“Without big data, you are blind and deaf and in the middle of a freeway.”
Geoffrey More, Crossing the Chasm
A key objective of marketing is to change a buyer’s behavior or accelerate a purchase decision. Thus, agency marketers know they must get a clients’ message in front of the right customers at the optimal time. Achieving better results often means the difference between retaining or losing a client.
The proliferation of marketing and consumer data has led to many advertising, media, and marketing agencies leveraging AI and machine learning in combination with advanced analytics techniques. This has been proven to lead to greater insights and stronger marketing results for brands and their agencies.
Analyzing data is the key to better understanding consumer motivations, best customers, optimal media investments, better targeting, and increased retention.
“As data piles up, we have ourselves a genuine gold rush. But data isn’t the gold. I repeat, data in its raw form is boring crud. The gold is what’s discovered therein.”
Eric Siegel, Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die
Machine learning has become a powerful ally for marketing analytics professionals in the data age with its ability to leverage self-optimizing algorithms to power through large quantities of data to make better predictions and decisions. As a result, advertising, media, and marketing firms are achieving greater relevancy with clients as they get smarter about their needs, including:
- Media Mix/Attribution
- Digital Media Optimization
- Offer Optimization
- Dashboard Optimization
- Customer Retention
- Lead Optimization
Automated machine learning or AutoML makes predictive analytics more efficient by automating cumbersome coding tasks, and in some cases eliminating the need for coding altogether. Considered a type of artificial intelligence, AutoML rapidly learns from data, identifies key patterns, and helps home in on more informed and better decisions.
Today, leading brands and their agencies are achieving substantial results by deploying machine learning across the marketing spectrum.
Better Understanding of Buyer Behavior
Segmenting audiences based on known interests and demographic information allows marketers to serve individuals targeted messaging at the right time on the right device. Machine learning supercharges this process. With better predictive targeting and AI-enhanced personalization, marketers can form better predictions about what customers will want, often before they even know themselves.
Optimize, Optimize, Optimize
Understanding where and on whom to concentrate advertising spending allows marketers to make marketing investments work harder. Predictive analytics identifies the best advertising channels and customers, while optimizing frequency and timing to boost desired outcomes. AutoML makes the process much more efficient and allows for long sought after marketing techniques, such as the ability to adjust spend in real-time.
Reduce Churn and Retain Best Customers
By better understanding customer needs at the key points of decision, marketers can reduce customer desertion and retain their best customers. Machine learning uses past behaviors to determine when customers are likely to lose engagement and predict the optimal content or offering to help retain these customers. This includes understanding the best cross-sell and upsell opportunities.
Advanced analytics techniques and AutoML are more than a trend; they are an imperative for advertising and marketing agencies that want to win more business and remain relevant to their clients. To learn more about machine learning and predictive analytics for agencies, contact us for an introductory discussion.
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How Machine Learning Is Shaping the Future of Advertising