Marketing is an essential part of growing any eCommerce business, but it can be quite pricey. Most eCommerce businesses do not have the time or resources to create content that can be targeted to many different kinds of audiences. This leads them to choose between forking over extra cash to create optimized ads or staying within their budget and missing out on potential customers. This is a dilemma no one wants, but almost every eCommerce business has. Luckily, Google and Facebook have made some changes and launched new ways to create ads. Ad customization is now possible with Google’s Ad Creative Studio.
What is ACS and How does it work?
Ads Creative Studio is a tool that Google has finally released to all advertisers after successful beta testing. Ads Creative Studio lets you take a single display or video ad and create up to hundreds of versions of it. The ads can be customized depending on different target audiences, locations, languages, or contexts. The advertiser will set which inputs of the ad can be interchanged along with guidance for the vision and Google will do the rest.
Google recently released this statement when asked about the function of Google Ads Creative studio:
“Simply tell us what element of the ad creative - like a product image, superimposed text, or sound - you want to set as ‘swappable’ and provide different versions of that element based on a set of rules you create. The rules include the audiences you want to reach or contexts you want to match.”
This is great news for eCommerce sellers who utilize paid advertising. According to Google, 80% of viewers say they are more open to advertising or branded content that is relevant to them. Typically, creating such customized content can be an extremely costly thing that most small businesses just cannot afford. This leads to advertisers forgoing quality ads. However, ACS changes the game without breaking the bank.
Case Studies
Google has published multiple case studies of how companies have used Google ACS to boost their interaction and streamline their advertising. For example, creative agency Men in Green utilized ACS, and Display and Video 360. MIG found that it was able to cut its creative time in half and maintain quality control over its ads. Another example of companies using Ads Creative Studio to boost awareness is General Motors. To prepare for their new Cruze 5 model release, GM decided to quickly produce 14 unique ads with ACS. The result? Reduced advertising costs by 36%, and the campaign increased brand searches for “Chevrolet Cruze” by 56%. Additionally, they reduced their cost per view by a record 32%. These are two examples of how ACS can be revolutionary for advertising big or small companies.
Meta’s Make-A-Scene
Google is not the only company shaking up the space with AI. Meta has just released a new tool called Make-A-Scene that blends human imagination and machine learning to produce “algorithmic art.” Make-A-Scene allows people to use text prompts and optimal sketches to create images. Text-to-image AI is nothing new and has been generating art with machine learning for a while. However, traditional text-to-image software has its problems. For one, while the computer may give you an idea of what you want, it may not produce it how you imagined it. For example, if you input “a purple elephant riding a motorcycle,” the software will spit that out. But, the elephant or the bike may be the wrong size or facing in a different direction than you imagined. Make-A-Scene changes that. Meta introduced the ability to not only include a text prompt but a sketch as an input. Basically, you can draw a rough sketch of what you are imagining. This combined with the text description ensures the placement, colors, depth, etc of your picture are just right. For example, you now can draw the size and scale of your purple elephant and choose the direction and depth of the motorcycle to ensure your image is to your liking. This new feature allows artists to bring their ideas into reality very quickly without having to filter through images until you get one that's close enough to what you envisioned.
Image credit: https://ai.facebook.com/blog/greater-creative-control-for-ai-image-generation/
These images show the simple layout and process of Make-A-Scene. The artists imputed their basic text prompts: “skyscrapers in the desert” and “ a hot dog floating in the sky high resolution.” They also drew basic pictures of what they envisioned their picture to look like and Voila! The outputs produce beautiful, accurate designs similar to the sketches. Digital design has never been easier.
This can be a great tool for advertisers who want to incorporate digital art into their ads but do not have the time to design every post themselves.
In Focus
Check out these two great AI tools. Both can prove extremely helpful to any eCommerce business looking to market their business online. Not only can you produce high-quality customized content, but you can at the fraction of the time and cost it used to take!
