AI has emerged as more than just a tool—it has become a pivotal player in the professional world.
My 2019 book, “Digital Marketing in an AI World,” explores the transformative impact of AI on PPC, highlighting three crucial human roles: teacher, doctor and pilot
However, the emergence of generative AI necessitates a fourth role to further enhance the synergy between human expertise and AI capabilities.
AI-driven digital marketing: How humans make a difference
Before introducing you to the fourth role, let me recap the three roles that I believe are still relevant in today’s generative AI era:
PPC doctor
The doctor’s role emphasizes the human qualities of empathy, experience and the ability to see the bigger picture. It is divided into two sub-roles:
Family physician: Understand clients deeply and provide tailored solutions with empathy.
Forensic pathologist: Solve complex problems with critical thinking and intuition.
PPC pilot
The pilot role maintains control and oversight in the PPC landscape, ensuring everything runs smoothly and problems are swiftly addressed. It is divided into two sub-roles:
Commercial pilot: Manage and monitor PPC accounts, ensuring smooth operations and addressing issues.
Fighter pilot: Aggressively seek competitive opportunities and adapt strategies quickly.
PPC teacher
The teacher role focuses on continuously training and refining machine learning systems. It highlights the need for human input in developing and optimizing these systems, as well as the importance of understanding and guiding the system’s learning process:
Trainer: Continuously refine machine learning systems, setting parameters and guiding their learning processes.
Optimizer: Ensure systems make intelligent adjustments based on nuanced insights to meet specific needs.
These roles highlight the ongoing need for human expertise in PPC management, complementing the capabilities of machine learning.
Dig deeper: 7 ways to use generative AI in PPC
Introducing the fourth role: The restaurateur
If generative AI is like a chef, it might produce an unsatisfactory meal if we simply instruct it to “make something delicious” without specifying the cuisine, dietary preferences or available ingredients. A PPC restaurateur can help our generative AI chef achieve their peak potential.
A restaurateur, by nature, is a master of balancing art and science. Running a successful restaurant involves an intricate dance between culinary creativity, business acumen and customer engagement.
Just as a restaurateur’s vision and management support a chef’s brilliance, human marketers play a vital role in ensuring that AI has the best data (ingredients) and strategic direction (menu).
For example, a human marketer, acting as the restaurateur, provides detailed prompts and context, such as “create a vegan Italian dish using seasonal vegetables and gluten-free pasta,” ensuring that the AI can deliver a meal that meets specific needs and expectations.
Here’s what the role of a PPC restaurateur entails.
Data-driven decisions with a human touch
Much like PPC professionals tweaking the data they share in prompts with systems like chatGPT, restaurateurs must leverage data to enhance their business.
Data plays a crucial role in understanding customer preferences and optimizing supply chains, as well as in managing reservations and marketing campaigns.
However, besides the data used to set the direction, execution is the key differentiator. The essence of a successful restaurant lies in its ambiance, the personal touch in customer service and the creativity in its culinary offerings.
PPC marketers, similarly, must use data to drive decisions while infusing creativity and personal insight into their campaigns.
Lessons from the kitchen: Adaptability and innovation
The restaurant industry is notorious for its fast pace and constant need for innovation.
Menus must be regularly updated, customer feedback must be swiftly addressed and market trends must be closely followed.
This agility and willingness to innovate are qualities that PPC marketers must adopt to stay relevant in an AI-dominated landscape.
The restaurateur’s ability to pivot and adapt quickly to changing circumstances offers valuable lessons for digital marketing professionals, especially in managing PPC campaigns where rapid adjustments and optimization are crucial.
Dig deeper: How AI is changing the game for PPC account managers
Crafting the perfect campaign: Storytelling and authenticity
In an age where authenticity and storytelling are paramount, restaurateurs excel in crafting unique dining experiences that resonate with their customers. Every dish tells a story and every restaurant has its own narrative.
I’m reminded of my time at Google when every office building had its cafe where the restaurateur created a restaurant based on a vision, whether that was a cafe where no dish could use more than seven ingredients or a restaurant where all ingredients had to be sourced from the Bay Area.
Similarly, PPC marketers must focus on building authentic campaigns that connect emotionally with their audience. A PPC restaurateur decides to use the principles of storytelling and authenticity to enhance digital marketing campaigns, making ads more compelling and effective.
Optimizing for success: Precision and personalization
Successful restaurateurs know the importance of balancing a meticulously crafted dish from their chef with the need for personalization based on the diner’s circumstances.
Similarly, PPC marketers must balance their own brand’s message with a touch of personalization to reach the right audience with the right message at the right time.
PPC restaurateurs adopt strategies for optimizing PPC campaigns, paralleling how restaurateurs fine-tune their offerings to meet diverse customer preferences and expectations.
Dig deeper: 6 ways to use AI for paid search account restructuring
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Why the restaurateur role is essential
Thinking of generative AI as a chef, able to help execute the grand vision for the perfect restaurant, we need to make sure we’re playing the role of restaurateur and guiding the AI chef to achieve their full potential.
There are some key elements to consider in our role as PPC restaurateurs.
Visionary leadership
In a restaurant, the restaurateur is responsible for the overarching vision and strategic direction.
Similarly, in digital marketing, this role involves:
Setting the strategic direction for AI initiatives.
Identifying new opportunities.
Understanding market trends.
Aligning AI capabilities with long-term business goals.
For example, the PPC restaurateur can direct the AI to use its analytical code writing capabilities, such as OpenAI’s Advanced Data Analysis (formerly Code Interpreter), to analyze trend data from the business’s past performance to anticipate future needs and market shifts.
Data stewardship
Just as a restaurateur sources the finest ingredients, the PPC restaurateur emphasizes the importance of high-quality data to help the generative AI deliver better outputs.
AI systems, particularly generative AI, thrive on diverse and robust datasets. The restaurateur curates, manages and refines data inputs to ensure AI systems have the best possible information to work with, including data cleaning, validation and augmentation.
For example, the PPC restaurateur chooses which attachments to provide alongside the prompt. They could give the AI chef the brand guidelines and historical performance data from campaigns before asking it to write new headlines for ads.
Ethical and responsible AI use
With AI’s increasing influence, ethical considerations have become paramount.
The PPC restaurateur oversees the responsible use of AI, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations and addressing ethical concerns. This includes:
Implementing guidelines for AI use.
Monitoring for bias.
Ensuring transparency in AI-driven decisions.
As PPC restaurateurs, we must act responsibly when sending private data to the companies that operate the LLMs.
For example, personal data should not be shared without users’ consent, and it must be made clear whether that data will be used for generation or teaching future versions of the large language model.
Continuous improvement and innovation
A successful restaurateur constantly seeks ways to innovate and improve. In digital marketing, this involves:
Continuously evaluating AI performance.
Identifying areas for enhancement.
Exploring new AI technologies and methodologies.
The restaurateur drives a culture of innovation, encouraging experimentation and iteration to stay ahead in the competitive landscape.
Dig deeper: AI and Google advertising: What’s next?
The human element in AI-enhanced digital marketing
As the digital marketing landscape evolves along with AI’s growing influence, the introduction of the PPC restaurateur role highlights the critical need for human expertise in guiding AI to its fullest potential.
This role seamlessly blends data-driven decision-making, adaptability, storytelling, precision and ethical stewardship, much like a restaurateur balancing the art and science of running a successful restaurant.
By embracing this fourth role, marketers can ensure that generative AI is not just a tool but a partner in crafting compelling, personalized and authentic campaigns.
Just as a real-life restaurateur enhances a chef’s creations, the PPC restaurateur enhances AI capabilities, driving innovation and maintaining a competitive edge in digital marketing.
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