AI is integrated into basically everything we use as business owners these days. From searching and researching to creating and managing, AI is making our lives easier.
And it’s no secret that AI is becoming increasingly more integrated into paid ad platforms. Artificial intelligence in advertising can make our campaigns more efficient, but we need to be careful about using it.
It’s important to remember that humans still need to take the lead in managing paid advertising campaigns. You can’t 100% rely on AI to do anything completely on its own, and your digital marketing is NOT a ‘set it and forget it’ strategy.
Successful marketers leverage AI to support their paid ad manager, making their work more efficient and providing them with deeper insights. AI is only as good as the person using the tool, so we’re going to dig into the weeds on how to use AI to your advantage!
Key Takeaways:
- Explaining how AI is integrated into paid advertising tools.
- The benefits of small business owners using AI.
- Ethical considerations before you start using artificial intelligence in advertising.
What Is AI in Paid Advertising?
AI is being used in various ways for paid advertising. It can help us analyze data and automate tasks that used to take several hours of manual effort.
Artificial intelligence in advertising uses technologies to optimize campaigns according to patterns in user behavior, performance data, and market trends.
This is what it often looks like:
- Machine learning: Predicts outcomes to continuously improve targeting and bidding strategies.
- Natural language processing (NLP): Analyzes and generates ad copy or understands user queries.
- Automation tools: Adjust campaigns in real time based on performance.
These are some common paid ad platforms that have integrated AI:
4 Key Ways AI Is Transforming Paid Advertising
Artificial intelligence in advertising is no longer the exception, it’s becoming the standard AI is fully integrated into paid advertising in several ways, so business owners need to understand how to use it effectively.
Automated Campaign Management
AI automates tasks that previously required constant manual tweaking – something I’m very happy about!
For example, many digital marketing platforms use smart bidding strategies to automatically adjust your ad copy and creatives in real-time based on user behavior and time of day. So rather than creating a series of individual ads, you can now create ad groups that serve up the best combination of creative and copy for best engagement. This helps you ensure your ad budget is efficiently driving the best results.
Artificial intelligence in advertising essentially acts as an assistant, adjusting ad delivery for better outcomes, so ad managers and business owners can focus on the strategy and customer journey.
Just remember that AI is only as good as the data it receives. Poor setup, weak targeting, or misleading conversion tracking can lead to AI making bad decisions. Regular oversight is still required to get the most of your advertising investment.
Smarter Targeting and Audience Segmentation
One of the most common issues small business owners run into with paid ads is targeting the right people. Especially if you aren’t confident in knowing your target audience, it’s very difficult to segment them in ad platforms.
AI makes it easier to reach the right people by identifying patterns in behavior and interests that aren’t always obvious to humans.
How does it do this?
- Lookalike Audience Modeling: Platforms can find new users who closely resemble your existing customers.
- Behavioral Targeting: AI can detect real-time user intent signals (like recent searches or website interactions) to deliver more relevant ads.
- Micro-Segmentation: AI enables business owners to break audiences into highly specific segments based on demographics, psychographics, purchase intent, and engagement history.
AI makes it easier to talk directly to your audience without wasting the budget trying to figure out who resonates with your messaging.
However, it doesn’t know your business goals. It might find engaged audiences that don’t actually convert. Our judgment is still needed to refine who we’re actually trying to reach with our paid ads.
Enhanced Creative Optimization
AI can generate and test thousands of ad combinations to determine what resonates best with your audience.
There is a HUGE caveat to this, though – you still need to manage and oversee what AI is doing so you don’t blow through your whole budget in one day.
You still need to:
- Set daily or lifetime budget caps
- Monitor creative fatigue
- Focus on testing meaningful variations
AI can test ad creatives more efficiently, but an ad manager still needs to oversee the strategy and budget.
Chatbots and Conversational Ads
I love how AI can help guide people through funnels and the customer journey 24/7. We can’t be around to respond to chats, qualify leads, and answer questions all the time.
Once again, AI comes through as our assistant!
It can qualify leads, route inquiries, and answer FAQs, allowing you to focus on strategy and conversion.
Benefits of Using AI in Paid Advertising
There are a lot of benefits to using artificial intelligence in advertising.
It helps us more efficiently manage ad campaigns, test creatives, and analyze results.
With improved targeting precision, we can be more confident that our ads are reaching the right people with the right message. This also makes the most out of our ad budget!
When the entire customer journey runs smoothly, users have a better experience. AI handles the small, tedious tasks, so we can focus on strategy and converting new leads from our ad campaigns.
I firmly believe that AI should never replace team members, but rather help them become more efficient and effective in delivering the best results.
Ethical Considerations of Artificial Intelligence in Advertising
Before you run off to try AI in your ad campaigns, think about these ethical questions and potential risks.
Data Privacy and Consent
AI uses data to function and often collects, analyzes, and acts on personal information. A lot of users are unaware of how their data is being used.
I’ve done it before – just clicking ‘accept terms and conditions’ without actually reading them.
Or sometimes we get roped into things without giving our consent.
However, misuse or overreach of personal data could violate privacy laws and get your business in trouble. Always keep this in mind when leveraging AI.
Bias in Algorithms
AI accesses historical data to make recommendations, which means it might inherit biases within that data.
Nothing on the internet is 100% perfect. We have to regularly audit ad performance and targeting to identify and correct accidental biases.
Lack of Transparency
AI hardly ever explains why it makes certain decisions. It just does it, and we trust that it’s the best decision.
This makes it challenging to explain results, and we risk losing visibility and control over our campaign management. That’s why you always need a pair of human eyes on your ads.
Creativity Loss
Relying too much on AI can decrease your creativity, especially when it comes to messaging and graphics. Paid ads are still rooted in human empathy and storytelling to resonate with their audience. AI can’t fully replicate that.
And, let’s be honest, it is becoming easier and easier to spot AI generated content – particularly with graphics and copy. AI can help with ideation and editing, but if you rely too much on artificial intelligence to build your ad elements, this can come across as robotic or lazy and reflect poorly on your brand.
How Small Businesses Can Start Using AI in Their Paid Ads
AI is changing the game for ad managers and business owners. It can make our campaigns more effective and efficient. However, humans still need to be involved in the whole process.
Start small when integrating artificial intelligence in advertising. Use the built-in AI tools on one campaign and see what it’s like. Notice where you need to provide input or correction to the AI’s data and analysis.
AI isn’t something to shy away from. It’s a tool to earn better results even faster.
If you want someone to oversee how your campaigns are using AI and the results, schedule a discovery call with me. I’d love to chat about how my team and I can help you utilize artificial intelligence in your paid ad campaigns to see the kind of results you dream of.
FAQs About Artificial Intelligence in Advertising
No, AI is transforming how we advertise but we can’t hand that over to AI entirely. AI automates many parts of the process, but human strategy, creativity, and management are still required to see success with paid ads.
Yes, but how you use data and AI matters. Many advertising platforms have integrated AI tools, and it’s perfectly legal to use those in most cases.
However, legal concerns can also arise related to data privacy, biased targeting, and deceptive AI-generated content.
To stay compliant while using AI in your paid ads, follow data regulations, disclose sponsored content, and use trusted ad platforms.
And, if you’re working in a highly regulated industry, such as healthcare or finance, you need to be extra careful about leveraging these tools as they are often not compliant with specialized regulating bodies. In these cases, I suggest working with an agency who is fluent in compliance for your specific industry.
Theoretically, it could, but you probably don’t want it to. You don’t want to rely on AI to decide your strategy, monitor results, and adjust when needed. Going fully hands-off risks your budget, and you could miss out on opportunities.
When AI and humans work together, you’ll get the best results from your Google Ads.
