Context yes, super boutique is not in this bucket and robots are really computers. Structured (ie data driven) advertising is what we are talking about. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the term that is now used and you will start to hear terms like rpa ad agency and rpa advertising agency, rpa google etc. All the automation ‘stuff’ for franchises, multi-locations, inventory, services, repeatable patterns and time based advertising. It is a big chunk of the advertising world. In fact RPA Advertising can account for up to 95% of some digital advertising strategies.
Nearly everyone has automated 10% of the management of their digital advertising portfolio. Before you go patting yourself on the back, pay attention to what has happened in the past 2 years. The tides have dramatically changed and there is now a race to automate 90% of digital advertising. If you think it isn’t possible, you need to question that thought. The winners are currently adopting this shift and the losers will be left behind unable to compete on price or performance.
For the skeptics, keep these 3 facts in mind:
- Margin is driven by Automation
- Automation drives better performance
- Competitive edge in the future is about tying data together and ability to execute better
So what should we all be doing if 90% is automated?
Sell: Companies that automate grow 3x faster than those that have not. We are not making this up, Google actually did a study on this. Ask them about it.
Engage Customers: We all know that customers that are engaged spend more. An engaged client base can grow 50-150% a year (or more). Have a narrative and a plan to walk your customers through the digital advertising landscape.
Manage Data: In order to automate advertising, you need clean structured data going into the machine. Bad and broken data means bad and broken advertising. Maintaining data and having the tools to identify bad data is critical. When you have that dialed in, it is time to think about how to get more data to do more complex things to outsmart and outperform your competition. Data is creative, inventory, audiences, incentives…. weather...
Manage Strategy: Take your 2 best people. Their job is to manage the strategy and your accounts should ‘subscribe’ to that strategy. These 2 individuals should be studying what is working and how to better leverage the data to make better decisions. This is where people will start talking about AI, but that is step 10 and you have to do the first 9 things before you are ready for AI to take over.
Manage Exceptions: Systems should be identifying opportunities and problems. In some cases, systems should be trying to fix them automatically. Otherwise, the system should put those issues in front of someone that can quickly correct it.
Things you shouldn’t be doing:
The computers/robots should be doing ALL of this
Managing budgets: No human can manage a budget 24x7. The best companies have budgets feeding from an ERP or Data Warehouse and are NOT writing credits for over spend or sitting around wondering why their portfolio is only spending at 91%. This is what RPA is GREAT at.
Manage keywords, ads, adgroups, bids on an individual account basis: You should be managing a strategy, not a word or bid. If adding one key is going to change something dramatically, then something is wrong with your strategy. Your data should be driving this.
Setting schedules to look at accounts for issues: Systems should be looking at your accounts every hour and finding the issues. The notion that a human can better find issues is a false one.
Spending more than a few minutes launching an account If you have a solid strategy and have the data for an account, you should be able to quickly (seconds or minutes) launch that account.
Robotic Process Advertising Automation is the future. Google and Facebook are both saying it. We agree and have managed Billions of dollars this way and now have built the world’s only automation platform to make this accessible to all.
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