How to use AI to increase sales and drive growth

AI-artficial-intelligence-ad-targeting

 

Many of the businesses I speak with have asked what they can do with AI and what are the possibilities. But in reality, they already interact with AI. If you use any social media app, artificial intelligence already underpins much of what you see online, explains Harry Lowes, Director of Mid-Market ANZ, Meta.

AI is the reason users see content from different businesses and creators online. But AI can do so much more than help people discover new content, it can also help business owners save time, drive sales and enable growth.

Meta recently rolled out Advantage+ shopping campaigns – an AI-powered ads product that automates and simplifies the process of creating advertising campaigns and helps deliver more relevant ads to people. It makes setting up ads on Facebook or Instagram incredibly easy.

To use this new tool, all a business needs to input are four components. Their business objective, target country, advertising creative, and budget. After that, they let our AI systems do the rest: optimising to find the right person, with the right message, and at the right time to deliver a strong ROI. By leveraging artificial intelligence and automation, it helps businesses get smarter, faster – on which campaigns for them are driving the best results.

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This tool will automatically adjust ad creative for each person who views the ad, helping to show them the version they’re most likely to respond to. Advantage audience also creates a personalised audience based on your business’ Page details and automatically adjusts over time to help reach the most relevant targets.

Planning online ad campaigns

Thinking of dipping your toes into digital tools or shopping campaigns for the first time? Here are some thought-starters to help you begin planning.

Choose the right objectives

Defining your objectives is an important first step in shaping campaign and ad goals.

To pick the right ad objective, ask yourself, “What’s the primary outcome that I want from this campaign/ad?” Whether it’s driving website sales, increasing app downloads or boosting brand awareness, aligning your objectives with your desired outcome ensures effective campaign planning.

Understand your audience – Creative optimisation

Our research has found that 52 per cent of consumers want to find brands and products they haven’t heard about before that still align with their shopping preferences.

Campaigns are most effective when they resonate with the motivations of the people they are trying to reach. When crafting your ads, consider the specific details of your audience, including their interests, behaviours and demographics. By understanding and addressing these factors, you can develop compelling ads that create a connection with your intended customers.

Set your budget

Ensure you are setting yourself up for success by planning your budget. By setting a daily or lifetime budget and specifying the timeframe for your campaign, you can maintain control over your spending and ensure it aligns with your comfort level.

Learn from your results

Once your ad campaign is live, you’ll have the ability to monitor its performance and make any necessary adjustments as needed. You can also gain insights into how your ad is performing to continually refine and enhance your campaign to drive desired results. The more time the AI has to learn, the better it will get.


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Harry Lowes, Director of Mid-Market ANZ, Meta.

Harry is a business leader focused on enabling businesses to make the most of the transition of consumers into the online world. Harry’s career started in Business development at McCann-Erickson World Group, moved in the world of wine, running a winery in the Hunter Valley, then Banking with the Commonwealth Bank and Telecommunications with Telstra. He’s driven change in each of these industries while focused on the impact to the bottom line for these businesses.

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