Monthly Archives: February 2023

Last week, we reported all there is to know about the transition to GA4. In that piece, we specifically talked about machine learning and its application within reporting tools. Today, we’re excited to discuss how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can benefit marketers and enhance your business more broadly.

Defining AI

Let’s start by first defining some key terminologies and explaining the difference between them:

->Artificial Intelligence (AI): Advanced technology that allows machines to mimic human behavior through vast amounts of data, intelligent algorithms, and patterns. It is the broader concept that machines can carry out tasks that humans would consider “intelligent.”

-> Machine Learning (ML): A subset of AI that uses statistical data sets, adapts with minimal human involvement and evolves independently as it ingests more data. ML is considered one of the applications of AI.

Why Marketers Should Care

If implemented and utilized correctly, AI can be incredibly helpful for marketers. AI offers advertisers the power to…

– Improve the customer journey and create more personalized experiences

– Create more efficient and effective marketing campaigns and improve business impact KPIs (acquisition costs, ROI)

– Gain insight into target audience through big data and ML

– Create and develop content, PPC ads and even web design

– Utilize chatbots for campaign purposes, customer service and more

Google and OpenAI

Google and OpenAI have been in the news recently for their AI contributions and we expect this to continue to develop across industries.

Right now, Google’s technology is expected to be more relevant. Earlier this month, Google announced its new AI chatbot, “Apprentice Bard.” Apprentice Bard is like ChatGPT, but Apprentice Bard’s answers can include recent events (source: CNBC).

How can Apprentice Bard do this? “Google can crawl the web in almost real-time and process that information faster than any other company,” reported CNBC.

For example, Apprentice Bard picked up on the news circulating about the Google layoffs and was able to respond immediately. We have no doubt that Google will continue to add innovation to Apprentice Bard. We are excited to see how OpenAI will respond with ChatGPT and InstructGPT. Stay tuned!

How Marketers Can Use AI

AI can dramatically improve targeting for advertisers. With ads that are “more realistic, engaging and versatile than ever before,” Data to Biz and Times of India predict that “AI will take up 80% of global advertising spend in the world.” For application, advertisers can use AI to:

– Segment more relevant audiences by applying behavior trends and pattern data

– Automate tasks like copy and creative development

– Improve targeting

– Improve reporting with more real-time enhancements, predictive forecasting / modeling, and more personalized recommendations

At Media Horizons, we believe that AI needs to be the focus of how we innovate. AI will continue to grow in utilization and will eventually impact multiple facets of marketing and thus, business success. It’s important to start the conversation now! Reach out to us today to talk about ways that we can integrate AI into your campaigns and reporting. We are excited to see where industry benchmarks change, and how we can work together to stay on top of them.

Additional Sources: Jumpstory.com, Martech.org, Meltwater.com

Since its inception, Google or Universal Analytics (GA) has established itself as a key platform for today’s marketers. It’s no secret that GA helps companies explore who their customers are – featuring information such as demographics, location, retention, and device technology. Because of GA, marketers have been able to more accurately interpret the impact of marketing campaigns and segment audiences accordingly.

Google Analytics 4, or GA4, is the newest iteration of GA. All GA users will need to transition to GA4 by July 1^st, when Universal Analytics will stop processing data. Keep reading to discover what you need to know to prepare for this change!

About GA4

According to Google, GA4 will enable users to measure traffic and engagement across your websites and apps, effectively combining data across platforms in the same property.

Key Components of GA4

• – Collects both website and app data for brands to better understand their customer’s journey
• – Uses event-based vs. session-based data
• – Includes privacy controls like cookie less measurement and behavioral and conversion modeling
• – Predictive capabilities offer guidance without complex models
• – Direct integrations to media platforms help drive actions on a brand’s website or app
• – For more specific details, visit here

Recent Developments

Earlier this month, Google revealed that it will automatically create a GA4 property for users starting in March if you have an eligible GA property.

While this should allow users a sigh of relief (believe us, we get it!) if you have not yet made the switch, it is important to know that this should be the start – not the end – of your migration process (the end will be July).

This latest update from GA is a good start and should help more brands get over the initial hump of implementation. Furthermore, it will allow brands to get familiar with the platform’s new interface and selection of tools.

How Your Brand Will Be Affected

With innovation comes opportunity. We are excited to work with both our partners and clients to determine how GA4 can be used more effectively and efficiently to drive business insights.

In fact, the new key components can be used to improve business decisions. Here’s how:

• Collects both website and app data

Why this is important: The cross-platform analytics can help give a more unified view of the customer’s journey.

• Uses event-based data vs. session-based

Why this is important: Events give additional insight regarding details like button clicks, form completions, external link activity, and more. Therefore, there will be major differences in how data is measured, analyzed, and applied to business decisions. (source: Lookinla.com)

• Includes privacy controls like cookie-less measurement and behavioral and conversion modeling

Why this is important: With more brands and legislature taking a privacy first approach, GA4 is addressing similar challenges and proactively offering solutions including IP anonymization, data storage duration settings, and more.

• Predictive capabilities offer guidance without complex models

Why this is important: Machine learning can help define trends in customer behavior and create more actionable segments to target. This can also allow for more efficient ways to assume business outcomes.

• Direct integrations to media platforms help drive actions on a brand’s website or app

Why this important: Not only will this facilitate more business insights, but it will provide improved functionality and ease of access. This will make in-app social sharing more seamless (source: SocialMediaToday.com and ToTheNew.com).

If you’re unsure of what some of this means, or how it will impact your business, we can help! Reach out to us here.

Our Recommendations

At Media Horizons, our goal is to provide consistent updates and a helpful starting point for you during this transition period. Overall, we think it is helpful to keep high-level and overarching goals in mind, so you can stay focused on your business objectives and growth. Here is what we would recommend:

• – Define your overarching objectives and goals with the migration
• – Operationalize the migration for a seamless experience
• – Develop enhanced marketing strategies that leverage the new tool suite
• – Create more robust segments to measure success / impact on business
• – Analyze results and improve business practices based on insights

We understand that this is a lot to absorb and may be overwhelming. Did you know that we can set up your brand’s GA4 account for you and ensure a seamless transition?

More specifically, we are available to provide support, guidance, and resources to help with the migration (initial setup, advanced configurations, setting up goals and events, updating dashboards/reports, etc.). We deliver dynamic full-service solutions to meet your brand’s marketing needs! Get in touch to begin your GA4 transition today.

On a different (but related!) note, have you heard about Google’s new AI chatbot named “Apprentice Bard?” Google is just the latest platform to enter the conversation about AI. In our opinion, there are many potential opportunities for AI in advertising. Stay tuned for our next blog about AI and why marketers should be interested in it.