Unleashing the Power of Generative AI for Agencies

Author: Jennyfer Goune-Tendar

The pressures on agencies in 2024:
Produce more content, more quickly, without jeopardizing creativity. Oh, and ensure costs are kept down.

It's not easy being an agency in 2024. The requirements from clients have never been higher as the ability to have a lasting impact on audiences has never been so challenging.

Can GenAI help reduce the friction?

At a fundamental level, GenAI production tools allow agencies to produce campaign-quality text, images, and video quickly and easily, whilst optimizing the effectiveness of that content. From optimizing efficiency to freeing up creatives to focus on the strategy, there are many benefits to utilizing GenAI capabilities across advertising. The immediate impact agencies see when utilizing GenAI technology: the reduction in production costs and timeframes.

The most essential commodity for creatives is time. Amazon Ads GenAI solutions serve as a co-pilot to give creatives back their time. Time to create. Time to innovate. Time to produce work that clients love.

But, what about the people for whom the ads are ultimately for? To understand how agencies can best utilize GenAI we must look at how its use in advertising impacts the most important stakeholder, the audience.

What do audiences think about GenAI content?

Two narratives are running through the marketing industry that could be very costly to agencies and advertisers. The first is that customers don't like content generated by AI. The second is that it is easy to identify content generated by AI.

Both are false.

A recent study launched by Yahoo and Publicis Media (Source: "Trust Through Transparency: The Future of AI and Advertising") revealed that consumers are not so concerned about the use of AI generated content in ads but more the transparency around when AI is used in ads. The study indicates that "72% of consumers believe AI makes it difficult to determine what content is truly authentic. Although 61% already assume AI is used in ads, they don't know how to identify where." In fact, in their poll of over 1,200 U.S. consumers and 350 U.S. advertisers, AI-generated ads that had visibly noticeable disclosures "significantly boosted brand perceptions and provided a 47% lift in ad appeal, a 73% lift in ad trustworthiness, and a 96% lift in overall trust for the company. This proved true across industries, especially those with historical sensitivities like finance and healthcare."

So with all of this new evidence on consumer perception regarding AI in ads, what can agencies do with this information?

Audience personalization

Audiences want content and products relevant to them, their needs and their wants. However, intentionally or not, content produced by a human is engrained with cognitive bias, even when based on data and A/B testing. Conversely, GenAI tools can analyze vast amounts of information to understand customers and predict their preferences without cognitive bias. This objective precision enables the creation of highly tailored ads that resonate deeply with each individual.

For years, targeted advertising has utilized user browsing history, social media interactions, and purchasing patterns to inform ad creation. GenAI has taken content personalization to a new level. As an example, Amazon Ads replaces those classical user-based advertising components with unique and proprietary signals to help reach relevant audiences. The creative imagery produced using Amazon Ads GenAI tools align with shoppers' needs and wants.

Though traditional A/B testing has improved audience engagement, Amazon Ads uses GenAI to provide insight-driven content that creates a sense of relevance and connection that was previously impossible. Shoppers are more likely to engage with that content and are therefore more likely to consider purchasing the product or service featured in that content.

This is having a major impact on advertisers using Amazon Ads. As an example, those utilizing Image generator increased their campaign creative submissions by over 20%, testing multiple creative options to see what resonates most with customers. Those advertisers experienced a sales increase of nearly 5%.

Moving from 'responsive' to 'reactive' content

In addition to improving the relevance of ads when launching a campaign, we're seeing huge improvements in the ability to adapt and develop content throughout the lifecycle of a campaign. Amazon Ads AI-powered tools help agencies to move beyond the zeitgeist. Aligning with cultural moments has meant agencies could create compelling, timely content that resonated with a client's target audiences. But culture is changing more quickly than ever. The imagery or tagline that resonated with audiences yesterday may not resonate today.

Even the most responsive creative teams take time to edit content to adapt to audience engagement. Utilizing GenAI tools means those changes are now immediate. Amazon Ads continuously learns from audience interactions providing real-time optimization and adjustments to imagery and text. An ad campaign develops with the interactions of audiences ensuring ads remain timely and impactful. What was once responsive is now reactive.

Responsible audiences

Audiences are becoming increasingly responsible when it comes to purchasing considerations. From assessing whether manufacturers adhere to ethical production practices to choosing shipping options with the lowest environmental footprint. Shoppers are analyzing reviews to assess product quality, delivery handling, shipping speed, and how brands respond to customer issues. The use of GenAI by agencies and advertisers is no exception.

Advertising solutions must provide transparent and credible information for the end customers. Amazon Ads GenAI is built on eight core dimensions of responsibility: fairness, explain ability, privacy & security, safety, controllability, veracity and robustness, governance and transparency. These practices are constantly developing to ensure audiences can trust the advertisements they see.

Conclusion

GenAI tools are not merely for ad automation, with Amazon Ads they are a transformative toolkit that is improving the shopper experience through creative content and ads. Agencies can use Amazon Ads GenAI solutions as their co-pilot to reduce costs, deliver value, and scale creative production.

Most importantly, Amazon Ads GenAI tools give agencies back their most valuable commodity: time.

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