Generative AI and Advertising: Why it May Be Time to Bring Digital Marketing Back Home

The world shook this year when AI—and specifically generative AI, or AI programs that create content from essays to images to video—became a part of the public discussion in a substantive way.?

It isn’t as if these technologies didn’t already exist and weren’t already being used by researchers, governments, cybersecurity experts, and some businesses.??

All the same, the sudden widespread availability of generative AI tech such as DALL-E and Midjourney (capable enough to create human images that can fool even relatively perceptive individuals) sparked conversations about what it all means for art, for labor, and how we conceive of ourselves.??

Yet, it wasn’t until a recent announcement by Google that the question of what it could all mean for marketing (and those who make their living off advertising) became so prominent that industry experts could no longer contain their sense of awe, excitement, or perhaps alarm.?

In brief, Google is going to present search engine results using AI, including generative AI.??

That could mean that, for example, instead of Googling a question and getting a series of potential websites to answer your question, Google could just…give you an answer. Right there.??

While the myriad effects of AI are yet to be understood or explored, it is clear that the role of this technology will grow exponentially and impact businesses in general, and the online advertising ecosystem in particular. ?

This shift is likely to radically change the online publishing industry (keeping in mind that transformation is often painful ). If Google is providing its own answers, this results in much fewer people clicking on the actual sources that informed the AI-generated answers.?

Fewer visits means fewer eyes on advertisers. Fewer eyes on advertisers means less ROI on ad spending. Less ROI across the entire online marketing ecosystem means a potentially very different future for brands and retail advertisers alike.??

Experts in the field like Matt Novak for Forbes are skeptical that this transition will be as smooth as Google wants to pretend it will be: “Google tries to suggest it really will generate clicks [on the sources cited to the right of AI outputs]…But I’d argue this is like suggesting that people will click on Wikipedia’s sources…”.??

For large advertisers such as brands and retailers today, the question is where to invest future ad money in a world that is so rapidly changing. One potential answer, it may surprise, is back into the storefront with smart, digital advertising solutions .?

In other words, at a time when the world of online advertising is more advanced, automated, and competitive than ever, why shouldn’t brands and retailers want to leverage the personalization of e-Commerce at the point closest to where customers make the majority of their decisions???

By targeting consumers where they are where they decide what to buy (including their impulse and unplanned purchasing decisions), retailers and brands can divert marketing ad spend that was previously dominated by online and out-of-store advertising to where it matters most. All while being able to manage and monitor campaign ROI in real-time at the store level.??

It’s a level of control, visibility, and consumer impact that a rapidly AI-dominated internet will struggle to replicate. Brands and retailers are able to interact with their customers on a level that is not only digitally personalized via the latest tech but personable in a way that the memorable experiences and value that increasingly define the priorities of the modern consumer.??

In brief, Google’s latest tech–and the growing impact of generative AI on so many facets of the industry–provide an opportunity for businesses to reflect, revisit, and reconsider their marketing investments.??

There’s more than a hint of irony that, in the midst of e-Commerce’s growth and burgeoning tech advancements, it may be time to turn investment back to the storefront to achieve those better ROIs in an increasingly digital landscape. Who could have guessed???

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#AI #generativeai #advertising #retailmedia ??