When setting up a new digital asset management (DAM) system, governance is usually toward the bottom of the to-do list and, in some cases, forgotten altogether. You’re already juggling system configurations, legal compliance, user permissioning, taxonomy, metadata, training, etc. Do you need to worry about governance right away, too? 

Yes, you do. Governance touches all those things and more. Without it, your DAM may bring more chaos than order in the long run. Don’t leave it out or push it to the last minute. A DAM governance structure should be top of mind from the start of your DAM journey.

What is DAM governance?

As you’re already aware — and hopefully didn’t learn the hard way — a DAM doesn’t run itself. It’s not a set-it-and-forget-it system.

In the context of a DAM, governance is the practice of maintaining and evolving standards, policies and best practices. It encompasses the people, processes and technology involved with digital asset management at your company. 

Governance documentation defines the information, guidelines and policies that provide stability and keep your DAM running smoothly for the long term. This framework will prevent your DAM from turning into a junk drawer as your business and the system evolve, and stakeholders and end-users change commitments and flow in and out of your company. 

Documented governance policies support risk management and ensure ongoing alignment with your overall business goals. DAM governance also includes continually collaborating with stakeholders to manage, change and adapt your system to your organization’s needs. It establishes and maintains communication between all relevant stakeholders for sustained DAM success.

Where do I start?

Many of the questions you’re addressing during the set-up and launch of your DAM are the same questions you need to focus on when defining your governance policies. Multi-task! Save yourself from having to revisit those questions later by defining and documenting the answers from the start. 

Your governance documentation will be a living document that needs regular review and updating as your business and its priorities evolve. Like the DAM, it isn’t “set it and forget it.” You’ll thank yourself later if you remember it throughout your DAM journey rather than wait until a problem arises.

Your governance plan should address the following questions:

• What goes in the DAM?
• Who has access to the DAM? Which areas of content can they see with that access? And what are they allowed to do with the content they can see? 
• What are the required naming conventions?
• Who is applying metadata? What standards and requirements do they have to follow?
• How will versioning be handled?
• What are your licensing and regulatory requirements?
• How are expired assets handled? What is the archiving process?
• Who is responsible for providing training?
• Who is responsible for enforcing and updating the DAM standards and requirements?
• How will changes and updates be communicated to your users?
• What is the reporting process when something goes wrong? Who is responsible for resolving which types of issues (technical, legal, content, etc.).

Does this list seem overwhelming right now? Then start with a basic purpose statement and build from there as you go. Why does your DAM exist? Who is it for, and what goals is it expected to achieve?

Dig deeper: A 12-step guide for implementing a digital asset management system

Keeping the peace: Working with DAM stakeholders

Putting your DAM policies and process requirements on paper is the easy part. Generating buy-in and enforcing those policies and requirements is where the hard work comes in. Your governance documentation has no value if its contents aren’t being implemented and enforced. 

Your DAM is likely an enterprise-level system that must meet the needs of varying and, in some cases, competing divisions and departments within your company. Those departments need to have a voice if your DAM will be successful. 

Don’t forget that you also have stakeholders in business areas that aren’t directly handling the assets flowing in and out of your DAM but have a vested interest in the success and proper management of the system. Your IT and legal teams need a voice alongside your marketing and creative teams. Buy-in from all levels of the organizational chart is critical to your DAM’s success — from leadership to end-users. You must look at the DAM user experience from all angles to get the full picture and provide the best experience. The key to making all this work is communication.

Be thorough when defining the roles and responsibilities of all your stakeholders. Make your expectations for their commitment to the DAM’s success clear. You want active and engaged stakeholders, and if someone isn’t living up to the expectations of their role, you should feel empowered to seek a replacement. 

Be sure you’re referring to roles and not specific personnel names or titles in your documentation. People will leave the company or take on new internal commitments, and org charts will change. When new members are onboarded into the DAM team, having well-defined roles for them will ease the transition. 

Likewise, be conscious of always giving everyone an equal voice. When you have a mix of strong personalities on your team of DAM stakeholders, it can be difficult not to give in to the loudest voice in the room or defer to the stakeholder representing the largest group of end-users.

You may consider instituting a voting policy for major decisions involving the DAM as part of your governance plan to give everyone an equal opportunity to help determine the path forward. Everyone needs to feel heard, or engagement will suffer.

Engaging regularly with your stakeholders from day one of your DAM journey will set the project off on the right foot. Begin holding meetings before your DAM is open to any end-users. Regularly review and address user feedback, assess if changes are needed to your processes and policies and evaluate the potential need for technical upgrades. Getting governance to stick in an already active system is exponentially more difficult. Not impossible, but challenging. 

If you wait to address governance with your users and stakeholders until after the system has launched, most major decisions have been made. Getting everyone involved from the beginning fosters a feeling of ownership for the DAM and encourages ongoing investment in its success. 

As your DAM moves through planning and launch into maintenance, your meeting cadence may become less frequent, but there is never an end. Meetings should continue so that you keep your stakeholders and your users involved. Their value doesn’t decrease once the DAM has rolled out and the governance documentation is written. 

As the DAM evolves and grows, decisions will still need to be made, and they should always remain involved in those decisions. While the existing governance policies will guide future decisions, remember it is a living document. Always have clearly defined channels for stakeholders and end-users to offer feedback and suggestions for changes and improvements to workflows and processes. 

Don’t hide your governance documentation away in a secret location. Make sure it’s easily accessible and open for users to review at any time. Always be open to questions and feedback about the documentation. 

Dig deeper: Here’s why you need a DAM workflow — and how to map it out

I don’t need governance: I have a DAM manager

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that having a dedicated DAM manager role is your governance. Yes, they likely have a degree in library science or DAM management and are certainly well-versed in all the DAM best practices. They talk with users and consider their needs and opinions. So aren’t they ultimately responsible for all the decisions? They know the “right” way to manage a DAM — that’s why you hired them. 

Well, sorry, but no. Having a single system manager unilaterally making all the decisions with no governance policies guiding them isn’t ideal. It’s certainly not the best way to get buy-in and have your users feel a sense of ownership for the system they’re using. And while the DAM manager may know all the best practices, they aren’t using the DAM every day as an end-user from all the different facets of your user base. 

Yes, best practices are best practices for a reason, but they don’t always work for every scenario and situation. You can’t force a best practice if it is not the best solution for your particular users and their business needs. 

The DAM manager will use the governance policies to guide you forward and maintain standards and order, but they’ll also recognize that sometimes you’ll need to be flexible when it comes to best practices. If sometimes being best-practice-adjacent makes the end-users’ lives easier and doesn’t introduce risk or disorder, you have to be willing to give an inch or two. 

Happy DAM users are active DAM users who remain engaged in its long-term success. The success of the DAM depends as much on stakeholder and end-user involvement as it does the DAM Manager’s leadership.

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During 2022, DigitalMarketer generated 181 articles, 101 podcasts, and 141 youtube videos for public consumption (we also generated over 1,000 gated videos but we won’t include that data here).

In our Content Marketing Certification we teach you how to build the Content Performance Report. The point is to allow you to assess the performance of all of your content using simple metrics, then use those metrics to identify potential opportunities for new content.

Surprisingly, the most consumed content was PODCASTS. Even though we produced less podcasts (101) than both articles (181) and videos (178), podcasts still accounted for 53% of total consumption.

Quick note that “consumption” for our content strategy is “views” for for video, “unique pageviews” for articles, and “downloads” for podcasts.

On average, each podcast was downloaded 2,491 times versus videos at 432 views, and articles at 781 pageviews.

The following is a breakdown of the top performing content DigitalMarketer produced in 2022.

The Best Performing Content

Here are the top performing pieces of content from each content type.

TOP ARTICLE: How Facebook Ads Are Changing In 2022
TOP PODCAST: Episode 231: Become A Certified Email Marketing Master
TOP VIDEO: Paid Traffic Mastery Certification w/Kasim Aslam

Top Performing Articles

The article titles cover a variety of topics related to digital marketing, advertising, and related fields. Some articles focus on specific tactics or strategies, such as Facebook Ads, email marketing, or content marketing.

Others cover broader topics like the skills marketers need to succeed or emerging trends like Web 3.0. Some articles also offer tips on building effective campaigns or optimizing sales funnels.

Overall, the articles provide a range of insights and advice for marketers looking to improve their skills and stay up to date with the latest developments in the field. Here are some possible patterns that could be found with these results:

Emerging Trend Articles

Several article titles mention new or emerging trends in the field of marketing, such as Web 3.0, post-digital marketing, and 2023 digital marketing trends.

Specific Tactics & Strategy Articles:

Many of the article titles focus on specific marketing tactics and strategies, such as Facebook Ads, email marketing, content marketing, and video marketing.

Skills Development Articles:

Several article titles offer advice and tips on developing marketing skills or building a marketing career path.

Optimization & Conversion Articles:

Some article titles focus on optimizing marketing campaigns and improving conversion rates, such as the Ad Grid and copywriting tips for sales funnels.

Common Mistakes Articles:

Two article titles highlight common mistakes that marketers make, such as the #1 mistake when running paid ads and the 5 mistakes that limit YouTube subscription numbers.

Social Media Articles:

Several article titles focus on social media marketing, such as tips for winning big on social media.

Time Efficiency Articles:

Some article titles offer time-efficient solutions for marketing, such as the 2-hour-per-month content marketing framework.

Top Performing Videos

The content focuses on digital marketing, advertising, and business growth strategies. The titles are aimed at marketers, entrepreneurs, and business owners looking to improve their marketing skills and drive revenue growth. The videos cover a range of topics, from social media marketing and email marketing to paid traffic, digital retailing, and content marketing.

Some of the videos appear to be focused on providing specific tips and strategies, such as “How to handle sales objections” and “8 Tips for Writing Effective Email Marketing Subject Lines.” Others are geared towards offering more comprehensive courses or certifications, such as “Paid Traffic Mastery Certification” and “Become a Certified Email Marketing Master.”

The videos feature various experts in the marketing industry, such as Kasim Aslam, Ryan Deiss, and Jena Apgar.

Overall, the video titles suggest that the content is geared towards helping businesses and marketers improve their digital marketing strategies and increase their revenue through targeted and effective advertising.

Paid Advertising & Traffic Generation Videos:

Email Marketing Videos:

Social Media Marketing Videos:

Business & Growth Sales Videos:

Industry Insights & Trends Videos:

Content Marketing Videos:

Top Performing Podcasts

These podcast titles cover a wide range of topics related to marketing, business, and social media. Some of the titles focus on specific tactics or strategies for marketing and advertising, while others explore broader topics related to entrepreneurship and personal development.

The titles also vary in tone, with some being more straightforward and instructional (“A Sales System for All Personalities”), while others are more attention-grabbing and use humor or shock value to pique interest (“Using Poop to Create a Viral Marketing Campaign?”).

Overall, these titles suggest that the podcasts are aimed at entrepreneurs, marketers, and business owners who are interested in learning more about how to grow and scale their businesses, improve their marketing skills, and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in social media and e-commerce.

Advertising Tactics & Marketing Strategies Podcasts:

Personal Development & Entrepreneurship Podcasts:

Interviews with Successful Business Owners & Marketers Podcasts:

Social Media & E-Commerce Trends & Insights:

Creative & Unusual Marketing Tactics:

Podcasting tips and tricks:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.”

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

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

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. 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:

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.
 

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.

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

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

 

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.

“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.

 

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.

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.

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.

 

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.

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

 

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!