What Marketers Need To Know About ChatGPT
Digital Marketing
Feb 07 2024
Recent survey data shows that 61% of marketers already use AI in their marketing activities, and ChatGPT is among the AI applications making huge waves. In January 2023, the application had around 100 million monthly active users. Here’s how the application gets so close to sounding human, how it might affect search engines, and the ways ad copy may evolve alongside AI innovation.
ChatGPT: What It Is and How It Works
ChatGPT is described as “a generative AI language model that can create original content in response to a user prompt.” ChatGPT is technically considered a large language model (LLM), meaning the technology is fed huge amounts of data to the point where it can predict what comes next in a logical sentence structure. The combination of user prompts and deep learning algorithms allows ChatGPT to generate text that reads as though it was written by humans.
Although similar types of generative AI have been available for the past few years, ChatGPT’s capabilities exceed what most people had seen prior to its release. The application can produce conversational copy while also successfully answering follow-up questions thanks to the additional training element of Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF).
Benefits of ChatGPT
Successful multichannel marketing campaigns require copy — and lots of it. Blog posts, reports, social media captions, display ads, and website copy are just some of the ways digital marketers engage their audiences. Add in the fact that unique audience segments often respond to different messaging, and it’s easy to see how marketing teams might struggle to keep up with a campaign’s copy demands.
This is where ChatGPT offers a huge boost. With just a few key prompts, teams can create more of the content they need with fewer resources and on tighter budgets. More efficient content production helps to increase overall productivity, which frees up time for marketing teams to focus on other areas of campaign strategy and management. This could include:
– More opportunities for A/B testing.
– Directly engaging with prospective customers.
– Experimenting with new channels and trends to drive better results.
What ChatGPT Means for Search Engines
For all of the possibilities ChatGPT presents, some marketing experts question how the app will impact search engines like Google (which recently added an AI component to its popular search engine). The hope is for generative AI features to help create a better customer experience by delivering more accurate search results — “accurate,” however, is not always an easy target for AI to hit.
ChatGPT derives its responses from data it was trained on, so when responding to a search query the app supplies an answer that includes anything that seems relevant, with no guarantee that everything returned is relevant — or even accurate. This is concerning for a few key reasons.
While ChatGPT can make an educated guess as to user intent, it doesn’t know exactly what the user wants from their search. The answer it presents can seem absolute; however, it’s only based on data the app has already processed. By displaying a limited view of the answer and presenting it as the definitive solution, users are less likely to pursue other avenues for answers and may accept the first result as fact.
This shortened discovery phase is especially problematic because ChatGPT (and other similar applications) have been known to display inaccurate or completely false information. After all, it can only derive answers from the information it was trained on. Even if that particular library is massive, it’s not all-encompassing and may never be — it’s much more costly to run an LLM-based search due to the large-scale model required to keep feeding it the most current information.
ChatGPT and the Future of Ad Content
Although questions remain regarding the successful integration of ChatGPT with search, the app’s usefulness in content creation is more straightforward. Of the marketers currently using AI in their marketing efforts, nearly 45% use AI for content production.
Some teams may hope that ChatGPT can write all of their content; however, humans are needed for implementing strategy, ensuring that copy speaks to actual customer needs, and crafting cohesive messaging for multichannel campaigns. Still, ChatGPT can supplement ad content creation in interesting ways.
Because ChatGPT learns from existing data and takes user prompts into account when generating content, the application could be used to create on-brand messaging for future ads based on past successful campaigns. For example, it can generate copy that answers the search questions users ask most frequently when your ads are served. Marketers can then focus on adding creative and emotional cues or audience-specific CTAs to content without writing the copy from scratch.
The recent advancements in natural language generation make a compelling case for creating marketing copy using AI. ChatGPT in particular has shown exceptional promise — but not perfection. Teams who learn more about generative AI and experiment with what it has to offer are likely to find ways this technology can complement current strategies.
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