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AI Wrote This Title and It’s Terrible
A new study has proven what we probably knew all along: AI isn’t as good at writing as the techbros think it is.
by Tod Maffin and Steph Gunn
Today's News
AI Sucks at Creating Titles
AI may be good at many things, but title writing? Not so much. New research suggests you might want to reconsider turning to AI for your next product title, podcast title, or email marketing heading.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) recently ran an experiment using Microsoft’s Copilot AI to create podcast titles, which can offer insights for marketing beyond podcasting, especially for crafting product or blog post titles.
Humans 1, AI 0
The results? Copilot’s attempts at generating titles and descriptions fell short, missing the mark on creativity, tone, and editorial judgment.
While AI occasionally produced a usable title, the ABC said the results often felt generic, corny, or overly simplistic. Researchers described the suggestions as "sappy" and "cringe," describing the process as "prompt roulette."
The prompt tried to coax various approaches from Copilot to provide creative inspiration for podcast producers. However, most of the suggestions ended up being strikingly similar in wording, style, and format.
Headline fails
A major frustration was AI's obsession with punctuation—particularly colons. Despite clear prompts to avoid them, they couldn’t stop the number of suggested titles with colons in them.
In the end, the researchers said the process was slower and less effective than if they had written the titles and descriptions themselves.
The downside (and somewhat encouraging) learning from this experiment… has been that AI doesn't seem to be better than humans at headline writing.
While it occasionally comes up with a usable (if uninspired) headline, it's a long way from what we humans can come up with.
Which tech company's AI chatbot made a factual error in its first promotional ad in 2023? |
🎁 Everyone who guesses will be entered in our monthly draw for a full year of our Premium Newsletter free!
Brands Boost Spend on Influencer Marketing
Considering hopping on the influencer marketing bandwagon? You’re not alone.
The creator comeback
A new report from CreatorIQ has found that three out of four brands are increasing their creator marketing spend this year.
After a dip in investments last year, companies are once again looking for creators to boost their promotions.
The report notes that those investing $1 million or more annually are seeing the highest returns on investment through these partnerships.
However, many brands still grapple with measurement challenges.
The winning strategy
When it comes to strategies, sponsored content remains the most effective approach for brands.
The report also highlights the growing influence of generative AI in creator marketing, with nearly half of brands using AI to generate short-form content.
Reddit Launches AI-Powered Keyword Targeting
Reddit has some updates to its keyword ad targeting options.
The platform launched Contextual Keyword Targeting last year, which lets advertisers display their ads based on the context of each conversation, not just the subreddit community.
Now, Reddit is making keyword targeting available in more places.
Multi-placement optimization
The latest update introduces multi-placement optimization, expanding keyword targeting to more ad placements, including feed ads and conversations.
Dynamic Audience Expansion
Reddit is also rolling out new “Dynamic Audience Expansion.”
This works in conjunction with Keyword Targeting, to identify users that are likely to engage based on campaign specifics, including ad creative and user behavior.
The platform is also adding keyword suggestions.
Finally, Reddit has also revamped its campaign management interface — they say it will simplify the process for advertisers.
TikTok Measures Your Ad's Impact IRL
TikTok is taking ad measurement a step further by tracking how clicks convert into foot traffic.
The platform this week announced a new partnership with location data company InMarket, that measures the impact of ads on in-store visits.
How it works
InMarket’s conversion tracking uses a range of touchpoints to asses in-store traffic.
A store visit conversion is recorded when a consumer visits a physical store location after being exposed to a TikTok ad.
This lets advertisers determine if their campaign leads to increased visits post-exposure by comparing the visitation rates of users exposed to the ad with those of a similar control group.
Essentially, it offers conversion lift reporting, but through more precise, third-party verified data.
Google Introduces Gross Profit Optimization Setting
While TikTok ramps up ad measurement, Google is slowly rolling out a new campaign setting called “gross profit optimization,” which lets optimizes campaigns for actual profit instead of just revenue or return on ad spend (ROAS).
It calculates the gross profit by applying the margins you set up in the optimization goal to the value of each conversion.
How to set it up
To set up gross profit optimization, you need to provide the following data to Google Ads:
Cart Data and Cost of Goods Sold in your product feed
Set your optimization goal to Profit Target Return on Advertising Spend (tROAS also known as POAS)
The update is currently available in a handful of Google Ads accounts for now.
Search Trends to Haunt Your Marketing
Need some inspo for your Halloween marketing campaign?
Google recently launched the latest version of its "Frightgeist" Halloween search trends mini-site, including everything spooky from makeup searches to food trends, Halloween decor, and even dog costumes.
Top costume trends
This year’s lineup also includes the top costume trends based on U.S. Search activity.
The top 3 costumes include:
Shrunken Head Bob: The "Beetlejuice Shrunken Head" is the most searched shrunken head of all time.
Raygun: the Australian Olympic breakdancer who didn’t exactly bring home the gold.
Catnap: a character from The Smiling Critters, a line of colorful animal plushies, that possess big mouths and unsettling black eyes.
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