As AI and machine learning start to sweep across the digital landscape, advertisers are rushing to both incorporate the technologies into banner ad campaigns and understand their capabilities.
While the possibilities of using artificial intelligence to build smarter banner ads are still unfolding, the most exciting opportunities lie in the ability of AI to help brands connect with consumers based on their current, real-time online behavior.
And it’s an innovation whose time has come.
Limitations of current banner ad technology
Online display campaigns
One of the biggest pitfalls of traditional ‘smart’ banner ads is their reliance on past behavior or, when encountering new visitors, interacting with them based on the profile of a previous seemingly similar-fit consumer.
That’s how brands end up ‘following’ their target audience with ads for products they’ve already purchased, have decided not to pursue or simply aren’t a good fit for.
In other words, that’s how you end up with irrelevant ads that push consumers to adopt ad blockers or a less-than-favorable perception of the brands delivering the ads.
And in today’s display advertising landscape, where consumers expect a personalized, on-demand browsing experience, banner ads based on their past behavior are irrelevant at best and disruptive at worst.
What are the benefits of using AI in banner ads in Mobile ad banners?
Creative Banner
Artificial intelligence is the driving force behind a new breed of effective ads. While the display advertising industry has barely begun to scratch the surface of the technology’s potential, clear benefits are already starting to emerge.
- Stay ahead of the curve
In display advertising, the focus is often on staying ahead – and standing out – from the competition. But, as technological advances develop at more dizzying rates, the ‘competition’ is starting to include the very people advertisers want to reach: their target audience.
Consumers, ever accustomed to finding (and purchasing) what they want, the moment they want it, are shifting their online browsing and buying behaviors faster than ever before. And the rapid, unpredictable changes in online behavior have the potential to change your business overnight.
That’s why banner ads built with artificial intelligence are such powerhouses for forward-thinking businesses. Not only can these technologies process thousands of data points in real time, their predictive capabilities can make good use of that data, turning it into more effective ads (and campaigns).
- Build a better user experience
Banner ads built with artificial intelligence can deliver highly personalized ad experiences, based on real time viewer behavior.
Translation? AI banner ads can see – and understand – the images and page content your user sees and then adjust the messaging accordingly.
Case in point: If your user is browsing a real estate site, banner ads built with AI can recognize the on-page imagery and then sort through thousands of potential images and messaging to instantly build the perfect companion ad content.
This AI-centered campaign for Vattenfall, one of Europe’s largest energy companies, selected which Vattenfall product to showcase alongside the on-page content, based on that same on-page content. That included constantly evolving slideshows. Photos of a house with a pool prompted an ad about checking the water temperature from a smartphone, thanks to the Vattenfall smart thermometer.
High impact ad formats
- Deliver more relevant, effective ads
AI enables brands to continue the evolution of the display advertising industry, from the early days of wild guesses about how consumers behaved to increasingly data-driven insights. While the rise of ad blockers has threatened to suffocate banner ads, AI provides an opportunity to win back consumer trust.
The main drivers behind ad blocker adoption are irrelevant, disruptive ads, with pop-ups and auto-playing videos topping the list. Existing ad technology focuses on device type, previous online behavior and social demographic categories. As consumers grow more sophisticated and expect highly personalized experiences across all their content channels, the assumptions behind demographics and device type are increasingly leading to mismatched banner ad experiences.
Banner ads build with artificial intelligence eliminate the guesswork of anticipating what consumers want. AI enables brands to serve the most effective ads possible: personalized ad experiences based on each individual viewer’s current browsing behavior.
- Make better use of your resources
Every advertiser aims to build more effective ads. And AI is the star player that takes banner ads to the next level.
It works with digital marketing teams to make a rich media production campaigns more streamlined and efficient, eliminating both guesswork (‘What will our audience want?’) and grunt work (manually processing thousands of data points, images, messaging combinations, etc.)
Thanks to AI’s ability to adjust banner ad messaging based on current user behavior, brands can expect to connect more of their audience with relevant offerings, moving the right types of inventory faster and more efficiently.
The possibilities of artificial intelligence for building more effective ads are still emerging, but one thing is clear: Digital Creative Production that adapts to real time user behaviors is poised to redefine how we build and interact with banner ads.
