The Role Of Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

Artificial intelligence is everywhere around us. An algorithm converts your speech into data whenever you talk to Alexa, Siri, or your Google Assistant. Your device serves as a black box system where you speak your thoughts and get precisely what you’re looking for. Most people have been freaked out by their phone’s ability to read their thoughts.

You’ve thought that you need to buy dog food the entire day, and then you call your spouse to tell them to get it. Five minutes later, when you open your Facebook account, there’s an ad for dog food waiting for you to click on it. This happens all the time, and it almost feels like magic, or as if someone’s spying on you. Well, both of these things are true.

How do ads know what you want?

Marketing has improved a lot over the past decade. If it weren’t for artificial intelligence, businesses would still rely on flyers, billboards, and TV commercials to sell their product. Luckily, intelligent algorithms have been developed to help consumers and businesses find the sweet spot where a sale can happen. 

AI can digest and make sense of a lot of data. That’s what makes it crucial in the world of marketing. When you have access to data, you can figure out trends and buyer personas and use metrics to see what strategy works. 

Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, and other popular platforms are primarily data companies. You don’t pay a dime to use them, which means that you’re the product they’re selling.

They know what you like, and dislike, make you angry and make you happy. Whenever you’re on social media, a trillion-dollar AI algorithm is directed at your brain to figure out what makes you tick.

These big tech firms sell your data to companies, including demographics, interests, age, gender, race, and marital status. Other companies can choose a specific group of people they want to target based on that information. This increases conversion, which makes them even more money. 

Can ads be abused?

Definitely, not all marketers are created equal. Most of them want to grow their business and sell genuine products and services. But some people want to abuse the system. Hackers can use ads to lure you into clicking on their landing page and offering you a free product or service. Usually, the offer looks too good to be true. 

If you interact with their website, enter your credit card details, or download something like a free eBook, you could give hackers sensitive information. It’s relatively easy to mirror a website and pretend they’re someone else online. As soon as you enter your info and credit card details, the hacker can steal all of your money. 

Additionally, if you download something from their site, there could be malware attached to it, which you won’t notice. Then, two weeks later, after you’ve forgotten about the interaction, your device could get frozen by ransomware. A keylogger could help drain your bank account too. 

Hackers often target senior citizens who don’t know how to maneuver the modern tech world. But that doesn’t mean that everyone else is safe. You should never underestimate the ability of a scammer.

How to prevent hacking?

The best way to be secure online is to use a virtual private network. Some VPNs have advanced features; for example, NordVPN has a Threat Protection feature capable of detecting malware and malicious websites. The feature itself blocks malware and keeps your browser safe.

Also, VPN companies have servers in multiple different countries, and they bounce the address several times before you can interact with the site. Your browsing speed will be slower since so many things are happening in the background.

Do VPNs have other features?

Most advanced VPNs protect you from ads, trackers, and malware. You won’t experience annoying ads playing before your YouTube videos. Also, you can say goodbye to those pop-ups when you open a website from Google.

Accepting cookies and getting targeted by marketing campaigns will become a thing of the past. That’s because you can crawl the net privately. As a bonus, suspicious and executable files will be scanned before downloading to protect you from malware.

Finally, it might be tempting to use a free VPN compared to a paid one. But like we mentioned above, when you’re using a service for free, you’re the product. Free VPNs don’t offer the same level of protection, which makes you an easy target to exploit.