4 ways marketers can use artificial intelligence to gather data
Marketers are increasingly coming to realize the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) for analyzing data and constructing more targeted campaigns. As AI becomes more advanced, it will almost certainly come to dominate the marketing industry in the years and decades to come.
There are plenty of ingenious ways that marketers can leverage AI today, though, and these methods can be highly effective.
1. AI and PPC
Pay-per-click advertising is one of the most popular forms in the world. It simply means that marketers pay every time their advert is clicked on. The model demands extensive and accurate targeting, otherwise costs can spiral out of control with little tangible benefit. Most PPC campaigns are devised by in-house—human—teams, but that’s beginning to change. AI can crunch vast amounts of data in the blink of an eye, uncovering hitherto untapped channels of opportunity. It can analyze ages, locations, interests, time spent online, and much, much more. All of this equates to laser-targeted, cost-effective adverts. This is useful across multiple sectors. It might gauge shopping habits in retail, casino game preference in the gambling industry, and favored destinations for travel agents.
2. Chatbots
Chatbots are more common than ever and are usually reserved for customer service operations. They can answer a user’s questions automatically, but they’re also capable of gathering and analyzing incredible amounts of data. AI can analyze common problems and user expectations and experiences alongside more generic details like ages and tastes. They can even ask users questions and encourage them to take part in data-gathering quizzes. All of this is crucial research that can and should inform future marketing campaigns. Identifying data trends is the foundation of any successful advertising campaign, and AI chatbots are adept at doing just that.
3. Deliver personal emails
Email marketing is a powerful tool, but no matter how big your team, it’s virtually impossible to deliver a personalized email to every single customer. AI, on the other hand, is more than capable of doing just that. It can analyze the data from previous emails (including browsing history, click throughs, and time spent on individual pages) in order to develop an understanding of what individual customers want. From there, it will generate and distribute content accordingly. Every customer gets a different email based on their previous habits. Hyper-personalization is widely considered to be the best form of digital marketing but it’s time-consuming. By processing data, AI streamlines and simplifies the process.
4. It can predict when customers will leave
This applies especially to smart technology, but can be useful in other areas, too. AI is more than capable of crunching the data to determine how engaged customers are with a product and, over time, how that engagement translates into them staying with or leaving the company. The so-called customer “churn rate” is important. Customers that churn early are notoriously difficult to keep, but late churners can often be persuaded to remain. Marketers might use this information to target ads at customers who are about to desert the company, therefore increasing retention rates. Better still, AI can be fully automated so that it delivers the ads at the optimum time.