How artificial intelligence can be used to improve marketing performance

When I think of digital marketing, the first thing that comes to mind is paid advertisements: online banners, pop-ups, Google ads, sponsored posts and the like. In the early days of the internet, that was how businesses connected with customers. It was a digitalisation of the same practices already being applied in the physical world and it worked – why change something that’s not broken? But that was 25 years ago.

The aim with online marketing has always been to raise awareness with those who fall into your target market and the reason traditional methods have stood the test of time.

However, as the internet has exploded users have grown savvier and technology has advanced. There are now more ways than ever to communicate your brand and engage with the right audience, and as a result the practice of digital marketing has moved far beyond the foundational approaches.

At the cutting edge of that process is AI. Many people are hesitant of AI because of the lack of knowledge and partial negative stigma around it, but AI marketing technology is levelling the playing field between industry giants and SMEs. For those businesses who lack the time, budget and resource for either a dedicated marketing team or agency, AI can help them to develop and manage cost-effective online marketing campaigns.

If you’ve ever used a digital assistant – Amazon Alexa, Google, Siri, Cortana – you’ve already benefited from sophisticated AI. These systems use natural language processing to interpret your words and provide answers.

As they grow smarter and more capable, voice assistants are becoming a significant part of the digital marketing landscape. For companies like Google, Amazon and Apple, these assistants tighten the link between users and their products and services. Google Duplex will run your queries through Google. Cortana will use Bing. Siri integrates with a range of Apple’s core products.

A few years ago, voice search queries online were pretty much non-existent. But as the technology becomes more commonplace, the landscape is shifting dramatically.

According to Tractica Research, revenue generated from the direct and indirect application of AI software is estimated to grow from $643.7m in 2016 to $36.8bn by 2025.

Time saver

For small business owners designing and managing online advertisements can be time-consuming and confusing. Using AI is a way to optimise online advertising simply without wasting valuable time and resources that can be better spent on the day-to-day running of the business or on servicing customers.

Organisations of all kinds are using AI to improve sales and marketing performance. With enough data, you can see what’s driving leads, how best to interact with customers, when to send emails, how to adjust pricing strategy and much, much more.

In gaming, each click, page view and transaction can be examined so that ads statistically more likely to work can be pushed through Google, Facebook and other platforms. AI can also monitor who you’re targeting to make sure ads are only being shown to customers legally over the age of 18.

Sophisticated AI uses machine learning to churn through mountains of data to spot patterns and trends beyond what humans might be able to discover. Whether it’s coming up with banner ads, establishing a global ad network connection or figuring out which audience to target, AI can now optimise online ads to ensure they are seen by your target market, drive more traffic to your website and, as a result, improve your sales.

Better still, AI is always learning – with every successful campaign it gets a little smarter.

The challenge for the industry is to help people break down the barrier to using AI in their business and everyday life. Barriers to AI are largely psychological. Your hardware is ready, but the software probably has some limitations. Our role is to help businesses overcome those limitations and learn how to use AI as a tool that benefits both them and their workforce.

Sophie Eom is the co-founder and CEO of Adriel, a digital marketing service that uses advanced AI and machine learning to help small businesses advertise online. She was listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in 2017 and is a member of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation