Automation and Machine Learning

Automation and machine learning are here to stay. Read about how you can use AI to turbocharge your paid media performance...

Trusting computers is hard. Perhaps the best example of this is that, despite pilot error being the primary cause behind the majority of plane crashes, when surveyed passengers continually say that they would rather have a human at the controls than trusting an autopilot to do the work.

A similar (if slightly less dangerous) example can be seen in digital paid media. Despite computers being able to make thousands of data-driven optimisation decisions per minute, it can still seem a daunting prospect to “hand the keys over” to a machine, especially when the budgets available to spend can be high.

In this blog we explore what the practical side of automation; what are some of the options available to use and why should you be using them.

How We Utilise Automation

One of the major ways we utilise automation here at ClickThrough is, as previously mentioned, to make large scale optimisation changes without having to invest significant amounts of time into the process.

Even if you were spending just 30 seconds reviewing each keyword in a set of 500, an optimisation piece would take over four hours which is just not feasible. Automation allows us to instead spend this time working on account development and driving tangible improvements for our clients.

Bidding 

We primarily use Kenshoo’s automated bidding portfolios, which are backed up by a sophisticated algorithm to make these changes. These portfolios use a wide variety of signals to make decisions and are also able to adjust audience and ad scheduling modifiers decisions to ensure you are bidding the appropriate amount for each individual user.

Google Ads also offers its own automated bidding solution with enhanced CPCs. These work by automatically adjusting your manual bids for clicks that seem more or less likely to lead to a sale or conversion on your website working on the data available to Google. Coupling enhanced CPCs with another automated bidding system such as Kenshoo’s portfolio model offers a powerful solution to ensure you are always bidding the most appropriate amount.

Ad Solutions

Another automation feature rolled out recently by Google are ad suggestions. Using your existing ad text, extensions and landing pages along with additional signals from keywords and targeting settings, Google Ads creates ads that it feels will help improve performance. These recommended ads can then be either included in the account or can be discarded. This again frees up time that would otherwise be spent on ad creation and testing and can, instead, be further invested in account development and strategy.

Smart Display Campaigns

A final example of the automation options now available to utilise are smart display campaigns. Simply provide the campaign with a target CPA, a daily budget and creative assets and, et voilà, a fully automated campaign. Google identifies signals such as prior search and conversion history, and the content being consumed to identify the users most likely to convert or who are in the final stages of the buying cycle and serves relevant creative to them.

These are just a few examples of how automation can be easily implemented and drive tangible performance benefits. Get in touch with our digital paid media team team and discover how we can help with automation across your accounts.