Automated systems have transformed every aspect of marketing operations over the past few years, from how we run email campaigns and schedule social media posting to lead scoring and AB/ testing. Now, with the growing maturity of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, we are seeing the major paid media platforms advocate ever more sophisticated forms of automation that minimise manual input and rely on algorithms.
Just a few examples of this include:
- Performance Max, an AI-driven campaign type that consolidates Google’s inventory (Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps) into a single, goal-based campaign
- Broad Match, a Google Ads keyword match type that allows ads to appear on searches related to your keyword, including synonyms, related queries, and variation
- AI-driven bidding or smart bidding, which uses machine learning to optimise bids in real time
These automations are incredibly powerful and can save time and drive great results for advertisers when they are used wisely. However, brands should not think of these automations as set-and-forget solutions.
Unattended, these automated features may deliver a lot of cheap clicks. But you will also want to ensure that they are generating high-quality traffic that justifies your ad spending.
Volume versus value
One of the factors marketers should be aware of is that the paid media platforms are often designed to reward volume in terms of clicks and impressions. But in reality, not all clicks and impressions are of equal value. For example, you will probably be thrilled if you see your clicks double overnight after you add a single broad match keyword. Disappointment may follow if you see that your conversions have halved in value.
The keyword may have attracted a lot of traffic from users who weren’t ready to buy or for whom your ad was actually irrelevant. A cheap click is not cheap if it does not convert. In the long run, it may cost you even more. Not only will you have wasted part of your ad spending, but you might have polluted your data signals with irrelevant interactions. The result is that the automated algorithms may continue to target audiences that are not relevant to you.
Leading marketers are increasingly moving away from old-school metrics like impressions and click-throughs. These are easy to track, but do not show value. Instead, they are shifting from volume to value-based bidding, tracking metrics such as conversion value, lead quality and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Consider this comparison of two imaginary campaigns as an example of why marketers should optimise for value rather than volume:
- Campaign A’s leads are students with no buying power. There are hardly any conversions among the leads.
- Campaign B’s generates half as many leads but twice as many conversions.
An automated campaign will happily optimise for Campaign A, unless someone instructs it to do otherwise.
First-party data matters more than ever
Today’s consumer journeys are fragmented across different channels and the paid media platforms increasingly rely on AI-driven optimisation. And while we are moving into the “cookieless” environment, albeit more slowly in some regions than marketers anticipated, access to third-party identifier data has already declined. This means that marketers have less visibility into each stage of the traditional sales funnel than they did a few years ago.
First-party data and signal quality are now every bit as important as campaign setup, if not more so. This marks a change over the previous situation where choosing the right keywords, placements and audiences was the all-important success factor. Setup matters less today because platforms like Google and META have taken away much the control you used to have.
What matters most is the quality of your first-party data and this is where a lot of advertisers are dropping the ball. Your first-party data will deliver the best results when fed back to the platforms in real time via an automation.
For example, if your customer relationship management system is not passing back the leads that converted, Google will optimise for the cheapest (and often lowest quality) leads. You may see the value of your leads decrease. If it takes two weeks to export data from your CRM to Google for the platform to learn from and optimise bidding, that will represent two weeks of value lost to ineffective bidding.
Marketers should remember that they need to share customer data in compliance with privacy laws like POPIA. Those in sensitive verticals like finance and healthcare may need to be especially careful with personal information. They will need tighter tracking and lead scoring methods to make automation useful.
A checklist for a modern setup
This is a basic hygiene setup that marketers can tweak for their business needs:
- GA4 (Google Analytics 4) with Consent Mode enabled for future-proof tracking against cookie loss
- Conversion events tied to real outcomes (like conversions, not just button clicks or form fills)
- Data fed back into your paid media accounts when your final conversion happens offline
- Negative keywords exclusions to stop wasted spend
- Quality scoring system for leads, so the algorithm knows what’s valuable.
- Continuous audit of data accuracy (remember bad signals in equals bad results out).
The future of automation and AI
Automation can help marketers to amplify their impact and get better ROI from their ad campaigns, provided the algorithms are fed clean data and clear goals. Indeed, automated systems and AI are constantly improving and creating new opportunities in areas such as voice search and AI-driven creative optimisation.
However, automation is only as good as the humans who set goals and strategies, monitor output and make informed adjustments. It’s not just a case of automating, but also of leveraging high-quality first-party data and focusing on value over volume.
Marketers who get the balance right will unlock the full potential of AI-driven campaigns and ensure sustainable results.
Tanika Corneleus is digital campaign lead atmidnight, the innovation agency of iqbusiness, Africa’s future-focused management and digital growth enabler. Led by some of the continent’s best thinkers and doers, our purpose is simple: to grow people, business and Africa as one. Established in South Africa in 1998, IQbusiness integrated into Reunert ICT in 2023 and merged with +OneX in 2024.
