Will ChatGPT Change Paid Advertising Campaigns?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are technologies that have revolutionised the way we live and work. Both are getting more sophisticated – and yet more user-friendly – by the day.?

One of the newest and most innovative new tools on the market today, one which is getting marketers worldwide salivating at its potential, is ChatGPT.?

What is ChatGPT?

Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT is able to generate humanistic responses to text-based questions or prompts. Using a language model that has been tested on masses of aggregated text, its responses are, predominantly, authentic and contextually relevant. Many are marvelling at its innate ability to make salient points with ease and produce swathes of copy at scale.?

The ChatGPT chatbot is so influential that Microsoft has pledged an estimated $10 billion into OpenAI, ChatGPT’s owner. In doing so, this has increased the demand for AI-driven innovations in digital marketing, with Google itself building proprietary chatbot features into its search engine. In summary, it’s fair to say that the landscape looks to be dominated by AI.

But where does this leave PPC (pay-per-click) advertising specialists? How will ChatGPT and other AI tools change the ways in which businesses and marketing agencies research, deliver, and optimise PPC ad campaigns?

In this blog, the PPC advertising experts at Ginger Digital will explore the tool’s potential impact.

Should Marketers Be Worried About ChatGPT?

Many people fear that these technologies will ultimately replace human workers. It might be easy to glance at ChatGPT’s ability to generate large amounts of text in minutes, seemingly nullifying the need for hard-working content writers.?

However, the fact remains that AI is not an imminent threat to human jobs, and there is nothing to suggest as such.

Instead, marketers and content writers can leverage the tool to enhance the capabilities of what they can offer their clients. In the world of PPC marketing in particular, this tool can be of substantial assistance, innovating many of the ways in which Google Ads, social media ads (such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok and Facebook Ads) and even video ads, are delivered.?

That doesn’t change the fact that there is widespread concern that ChatGPT and other AI tools could eventually replace in-demand jobs. However, it’s important to distinguish that machine-based tools like these can be assets rather than threats. Embracing AI and ML and finding ways to work with it will position you, as a marketer, for long-term success.

How to Succeed at PPC Advertising

PPC is a constantly-evolving advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time someone clicks on one of their ads. PPC campaigns require significant effort and attention to detail to ensure that the advertising business’ target audience is captured.?

Not only do PPC marketing campaigns require you to conduct deep audience research, but also keyword research, write meaningful and engaging ad copy, as well as monitor and optimise campaigns on an ongoing basis.

The success of PPC campaigns depend on several factors, including relevance to the user’s search queries, the quality of the landing page, and user experience.?

How ChatGPT Can Aid PPC Marketing Efforts

So how does ChatGPT help when building bespoke PPC advertising campaigns for businesses??

PPC Ad Copy

In terms of generating PPC advertising campaign copy, quite a lot.

ChatGPT can be used to generate multiple ad copy variations based on sets of keywords, themes or related search terms. In turn, this can save advertisers lots of time and effort fine-tuning paragraphs of text or metadata without feeling like their heads are going to explode.

Text variations can be A/B tested to see which snippets of copy resonate with the PPC ad campaign’s target audience the most. As a result, advertisers can optimise their campaigns and, in the long run, improve their click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates.?

By using ChatGPT, advertisers remove the need to spend hours crafting multiple variations of ad copy, instead focusing on other important, strategic aspects of campaigns such as landing page development, design, keyword research and, if going with bespoke PPC video campaigns, professional video production or animation.

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)

DKI is a technique used by PPC ad experts where the user’s search query is dynamically and authentically inserted into a piece of text.

Quite often, marketers with little to no content writing experience will try to thread keywords or related searches into content, without any real consideration for context, flow or readability. This is what’s known as a black hat tactic, with Google itself penalising sites that spam pages full of keywords and variations in an attempt to boost its rankings.?

DKI, contrastingly, helps make ad copy more relevant to the user’s search query, without making it appear inherently spammy to crawlers. Granted, in PPC advertising, there is no need to try and rank organically for related search terms, but as is clearly defined in Google’s recent algorithm updates, it is prioritising pages that address search intent. By creating relevant landing pages that address users’ search queries can, ultimately, increase the ad’s conversion rates. By using ChatGPT to create DKI placeholders that can be filled in with long tail keywords, this can also save advertisers time and effort in manual content generation.

Personalisation

Many might baulk at this thinking that ChatGPT cannot create personalised ad copy. Personalisation is crucial in any digital marketing strategy, with successful PPC ads and remarketing ads creating a better user experience and increasing engagement for prospective buyers.

ChatGPT can take data from advertisers’ websites, including preferences and user behaviour, to generate ad copy that’s relevant to users. In turn, this can create more personalised ad copy snippets.

Cross-Platform Copy

ChatGPT can also be used to generate ad copy for different platforms. For example, if you want to create cross-platform advertising campaigns, across say, Google Ads, dynamic Facebook Ads and YouTube Ads, you can prompt ChatGPT to create text for each platform.?

By specifying character limits and specifications, along with search queries, the bot can generate ad copy that’s appropriate for each platform. Again, this can save advertisers heaps of time manually drafting copy for each ad type, freeing them up to focus on more strategic elements of the campaigns.?

In light of ChatGPT’s many clear and distinct benefits, it’s important to note that this tool is still not an adequate substitute for any skilled content writer or marketer as a whole. You cannot replicate the creativity, thought processes, writing styles, personality and nuances of human writers, nor can you rely on any AI tool to adequately convey brand values, USPs and direction in text.?

While ChatGPT may be able to quickly distribute paragraphs of text simultaneously, it should be used sparingly if you want to retain that competitive edge and convey authenticity and character to your audience.?

Advertisers still need to rely on other tools such as GA4 to understand their target audience, their pain points, and their needs, when creating campaigns. The supporting ad copy does, therefore, need to be treated with caution, and not taken as gospel.?

Ad copy is a minor part of any PPC campaign. Therefore, when asking whether ChatGPT will act as a good replacement for an experienced PPC team, the answer is unlikely. That’s not to say that it can’t be used to help, however.?

Transparent, Multifaceted PPC Marketing Agency

Are you unsure of how AI can be a valuable asset to your business? Wrapping your head around this constantly-evolving sector can be overwhelming.

However, at Ginger Digital, we are very familiar with its presence and as PPC marketers, we understand and recognise that it might seem like an imposing threat.?

If you want to ensure that your PPC campaigns are going to be done correctly and with ROI, customer experience and brand awareness in mind, then you shouldn’t aimlessly try and use ChatGPT to generate copy, throw some money at ads, and hope for the best. To ensure you’re not throwing your hard-earned money away aimlessly, and that you get best value for your investment, consider speaking with us free of charge.?

We offer all new clients a discretionary, free-of-charge, PPC marketing review call, to see how your campaigns can be optimised, with or without AI.

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