise information from diverse sources; creating coherent and fluent written content that is indistinguishable from evidence-based scientific writing.
The evolving landscape of marketing in an AI-infused world demands an adaptive approach in practice. According to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, if current trends hold, “95% of all agency tasks will be replaced by AI” in the coming years. Its integration into platforms such as Google Ads and Meta means that it can automatically manage ad performance and spend optimization, making decisions entirely independently about how best to reach your advertising goals. At nimbl, we are continually future-proofing our strategies, marrying processes with AI wherever possible to maximise productivity and efficiency.
Adapting and evolving to maintain relevance in the age of AI is essential. AI can be utilised in advertising to:
– Predict campaign strength and performance
– Gain valuable insights
– Hyper-personalise ad messages and images to individual consumers
– Hyper-personalise ad targeting
– Create visual ad creative
– Write compelling ad copy
If it’s good enough to write the medical abstract of a scientific paper, surely it’s good enough to write the ad copy for your next campaign, right? You wouldn’t be the only one to think so, with over a million people pervading the internet with AI-generated text since its conception. However, we’d argue that just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should.
The Caveats
The Prompts
The output is highly dependent on the specificity of the prompts that the user inputs. Effective prompts, which are contextual and subjective, and can be difficult to communicate. In the event of the AI’s limited capability to understand and process a request, output can become nonsensical or inaccurate. This provides the user with content comprised of loosely related nonsense, which may take longer to untangle than it would’ve to write the piece originally.
The Reliability Of The Output
Continuous refinement of the algorithm through user-feedback may improve reliability over time, but as it currently stands, “AI tools are only as reliable as the data they are trained on”. At present, AI tools like GPT-3 are unsupervised language based models. It produces content based on its training to “predict the next word on a large dataset of Internet text, rather than to safely perform the language task that the user wants”.
This method of text production may, and often does, produce inaccuracies, spreading misinformation. The AI is unable to discern whether the data used for its output is correct or false, despite presenting it in a confident or indisputable manner.
The Quality Of The Output
…. Is questionable. Not only does the nature of a language based model produce unreliable and potentially inaccurate content, but is also known to deliver “untruthful, toxic, or… harmful sentiments”. If using the tool to create copy, this may result in content that feels flat and one-dimensional, lacking authenticity or genuinity, or misaligned with the brand’s tone.
The rank of an ad depends upon the ad copy, keywords and the landing page. Ensuring consistency amongst these factors is highly influential in determining the quality and rank of the ad, implicating overall performance. Implementing this level of nuance & detail is a skill perhaps underdeveloped within the AI toolkit; and text produced by AI can read one-dimensional, flat, or misaligned with the brand.
Leverage AI
Whilst AI may not be the threat to end humankind, there’s no denying that the future of marketing will see humans and AI working side by side. AI can be a great tool to become more efficient in writing, campaign creation & optimisation; but it’s important to proceed with caution. Readers value engaging, genuine & high quality copy, which AI has not yet evolved to create independently. It has its benefits, but should not be solely relied upon.
Let us help you adapt your strategies to leverage AI & level up your business.
If you’re aiming to enhance your business’s online presence, consider reaching out to nimbl. As a boutique digital marketing agency, nimbl specialises in SEO and paid digital advertising, offering tailored strategies that align with your specific needs to drive growth and visibility. Contact us today to learn how we can help your business grow.
