My Favorite Artificial Intelligence Tools For Digital Marketing

"In computer science, artificial intelligence (AI), sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. Computer science defines AI research as the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals." Wikipedia

Welcome to 2019.

This is the year that artificial intelligence is supposed to change our lives and make our jobs so much easier. I don't know about you, but I am really looking forward to all of the free time that I am going to have now that machines will be making all of my hardest decisions for me (he says with a tinge of sarcasm.)

Seriously though if you haven't already jumped on the machine learning bandwagon you will be left behind in a cloud of dust. I would definitely recommend getting on the data train this year. There are tremendous advantages to letting go of some of your manual intuitions and automating critical tasks. Not the least of which is that machines have gotten much better at predicting, and they're getting better and faster by the minute. In fact, I've been using some form of AI for many of my day to day tasks for a few years now, and now I'm not sure I could live without these tools.

Most of us in the digital ad space are already quite familiar with the built in ad bidding and creation tools from Google and Facebook that do automatic bidding and ad testing. These have been updated and improved over the years. I still use Google's Conversion Optimization and Enhanced Bidding regularly.

For the past year or so I have been relying on 3rd party tools which I'll focus on here.

Acquisio Bid Budget Manager (BBM)

Acquisio's BBM is pretty awesome for pay per click managers. Consider that in addition to keeping track of thousands of keywords and ads, those of us in the search engine marketing space are tasked to bid to get the most bang for the buck for your ad budget. In a dynamic auction environment this is nearly impossible to achieve by hand, not to mention the need to stay on budget. According to their website, Aquisio's BBM is "a set of 30 high frequency predictive algorithms working together to ingest campaign data across platforms. Data such as seasonality, times of day, times of week, location, positioning, ad platform, campaign and more allow Acquisio to self-learn and make smarter bid and budget decisions all day long, in real-time."

I've tested BBM against Google's Adwords automated tools and have documented lower CPC's enabling my clients to achieve more clicks for their budgets.

AdEspresso

I also access this tool through Acquisio, but it can be purchased separately if you like. AdEspresso is a social media buying tool that nearly fully automates Facebook and Instagram multivariate testing. Campaigns can be created and analyzed with a very slick interface, but perhaps the most valuable aspect of this tool is the ability to test multiple messages, images, and target audiences with on-the-fly optimization. Start with hundreds of ad variations, ad positions, and target audiences and then hone in on the single message, image, and target that is most productive to achieve your goal. It's intuitively designed and almost fun to use.

Yext

While not an AI tool on its own (yet), Yext's core offering of listings and review management improves your business' visibility with a myriad AI and Voice Search powered services like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, Alexa, Siri and about 75 more of the world's most authoritative publishers. By managing the digital knowledge and data about your business between all of these outlets, your business information is more likely to be returned as a top listing or voice result. Last year Yext inked a deal with Amazon to power it's Alexa business listings, they've tapped into the Google My Business API, and have also synced with Siri. Soon, Yext will be providing businesses with an AI offering of its own linking their 'Yext Brain' with 'Yext Think' - a new voice ready search appliance for business websites.

What AI tools are you working with? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

--Gary Steel consults clients on Online Marketing and Advertising, and is Google Search, Display, Video Analytics, Yext, and Acquisio Certified. If your business could use some improved online visibility drop me a line. If you like what you've read here, I hope you will 'like' and 'share' this post, and follow me on LinkedIn. #SteelView