Artificial intelligence impacts the world as a whole, but digital marketing especially. We’re a long way from Rosie the robot or Cylons from Battlestar Galactica, but AI is the future of digital marketing.
Every decision we make online from what products we choose to what search queries we use is seen by AI. Businesses use them to help grow their sales. They get to know their customer base.
You’re likely not aware how much artificial intelligence impacts your life through digital marketing. It’s everywhere on the Internet and the websites you visit and its presence is only going to grow.
You need to take advantage of it on the ground floor and see how you can leverage its abilities for your business.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Hollywood has done an excellent job of making artificial intelligence look scary. There are countless movies of robots gone wrong and taking over the Earth. We don’t have to worry about that.
AI is the ability of a machine or program to learn patterns and understand new input to make better and predictive decisions. Video games have used AI for years and are a great example of adaptive behavior.
A fighting game has one character controlled by the player and the other by a computer. The computer has a set number of moves and programmed to respond when hit or to attack. If the player character uses the same move again and again, the AI sees and understands this.
It takes information and extrapolates that the player character will make that move again. It blocks, evades or attacks.
It learns the pattern and changes its decisions based on predictions. It’s used in a similar way for digital marketing.
The Google Algorithm and Rank Brain
The Google search algorithm is complex and changes every month. Several years ago, the company implemented RankBrain learning AI. It helps better understand the queries provided by searchers.
When a person types a query into Google, it’s not always precise. When you type “wind tunnel,” are you looking for a definition, types, locations, science behind, etc.
There are a million places the search engine can go, so what does it choose for the search page?
RankBrain examines your previous searchers. It sees if there is a correlation between what you’re searching for now and then.
It understands worldwide searches for the day. It determines if there is a current event happening that might trigger that search word.
If a volcano erupted in Hawaii and you typed in the search query “volcano” then it might bring up search results about the recent eruption based on the number of searchers about that subject.
In terms of digital marketing, this could have a tremendous impact on search engine optimization. You need to rethink how you use keywords in content. You also need rich snippets for context on your website.
The Future of Digital Marketing is Understanding Customers
Businesses spend millions each year trying to understand their customers and their needs. They want to maximize profits with the least amount of waste. They develop methods of helping them up the sales funnel and to the checkout page.
This is time-consuming and requires people to do it. Automation and AI make this simpler and bring it into the fold of digital marketing.
PPC advertising can be confusing even for people who have done it for years. Artificial intelligence analyzes a person’s viewing and purchasing habits to create ads that suit their needs.
Google developed automatic ad creation that uses your keywords and information to create ads they think resonates with consumers.
Artificial intelligence in marketing is only going to grow. AI learns more each day and is able to more reliably predict consumer behavior.
Automation will take over much of the PPC advertising. You can sit back and let AI create your ads and watch your conversions increase.
Predict What’s Hot and What’s Not
Part of marketing is understanding which products to promote. You take inventory and determine what’s going to be a big seller for the upcoming season.
AI takes all the data from sales, online trends, etc. and develops a list of products it believes will be the next big thing.
You’ll know what items will sell best on social media versus PPC. You’ll know where to put your ad money and what items to order more of, so you don’t run out mid-season.
These are predictions and might not be 100 percent on point. Human behavior can be fickle, but for the most part, data never lies.
As long as everything reports correctly, AI can make predictions that grow in accuracy with time. The more data AI have, the better their predictive model.
Get Better Content with AI
Google has said over and over again that content should be authoritative, relevant and informative on your site. If it is, then no matter how the algorithm changes, you’ll weather the storm.
Good content isn’t easy to make, especially if you’ve been writing content for years. Content can be amazingly popular one day and get zero hits the next day. Artificial intelligence can see patterns in reading habits, understand your niche and help you create great content that gets traffic.
Instead of guessing what content your consumers want, you’ll know thanks to AI. It’s not just topics and headlines either, AI can help craft entire articles optimized with keywords and informative. It’s still a long ways off, but it’ll get here.
AI is Here, Don’t Forget It
You may think AI is something that’s on the horizon, but it’s here. The future of digital marketing is machine learning.
It’s in almost every aspect of e-commerce today. Your consumers are a mystery, but artificial intelligence can help you understand their want and needs.
If you’re interested in learning more about how artificial intelligence works or about the various aspects of digital marketing, then explore our site.
