Uncertainty is the new norm for today’s brand advertisers and advertising agencies. Google has once again changed its stance on third-party cookies, keeping them for at least the time being. With the future of cookies still uncertain, many advertisers have already been preparing to use alternative targeting strategies, such as first-party data and contextual targeting. 

There is widespread audience fragmentation and change in consumer behavior, as the digital publishing and content streaming market grows and new streaming channels and original content offerings continually emerge. The glut of content has had profound impacts, including ad fatigue, content fatigue and shorter attention spans — all of which are changing how consumers react to advertisements. 

At the same time, U.S. ad spending is projected to surge by 10.4% this year to reach $570 billion, per Winterberry Group. Connected TV, video and social media channels are fueling the growth as digital channels will account for 64% of ad spend. Advertisers have a great opportunity to capitalize on this trend to maximize their reach, increase their campaign effectiveness, and ultimately drive growth and profit.

Generative AI can help brand advertisers and advertising agencies meet the challenges and unleash the potential of the moment. Gen AI models, trained on large amounts of data, can generate new data and content in the form of text, images, video, voice and music. Advertisers that use gen AI can boost their brand’s image and market share by enhancing and personalizing ad content, optimizing ad campaign performance and targeting consumers more effectively.

Gen AI Use Cases for Advertisers

Here are four ways brand advertisers and advertising agencies can leverage gen AI to engage consumers.

1. Ad Campaign Performance Optimization

Optimizing the performance of advertising campaigns can lead to increased click-through rates, conversion rates and return on ad spend (ROAS). But similarly to personalizing ad content, optimizing campaign performance requires time and expenses — two resources that are scarce for brand advertisers and advertising agencies. By analyzing performance metrics and consumer feedback, AI algorithms can identify areas for improvement and recommend strategic adjustments, such as optimal channels and times for engagement. Gen AI can also use predictive modeling to gauge ad performance.

2. Content and Concept Creation

Advertisers incur significant expenses developing and producing advertising content that generates ROI. According to one agency, production costs to make one ad can be as high as $1 million. Gen AI can drastically reduce those costs. While it cannot replicate the creativity and contextual knowledge of human creators, gen AI can help advertisers brainstorm ideas and collaborate, automate aspects of content creation, and repurpose content from existing assets to create advertising copy, images, video, audio and even multimodal ads. This can free up time for content marketers to focus on the more creative, strategic aspects of their work and accelerate the ad production process. 

3. Advertisement Personalization

Personalized ad content yields positive results: According to surveys, 89% of marketers see positive ROI from tailoring ads to individuals or groups based on their unique characteristics, preferences and behaviors. However, successful personalization requires time-consuming and costly processes, including consumer data collection and analysis, segmentation, testing and content creation and delivery — all while complying with data privacy regulations. Gen AI can help cut down on time and costs by processing and analyzing large volumes of data to create hyperpersonalized ads, powering granular personalization. Brands can use gen AI to interpret customer feedback, for example, and provide better product recommendations.

4. Contextual Targeting

Contextual targeting enables brands to place ads where consumers are most likely to engage with them. It also bypasses privacy regulations and roadblocks by targeting the ad based on a website’s content rather than data about the visitor. A well-placed ad is more likely to be relevant to consumers who see them, which can lead to higher click-through and conversion rates. Gen AI can quickly scan and analyze websites and URLs and categorize content and placement. It also can create context triggers for large volumes of content based on characteristics such as sentiment and inclusivity, enabling more effective placement.

To learn more about how your brand or advertising agency can benefit from gen AI, download the ebook, Gen AI in Advertising, Media and Entertainment: 4 Things You Need to Know.