In this second of a two-part series on AI marketing in APAC, we look at how marketers and brands can level up their AI marketing maturity to drive business growth.
Ask marketers for their top learning priority in 2024 and chances are, it’s AI in marketing.
With AI transforming what marketing can do, many marketers, in fact, have been honing their AI skills on the job. A recent survey found that as many as 60% of marketers across APAC have worked on, or been exposed to, AI or generative AI.1
With an AI marketing maturity roadmap, marketers and brands can chart their growth with greater focus.
There’s clearly room for marketers to upskill themselves in AI. But beyond receiving training, they’ll need a roadmap for AI marketing maturity. With it, they can be clear-eyed about the AI skills they need to level up on to achieve their marketing objectives.
The three levels of AI marketing maturity
To help marketers and brands identify the levels of AI marketing maturity, Google commissioned Accenture to research and survey over 300 marketers in APAC.
The study looked at two things: how ready businesses were to integrate AI in marketing, and how advanced they were in their AI marketing use cases. It uncovered three levels of AI marketing maturity and ways to accelerate AI adoption.
AI explorers are those in the early stages of understanding AI’s potential; they’ve just started experimenting with AI.
AI adopters have successfully put their foundational AI capabilities to the test but they’ve yet to tap into AI’s full potential.
AI leaders have a strong AI foundation and AI marketing capabilities, and they’re looking to maximise the value of AI.
The survey also found that AI leaders were more likely to reap significant payoffs from using AI in marketing.
The impact of using AI in marketing
Overall, most brands in APAC are AI adopters (65%), with the rest split between AI explorers (18%) and AI leaders (16%).2
In China and Korea, however, only a small percentage of brands — 4% and 1% respectively — are AI adopters.3 The higher levels of AI marketing maturity in those two markets are due to factors such as robust domestic AI infrastructures, strong support for local business investment in AI in Korea, and a large AI talent pool in China.
AI marketing maturity levels in APAC markets
Levelling up to drive business gains with AI
Once marketers and brands know what it takes to get to the next level of AI marketing maturity, they can map their growth more clearly and unlock greater gains. In Singapore, for instance, 73% of AI explorers who matured into AI adopters reported business improvements, including better customer experience, increased efficiency and productivity, and better creative output.4
Qualities of the AI marketing maturity levels
For AI explorers to level up: Don’t just explore using AI, prioritise its actual application in areas like content ideation, trend analysis and forecasting, and chatbot training. Where you use it will depend on your marketing objective. For example, if your aim is to raise awareness and brand consideration, you can tap into generative AI to produce highly relevant and on-brand ads in Performance Max.
Also, start building partnerships with trusted AI experts and nurturing in-house AI talent.
For AI adopters to level up: Broaden your use of AI beyond internal processes to areas such as media planning, A/B testing, and ad sentiment analysis. You can tap into AI-powered solutions, such as Performance Planner for media planning, Performance Max experiments for A/B testing of performance uplift, and Google Cloud for ad sentiment analysis.
You can also increase your AI marketing maturity by being part of an established network of AI experts and investing in a team of AI talents.
For AI leaders to go deeper: Become even more sophisticated in your use of AI. Explore leveraging it for ad performance prediction, user experience optimisation, and delivering highly relevant content to customers.
If you’re looking at quantifying the impact of your omnichannel marketing, consider using Meridian to guide your budget planning decisions and improve the effectiveness of your media buys.
To re-market to and re-engage high value customers who are more likely to make purchases, use Predictive Audiences in your ad campaigns. With creative tools like Product Studio on hand, it is easier than ever before to create high-quality photo and video assets in seconds, with just one image. And when it comes to media activation, choose the power pairing of Search broad match and Performance Max campaigns to deliver highly relevant ad content to customers.
Wherever you are on the AI marketing maturity journey, there are opportunities for you to further unlock the potential of AI. Here’s the three-step takeaway to help you accelerate your AI marketing maturity and business gains:
Step 1: Assess your AI marketing maturity level.
Step 2: Identify the AI use cases that you and your team should work on, given your business and marketing objectives, and in-house capabilities.
Step 3: Stack rank your use cases to decide which you should pursue first, and work with partners who can multiply your efforts. When it comes to advertising, check that you have the essentials in place to make the best use of AI.
Find out how far ahead other markets in APAC are when it comes to adopting AI, and how you can stay ahead, in the first part of this series about the AI journey of APAC marketers.
