Automation in ads: where does the ads manager fit?

Source: State of PPC Global Report 2022, via MediaPost.

AI has massively increased what businesses can do, and how efficiently. Smart Bidding, AI Max and automated creative are genuinely useful. But if everyone uses the same tools and follows the same algorithms, everything starts to look and sound the same.

Where people still matter: strategy and positioning; clean data and tracking (automation optimises whatever you feed it); creative that stands out; and scepticism - platform AI is built to benefit the platform as well as you, and AI-suggested ads can be inappropriate or even non-compliant for regulated industries.

The best results come from human judgement steering powerful automation, not handing it the keys.