Automation in Marketing: Optimizing for Goals

By the end of 2024, on average, one in five companies was already regularly using artificial intelligence (AI). In large companies with more than 250 employees, the figure was even 48%. AI and other forms of automation (such as machine learning) affect virtually every aspect of everyday life, and online marketing is no exception.

They can also have a major impact on day-to-day work, making some marketers wonder whether their profession still has a future at all, or will soon be completely replaced by AI.

But is this concern actually justified? Or are there perhaps still ways to actively influence your marketing strategy even in times of automation?

We’ll show you how in our blog series “5 tips on how your own online marketing strategy can remain relevant even in times of automation”.

Automation in Marketing - Part 1 | Optimize for Goals
Automation in Marketing - Part 2 | Channel Diversification
Automation in Marketing - Part 3 | Contextual Advertising
Automation in Marketing - Part 4 | Competitor Analysis
Automation in Marketing - Part 5 | Website Optimization for More Conversions

Where automation is already being used in online marketing

Across all industries, marketing is probably one of the biggest global pioneers when it comes to using AI and automation in everyday work. According to a HubSpot study from 2024, 74% of marketers said they were already actively using AI in some form in their jobs. In 2023, that figure was still 21%. That’s an increase of around 250% compared with the previous year and shows just how strongly AI shapes online marketing in particular.

This ranges from data analysis and research work to content creation, such as generating images or text for blog posts (though this one is 100% human-made, scout’s honor from the androids).

But more and more AI features are also finding their way into tools that marketers have used over the last two decades. This goes so far that, for example, entire campaign types in Google Ads or Meta Ads already run almost entirely on automation.

According to Google, Meta, and other advertising platforms, these campaign types (Performance Max, Advantage+, Accelerate Campaigns, etc.) are intended to help scale accounts faster, more easily, and with less effort, generate more affordable relevant traffic through the power of AI, and achieve better results by drastically reducing some of the preparation and setup effort, requiring less ongoing maintenance, and enabling a more personalized approach overall.

That this does not always reflect reality is now well known and becomes especially apparent when campaign performance suddenly weakens. In such situations, the “dark sides” of automation become apparent, because more automation also means

• more of a black box

• fewer adjustment options, and

• a move away from “classic” optimization measures.

So what should we do when our campaigns fall short of expectations, and we’ve already exhausted the limited options the tools themselves provide? Simple: we need additional optimization measures!

In our blog series, we show you 5 tips on how your own online marketing strategy can remain relevant even in times of automation.

#1 Optimize for business goals

When was the last time you defined and/or adjusted your business goals? If you now have to think about it for a while, it’s probably time again. These goals can change over time due to changes within your own company or other external factors, such as a changing economic climate, greater competitive pressure, or other unforeseen circumstances. But how do you actually choose the right business goals?

There are different approaches to defining your own business goals. One particularly common and popular method is using so-called SMART goals. The acronym stands for

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Relevant

• Time-bound.

In short, this means we should think about which goals we actually want to achieve and how we can measure success or failure. The goals should always be realistic and therefore achievable and have a high level of relevance for us. Finally, there should be a deadline by which the goals should be reached, and ideally also checkpoints in between to review progress and initiate further measures if needed.

Choosing the right conversions is not that easy, because not every possible action on the website is equally important to us. The following four questions can help identify the most relevant conversions.

Which conversions should be triggered?

First, the question is which action(s) the ideal users should trigger. Depending on the marketing strategy, this could be the download of a PDF, a contact request, or the classic purchase. We may also already have our own funnel that helps with further qualification.

Can conversion values be quantified?

The easiest case here is certainly the purchase, because in that case the value is logically calculated from the product sold. But what if we offer a service that cannot be assigned a fixed value? In this case, we can try to determine the value in another way.

The purpose of assigning values to conversions is that, on the one hand, it makes it easier to calculate ROI, and on the other hand, it gives ad platforms specific signals about the importance of the conversions, which bidding strategies (e.g. target ROAS) can then optimize for.

Are there differences in upselling / CLTV?

If we have products that are frequently purchased together with other products, this creates an opportunity to increase the average conversion value through cross-/upselling. That’s why it can also be beneficial to promote such products or services particularly strongly, even if their initial value is lower than others. Products that are usually purchased repeatedly or lead to follow-up purchases additionally increase the Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).

Are there entry barriers / typical problems?

It may be that the product is too expensive for many users, or that they don’t find what they’re looking for right away. They may also not yet know that we offer solutions that address exactly their problems. We see the latter particularly often in B2B. These factors could also mean that certain conversions are triggered less often or, in extreme cases, not at all, because the initial hurdle is too high. In that case, it can be beneficial to initially focus on products and services that require less explanation or are positioned a bit lower in price, and then further qualify those people afterward.

Especially in e-commerce, it can be particularly worthwhile in Google Ads & Co. not only to optimize for pure ROAS, but also to include profit, because ROAS is not the same as profit! Out of the box, the tools cannot take margins into account in optimization, even with automation; the machines simply lack the necessary information. But if we feed that data back as well, we can give the algorithm a nudge in the right direction and improve performance overall. Although ROAS in the accounts may then decrease, as long as profit increases, the campaigns are running in a more optimized way and aligned with our business goals.

In addition, we should regularly compare the best-selling products in the backend with those in Google Ads, Meta, and the like. There can be significant differences here, which gives us the opportunity to promote certain products more strongly or more lightly across different channels.

Ultimately, the question is always: should we focus more on new customers, or do we rely more on reactivating existing customers? Both goals are valid, but they require different approaches to promotion. Acquiring new customers can cost up to 5x more than encouraging existing customers to buy again. In return, it also makes it much easier for us to expand our customer portfolio. If we have to work with a very limited budget, however, we may also be well advised to focus mainly on (dynamic) remarketing in order to generate revenue more cost-effectively.

If we take all these points into account, it becomes much easier to identify the right business goals, focus on them, and drive them forward sustainably. And in the end, the whole company benefits from that.

Thank you for your attention! Hopefully this was insightful, and you were able to take something away from it! In the second part of our mini-series, we take a closer look at channel diversification.

Did we forget anything important, or do you still have questions about the topic? Then feel free to write it in the comments!

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