The death knell has been tolled many times for performance marketers, writes Joe Stevens, client lead at Atomic 212°. However, like Lazarus, they performance marketers keep coming back. Here’s why:
For those of you that have seen the film Layer Cake, I like to imagine this phrase being spoken as Tom Hardy lifts a glass of Whiskey. But, you’re stuck with reading it from me.
Over the past 10+ years working in this industry there have been so many supposed ‘last boat outs’ for Performance Marketers that have come and gone. The rise of automation was meant to spell the end of performance marketers as platforms assumed the roles that we currently occupy, the rise of walled gardens was meant to be a significant threat, a shift to brand marketing was meant to reduce performance budgets dramatically, as was the direct to consumer evolution, then recently privacy regulations were meant to make many of the strategies we used obsolete. And now, AI is going to be our downfall.
There have been so many ‘last boats out’ that you could actually conduct a semi-regular ferry service.
AI is going to alter the landscape of Performance Marketing
There are some that believe that this last one is a ‘biggie’ and, whilst the uptake has been relatively slow with 80 per cent of Australian businesses yet to ‘officially’ implement AI there is no doubt that AI is going to present a significant change to all of our roles. Too many high level executives at too many large companies have invested and placed large bets on it for it not to become part of our everyday.
However, I certainly don’t believe that it renders many jobs extinct, especially Performance Marketers, I think that’s bollocks. I believe that AI will significantly evolve our role, requiring us to apply the same skill set in different areas. But we will adapt, anyone that can navigate the UI of some of the clunkier digital advertising platforms we use daily has already proven themselves to have large reserves of adaptability.
Key areas will still need a ‘human touch’
Strategic vision and decision making is an area which is still required by Performance Marketers at all levels. Whilst AI driven planning capabilities have proliferated across publishers and tools like Media Mix Models, I’ve found that these are most effective when combined with a human overlay. Simply handing over the keys to ‘the AI’ produces some wacky results. Understanding the business goals, aligning media strategy to them and dealing with a sprinkling of politics are still things which require a human touch, even more so as AI is relied on further.
Additionally, whilst not the sexiest of topics, tighter regulation will require management to ensure the most effective marketing strategies for the current and evolving environment. This is especially relevant as Performance Marketers are often at the forefront of the utilization and segmentation of audiences and advising on the most effective way to use first party data, AI will enhance these capabilities but it’s something that will still need ‘steering’.
Stakeholder management is such an important skill in any role. Whether your key stakeholders are on the “what’s the difference between SEO and PPC?” side of the scale or the “construct me a roadmap so we can move toward Value Based Bidding” side of the scale building trust and displaying leadership to support these people’s roles will be a constantly important skill. I would be willing to bet that the role of a CMO is not under threat from AI, so align yourself to supporting those with key roles and be their expert.
Finally, Innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. AI is massively useful in analysing data and suggesting optimisations, and can be extremely useful to lean on for thought starters but when it comes down to some of the more innovative testing and optimisation strategies or initiatives they are, more often than not, not something spat out from an AI chatbot or suggested from a platforms automated AI assisted optimisation tools.
