Travel giants are using AI to slash Google ads costs—here's how

Plus, we uncovered two hidden gems of AI marketing tools 💎

Author

Charlie Braithwaite
December 20, 2023

 

AI Marketing School Newsletter #76

Hi there marketers,

Welcome to AI Marketing School, where we’re helping marketers harness AI to its full potential.

Today, we’re looking at:

  • Bye bye, wasted ad spend: Travel giants fight back against Google with AI

  • Putting the top AI image generation tools to the test

  • Two unmissable AI marketing tools

Hope you enjoy the issue.

Charlie & Tom

AI IN ACTION

Travel giants fight back against Google with AI

What’s the first thing you do when planning a trip?

Head to Google, obviously.

This is bad news for travel giants like Expedia, who have to spend eye-watering sums advertising on Google.

Worse still, ”even though the travel site increased its payments to Google for ad space, traffic never increased after the search engine began showing flights and hotels.”

But now, travel giants plan to use AI to cut Google out of the equation entirely.

Here’s how.

Plan your trip with AI

  • Expedia is planning to create a personalized AI assistant trained with its library of flight and hotel information, and informed by users’ travel preferences.

  • It hopes that people will eventually use this AI as a one-stop-shop for creating travel plans and even booking flights/hotels.

  • Rather than go to Google, users can simply head straight to Expedia’s AI… and will book directly through them.

  • Meanwhile, Airbnb has just acquired an AI startup that will act as a personalized travel concierge, learning users’ tastes and recommending rooms/hotels that they might like. Think Spotify, but for travel.

AI MARKETING RESEARCH

Putting AI image generation to the test

Ever wanted to compare AI image generation tools?

If so, you’ll love this.

Anu Aakash tested the most popular AI image tools by comparing their responses to the following prompt: “a woman paralysed by rose vine intertwined all over her body, she is in agony .”

Here’s what they each generated.

A couple of notes

  • While Dalle3’s looks great, Anu said it sometimes declined to generate the image as it “did not align with our content policy.” Other times, it created it just fine. Odd?

  • Midjourney also said the prompt was against its policy but created it after Anu appealed.

  • Adobe Firefly 2 and Clipdrop declined outright to create the images.

THIS WEEK’S AI MARKETING TOOLS

Virtual try-on for anyone, wearing anything. Perfect for small e-commerce brands that can’t afford expensive photoshoots.

Create lead ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram in less than 5 minutes.

BONUS RESOURCES

Here are a few great AI marketing resources that we’ve come across recently. Enjoy!

Get inspired with this list of the 10 best AI-powered marketing campaigns. Features global big-hitters like Nike, Mastercard, and even Ben & Jerry’s.

2. Could Marketers Be Eavesdropping Through Your Personal Devices?

Cox Media Group recently sparked controversy by announcing it could use AI to eavesdrop on customers through their devices and deliver more targeted ads.

3. 2023 saw a number of AI scandals, demonstrating the need for clearer guidelines for brands and publishers

Trying to figure out what not to do? Check out eMarketer’s list of 2023’s top AI marketing scandals.

What did you think of today’s email?

Loved it? Hated it? Hit reply and tell us why.

Happy marketing. We’ll see you again on Friday.

Charlie & Tom