Diving into the dynamic world of digital marketing, we’re thrilled to sit down with Milena Traikovich, a seasoned Demand Gen expert who has dedicated her career to helping businesses craft impactful campaigns that nurture high-quality leads. With her deep expertise in analytics, performance optimization, and lead generation, Milena offers a unique perspective on how artificial intelligence is reshaping the marketing landscape. In this engaging conversation, we explore AI’s role as a powerful ally for marketers, its transformative impact on audience targeting, the intricacies of campaign optimization, and its behind-the-scenes influence within the broader ad tech ecosystem. Let’s uncover how AI, paired with human insight, is redefining what it means to be a great marketer.
How do you see AI shaping the current landscape of marketing?
AI is fundamentally changing the game in marketing by enhancing efficiency and precision in ways we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago. It’s automating tedious tasks like data analysis and reporting, while also uncovering patterns in consumer behavior that humans might miss. From personalizing content at scale to predicting customer needs, AI is enabling marketers to focus more on strategy and creativity. However, it’s not a standalone solution—it thrives when paired with human oversight to ensure those insights align with brand goals.
What’s one common myth about AI that you often hear in the marketing world?
A big myth is that AI is here to replace marketers entirely. That’s just not true. AI excels at processing huge amounts of data and automating repetitive tasks, but it lacks the emotional intelligence and strategic vision that humans bring. It’s more of a co-pilot—helping us make smarter decisions faster, but still relying on us to steer the ship and understand the nuances of storytelling and brand identity.
How does AI act as a tool to empower marketers rather than overshadow them?
AI empowers marketers by taking on the heavy lifting of data crunching and mundane processes, freeing us up to focus on the bigger picture. For instance, it can analyze customer behavior in real-time and suggest optimal campaign adjustments, but it’s up to us to decide how those insights fit into our overarching goals. It’s like having a super-smart assistant that handles the numbers while we craft the narrative and build connections with our audience.
In what areas of marketing do you think AI is having the most significant impact right now?
AI is making huge waves in audience targeting and campaign optimization. With targeting, it’s helping us build detailed personas and predict behaviors using vast datasets, which means we can reach the right people at the right time. In optimization, AI adjusts campaigns on the fly—tweaking budgets or creative elements based on performance data. These areas are where AI’s ability to process and act on information in real-time really shines.
How has AI transformed the way marketers approach audience targeting and segmentation?
AI has taken audience targeting to a whole new level by enabling hyper-precise segmentation. It combines different types of data—like confirmed user actions and inferred behaviors—to create lookalike audiences or identify high-value groups. It’s not just about who the audience is anymore; AI helps us understand when they’re most likely to engage, based on patterns like time of day or past interactions. This predictive power means we can craft messages that hit at the perfect moment.
What are some potential pitfalls of using AI for audience targeting, and how can marketers navigate them?
One major pitfall is the risk of bias in the data that trains AI models. If the data reflects past prejudices or isn’t representative, the AI will amplify those flaws, leading to skewed targeting. Another issue is over-reliance on automation, which can miss the human context behind behaviors. Marketers can navigate this by regularly auditing their data for fairness, collaborating with data scientists to refine models, and always applying a layer of human judgment to AI outputs.
How does AI enhance campaign optimization, and what does it need to work effectively?
AI boosts campaign optimization by analyzing performance data in real-time and making adjustments faster than any human could. It can predict outcomes like click-through rates or conversions and shift budgets or creative elements accordingly. But for it to work effectively, it needs high-quality, accurate data as its foundation. Garbage in, garbage out—if the data isn’t representative or clean, the optimizations will be off. Marketers also need to set clear goals so the AI knows what “success” looks like.
Can you walk us through how AI personalizes ad creative for different audiences?
Absolutely. AI uses dynamic creative optimization to tailor ads based on real-time signals like a user’s location, device, or even the context of their current activity. For example, it might swap out images or messaging to match a user’s interests or where they are—like showing a beach vacation ad to someone browsing near the coast. It analyzes what resonates with different segments and adapts instantly, ensuring the creative feels relevant. But it still needs human input to define the core message and emotional tone.
What role does AI play in the behind-the-scenes infrastructure of digital advertising?
Behind the scenes, AI is the backbone of much of the ad tech ecosystem. It handles data management tasks like cleaning and organizing massive datasets, and it improves identity resolution by linking devices and users more accurately. AI also powers programmatic bidding by evaluating impressions in milliseconds, deciding where to place budgets based on factors like engagement likelihood. It’s the engine that keeps everything running smoothly, even if marketers don’t always see it directly.
Why is a strong data foundation so critical for AI to deliver value in marketing?
A strong data foundation is everything for AI. If the data is incomplete, outdated, or biased, the AI’s outputs—whether it’s targeting suggestions or optimization tweaks—will be unreliable. High-quality data ensures that AI can spot meaningful patterns and make accurate predictions. For example, with a robust dataset, AI can better anticipate customer churn or engagement opportunities, but without it, you’re just guessing. It’s like building a house—you need a solid base, or the whole structure falls apart.
How do you balance the use of AI tools with maintaining a human-driven marketing strategy?
Balance comes from using AI as a support system, not the decision-maker. I rely on AI for insights and automation—like identifying trends or optimizing spend—but I always step in to interpret those insights through the lens of our brand’s values and goals. It’s about setting clear parameters for AI, regularly reviewing its recommendations, and ensuring there’s a human touch in areas like creative storytelling or emotional resonance that AI can’t fully grasp.
What’s your forecast for the future of AI in marketing over the next few years?
I believe AI will become even more integrated into marketing, especially as privacy regulations tighten and data becomes more anonymized. We’ll see advancements in privacy-preserving techniques, like federated learning, that allow AI to deliver personalization without compromising user trust. I also expect AI to get better at understanding context and nuance, though it’ll still need human guidance. The marketers who succeed will be those who embrace AI as a partner, using it to enhance—not replace—their strategic and creative skills.
