After decades of science fiction novels, films, and serialized Twilight Zone derivatives, the rapid onset and development of artificial intelligence has finally come to fruition.

No matter where you go on the internet these days, you will quickly become bombarded by the reality that not only has AI already become a valuable tool for mankind, but its long-term implications and rapid trajectory leave a multitude of concerns on our horizon.

There are technophiles who champion the advancement of artificial intelligence and its alarming ascension towards singularity, while understandably, many others are more than terrified of its risks.

Regardless of where you stand on the topic, one thing is clear for now: AI tools like ChatGPT are available, being heavily used, and will continue to evolve over future updates.

With these points in mind, it is clear that AI is going to have a significant impact on digital marketing (as well as almost every other industry and profession) in the coming months and years.

Here, I will highlight six predictions for ChatGPT, AI, and the future of PPC marketing:

1. Increased competition (and higher costs)
2. Improved targeting
3. Enhanced ad copy
4. More efficient ad campaigns
5. Greater reliance on machine learning
6. Continued innovation

Let’s get started.

1. Increased competition (and higher costs)

Due to AI tools like ChatGPT’s potential to provide advertisers with more powerful tools for targeting and optimizing their PPC campaigns, increased competition for an already saturated ad space may ensue. If advertisers who are leveraging ChatGPT are able to achieve better results and generate more revenue from their campaigns, then it may lead to higher prices for keywords and make it even more difficult for smaller advertisers to compete.

ChatGPT could be particularly beneficial for larger advertisers who have the resources to invest in machine learning algorithms and other advanced technologies. These advertisers may be able to use ChatGPT to gain a competitive advantage and outbid smaller advertisers for ad space. It is a possibility that increased usage of ChatGPT and other AI tools may improve blind spots that the account managers, agencies, and practitioners who are working for larger businesses otherwise would have missed.

It’s important to note that this prediction is not certain, and there are many factors that could influence the competitiveness of the paid media space for years to come. One thing is fairly certain though, and that is search advertising is not getting any cheaper.

Another issue that has been discussed is the reduction in the usage of Google Search because of ChatGPT.

The AI tool is very capable of answering nearly any question that you would search for on Google in addition to curating lists of recommendations for you for travel or entertainment. (The only caveat is that ChatGPT, in particular, is unable to source information beyond 2021 at this time.)

Google recently announced its own AI search experience, Google Search Generative Experience (SGE), which integrates AI into the SERP. This experience pushes organic search results even further down the page and may impact non-paid search traffic and click-through rates, leading to increased competition to show in Google Ads above SGE results.

The bottom line: Even with ChatGPT and Google SGE, I don’t believe that AI tools are going to be the end of search ads or search as a whole, but I do believe it is part of an evolution or transition to a more efficient model.

2. Improved targeting

ChatGPT (and AI in general) has the ability to analyze large amounts of data and generate insights about audience behavior. We already see this to a degree with smart bidding strategies within Google Ads.

Given that the target keywords and ad copy you have created are aligned, Google’s automated bidding can “learn” over time how to produce more of the desired results that you want, such as conversions, clicks, and more.

AI tools, however, have the capability of analyzing data through text, CSV, or JSON files. This means that it can analyze user behavior on websites and other digital channels to identify patterns and trends. It can track which pages users visit, how long they stay on each page, and which actions they take (such as clicking on links or filling out forms).

ChatGPT can also be a valuable tool for keyword research–curating lists and structures for ad groups for you to target. (Although we don’t recommend using it as your primary keyword research tool.)

With this information, ChatGPT could help advertisers develop more effective targeting strategies for their PPC campaigns. For example, it could help them identify the keywords and phrases that are most likely to be searched by their target audience and then use this information to create ads that are more relevant and engaging.

ChatGPT could also help advertisers segment their audience based on factors like demographics, interests, and behavior.

The bottom line: Although AI isn’t currently taking away jobs from PPC professionals, those who decide to leverage the tool will have a competitive advantage over those who choose not to. As one Google exec said at Google Marketing Live 2023, “You’re not competing against AI. You’re competing against other marketers using AI.”

3. Enhanced ad copy

One of ChatGPT’s obvious strengths is its natural language processing capabilities. By giving the AI enough information about the type of ad copy you are looking to generate, ChatGPT is able to produce persuasive (and sometimes surprisingly creative) suggestions. Whether you wish to use ChatGPT as a starting point to brainstorm headlines or to have it generate the ad copy word-for-word for you, it is an extremely powerful tool for PPC.

ChatGPT has been trained on vast amounts of text data and has the ability to generate natural-sounding language. This means that it could help advertisers create more engaging ad copy that resonates with their target audience.

Even the best marketers have periods of writer’s block or feel the copy that they have produced could be better or hit on the desired pain points in a more concise manner. ChatGPT is extremely helpful in these situations as it can also provide additional feedback on your target audience in addition to taking the copy you wrote and editing it to be more readable.

Google is also using AI to help advertisers create and enhance ad copy. They announced asset creation within Performance Max which will use generative AI to generate ad headlines that more closely match search queries.

The bottom line: AI tools like ChatGPT can provide a helpful jumping-off point, but these tools still lack the ability to humanize or infuse personality into ad copy. However, ad copy is such a critical aspect of marketing that any small improvement could have massive returns in regards to CTR and overall ad performance. (Use these ChatGPT prompts as a jumping-off point to help enhance your ad copy.)

4. More efficient ad campaigns

With improvements to both targeting and ad copy, ChatGPT and other AI tools have the ability to help advertisers create more efficient ad campaigns overall.

By making certain aspects of the process such as keyword research and ad copy less tasking, AI could help advertisers save a considerable amount of time and reduce costs. ChatGPT, for example, has the ability to analyze user behavior and preferences to understand what types of ads are most likely to be relevant and engaging to each individual user. It could analyze data such as search history, browsing behavior, and social media activity to determine what topics and products users are interested in.

With this information, ChatGPT could make more accurate and personalized ad recommendations for each user. Instead of showing generic ads that may not be relevant to the user’s interests, ChatGPT could suggest ads that are more likely to resonate with each user based on their individual preferences. The result of these more personalized ad recommendations could be a better user experience and higher engagement and conversion rates.

Additionally, ChatGPT could help advertisers optimize their ad campaigns based on user feedback.

The bottom line: By analyzing user behavior and preferences, AI could provide insights into what types of ads are most effective and which ones are not performing as well. Advertisers could use this information to adjust their targeting and ad creative to improve the overall effectiveness of their campaigns.

5. Greater reliance on machine learning

I’ve touched on the increasing use of machine learning in the paid media space over the last six years in numerous posts. My position on the topic has remained consistent, although slightly altered, over this span of time. To summarize my views: machine learning has greatly improved the ease of setting up and running campaigns, and with particular goals set within the platform, great improvements to performance can be experienced.

However, the increased usage and forfeiture of control from advertisers to the “algorithm” that is run by the entity designed to take your advertising budget isn’t always a good thing. These platforms can add unnecessary bloat to campaigns and limit your ability to make very refined adjustments that you used to be able to make. They are essentially trying to make PPC a one-size-fits-all robot that will run your ads for you.

As AI tools continue to evolve and improve, advertisers may become more reliant on machine learning algorithms to manage their PPC campaigns. As stated above, this could lead to greater efficiency and better results. However, it may also lead to a lack of insight into how money is being spent and a general lack of genuine nuance that a human can apply to a marketing campaign.

Google is trying to provide greater transparency into how Performance Max campaigns are being optimized through its improved search term insights report. 

The bottom line: This prediction is my most concerning on the list for a couple of different reasons. The first is that an AI can absolutely run PPC campaigns for you. Whether at this stage or in future iterations, the technology is clearly capable of building and running PPC campaigns. This has the potential to eliminate jobs.

But it shouldn’t. And here’s why: Many search advertising professionals have found that the “best practices” AI implements aren’t always the best practice for a specific advertiser. The AI used to set up, create, and run PPC campaigns will be applying whatever best practices its creator designs it to have, many of which may be in the best interest of the company and not the advertiser from a cost-efficiency standpoint. This is why it’s going to be so important to incorporate that human touch and oversight into AI-enabled PPC campaigns.

6. Continued innovation

As ChatGPT and AI continue to evolve and improve, we can expect to see ongoing innovation in the PPC industry. This could lead to new ad formats, targeting techniques, and measurement tools that help advertisers get even better results from their campaigns (which we’ve already seen a glimpse of from Google Marketing Live 2023).

The rate at which we will see these changes is still up in the air. As mentioned, AI is progressing at a somewhat alarming speed. With any new technology, there is typically an adoption period that spans months and years that allows industries to catch up.

For example, it took years for businesses to master the process of selling online to the point where it is the primary place of commerce. The internet itself took decades to evolve. This gave everyone enough time to adjust to the changes and slowly evolve their businesses over time. With AI and ChatGPT, we could experience change at a rapid and disruptive rate that hasn’t necessarily been experienced since the industrial revolution.

Source

Here are some of the top places I expect we’ll see continued innovation.

Ad targeting and performance

ChatGPT is just one example of this innovation, but there are likely to be many more developments in the years to come. One area where we can expect to see continued innovation in PPC is the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve ad targeting and performance. As AI and machine learning technologies continue to improve, advertisers will have access to more advanced tools and algorithms for analyzing user behavior and preferences, identifying trends, and optimizing ad campaigns.

New ad formats and channels

Another area where we can expect to see innovation is in the use of new ad formats and channels. For example, as voice assistants and smart speakers become more prevalent, advertisers may start exploring ways to deliver ads through these devices. Similarly, we may see new types of ads that are more interactive, personalized, or immersive, such as augmented reality (AR) ads or virtual reality (VR) ads.

Measurement and attribution of ad performance

Finally, we can expect to see continued innovation in the measurement and attribution of ad performance. As more and more users interact with ads across multiple devices and channels, advertisers will need better ways to track and analyze these interactions to understand the impact of their ad campaigns.

The bottom line: The result of this continued innovation in the PPC advertising industry could be a more effective and efficient advertising ecosystem, with advertisers able to reach their target audience more accurately and users experiencing more relevant and engaging ads. It also means that advertisers need to be tuned in to the updates happening in the PPC landscape and be ready to make changes and experiment to continue seeing good results.

The bottom line: AI’s impact on PPC marketing

Overall, the future of PPC advertising looks bright, with plenty of opportunities for advertisers to achieve their marketing goals, especially when using AI capabilities to enhance campaigns rather than relying on it fully.

As AI continues to evolve, it will be more important than ever to stay on top of the curve and keep an eye on the latest updates and innovations.

Here are the six ways AI will impact PPC:

1. Increased competition (and higher costs)
2. Improved targeting
3. Enhanced ad copy
4. More efficient ad campaigns
5. Greater reliance on machine learning
6. Continued innovation

Whether you are an already established agency or you are just getting started, there is always room to try new strategies in an effort to grow your business, your team, and your client roster.

Read on to learn how to learn how to acquire new leads to fill your funnel and convert into clients, methods of sourcing and acquiring new talent to add to your team, and the reasons and ways you can focus on specialization.

Client acquisition tactics

Without leads, we don’t have clients, and without clients, we don’t have much of an agency. Straight forward—however, even if you are at capacity, it’s crucial to always feed your funnel with new leads and foster those relationships so they can evolve into clients now or down the road.

At AKvertise, we always take the call, the meeting, the conversation, to talk to a prospect. After all, you never know what can transpire from a conversation until you have it. Even if the timing isn’t on our side to work with someone right away due to availability, more often than not, this results in the lead wanting to work with us even more, even if they have to wait a month or two to do so until we have bandwidth open up. If it’s still not a match for us, we keep a small network of trusted agencies we refer to if it is not the right mutual fit in terms of timelines, goals, expertise, budgets, or availability.

While there are many ways to acquire new clients, most come from referrals. In fact, according to WordStream’s State of the Agency report, 51% of surveyed agencies consider referrals their main source of acquiring new clients, followed by 20% said upsells from other products or services.

If you’ve been in business for some time, the above sources may be familiar to you. But keep reading on as we have some additional ones to share and there may be some methods you and your team have not yet explored that could be effective in further growing your client roster. If you’re a freelancer or small agency owner looking for more clients to add to your roster, try these lead-generating, client-acquiring tactics.

1. Be your own publicist

Unless you are a large agency and already have a publicist on speed dial, that is. Otherwise, it’s worth doing some publicity work. Seek out opportunities to get your name, your team, and your services out there. Submit pitches to speak at events, attend events and share online that you plan to and want to connect with others, get in touch with podcast hosts (like Mikayla Wyman of Goal Talk, for instance), and ask if you can join as a guest for an episode that would be interesting for their listeners and relevant to your expertise, contribute to external industry blogs and publications, and be active on social media to build your own personal brand.

Does that truly work? It certainly does. For example, Akvertize has been in business for over five years now, and we still have yet to do any advertising for our own agency. The above tactics have brought in leads to our funnel and helped us convert many into clients. Being front facing, active, helpful, and having your name displayed across various mediums while sharing tactics, tools, ideas, and content can have a rewarding effect. Regardless of whether you’re the CEO, a paid media manager, or a junior level staff member, it can help your agency tremendously, as well as boost morale and further education, if everyone can act as a publicist on behalf of your agency.

2. Share your availability

If you’ve tried the above and you still have room for more work, simply share that you are accepting new clients along with the details of your areas of expertise. These types of posts tend to get shared on social media.

If there’s room, mention the type of clients and industries you prefer to work with and have experience with. If you’re possibly concerned about optics of doing this, as I once was, worry not. The first time I put this out on Twitter, I thought it would come off that we were failing and short on work, however, others told me the contrary, that it looked like we were growing. From time to time, we still do this, and it always brings in leads whether it’s a light month or we’re looking to scale further. Don’t be shy—let people know that you’re available to help.

Expand your team

Looking to take on more clients but limited on bandwidth? You need to expand your time, either by collaborating with other agencies or hiring new talent to join your team as employees. If the latter makes more sense for your agency in the long run, that may be easier said than done. Talent acquisition can be challenging, and it may take several hires to find the right fit, but good, diligent working marketers are out there.

3. Hire more employees

Posting to job boards can be effective, but there’s nothing quite like getting a personal recommendation. When we look to add to our team, we’ve found success by reaching out to industry contacts to see if they or someone they know is looking for work. In addition, we post to our personal and business social channels as it’s an easy way to share that you’re hiring. If you’re looking to scale your paid search and/or paid social team this year, one very effective way to reach marketers and advertisers is via Twitter and using the #ppcchat and #fbadschat hashtags.

Posting publicly to LinkedIn can be fruitful as that platform has significantly grown and increased in activity over the last few years. Have your current team members share details about a position opening and link to a job description on your website so potential candidates can learn more before applying. As an advertising agency, you could also take that a step further and use that audience for remarketing ads.

There are also a number of job boards out there, such as Indeed. If you’re strapped for time, delegate this process by hiring a recruiter in an effort to help find you the right fit for your digital marketing agency.

If you’re comfortable in doing so, expand your search by offering remote opportunities, especially if you’re located in a smaller city where the talent pool may be smaller. According to LinkedIn, 40% of millennials say that having flexibility and working remotely is a priority.

4. Join forces with other agencies

Not in a spot to hire employees at this time? Connect with another competitive or complementary marketing agency. If you offer paid advertising services, reach out to other ones that may be short on bandwidth and you can offer your expertise to their clients. Some agencies tend to be transparent about this and others may want to white label you, so it’s up to your preference on how you want to work.

Connecting with complementary marketing agencies can also bring you exciting and new client work. For example, reach out to some SEO agencies to see if they have any clients that are interested in paid search or paid social advertising. This can be beneficial to you, to them, and their clients. In a sense, you would collectively be creating a more holistic marketing strategy to the client while being close to a full-service agency and driving more revenue to your business. We’ve found great success in taking this approach over the years and becoming an extension of other agency teams. You can, too, with these types of strategic partners.

Refine your offerings

Combining forces with an agency that offers complementary services is a great way to expand your team and your offering while staying competitive with other digital marketing agencies.

But sometimes it’s worth rethinking your agency’s own offerings to find the best strategy for growth.

5. Scale back to grow more

It doesn’t hurt to scale back services in order to grow. If you’re able to be a full-service agency and be successful in doing so, keep at it. If you’re smaller, specializing could be a great alternative. When we first launched AKvertise, we offered paid search and paid social, but around the time of our third anniversary, we decided to scale back on our advertising service offerings and focus on the thing we enjoyed most and thrived in, in an effort to further excel and to distinguish ourselves fully as a social media advertising firm.

There was some hesitation in that we could lose business and have fewer leads coming in; however, we decided that it was worth the test. If it didn’t succeed, we could always revert and offer more services. It’s been more than two years since this refinement and specializing was the best thing we could have done for our business. It’s brought in more clients and helped us grow and could help you as well. Become the expert in your specialized field and in turn, you may evolve into a go-to agency for your particular service.

Set your agency up for growth in 2020

This year, treat your agency like a client campaign. Look at your business objectively, take your own recommendations, test some of the above tactics that you haven’t yet and see if they work for your agency. Market yourself in order to build awareness for your agency by seeking out opportunities in an effort to bring in new leads, clients, team members, and partnerships as you scale. Don’t be afraid to test something new as you can almost always revert. Happy testing and may this year bring you success.

AI was the name of the game at Google Marketing Live 2023, with the majority of Google’s updates and announcements centering on how AI-powered tools can help businesses drive better results, connect with their customers, and deliver the right message at the right time.

Google broke its presentation into three C’s: Customer connection, creative, and confidence, with examples of how its new tools and features (backed by AI) can help businesses in each of those critical junctures.

It almost feels like we were there…

So, want to know what’s coming (or what’s already arrived) as you market your business on Google? You’re in luck because we’re sharing a brief overview of the most important updates and announcements shared at Google Marketing Live 2023.

1. Conversational experience in Google Ads

This update will allow advertisers to essentially have Google guide them through the campaign setup process. You provide some information or prompts, and Google will create assets based on what you provide, including headlines, descriptions, and more. The more information you provide, the more refined your ads will be, said Google.

This feature will begin testing in July.

2. Automatically created assets using generative AI

With this feature, Google will use AI to generate headlines and ad assets that more closely align with the specific query without compromising what you’re offering.

3. Product Studio

Google shared that product listings with multiple images result in a 76% increase in impressions than listings with a single image. So they’re making it easier to manage, create, and upload product content directly from the Shopping Feed.

Product Studio will allow ecommerce businesses to edit and enhance their images using AI. You can remove the background, enlarge the image, and describe what you want the image to look like. From there, Google will return four options that align with your description for you to choose from. You can then add your image to Merchant Center, add or place the image in an online store, and it will be auto-saved across all your Google properties.

Google said this will make it easy to update assets for holidays or seasons. It will be available later this year.

4. Google Search Generative Experience

Google covered this more extensively at Google I/O but did provide an overview and walkthrough of its new Search Generative Experience, as well as where ads will show in this search experience and some of the future capabilities. We dove into SGE here.

5. Video view campaigns

Video view campaigns are meant to maximize results on YouTube on a cost-per-view basis. Video view campaigns combine ad formats including in-stream skippable ads, in-feed ads, and YouTube Shorts. Google shared that early testing of this campaign format resulted in 40% more views than single-format video ads. The beta for Video view campaigns begins next month.

6. Demand Gen campaigns

Demand Gen campaigns was announced as a campaign type designed for social marketers to reach customers on their most visually-focused channels, like YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. This new AI-powered campaign type is built to “engage and drive action among consumers with immersive and visual features.”

Within Demand Gen campaigns, you can create AI-powered lookalike audiences, tailor specific audience segments, and measure conversions as well as receive insights on brand lift.

7. Broad match Brand controls

This update enables you to get additional reach for broad match while ensuring that it matches all the relevant brand traffic for your business. This feature is currently available in beta.

8. Performance Max high-value new customer acquisition

This update is focused on getting new customers who have a high lifetime value or customers who haven’t been engaging with your brand recently. Using AI, you can have Google bid more for customers who match these segments.

9. Google Merchant Center Next

Google will replace Merchant Center with Google Merchant Center Next in 2024. Google Merchant Center Next was touted as a simpler experience than Merchant Center, with features that will allow retailers to easily connect product information from their websites and have control over how their products appear on Google without manually updating a feed.

Retailers will also be able to see insights on top-selling products on Google, pricing benchmarks, and find competitive insights and information.

Merchant Center Next is currently available for some retailers and will be more widely available soon.

10. Google Analytics 4 audience builder

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) audience builder will allow advertisers to build new audiences from Google Analytics right in their Google Ads account. This will include predictive audiences, which Google says uses AI to help you reach people who are more likely to purchase.

This feature is coming soon but is only available using GA4 (which you have until July 1 to switch over!).

11. Performance Max improved search term insights

Advertisers have requested more transparency around how Performance Max is driving results. The improved search term insights report is Google’s solution. These insights will allow you to see how Performance Max is responding to changes so you can refine your campaigns further. This insights report will also include information about what’s driving changes in performance and how specific creative assets are performing.

This feature is coming soon.

Stay tuned for more from Google Marketing Live…

Don’t worry, we’re not done covering Google Marketing Live (GML)! Check back for a more extensive breakdown of what went down at GML 2023.

For now, here were the updates we (briefly) covered:

1. Conversational experience in Google Ads
2. Automatically created assets using generative AI
3. Product Studio
4. Google Search Generative Experience
5. Video view campaigns
6. Demand Gen campaigns
7. Broad match brand controls
8. Performance Max high-value new customer acquisition
9. Google Merchant Center Next
10. Google Analytics 4 audience builder
11. Performance Max improved search term insights