Today's consumers have ever-changing preferences, a relentless pursuit of satisfaction, and an increasing demand for high-quality products as well as variety. This creates a dynamic challenge for marketers: developing innovative strategies to reach an ever-evolving target audience. While identifying the “ideal” customer and optimizing campaigns within budget were once difficult tasks, artificial intelligence has transformed the marketing landscape. Thanks to its ability to harness vast amounts of data and uncover hidden patterns in consumer behavior and cognition, AI has equipped marketers with the tools to decipher the mysteries of their target audience.

But where did it all begin? The early 2010s witnessed a turning point in advertising. As machine learning and big data matured, they became powerful tools available to marketers. This combination drove the automation of ad buying and the display of precisely targeted ad campaigns. One such transformation came from the digital revolution, particularly the rise of broadcast TV (CTV).

Forward CTV, traditional television relied on program ratings – an open instrument for determining the right audience. CTV, together with neural networks, revolutionized targeting from a different perspective, with the main factor in choosing potential customers becoming their characteristics, such as habits, preferences and location. In particular, the latest technology empowers advertisers to create effective strategies and optimize them in real time, adapting to the evolving needs of their audience. This ability, in turn, provides advertisers with the necessary reach and makes the campaign as effective as possible.

Over time, the functionality of AI in the field of advertising has expanded and today it is successfully used for tasks such as:

• Automated advertising campaigns: The technology independently analyzes advertising rates on different platforms and determines the budget and target audience based on the client's needs and capabilities.

• Hyper-personalized advertising: AI analyzes a large amount of information about users (gender, age, location and preferences, among other characteristics) and allows an ad to be shown only to those who are interested in the product. This ensures a high level of accuracy and resonance with the potential audience.

• Development of programmatic advertising: Neural networks enable producing higher quality content tailored to regional, linguistic and cultural differences, among other factors. This means that ads can be more relevant and engaging for users, leading to better results for advertisers. Neural networks are also improving programmatic advertising decision-making processes, such as targeting and fraud prevention. For example, neural networks can be used to identify fake clicks and views, which can help protect advertisers from wasting their budgets.

• Forecasting, monitoring and optimization: AI predictions allow results to be projected, parameters optimized, and performance metrics tracked in real-time, enabling data-driven adjustments to a continuously improving campaign.

• Contextual advertising: Technology can interpret the viewer looking at content, genre and even tone.

Connected: 6 Positive impacts of artificial intelligence on digital marketing

Tech giants are taking the lead

Tech giants like Google are leading the charge in automated ad campaigns, where AI handles the entire process – from targeting the right audience and creating compelling ad creatives to summarizing overall campaign performance. Google's arsenal of AI tools includes Smart offerwhich analyzes online auctions to determine the optimum bid price based on conversions or cost per acquisition. Similarly, their innovative Generative AI within Performance Max creates unique illustrations based on user requirements and can modify existing images. Thus, it becomes easier and, more importantly, faster for marketing and advertising specialists to develop customized advertising concepts and scale them effortlessly across campaigns.

Other exciting players that are also developing the use of AI in AdTech include:

• The goal is testing a feature that automatically generates Facebook ads. The technology will develop different versions of the texts, create images on demand and modify them according to the required parameters. This will allow advertisers to save time and resources, as well as improve the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns.

• Amazon's AI personalizes ad images on resonate with individual consumers, increasing engagement and advertising effectiveness. The combined power of Amazon SageMaker AND Knowing Amazon drives data-driven marketing campaigns, creating scope for deep analysis and optimization. Marketers can thus proactively combat ad fraud within their campaigns, ensuring budget reaches genuine customers.

• IBM USE AI assistant IBM Watson to place ads. Watson searches for potential customers, engages in dialogue with them, identifies their interests and preferences, and selects relevant content based on this knowledge.

• Netflix uses artificial intelligence for it analyze users' viewing history and recommend what to watch next.

• Mobile ink uses AI in create personalized marketing experiences across email, mobile and other channels. Their technology tailors content based on individual customer behavior for more engaging interactions.

• Spektri (communication services), thanks to AI, creates high-quality videos for customers with their brand characteristics in just minutes.

Global corporations are using AI to revolutionize advertising and marketing. These technologies streamline campaign processes, personalize experiences at scale, optimize ad delivery and even inject creativity through AI-powered AdTech. As a result, projects become more impactful, making AI-driven marketing accessible to companies of all sizes, not just tech giants. But this raises a question: is this dominance by the big players stifling innovation, and can startups still compete in the online marketing landscape? Let's take a look!

Connected: 5 AI Marketing Tools Every Startup Should Know

Independent advertising technologies: Is there a way to survive? (Spoiler: Yes, it is possible)

In today's crowded marketplace, capturing the consumer's attention requires more than mere surprise. People crave authenticity and experiences that resonate with their values ​​and needs. Here are some of the most effective advertising strategies startups can use:

• Target niche markets and industry verticals: By focusing on specific sectors, individuals can identify the exact problems that your services solve.

• Speed ​​and adaptability: Advertisers need partners to keep pace in a dynamic marketing landscape. Here it is SKILLS comes into the picture. Startups are known for their responsiveness to external market changes and internal adjustments. They can focus strategies and embrace new technologies faster than larger, more established agencies.

• Personalized access: A unique solution tailored to the client's needs and capabilities will set startups apart from large companies that regularly offer generic projects and allow them to build long-term relationships with advertisers.

Examples of companies applying the above AdTech strategies:

• Socure provides an AI-powered platform for identity verification, document authentication, and fraud detection and prediction. The platform may analyze natural language content to identify negative information about a person of interest.

• IAS is revolutionizing ad performance with its AI power MFA detection and avoidance technology. This innovation helps advertisers avoid low-quality, ad-laden sites known for delivering poor results. By avoiding these sites, advertisers can expect significant reductions in advertising costs and a significant increase in return on investment.

• Adwerx uses AI to create personalized and scalable advertising campaigns for businesses in financial services, asset management and real estate.

• Qwarry delivers impactful advertising that reaches the right audience, all without relying on personal information.

• Ogury stands out for its customized solutions that prioritize privacy. The Company does not use the information of website visitors; instead, it uses AI to develop profiles of potential audiences.

The success of these startups proves that even against tech giants, smaller companies can carve a nichebecome trusted partners to advertisers and help them drive repeat business by choosing the right strategy.

Connected: 4 ways AI is revolutionizing targeted advertising – and how to balance its ethical implications