AI Is Reshaping Digital Marketing

Data, automation and smarter targeting are changing how businesses reach customers and measure results

Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the way companies market their products and services, but its biggest impact may extend far beyond generating advertisements, writing copy or creating images.

For businesses trying to navigate an increasingly complicated digital landscape, AI is becoming a tool for analyzing customer data, developing media strategies, creating multiple versions of advertising and determining where marketing dollars are most likely to produce a return.

Mike Samet, CEO and co-founder of Charleston-based Digital Ignite, said digital marketing itself has undergone a dramatic transformation during the past decade. Once treated as a secondary alternative to television, radio, print and billboards, digital has moved to the forefront of marketing strategies for most businesses.

“Digital is at the forefront of everything,” Samet said.

Letting the data lead

The growing number of marketing options can also make deciding where to invest more difficult. Businesses can choose from search, social media, video, streaming television, programmatic advertising and other digital channels.

Samet said Digital Ignite avoids approaching clients with a predetermined answer. Instead, the company analyzes existing customer information and audiences with similar characteristics to determine which platforms and types of creative content are most likely to work.

That could mean video or audio advertising for one company, while another may benefit more from social media, search or programmatic campaigns.

“The data tells that story for us,” Samet said.

The objective is also moving beyond traditional digital metrics such as clicks and impressions. Samet said clients increasingly want marketing tied directly to financial performance, including return on advertising spend, cost per lead and cost per acquisition.

AI moves deeper into marketing

AI is accelerating that evolution.

Samet said Digital Ignite uses the technology for considerably more than generating creative material or interacting with generative AI platforms. The agency uses AI to help develop media strategies, build data sets and create specialized agents that support its advertising operations.

The productivity impact has been substantial. Samet said work that might have required a team of 35 people five years ago can now be handled by a team of 14, allowing experienced employees to work with more clients and spend more time generating insights and improving campaigns.

AI is also changing the creative process.

Once a designer develops a concept and receives client approval, AI can help generate numerous variations tailored to different audiences and advertising channels. Creative can be adapted for social media, programmatic advertising, connected television and other platforms, while images, colors and messages can be adjusted for particular customer groups.

That allows skilled creative professionals to remain at the center of the process while dramatically increasing the amount of customized content they can produce.

The growing value — and challenge — of data

The ability to collect and analyze customer information is another major advantage of digital marketing, but it comes with increasing concerns about privacy and how consumer information is used.

Samet said businesses need to recognize that consumers often receive valuable digital products and services in exchange for allowing companies to collect certain information about their behavior.

He believes that relationship can work, but transparency is essential.

Companies collecting and using data should clearly explain what information is being gathered and how it will be used, he said. Businesses also have a responsibility to provide enough value that consumers are comfortable making that exchange.

The issue has also moved into the policy arena. Samet recently traveled to Washington as part of the Internet for Growth Coalition, a group of small business owners concerned about potential data regulation and taxation.

Samet said the concern is that sweeping regulation aimed primarily at large technology companies could disproportionately affect smaller businesses that rely on digital platforms but lack the legal, research and compliance resources available to major corporations. He said the group advocated for transparency while cautioning lawmakers against rules that fail to account for those differences.

A much more automated future

The pace of change is unlikely to slow.

Samet expects AI, increasingly sophisticated data analysis and emerging technologies such as quantum computing to make digital marketing significantly more powerful during the next several years.

More of the process could eventually become automated — identifying prospective customers, determining which audiences to pursue, selecting the right message and executing campaigns.

“The opportunities for return from marketing campaigns, if you’re using the data properly, are gonna go up exponentially,” Samet said.

For businesses, that could make the central question of digital marketing increasingly less about where to advertise and more about how effectively they can use technology and data to find the right customer, deliver the right message and ultimately win the click.