Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have probably heard about artificial intelligence (AI) platforms such as ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Google’s Gemini and more. 

These platforms have been taking the world by storm (or at least the hype has). You think of a task you want done, and AI could probably help. Shoot, there are even AI platforms now that do consulting for lawyers after a lawyer got caught using ChatGPT to write a legal brief. 

Gone are the days of humans thinking for themselves. 

Or is it?

Getting Over (Creative) Writer’s Block

Have you ever been stuck on writing a paper or blog post, or you can’t seem to find the right words for your ad? With AI, you can generate multiple variations of creative text that has the same prompt.

So we wanted to test out how AI-generated copy would impact our Meta (Facebook) ad performance.

Our team embraces using new tools to get the best results for our clients. We realize that Ai is a great tool to help us improve processes and help us make our creative work even better.

However, it is always a good idea to dip your toes in the water before doing a cannonball — so that is what we did.

Dipping Our Toes in the (AI) Water

That’s when our lovely client of three years, Norcross Mazda and Volvo Cars Memphis, entered the picture. 

Facebook and Instagram ads have worked well for the Norcross stores. Plus, they are open to trying new things if it means reaching new customers. We recently tested out Snapchat and TikTok for them, which led to great return on ad spend (ROAS).

This time, we wanted to test whether AI- or human-generated ad copy would perform better.

For this test of AI vs. Human ad copy, we chose two different campaigns for each store (one new vehicle and one used vehicle campaign). These four campaigns ran the whole month of September, so we have enough time to get definitive results for this test. 

We wrote the human-created text first (so the human text wasn’t swayed by AI). Then we gave ChatGPT the following prompt:

Please write persuasive advertisements to promote [product/service] on [instagram/facebook]. I am about to answer to some relevant questions for you to perform this task efficiently:

• What is the name of the product/service you are promoting?
• What is the main feature or benefit of the product/service?
• Who is the target audience you are directing the advertisement towards?
• What are the unique advantages that your product/service offers?
• What is the call to action you want to use to encourage users to take action?

We also made the AI choose the text option that it believed would produce the most results. Then, we used the ad copy in the campaigns for the month and let them run, checking them weekly to make sure they were running smoothly.

The Results

And the winner was… humans! 

We were victorious. From the four campaigns, the human text ad had two significant wins, while AI generated text had only one significant win. (We consider a significant win when the results are above the significance level of 90%.)

To prove our test even further, the quality of the results generated from the human-created text were much more impressive than the AI results.

Between the two campaigns, the ads with human-written text saw several stats that outperformed its AI-generated competitors:

• Ads with the same reach and impressions saw almost 900 more link clicks.
• The human-written ads had a 2% higher click-through rate (CTR). 
• The cost per click was 5 cents lower.

All of this means that the human-created text helped improve the quality of these ads. More users were engaged and more likely to convert.

Using Our A/B Test to Improve Future Campaigns

Just to be thorough, I looked into the results of the new Volvo campaign where AI-text won. One of the main things ChatGPT focused on was talking more about luxury, and keywords such as elegance and lifestyle. The human-generated copy focused more on the features of SUVs. 

After taking note of the AI-text focus, our team has now started including more focus on features overall in our Facebook and Instagram ads. This has led to even more improvements in recent campaigns. 

One of those improvements: the new Volvo campaigns have shown an increase of .5% CTR and an average drop in cost per reach (CPR) of 6 cents!

The Use of Artificial Intelligence at 9 Clouds

Overall Thoughts

Think we’re against using AI generators? Think again.

We embrace the use of AI and realize that these new tools are just the beginning of newer ways to generate more leads for our clients. And if these new platforms help us get better results for our clients, we’re willing to work with them to help better our digital marketing strategy.

Ready for Your Own Results? 

If your business is looking to grow online, look to 9 Clouds. Our team would be happy to talk with you about your digital lead generation needs. We’ll earn your trust, deliver results and guide your business digitally. 

Start with a complimentary online marketing assessment, and see how we can tailor our services to the unique needs of your business. We’re not afraid to try new marketing strategies if it means better results for your business.

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