Thanks to the AI ​​revolution, marketers can get back to marketing

[SakibIslam&8]

We've been recalling an anecdote that happened more than a decade ago, when digital marketing was at the beginning of its mobile revolution. At a meeting, a consulting firm advised the adoption of "real-time" marketing. Those present were intrigued, but did not believe it was possible given the state of technology at the time.

Back then, marketing teams and agencies spent their days in the trenches, scrambling to create assets in ever-increasing formats and struggling to stay on top of trends—which, by the way, caught fire like wildfire and just as quickly dissipated. It was also common to manually compile the right media mix and figure out how to spend budgets in a way that delivered the right return on investment.

More than anything, marketers dreamed of being able to step out of the digital execution morass to focus on customer connections, storytelling quality, and business results. In reality, belgium phone number material they just wanted to get back to marketing. But at the time, that didn’t seem possible.

Today, things have changed.

We all use AI to reach our customers more effectively. In fact, 80% of Google customers currently use search ad products based on this technology.

Now, with generative AI, marketers have an ever-expanding set of AI-powered tools at their disposal that have the potential to revolutionize every aspect of marketing—from how we search for information, generate insights, and generate content to how we connect with people, drive growth, and measure performance.


Redefining the 3 Vs of content: speed, volume and variations

When it comes to content, the biggest problem marketers have is simple. There are never enough people to maintain the speed, volume, and variations needed to reach people when and where they’re needed.

Now, with new AI-powered tools, teams can scale creative concepts to a greater number of formats with unprecedented accuracy. This means more time and attention can be devoted to shaping core creative concepts . AI can then mine this source material to instantly generate assets like social copy, landing pages , and emails.

AI can do the same for ads, with alternate ad copy, automatically formatted videos, and multiple combinations of product photos, leading to endless permutations of personalized ads for each customer.

Putting Google's AI-powered tools into action

Google has been using AI in its advertising products since 2015. Today, the company allocates a significant amount of its media spend to AI-generated creative across Display, Video, and Search, as this technology has proven to be effective. It primarily focuses on 3 core areas.

Creative testing: Google Cloud technology makes it possible to use AI to score creatives, predicting success or failure before they launch. In ongoing pilots, Google is using AI to more quickly weed out underperforming creatives and more easily identify potential winners. It’s also working with a partner to apply AI to its library of creative assets. That way, it can understand what has worked well historically and use that knowledge to develop future campaigns.

Campaign optimization: Google’s marketing teams do all of their optimization across the stack with AI. They use AI to identify the best mix of formats and placements to meet their goals across all screens and audiences. While people’s behaviors are complex, reaching them across multiple surfaces—YouTube, Search, Gmail, Maps, Shopping, and Discover—doesn’t have to be. For example, Performance Max , an AI-powered campaign type, drives an 18% lift in conversions at a similar cost per action.

Measurement: In response to people’s growing expectations of digital privacy, regulators and tech platforms are restricting techniques that advertisers have relied on for decades to reach audiences and measure outcomes, such as device IDs and third-party cookies. We’ve all long relied on big stores of data to drive performance and measurement. AI helps use fewer signals, while driving the intelligence and trusted measurement that’s needed.


Still, it will take more than a culture of experimentation to realize the full potential of AI. Today, we are learning so we can scale. Only then will we better understand how and when AI can be used to augment and extend human capabilities. To make this as easy as possible, Google’s marketing team has put together a checklist of AI essentials to help you analyze whether you have the right AI foundation in place.

As we embark on this journey, what gives us confidence is Google’s bold and responsible approach. AI has incredible potential to benefit the marketing industry, but it is not without risks. That’s why it’s important to be responsible from the start. For example, to tackle misinformation, Google will soon integrate new innovations like “about this image” metadata in Search and image watermarking. It’s also using AI to deliver a privacy-first advertising experience that drives results for marketers while protecting consumer privacy.

It's an exciting time. The tools and capabilities we used to dream about are here. Marketing is about connecting brands and products with people. The "what" is still the same. The "how" is changing again. Marketers can finally get back to marketing.