Marketing

How to Use AI in Digital Advertising and Why It’s a Must

September 6, 2024
Two girls looking at a laptop with data on it
Coen Olde Olthof, founder of alpha.one
Written by

Coen Olde Olthof

Founder, Sales & Storytelling

Table of Contents

Did you know there are AI tools that can predict how much attention your ad will grab before it even goes live? Or platforms that can create stunning visuals in seconds with barely any effort from you? AI has taken the marketing world by storm, making digital advertising more exciting and efficient than ever.

If you are curious to learn how to leverage this, read along! But if you’re someone who’s hesitant about using AI or worried it might limit your creativity, stick with me. This blog isn’t about convincing you to love AI, but rather showing how it can simplify your work and even unlock new creative possibilities.

In this all-in-one guide, you’ll discover how AI can transform digital advertising, learn about powerful tools that make your job easier, and understand why integrating AI into your workflow isn’t just a trend—it’s a game-changer for your future success.

Let’s explore both the "how" and "why" of AI in digital advertising.

“How” to Use AI in Digital Advertising

  1. Predictive Analytics for Ad Performance

AI-driven predictive analytics enable advertisers to foresee how their ads will perform before launching them. AI models analyze vast datasets to predict key performance indicators (KPIs) like attention, click-through rates, engagement, and conversions.

How to apply this: Tools like junbi.ai allow you to test your ad’s visual impact and attention-grabbing power before launch. AI can also assess which creative elements (e.g., colors, images, text) are more likely to generate a positive response, allowing for fine-tuning ahead of time.

Pro tip: If you want to know more about predictive advertising, our blog “What Is Predictive Advertising and How It Can Transform Your Marketing?”, can give you in-depth insight and a lot more ideas. 

  1. Audience Targeting and Segmentation

One of the most powerful applications of AI in digital advertising is audience targeting. AI uses data from user behaviors, demographics, and preferences to segment audiences more effectively. With AI-powered tools, you can create hyper-specific audience profiles, ensuring that your ads are seen by the people most likely to engage with them.

How to apply this: Platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads already incorporate AI for targeting. You can use these tools to analyze past campaigns and generate insights about which audience segments work best, refining future targeting based on AI-driven predictions.

  1. Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO)

AI can create and optimize ad variations automatically. Through dynamic creative optimization (DCO), AI adjusts ad elements—such as copy, visuals, and CTAs—in real time based on audience interactions and data. This ensures the most relevant version of an ad is shown to each user.

How to apply this: Platforms like Google Display Network or AdRoll offer dynamic creative options, where AI tweaks ads in real-time based on factors like user behavior, location, and browsing history. You can automate A/B testing on a massive scale, improving ad performance without manual intervention.

  1. Chatbots for Personalized Engagement

AI-powered chatbots are transforming customer engagement in digital advertising. By incorporating conversational AI, businesses can offer personalized, real-time interactions with potential customers, whether they’re looking for product recommendations or support.

How to apply this: Integrate AI chatbots like Drift or Intercom into your website or ads to enhance customer interactions. These bots can automatically guide users through the sales funnel, answering questions, offering suggestions, or redirecting to human agents when needed.

  1. Ad Automation and Budget Optimization

AI-powered tools can take the guesswork out of managing your ad budget by automatically adjusting bids to maximize your results. These tools analyze data in real-time to optimize ad placements, ensuring your ads appear where they’re most likely to convert while keeping costs in check. The result? Higher conversion rates and more efficient spending, with less risk of overshooting your budget.

How to apply this: Many popular platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads offer AI-driven bidding strategies. By selecting an automated bidding option, the AI constantly monitors your campaigns and adjusts your bids in real-time to meet your goals, helping you get the most value from your ad spend without manual effort.

  1. Ideation

AI tools have taken brainstorming and idea generation to the next level. Many times for marketers, there comes a phase when they face a creative block or are unable to think out of the box. Other times, marketers are swamped with hundreds of tasks and find it overwhelming to come up with content ideas. The AI Gods have listened to this plight of marketers and have given extraordinarily amazing solutions that has made ideation fast, creative, and simple.

How to apply this: Here the big shots of AI would be perfect examples. ChatGPT by OpenAI and Gemini by Google have taken the internet by storm. You can ask them anything that would help you in your advertising, such as “different tagline options for a specific product”, or “ideas to create a successful campaign for a particular brand”, these AI tools generate answers in seconds. You can always ask for alternative suggestions or have a human like chat with them to get the best possible result. 

ChatGPT suggesting different taglines for an ad about mango juice
  1. Content Creation

AI has completely transformed how advertisers create content, making it easier to produce visually compelling ads that stand out. Whether you're designing attention-grabbing visuals or crafting persuasive copy, AI tools ensure your ads resonate with your audience. These tools don’t just make the process faster—they also use data to optimize your ads for the best results.

How to apply this: expoze.io takes the guesswork out of content creation by predicting where people will focus their attention on your ad. By analyzing visual elements such as colors, layout, and design, it generates a heatmap that helps you craft ads that capture attention in all the right places. This allows you to tweak and improve your ad content before it even goes live, ensuring your message sticks from the first glance.

Pro tip: If you would like a more extensive guide and suggestions on the best AI tools for content creation, this blog would be a perfect piece for you “Best AI tools for content creation”.

expoze's heatmap on this ad by Fanta, showing how much percent attention the product would get and the total attention distribution throughout the creative
  1. A/B testing

A/B testing can make or break an ad campaign, but manually comparing versions takes time. That’s where AI steps in. AI tools automate A/B testing, helping you identify which creative elements—like headlines, images, or calls-to-action—work best. By analyzing the performance of each version in real-time, AI ensures you’re always showing the highest-performing ad to your audience.

How to apply this: Tools like junbi.ai simplifies A/B testing by allowing you to upload different versions of your ads and see how they perform across key metrics, such as brand attention, ad breakthrough, and cognitive ease. The AI predicts which version will capture the most attention and drive better engagement, giving you actionable insights on how to refine your ad for maximum impact. With junbi, you can continuously improve your ads without the hassle of manual testing.

Pro tip: If you would like to learn more about ad testing, our blog on “Ad Testing: Boost Your Ad Production Speed by Testing Ads During Ad Creation”, would give you a detailed understanding of this.

junbi's AI platform where you can run your ads several times and compare the scores to see which ad performs the best

“Why” to Use AI in Digital Advertising

  1. Increased Efficiency

AI is like your personal assistant, crunching mountains of data in seconds so you don’t have to. It speeds up decision-making and handles the boring, repetitive stuff—giving you more time to focus on the fun, creative side of advertising. Plus, it cuts down on human errors!

  1. Better Personalization

People love ads that feel tailor-made for them, and AI makes it happen. By learning about your audience’s behavior, likes, and shopping habits, AI helps create ads that really hit home. When people feel like you “get” them, they engage more, convert faster, and stick around longer.

  1. Enhanced Accuracy in Predicting Success

Imagine knowing which of your ads will perform best before it even runs. AI uses data to predict which campaigns will succeed and which won’t, so you can invest your budget in the winners and stop wasting money on ads that flop.

  1. Scalability

Got a small campaign? Great. Running multiple campaigns across different platforms? No problem. AI scales with you, automating tasks like targeting, bidding, and reporting so you can grow your campaigns without getting bogged down in the details.

  1. Real-Time Optimization

AI is always on the clock, tweaking your campaigns as they run. If audience behaviors or market conditions change, AI adjusts on the fly to keep your ads relevant and effective. It’s like having a marketing expert on call 24/7.

  1. Improved ROI

AI is built to make sure you get the best bang for your buck. By targeting the right audience, boosting engagement, and cutting wasteful spending, AI tools help you stretch your ad budget further and get better results.

Final Thoughts

AI is not just the future of digital advertising—it’s the present. By harnessing AI’s capabilities, advertisers can create more effective, personalized, and scalable campaigns that resonate with their target audiences. From predictive analytics to real-time optimization, the benefits of AI are undeniable, allowing businesses to stay competitive in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

The key is to start small, integrate AI tools into your current strategy, and gradually expand their use as you grow comfortable with the technology. With AI as your ally, you can transform your digital advertising efforts, achieving better results and higher engagement than ever before.

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