Machine learning and the future of marketing
Luke Ashmore-Delaney says marketers have become laser-focused on the numbers, but some might argue that’s been at the expense of ad and product quality. Could machine learning right the ship?
Digital marketing enables us to track every dollar; every click, every open, every ‘sign up now’ and accumulate lots of data in the process.
As a result, marketers have become laser-focused on the numbers and sift through opportunities to optimise and scale at speed. It’s instilled a meercat-like propensity in us to scan the landscape for the next ‘wunder-app’ or platform innovation, but some might argue that’s been at the expense of ad and product quality. Could machine learning right the ship?
TALKIN’ ‘BOUT A REVOLUTION
Big tech platforms have made continuous headway when it comes to delivering results using machine learning. As they’ve evolved and improved their capabilities, they’ve coaxed advertisers into use automated bidding and campaign types. It’s been more of a stick than the carrot approach, with manual options being removed in favour of automated ones (i.e., see you later Expanded Text Ads; hello Responsive Search Ads as the only creative option) with little or no alternative. I daresay the reason is that often we have to be pushed before we’ll take the leap. We’ve become so accustomed to being in the driver’s seat and analysing and tweaking every facet of our ad campaigns that relinquishing control is nigh on impossible.
I want to suggest a positive outcome that could arise from transitioning some of our ad campaigns to automated options though.
By handing some control over our ad management to machine learning, we could free ourselves from fixating on volatile quick win and rapid scale strategies that ‘chase attention’ (that’s a Gary Vee-ism) and welcome a return to more sustainable long-term growth strategies that consider the full customer journey, from acquisition to retention.
MACHINE TO THE MAX
The latest machine learning development comes out of the Googleplex; it’s called Performance Max and it’s Google’s most automated campaign type yet. Google has been announcing new bidding options at breakneck speed, but Performance Max goes a step further by combining automated bidding with cross-channel optimisation.
Based on a conversion goal, Performance Max leverages Google’s entire inventory from a single campaign. Once you’ve chosen your budget, bidding strategy, landing pages and creative elements, your Performance Max campaign sets off in pursuit of potential customers across YouTube, Display, Search, Maps, Discover, Gmail and all the rest of Google’s channels. It combines Google’s understanding of user intent, behaviour and context (based on 3.8m searches a minute!) with budget optimisation to serve your most engaging ads to the right people at the right time – capturing new conversion opportunities as a result.
Google reports that advertisers who use Performance Max campaigns in their account see an average increase of 13% total incremental conversions at a similar cost per action.
All this is great, right?
The answer to that question comes back to your marketing ethos.
