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10 Ways to Use AI for Better Ads

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10 Ways to Use AI for Better Ads

In our recent post about OpenAI’s ChatGPT, we unpacked what the tool is and how it works, and why we don’t see its popularity as a threat to search engines like Google. In this post, we’ll be diving further into the OpenAI Playground, and how PPC marketers can use that tool along with ChatGPT to save time on research, ideation, execution, and more.

The Playground is a basic UI built on top of OpenAI’s API. OpenAI has recently added ChatGPT to their API. When accessing ChatGPT through this UI, users have the ability to customize the model being used for each query (or continuation of the “conversation”) as they progress through their work.
 

How to Write ChatGPT Prompts

 
When working with tools like ChatGPT, it’s important to be as clear as possible in what you ask, and how you ask it. As you write prompts for ChatGPT to work with in retrieving and displaying the information you need, remember that you are giving instructions in a more direct way than you might if conversing with a colleague.

While another person may have contextual insight into what you’re really looking for with your question, tools like ChatGPT take language more literally, tailoring their response to the information you explicitly provide in your request.

ChatGPT will consider every element of your ask, so don’t give generic prompts. The more information you provide the tool in your prompt, the better it will be able to generate what you’re looking for in its response.

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Example: Let’s assume you’re using ChatGPT for dinner inspiration…

  • Generic prompt (least likely to return what you’re looking for): Give me 10 recipe ideas for a home-cooked dinner
  •  

  • Slightly better prompt: Give me 10 recipe ideas for a home-cooked dinner with squash as the primary ingredient
  •  

  • Even better prompt: Give me 10 recipe ideas for a vegetarian home-cooked dinner that I can make in an air fryer in 20 minutes or less with squash as the primary ingredient

See here and the examples below for more information and inspiration on crafting strong prompts.
 

How to Start Using the OpenAI Playground for PPC Marketing

 

To get started with the OpenAI Playground, create an account using your personal email address at https://platform.openai.com/. Once you’re logged in, navigate to the Playground page to access the interface and begin making requests.

screenshot of open ai playground

The right-hand sidebar provides some options for different modes and GPT submodels, as well as Codex models, which are primarily used for generating code. The Complete mode is selected by default, along with the text-davinci-003 model. The other models within the “Complete” mode are typically faster and cheaper but are also less advanced, so they may be viable alternatives depending on the nature of your needs. ChatGPT can be accessed via the Chat mode and is what we used for the examples below.
 

OpenAI Playground Tokens and Settings

The billing model for using this service is constructed around the concept of tokens. Each new user gets $18 of free credit (900K tokens) that can be used during their first 3 months from sign up; after that, it’s $0.02 for every 1,000 tokens.

There is a token counter in the footer of the Playground display which can help you keep track of how many tokens you are using. 1 token is approximately 4 characters (or 0.75 words), with token usage measured against both your prompts and the responses.

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You can limit the number of tokens that can be used in a response by toggling the Maximum length slider on the right hand sidebar, which is set to a 256-token cap by default. If you make an inquiry that requires an elaborate response, you may see the response get cut off before completion; in this case, it may be helpful to increase the Maximum length.

There is a maximum of 4,000 tokens that can be used in a single “request” (single session), i.e. a series of questions within the same Playground. Once you’ve hit that limit, all you need to do is delete your earlier prompt questions and answers, or save them as a “preset” before moving on to a new prompt.

open ai playground screenshot with arrow highlighting button to save your preset

Note: The use of tokens is required in the OpenAI Playground, but not when using ChatGPT natively. As of the time of this writing, ChatGPT is still free to use. A paid version of ChatGPT with advanced features and benefits is also available—ChatGPT Plus.
 

OpenAI Playground and ChatGPT Temperature

open ai playground screenshot highlighting where you can adjust the temperature

The Temperature setting controls randomness; lowering the temperature results in less random completions. As the temperature approaches zero, the model will become deterministic and repetitive. For most PPC purposes, we recommend a temperature range of 0.6-0.8 as optimal.
 

10 Ways PPC Marketers Can Use GPT to Improve Workflow Efficiency

 

“In terms of use cases, there are many different ways in which people working in all industries, and all fields of expertise, can lean on tools like ChatGPT and the OpenAI API to improve their efficiency and automate certain redundant tasks. This technology can help with smaller, repetitive tasks, such as breaking down a long document into a bullet point summary. However, when it comes to critical thinking and understanding the implications of things, I would be very cautious about over-relying on AI.”

Portrait of Josh O'Donnell
Josh O’Donnell, Sr. Strategist, Paid Search at Tinuiti

A couple of important things to consider before diving into our examples below:

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  1. ChatGPT/GPT language models training data cuts off in 2021. They do not have any knowledge of current events, and cannot accurately respond to questions about such topics. ChatGPT is not aware of things like who won the big game last night; it is not even aware of what day it is.
  2.  

  3. ChatGPT/GPT language models do not have access to the internet or any other kind of external data retrieval; they can only answer questions based on the knowledge acquired from their training data. They cannot verify facts or provide references, only generate responses based on their own internal knowledge and logic.

 

1. Keyword Research

Whether you work on the Paid Search side of marketing, or the organic side, you know how important (and time-consuming) thorough keyword research can be. One of the most important rules of marketing is to know your audience—which includes knowing what they want, and how they search for it—and the OpenAI Playground can help you find those answers faster.

Sample Scenario:

You’re just getting started building a new PPC campaign for a client that sells running shoes. To kick off your initial keyword research, you want to get an idea of which related keywords are being searched most often. You want a Top 20 keyword list, and GPT can generate a list for you to help you get started.

The prompt: Provide me with a list of 20 running shoe keywords for google ads, list them in descending order based on expected search volume in the United States.

The result:

screenshot showing how open ai playground can help with keyword research

Note that since OpenAI enables you to continue the “conversation” beyond your first query, we also asked it where it got the returned information from (above photo); it’s always important to consider the source when relying on AI-generated responses. This is a good example of why it’s important to take the outputs with a grain of salt, using them as inspiration to get you started, but not the finished product.
 

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2. Competitor Research

Comprehensive competitor research and analysis is a crucial part of a marketer’s job, helping inform and guide their campaigns. However, just like keyword research, this is also an ongoing, time-consuming process.

When you work in a complex space—or your products or services are part of different spaces—it can sometimes feel overwhelming to assure you’re accounting for everything and everyone. The OpenAI Playground can help make short work of initial research in a variety of ways.

Below, we showcase the results provided by three different prompts aimed at unpacking competitor insights instantly…

Sample One: Ask for a list of top US competitors ranked largest to smallest with accompanying website URLs to get ideas for custom audiences, messaging, and product positioning.

screenshot showing the results when asking open ai tool for a list of top running shoe companies in US ranked largest to smallest with website URL

Sample Two: Ask objective questions about your competitor and their product.

screenshot showing results when asking open ai playground to describe advantages of a competitor product compared to another product, including which is more geared toward price-conscious consumers

Sample Three: Ask about pain points for competitor products, and use that info to inform your own product messaging & marketing strategies.

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example of using open ai to uncover competitor pain points
 

3. Generate Ad Copy

In the below examples, we used the URL of the ad’s landing page to help inform the suggestions from ChatGPT, providing character limits in our prompt to help direct the output. If your original result doesn’t meet your expectations, continue to sculpt with additional follow-up prompts. GPT cannot access these web pages in real-time, but it can use the context from the URL structure to inform the output.

example of using open ai playground to help with ad copy headline ideas

example of using open ai playground for help with writing google ads descriptions

“It’s more of a utilitarian thing, where you provide the tool with the data, and ask it to manipulate that data for a better output. One example is to provide it with a web page, and ask it to generate some ad copy based on the URL text; it can provide fifteen or twenty options within seconds. I would never recommend simply taking those headlines and pasting them into an ad, but you can now start off your project with a list that you or a teammate can garner inspiration from, and strategically refine or tweak to fully optimize. This gives the practitioner more time to spend on critical thinking, with ChatGPT taking away the more mundane elements of the task.”

Josh O’Donnell, Sr. Strategist, Paid Search at Tinuiti

The copy itself should be quality, but the important aspect of parity between what you’re saying on the ad and what’s on the page can be efficiently solved for.
 

4. Translations of Copy & Headlines

In the example below, we asked ChatGPT to translate the 5 English language ad copy options generated above into Spanish. Additional options currently available include French and Japanese translations.

example of using open ai playground for copy translation
 

5. Answer Questions on Demand

Similar to ChatGPT, the OpenAI Playground can also be used for Q&A purposes. Just remember that answers can only be generated based on the tool’s current knowledge.

screenshot of Q&A information from open ai website

Source: https://platform.openai.com/examples/default-qa

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This can be especially helpful during calls with clients when you need a fast and simple answer to keep the conversation moving forward.
 

6. Simplify Complex Concepts

When talking about digital marketing with other practitioners, we know our audience ‘speaks the same language’ and certain questions, concepts, or outcomes need no further explanation. However, those same complexities aren’t always as easy to communicate to newer team members or clients.

Even when our day-to-day contacts are digital savvy, they often have to convey information to those higher up the chain in their organization who might not be as familiar with the lingo, or even why certain things they’re highlighting matter.

For scenarios like these, OpenAI’s Summarize for a 2nd grader feature can prove especially helpful. Once you have the foundation laid out, you can add more color and context to paint the fuller picture without worrying the basics would be glazed over.
 

7. Generate Product Descriptions & Names

Working with accurate, well-optimized product names and descriptions is one of the most essential elements of effective marketing. Strong, descriptive names and product information help search engines and users alike in uncovering the items that will be most relevant to their needs.

screenshot from open ai website showcasing how their product name generator works

Source: https://platform.openai.com/examples/default-product-name-gen

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While names and descriptions will always require a human touch for proper refinement, tools like ChatGPT and the OpenAI Playground can provide a great starting point to build from.
 

8. Parse Unstructured Data

The OpenAI Playground makes it easy to organize long-form text into a table format. Simply specify a desired structure, provide a few examples to work from, and enjoy the time saved.

screenshot from open ai website showing a prompt for parsing unstructured data

Source: https://platform.openai.com/examples/default-parse-data

screenshot from open ai website showing a response from a prompt asking for structured data

Source: https://platform.openai.com/examples/default-parse-data

 

9. Call Summaries & Follow-Ups

Call summaries are an important aspect of keeping organized and ensuring everyone working on a project is clued into plans and discussions, even if they weren’t part of the original calls. Putting together these comprehensive, valuable recaps can sometimes take as much time as the call itself, but GPT can help.

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Below, we asked GPT to write a follow-up email based on a call summary.

screenshot of response when asking GPT to write follow-up email based on call summary
 

10. Convert text from first-person to third-person

We have found this feature especially helpful for turning our own notes into actionable steps someone can follow when shared. For example, if you want to share steps for completing a process with a team member or client, you can type naturally using “I” language to convey those directions. You can then quickly convert the text to third-person, adjusting as necessary for optimal clarity.

Screenshot from Open AI website showing how third-person converter works

Source: https://platform.openai.com/examples/default-third-person

 

Conclusion

 
The capabilities of advanced tools like OpenAI’s Playground and ChatGPT can make short work of mundane tasks, help quickly generate ideas and direction, and ultimately save us all time to focus on the elements of marketing and advertising where our expertise and strategic insights can truly shine. If you’re interested in more under-the-hood information about how ChatGPT works, check out Stephen Wolfram’s breakdown of ChatGPT. Also see here for additional application options, or reach out today to learn more about how our Paid Search team can bring your PPC advertising results to the next level!
 

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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