AI for Advertising: The Tools, Tips, & Examples You Need

What is AI for advertising?

AI can be used for advertising at every stage of the ad’s development. This includes everything from writing the ad copy to placing the campaign in front of the right audience.

Artificial intelligence is better suited for creating profitable ads because it can analyze large amounts of data faster and more accurately than its human competition. Plus, AI software never takes a break, doesn’t go on vacation, and never calls in sick.

In other words, when your money is on the line and every minute counts, AI is a reliable solution to help you manage your ad campaigns and see a larger return on investment (ROI).

How does AI help for advertising?

AI can now proficiently assist advertisers with:

• Writing and optimizing ad copy
• Buying and placing digital ads
• Managing and optimizing ad performance

Marketers now have 100% end-to-end support when creating ads with highly efficient and affordable AI tools.

Buying and placing digital ads

With programmatic advertising platforms, AI can automate the process of placing ads in real time based on data about users, the availability of ad inventory, and your campaign’s budget.

AI algorithms can also analyze large amounts of data about users, such as their browsing history and demographics. This helps AI software target the right prospects for ads so you can maximize the ROI from your ad spend.

Managing and optimizing ad budget

Most experienced marketers know that a paid ad’s performance can change at a moment’s notice. This can be the result of many factors, including:

• New ad creatives (ad copy, images, video, etc.)
• New advertising channels/platforms
• New ads being served by competitors
• Updates to your ad’s landing page
• Seasonal interest in your products or services

AI can help advertisers optimize their budgets by constantly checking the effectiveness of different ad campaigns.

An AI system will analyze data at scale more reliably and accurately than a human could. That means checking metrics in real-time, like cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-acquisition (CPA), or return on ad spend (ROAS).

Then, having been programmed to sift through this data routinely, AI software can give daily insights to get you more bang for your buck from paid ads (or simply alert you when something’s wrong).

This may include suggestions to remove underperforming ads, determining the order in which ads should be shown to users, or notifying you when you’re approaching your daily spending limits.

Write and optimize ad copy

Writing copy for paid ads can be difficult, especially when there’s so much on the line. After all, if you write a bad email, you might lose a few subscribers.

If you write underperforming ad copy, you lose money.

Fortunately, natural language processing (NLP) algorithms can do the heavy lifting for you. Tools like Copy.ai are able to write compelling and high-converting ad copy with minimal input about your product or services.

This allows marketers to generate and test an unlimited number of ads without ever feeling stumped by writer’s block. Plus, these algorithms can analyze data about what types of content tend to be more effective with different audiences.

And once you have the text, you might want to generate a few AI images to catch your audience’s attention. Software like AdCreative helps you create engaging visual assets at the click of a button.

This means you don’t need to be a 21st-century Don Draper to write profitable ads. Instead, anyone can leverage AI to drive more paid traffic to their website.

5 Examples of AI for advertising

1. Programmatic advertising

Programmatic advertising platforms use AI algorithms to automate the process of buying and placing ads in real time. This can help advertisers find the best ROI for their ad spend to ensure that their ads are shown to the right people, in the right places, and at the right time in the customer journey.

One notable example is how AirAsia took advantage of programmatic advertising and saw a 30x increase in ROAS.

2. Ad targeting

AI algorithms can learn about users by sifting through large amounts of data at lightning speeds. As a result, it helps advertisers determine which users would most likely be interested in their products or services.

That means marketers can more quickly reach the right audience and improve the effectiveness of their ads’ performance.

This is how SolaWave used ad targeting with Proxima.ai and lowered their CPA by 32%.

3. Ad personalization

As a general rule, the more personalized you can make the customer journey, the more customers you’ll have.

And personalizing paid ads is no exception.

AI can show different ads to users based on their interests or previous interactions with an advertiser’s website/app. In doing so, advertisements aren’t just more profitable for companies; they’re also more helpful for consumers.

When customers see more of the types of products or services they’re actually interested in, everyone wins.

The hotel chain Best Western used the AI tool Conversations to offer personalized travel recommendations. As a result, they saw a 48% increase in visits to Best Western locations.

4. Ad optimization

AI is the perfect solution for monitoring and optimizing your ads’ performance. That’s because it never “falls asleep at the wheel.”

Unlike a human employee, AI can consistently monitor how your ads work. Plus, it can gather data about why it’s working or, as is sometimes the case, not working.

Then human workers can take the insights provided by AI and create bigger, better campaigns for your audience. It’s this back-and-forth of AI-driven data with human creativity that helps companies optimize their ads.

One example of this is when Accenture teamed up with a top American retailer.

As Accenture reports, “[the retailer’s] team estimates that $300 million in media buying opportunities and value creation was unlocked by implementing the new tool. This meant the team could spend the same amount on media and generate an additional $300 million in sales.”

Another known method for optimizing your ads is through A/B testing. But for that, you need multiple versions of an ad to measure which one performs best. Teams can leverage copy generators like Copy.ai to create as many tests as they need to increase conversions.

Try Copy.ai free to see how many creative ideas it can generate for your ads today.

5. Chatbots

Lastly, AI is helping advertisers beyond simply “getting the click.” Many companies are using chatbots powered by AI to interact with users who come from paid ads.

These chatbots are loaded with information about the company’s products and services. This allows them to answer your new prospects’ questions, provide helpful recommendations, or assist users in making a purchase.

Domino’s Pizza famously created the chatbot “Dom Juan” for a Valentine’s Day PR stunt.

They put Dom Juan on Tinder a few days leading up to the holiday and asked singles to interact with the chatbot. Finally, they amplified the marketing campaign with paid ads on other channels.

From that one campaign, Domino’s reported a 35x ROAS and a 10% increase from the previous year’s sales.

Top 10 AI tools for advertising

AI for Ad Copy and Images

1. Copy.ai

Copy.ai is a premium AI content generator that allows you to create any text-based asset you need, including advertisements.

And when you leverage AI to write your short-form copy, you can write multiple versions of the same ad in seconds.

Then you can A/B test your way to higher click-through rates.

But once someone clicks your ad, you’ll need to have a landing page with persuasive copy to match. Copy.ai can create copy for landing pages of all kinds (including product descriptions for eCommerce stores).

Enter some information about your product or services, and you can have landing page copy written in a single click. Then you can polish the text with your personalized style and expertise.

With Copy.ai, you have a powerful AI-driven assistant for all of your copywriting needs at scale.

Price: $49/month gives you full access to unlimited text generation. There is a free forever plan (no credit card required, includes 2,000 words per month).

2. Rytr

Rytr is another copywriting tool that automatically generates text. This can be used to create and test multiple versions of copy for your paid ads. It also helps you write and optimize landing page copy but doesn’t handle long-form writing (like blog posts).

That makes this a useful tool for short-form copy, like ads, but it would require you to invest in separate tooling for long content.

This makes Rytr a less well-rounded option than other tools on this list, like Writesonic, Jasper, or Copy.ai.

Price: Starts at $9/month. There is a free trial and a forever-free plan.

3. Writesonic

Writesonic helps content marketers write long and short-form copy. That makes it a good tool for writing and testing ads in bulk. The only thing that really stands out about Writesonic here, though, is the pricing model.

Rather than charging per word generated, Writesonic also charges based on the quality of those words. You can choose between four quality types:

• Economy (the least expensive and highest quality)
• Average
• Good
• Premium (the most expensive and highest quality)

This is something to keep in mind as you plan your content needs, as the default setting is “Economy.” If you’re going to generate a few ads with Writesonic, be sure to splurge and give your audience “Premium” copy.  ;)

Price: Starts at $19/month. There is a free trial but no forever-free plan.

4. Jasper

Jasper is another big name among AI content generators. It’s a robust tool with everything you need to generate all types of content (both long and short).

The downside to Jasper is pricing. It’s the most expensive tool on the list and won’t bring more value to advertisers looking to generate ad copy.

The least expensive plan starts at $29/month on a monthly subscription. This gives you 20,000 words per month: more than most advertisers would need but not quite enough to meet other content needs.

For creating paid ads and other forms of content, you’d need the Boss Mode plan. That starts at $49/month and gets you 50,000 words.

If you’re just creating ads, though, using the free plan from Rtyr or Copy.ai would more than cover the copy you need.

Price: Starts at $29/month. There’s a free trial (credit card required) but no forever-free plan.

5. AdCreative

AdCreative focuses on generated “creatives” (or image assets) for your ads. In just minutes, you can have multiple creatives built that engage your audience.

Simply add your logo, your brand’s color scheme, and some information about your products or services. From there, AdCreative will give you plenty of creatives to test across all your paid channels.

Finally, advertisers will have access to an intuitive dashboard that gives data-backed insights for optimizing performance.

Price: Starts at $29/month. There is a free trial but no forever-free plan.

AI for buying and placing ads

6. Adobe Advertising Cloud

Adobe Advertising Cloud is an AI-driven platform that helps advertisers buy, place, manage, and optimize their ads: display, video, native, mobile, audio, Search, and Connected TV.

This software provides valuable insights on making ads perform better and is a great solution for larger organizations with deep pockets.

It will also have a steeper learning curve and require more technical configuration than other tools on this list. That means you may need to hire an outside consultant for help, depending on your team’s technical abilities.

Price: You’ll need to contact Adobe Advertising Cloud for a custom quote.

7. StackAdapt

StackAdapt is another solution for buying and placing ads across multiple channels. It assists advertisers in three stages:

• Planning your campaign
• Launching your campaign
• Analyzing your campaign

Like other programmatic advertising tools, it gives users all the data they need to optimize campaigns. And because it leverages AI technology, it can sift through more data more efficiently – not to mention more quickly – than the human eye.

StackAdapt works well across all industries and is one of the highest-rated demand-side platforms (DSP) on the market.

Pricing: You’ll need to contact StackAdapt sales for a custom quote.

8. GumGum

GumGum is a company that provides a wide range of tools and technologies to help businesses – some of which can greatly help advertisers find the right spaces to purchase ads.

GumGum’s tools use AI and machine learning to analyze data about your target audience’s behavior. From there, it can give you actionable insights into which websites, apps, or social media platforms would get the highest engagement from your ads.

This tool comes with all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a programmatic advertising tool and will help get your ad in front of the right people.

Price: You’ll need to contact GumGum for custom pricing.

AI for managing and optimizing ad budget

9. IBM Watson Advertising

IBM Watson Advertising is a suite of AI tools developed by IBM that are designed to help businesses improve their marketing efforts. This tool includes a number of products and services to give advertisers:

• Predictive analytics
• Options for personalization
• Audience targeting
• Ad targeting
• Actionable insights

IBM Watson Advertising is primarily geared towards helping businesses with advertising but is not a tool for writers or content creators (meaning it doesn’t generate text-based content for you).

10. AdRoll

AdRoll is the last AI tool for advertising on this list, but it certainly isn’t the least qualified to be here.

This software allows you to:

• Target your audience with powerful segmentation tools
• Personalize ads with product recommendations with AI
• Harness data to optimize your ads’ performance
• Calculate your customers’ lifetime value (CLV) to build smarter long-term strategies
• Integrate with your current CRM

That said, we should mention that AdRoll was created specifically for eCommerce, so it won’t be suitable for all business models.

But if you run a profitable online store and want to optimize ads, though, then AdRoll is worth exploring.

Price: Starts at $36/month with options to pay as you go.

What’s the best strategy with AI for advertising?

This really depends on the resources you currently have:

• Larger companies: You likely have the budget to invest in more expensive programmatic advertising platforms. And you can hire the right consultants to get you started if you don’t already have staff who can do so. Combine an ad management software with an ad copy generator like Rytr, Writesonic, or Copy.ai, and you’ll be set up for a higher ROAS in no time.
• Smaller companies: If you have limited time and a low budget, it’d be best to get started with an ad copy generator. Rytr and Copy.ai both have forever-free plans that can help you create tons of ads in just a few clicks. And every alternative on this list has affordable monthly pricing for most businesses.

At the end of the day, AI is a powerful tool that can optimize any paid ad strategy. But, like every tool, what really matters is how you use it.

We recommend getting started with Copy.ai to write your ad copy. This is the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to implementing AI for advertising and will give you a glimpse at how powerful this technology really is.

Plus, it's the only AI writing tool on the list with workflow automations that work for both your sales and marketing team. This gives you more versatility as you create campaigns to drive more traffic/conversions.

And finally, the biggest reason to try: Copy.ai It allows you to start risk-free (no credit card required).

That gives you access to all of Copy.ai's 90+ templates and tools in a matter of seconds. Ready to see for yourself? Sign up for Copy.ai today.

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