From mundane, straightforward jobs like transcription to more complex tasks such as paid marketing, there are various ways in which artificial intelligence can be put to good use. If you need help fine-tuning your marketing strategy, AI is essential for streamlining data gathering, among other things. Not only can it do it much faster than any human possibly can, but it’s also more objective. The data that AI collects is without human bias that might taint the results.
When it comes to launching and running paid campaigns on marketing channels like Google or Facebook, this is a key trait. You need a sidekick to tell you as it is. You might like specific ads or prefer certain social media channels over others, but if they don’t convert, why continue pouring more dollars into them? Here AI will put all feelings aside and help you to make the best decisions for your business.
To help you merge AI and your paid media efforts, here are 11 tools that you can check out. Whether it’s help with content creation or making sense of the results that you need, one of these tools will be able to help.
11 Top AI Solutions for Paid Marketing:
1. WordStream by LOCALiQ
Small to mid-sized businesses that have an ad spend of at least $750 per month can check out WordStream. It helps various industries to unleash the power of online advertising and generate more leads.
With the help of machine learning and algorithms, it creates actionable recommendations to optimize paid ads on Google, Microsoft, and social channels like Facebook. Not only does this save your business money, but also helps your business to make more money via sales.
It has received hundreds of reviews – the majority positive – across sites like G2, TrustRadius, and Trustpilot. One area, though, that users feel is lacking is customer support, especially with regards to billing. So, make sure that you get clarity about their pricing beforehand to avoid potential frustration and disappointment down the line.
Key features include:
- A Google Ads Performance Grader
- Keyword research
Plans and pricing: For more information regarding WordStream’s pricing, you need to reach out to them directly.
2. Phrasee
Phrasee is an AI-powered tool that uses content to create better, more personalized customer experiences. From SMS to social, it can be used for various platforms.
If you specifically want to use it to improve your paid media efforts, you can use its AI-powered content to increase how your ads perform on social media. Not only will it automatically generate content for various stages during the customer journey, but it also integrates seamlessly with all the main email service providers and online platforms. This means that your top-performing messages will reach your target audience seamlessly.
For example, when Wowcher, a leading daily deals brand, turned to Phrasee to help with their Facebook and Instagram ad copy, they managed to reduce their cost per lead by almost a third. This is just one of numerous success stories. Other brands that Phrasee has helped to accelerate their marketing success include names like Gumtree and Virgin Holidays.
Key features include:
- Dynamic optimization
- Word and emoji analysis
- Sentiment analysis
- Diversity analysis
Plans and pricing: For more information regarding Phrasee’s pricing, you need to reach out to them directly.
3. Albert
Meet Albert — your self-learning, digital marketing collaborator. Founded in 2010, it’s the first-ever AI platform created to plug into existing paid search, social, and programmatic accounts. Fast-forward 12 years and it was acquired by Zoomd, a leading MarTech company.
As one of the top AI programmatic advertising tools, Albert has helped clients in numerous industries to improve the efficiency and accuracy of their digital advertising. From planning to reporting and everything in between, it can automate various key tasks.
You can, for example, use it to plan ad variations, build campaigns, and optimize budgets and bids. All you basically need to do is set a KPI and it will optimize key variables like the creative and timing. And, if there’s something that it can’t do or fix, it will offer recommendations for which action you’ll need to take.
Key features include:
- Round-the-clock optimization
- Personalization at scale
- Holistic insights and analysis
Plans and pricing: For more information regarding Albert’s pricing, you need to reach out to them directly.
4. Blueshift
Founded in 2014, Blueshift uses patented AI technology to help brands deliver one-on-one experiences in real-time irrespective of where they’re at during the customer journey. Their goal is to help their clients, which include leading brands like Udacity, BBC, and PayPal, unlock customer centricity.
The AI-driven solutions that they’ve created can be used for various channels, including paid media. They’ll use first-party, behavioral, and predictive data to help you make the most of your budget and serve relevant targeted ads on the right platform to the right crowd.
As you would expect, they shine in the integrations department. You can automatically sync all your real-time and historic data with Facebook, Google Ads, TikTok, Twitter and many more paid media partners.
While they don’t boast as many reviews as some of the other websites on our list yet, the reviews that they’ve received are mostly very positive. In fact, fewer than 2% of Blueshift’s reviews on G2 have fewer than three stars.
Key features include:
- Precise and easy segmentation
- An intuitive audience builder
- Predictive engage-time optimization
- A/B testing
Plans and pricing: Blueshift offers a number of tailored pricing packages. For more info, you can reach out to their sales team.
5. Hyros
For tracking digital ads, you can check out Hyros. It takes a unique approach to ad tracking which has helped them to land clients like ClickFunnels, Shopanova, and ClickBank. On Trustpilot, more than 90% of their reviews are five-star reviews. The bad reviews that they have received are mostly about issues with refunds. On their website, they advertise a 90-day refund guarantee, however, some users have had issues turning this into a reality (hence, the few negative reviews).
In short, Hyros can plug into virtually any setup (including email systems), making it a great choice if customization is one of your focus areas. One drawback, though, is that it currently doesn’t support the import of previous data.
That being said, it offers you a comprehensive view of how your ads have performed. For example, it will attribute the performance to the right channels. Armed with this info, you’re much better equipped to adjust your campaigns and zoom in on the platforms that are actually delivering good results.
Key features include:
- Print tracking
- A customizable ad reporting dashboard
- Analytics
Plans and pricing: Pricing starts at $49 per month for up to $20,000 revenue tracked.
6. Pattern89
According to their website, Pattern89’s goal is to inspire creativity. It’s currently in the process of getting acquired by Shutterstock. So, if you too value creativity, be sure to check them out.
It uses AI to predict creative performance. It can simulate how millions of creative variations will perform accurately. This means that you can predict how your ad will perform before you have to spend any money. Alternatively, if you already have a few ads running, you can use it to identify updates to extend the life cycle of the ad.
Not only is it used by marketers, but also agencies. For example, they’ve helped leading SaaS marketing agencies like Single Grain to maximize ad returns in a single week. The results — conversions increased by 9%, while cost per lead decreased by 7%.
Key features include:
- Deep analytics reports
- Predictive concept validation
- Creative lifespan extension
Plans and pricing: For more information regarding Pattern89’s pricing, you need to reach out to them directly.
7. Pencil
Pencil is an AI ad generator that can help to craft variations for ads. Trusted by thousands of eCommerce brands and agencies, it has created more than 1 million ad creatives to date for all the major platforms including TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
In short, it uses artificial intelligence (and your existing branding and assets) to generate new ad ideas automatically. All you need to do is add your assets, branding, and topic.
Then, to help you shortlist which ideas will deliver the best results, it also includes powerful predictions. It uses data from more than $1 billion in ad spend to compare your ad ideas to a million other ads across various industries. This way, it’s much easier to predict the angles and assets that will resonate with your target audience better.
If you’re not entirely happy with the copy, you can always use the real-time editor to make changes quickly that will help to boost the performance. To speed up this step, you can turn to its library where you’ll find stickers and pre-built scenes.
Unlike some of the other solutions on this list that have been bashed for their level of support, on G2, this is one of the areas where Pencil excels. Not only have users praised their quality of support, but also its intuitiveness in terms of setup and use. Users have described it as an “essential tool for performance marketers” and “must-have secret weapon”.
Key features include:
- Insights and benchmarks
- A real-time editor
- Free stock images and videos
- Predictions
Plans and pricing: After a free seven-day trial, pricing starts at $119 per month (or $79 per month when billed annually instead).
8. Varos
If you believe that data is best shared, you’ll like the concept behind Varos. It enables hundreds of companies to join forces and essentially crowdsource data. With Varos, you can anonymously and securely benchmark KPIs to compare the performance of your paid marketing efforts to others in your industry.
For example, if you’re an agency, you can use this information to show to your clients that there’s been a drop across the board, helping to explain the possible changes in their performance. Alternatively, if you’re using it for your own paid search campaigns, you can use the data to help you make sense of key metrics like cost per acquisition (CPA) or cost per mile (CPM) and get a more accurate idea of your performance.
Key features include:
- Benchmarks for various verticals
Plans and pricing: For more information regarding pricing, you need to reach out to Varos directly.
9. 6sense
For businesses that operate in the B2B industry, there’s 6sense. It helps marketers to create cost-effective, hyper-targeted digital ad campaigns. Thanks to its AI predictions, it will help you to optimize your ad spend by connecting you with relevant audiences in the places where they spend most of their time. Then, to boost conversion rates, it offers intent data that gathers buyer intent signals across reliable online sources such as TrustRadius and G2.
As a matter of fact, on TrustRadius, it’s one of the top-rated products in the account-based marketing and intent data categories. As this is based solely on reviews, it’s a true reflection of their users’ satisfaction with their product and support.
If you plan on running multiple ad campaigns simultaneously, it makes it easy to manage these via a single place even though the campaigns might be on various channels. Plus, to help ensure consistency, it can keep track of and control ad placement.
Key features include:
- Deep analytics and comprehensive insights
- An easy-to-use campaign builder
- Built-in brand-safety controls
Plans and pricing: For more information regarding 6sense’s pricing, you can book a custom demo.
10. Skai
Skai is a versatile marketing platform that businesses can use for paid advertising. With Skai, you can create and manage campaigns across multiple channels, including paid social and paid search.
From automation to optimization to reporting, there are various sophisticated tools that you can use to amplify your digital ad spend. It offers tools for targeting specific audiences, setting budgets, and measuring your campaigns’ results in real time.
If you want to zoom in on paid social, it can help you target the right audience on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter, and TikTok. Thanks to its creative AI, creative asset management becomes a breeze and you’ll get valuable insight into which elements are the reason behind a campaign’s success.
The paid search capabilities are equally impressive. It includes exclusive tools like the Signal Enhancement and Search Term Analysis (STA). If you need help with ad spend, there’s also a budget navigator to help you find the right balance between spend and return on investment.
Key features include:
- Custom metrics
- Rule-based automation
- Customizable reports
Plans and pricing: For more information about Skai’s pricing, you can request a demo.
11. Celtra
Founded in 2006, Celtra is no stranger to the digital world and boasts a number of leading global brands that include the likes of Spotify and Shopify in their client list. In short, they’re a creative automation company. Their mission — to enable businesses of all sizes to use creativity at scale. So, if you want to merge tech and creativity, be sure to check out their creative automation software solutions.
With their tools, it’s easy to remain on brand while at the same time personalizing the customer journey. It makes it easy to create variations automatically for platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Plus, thanks to the smart image cropping, your ads will look great across all channels.
Other standout features according to the hundreds of reviews that Celtra has received on G2 are A/B testing, ad templates, and campaign scheduling. All three of these features have been graded as above average.
Key features include:
- Branded templates
- Robust performance metrics
Plans and pricing: For more information about Celtra’s pricing, you can book a demo.
Wrapping Things Up
Humans aren’t perfect, but neither are AI tools. Whether you need help with SEO, scheduling or search and social ads, there’s no such thing as the perfect tool.
However, all these solutions that we’ve listed will help with targeting your campaigns and maximizing your return on investment. As more tools get updated to this category, we’ll also add to this list.
In the meantime, remember to focus on driving more organic traffic too. Just like with most things in life, it’s all about balance.
