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Using AI in Marketing

Author's avatar By Dave Chaffey 21 May, 2018
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Chart of the Day: How perceptions of the applications of AI differ between agencies and brands

In our infographic reviewing the applications of AI in marketing, we explore 15 different applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across the customer lifecycle from media buying to marketing automation and chatbots. It's around a year now since we developed this infographic, so it's interesting to know how widely used AI is, both by businesses and their agencies.

In today's Chart of the Day, I'm sharing some research which helps show how AI is being used for marketing. The sample is smaller than what I would usually look to share and it is skewed since it is a customer survey of Albert and AI tool for marketing, but with relatively few adopters of AI, this is inevitable and I thought the report below might be useful both for agencies and brands to learn about the 'Use Cases' of AI.

In this chart, you can see that amongst this sample there are a range of activities related to search marketing where agencies see AI as positive from strategy activities like audience segmentation, budget allocation and campaign analysis to more technical activities like creative optimisation and bid management. Within this sample, the agencies are more positive about the benefits of AI than the brands. This is potentially because the agencies will work across many client accounts, so will potentially see the efficiencies of AI more clearly.

Research source

  • ReportAI Adoption In Marketing: 2018 Brand And Agency Survey
  • Sample: 52 respondents, including 17 agencies and 35 brand marketers. Slightly more than one-quarter of respondents came from the retail and apparel sector, while media and entertainment, travel and leisure, and consumer-packaged good made up seven percent each. The last 20 percent were drawn from the consumer technology, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, transportation, and “other” categories.
  • Recommended Smart Insights members' report: Marketing Applications of AI and machine learning guide
Author's avatar

By Dave Chaffey

Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) for marketing

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