AI has made a decent start in the advertising business. It has reached a point where it can facilitate the “auto-generation of advertisements” on platforms such as Google Ads. Dan Taylor, Google’s vice-president of global ads, said during a visit to India that the company’s AI can leverage landing pages, successful search queries, and approved headlines to craft entirely new creative content.
According to Statista, the present global market size of this underlying technology stands at $45 billion, projected to soar to $207 billion by 2030. Google’s innovative feature, which automatically generates additional assets like headlines, descriptions, and images, is assisting advertisers in enhancing their search ads. “Initiatives such as AI-powered Performance Max will allow users to just provide their websites, after which Google AI will start learning about their brand to populate their campaign with text and other relevant assets. We’ll even suggest new images generated just for you, helping you stand out to customers,” says Jerry Dischler, vice-president/general manager, Google Ads.
For its part, Meta has introduced the AI Sandbox, housing a suite of generative AI tools for text variation, background creation, and image cropping. “(This) will make an ad’s text engaging and improve parts of its creative,” the company says.
Meta Advantage, Meta’s portfolio of automation products, capitalises on AI and machine learning to optimise campaign outcomes. The company’s distinctive text-to-video technology even enables users to produce videos based on text prompts. “Creating video ads has become easy and efficient. This is very promising for advertisers,” says Siddharth Devnani, co-founder and director of SoCheers.
A similar technology might be rolled out by Google soon, revealed a source.
Karan Anand, SVP, strategy, Interactive Avenues (the digital arm of IPG Mediabrands India), highlighted the advantages of AI tools. First, they optimise and expedite the creative process, saving valuable time. “If you are able to create these ads in seconds, you are saving man hours,” he said. Second, these AI tools offer a more immersive experience. Anand says, “The SRK Cadbury commercial and Mondelez’s AI-generated Happy Birthday song exemplify how AI fosters brand affection.”
Devnani shared that his agency has been experimenting with and incorporating AI tools for storyboarding and presenting concepts to clients. “Previously, we would explain concepts verbally or present them in text form. Now, we employ AI tools to craft mock-ups. It’s both effortless and valuable,” he says.
So will AI replace people in this “people’s business”? Experts are divided. Anand says, “Here’s the brutal truth: It will impact jobs in the long term. The magnitude of jobs taken away could be high given that what 10 men are able to do, you can do that in one single click with AI.”
Devnani argues, “I do not see it replacing jobs, I rather see it enhancing what someone can do. There has to be some human involvement.”
Tailor-made
Top tools used by agencies
Jasper: Uses seed words to create copy
Hemingway app: Checks grammar, enriches text
Albert.ai: Gives ad variations, optimises keywords
INK: Provides co-writing abilities, is an SEO assistant
Fullstory: Gives data to build better digital experiences
Headlime: Copywriting tool