The evolution of AI has been and is an amazing sight to see, from chatbots to the oh-so-known ChatGPT, AI has made sure people are using it in all spheres of life. And just as such artificial intelligence has made its way into the field of marketing and advertising as well. Revolutionizing the way the whole process works, from analysing and understanding consumer behaviour to developing targeted campaigns, from providing businesses with innovative tools to personalizing customer experiences. In this constantly evolving digital space, AI has become an integral part of modern marketing and advertising strategies, giving businesses that incorporate AI in their marketing plan a major competitive edge. 

Marketing automation has been around for a while now to deal with repetitive marketing work. But things have changed drastically when we look at performance marketing specifically. 

Let’s take a deep dive into the framework and see AI at play in all 5 stages. 

1. Strategy: On this level, we work towards developing a clear understanding of the business goals, the audience we need to target, and our key performance indicators (KPIs). Once that is done, we then create a strategic plan to achieve these objectives. While AI hasn’t taken over this stage as a whole, it has eased a lot of work for us by giving us access to never-before-seen predictive analytics. Based on historical data, AI can predict future behaviour, consumer patterns, demographics, and preferences by analysing consumer data, which we can then use to better our marketing strategies.
2. Planning & Execution: In this stage, we work on planning and executing the strategy defined in Stage 1, this would include campaign messaging, channel selection, creative development, and media buying. This stage for performance marketing specifically has not been as infiltrated by AI as the other types of marketing like automated email marketing, social media management, or customer services for that matter. But we can definitely make use of the predictive analysis to understand what type of creatives have worked best for us in the past and what campaign messaging will help increase the engagement/conversion rate of the campaigns.
3. Optimization: This level involves analysing the campaign data generated after the campaign is set up and launched; using it to further the campaign results. This is the stage where AI is being extensively used to analyse customer data and provide an understanding of which ad campaigns are performing well and which ones need optimization. AI algorithms can even be used to adjust ad targeting, bid prices, and creatives in real-time to maximize ad performance. This helps us achieve higher conversion rates, increased sales, and of course better customer engagement.
4. Measurement and reporting: In this stage, we look at measuring and analysing campaign performance against the KPIs set in Stage 1 and providing regular reports to stakeholders. One of the ways how AI helps us on this level is by analysing the data, telling us how the data changed compared to a certain date range, and giving us possible reasons for those changes, in turn affecting the way people are targeted throughout the whole marketing process.
5. Ongoing Improvements: This phase can be considered as an extension of the optimization phase where we continuously work with the AI analysing the insights and market trends, refining the overall strategy and tactics and staying ahead of the competition, and ensuring that companies get the most out of their ad spend, leading to higher ROI. 

Customer Retention: Even though this phase isn’t part of the performance marketing framework, it is an important one. Once the audience converts into a customer, how the business tends to their needs plays a crucial role in retaining that customer.

AI can be the saviour when it comes to customer experience. Chatbots and virtual assistants powered by AI can provide 24/7 customer support and take on a high volume of inquiries seamlessly, answering questions and resolving issues in real-time. Furthermore, we can use AI algorithms to study customer interactions and provide personalized recommendations, AI can be used to even complete sales transactions and thus improve the overall customer experience. Automating the customer experience the right way can save our clients’ time and resources while providing customers with immediate and personalized support. Top of Form 

With the number of automation happening in the advertising and marketing world, the day is not far when AI is going to take over most of the tasks - giving marketers more time to focus on correcting the strategy and focusing on the creative side of campaigns, where people can come up with new and out of the box concepts to promote products and services.