Does Automation and AI Take the People Out of PPC Advertising?

Automating the management of your PPC ads can save you a lot of time, which busy funeral home owners and operators probably appreciate. But if you put your ad campaigns solely in the hands of machine learning, you could also waste a lot of money. (Which is something no one appreciates.)

What Is PPC Automation?
PPC automation means using computers to handle tasks related to PPC ad campaigns. Common tasks that can be automated, at least to some degree, include keyword research, segmenting keywords into various campaigns, and managing ad-bidding processes. In some cases, people even automate the creation of ad copy.

It’s powerful technology, and you know what the Spidey-verse says about power. (But if you don’t, it’s “with great power comes great responsibility.”)

Funeral home advertisers can wield this responsibility correctly by understanding what PPC automation can and can’t do:

What PPC Automation CAN Do

• Parse large subsets of data to arrive at conclusion much faster than a human.
• Use programmed best practices to create recommendations for keywords, campaign structures, and the right target audience.
• Manage the day-to-day of ad bidding so you’re not tied to a computer.
• Take compelling ad copy and spin it, turning a few ads into dozens (or more) ad options.
• Run ad tests, gather and compile the related data, and recommend best options going forward.

What Ad Automation CAN’T Do

• Understand whether the “best-practice” conclusion is right given your very specific human target audience (especially when of factors such as complex religious beliefs or social structures are at play).
• Create original ad copy that comes from human emotion, experience, and understanding.
• Act outside of preprogrammed rulesets to stop or modify bidding because of a change in budget, priorities, or need (you would have to re-enter those factors).
• Bring nonnumeric factors, such as long-term experience and gut feelings, to the table.

Should you eschew technology altogether and go with your gut-feeling all the time because you have 30 years of funeral home operating experience? No. But you also shouldn’t hand all your advertising to a computer.

The best bet in 2020 is to strike a balance between automation and experienced human interaction in all marketing and advertising processes. And that’s especially true in a people-centric niche such as deathcare.