Intuit QuickBooks Canada was named the AI Marketer of the Year at the inaugural Google Search Honours Awards on November 2, 2023. Karan Arora, Team Lead, Holistic Search at Intuit QuickBooks Canada, explains how leveraging predictive AI has become essential technology for the team to break down silos and uplevel its Search marketing efforts.
It’s a new year, and artificial intelligence (AI) is unlikely to slow its streak of being a major contributor to the achievements of marketers everywhere. Rapid changes continue in the way businesses operate through automating tasks, discovering insights, and improving decision-making – all guided by the finesse of human expertise, of course.
Here’s how Intuit QuickBooks has integrated AI into its processes and why 2024 should be your team’s year to fully embrace AI-powered tools.
Make your foundation an experimental mindset
For the small and nimble team here at Intuit QuickBooks, we knew that machine learning technology would help us optimize efficiency and scalability. For the last year, we’ve integrated tools like Performance Max and value-based bidding to achieve our goals and mark new milestones. We’ve spent almost six months running multiple experiments before adopting the current structure, which we believe is capable of accurately delivering on our desired outcomes. Ongoing testing and learning on repeat has laid the foundation for us to explore and try new methods.
Embrace new AI for performance and creative strategies
AI’s impact on performance marketing really depends on the AI used. For us, our adoption of predictive AI for search media marketing has had a noticeable effect on our business outcomes. Specifically, the integration of Performance Max (PMax) resulted in a 33% jump in return on ad spend in our fiscal year 2023, as well as contributing to 10% of all new subscribers.1
Not to be missed is the emergence of generative AI in media marketing allowing marketers to come up with more dynamic and creative strategies. It gives businesses the opportunity to skip the mental roadblocks and fast-track toward new content ideas and improve content relevance and engagement. It’s this combination of predictive and generative AI that will be instrumental in driving strong outcomes across the performance marketing landscape.
Short-term findings unlock long-term success
As AI adoption becomes commonplace, our marketers have learned how to more efficiently analyze and interpret insights to stay competitive. They’ve incorporated custom bidding and are ingesting more user signals into their campaigns, optimizing campaigns and improving return on investment. With AI-powered tools, these inputs have allowed the team to make more informed decisions for even greater marketing success. And with this approach, our company is showing its commitment to providing greater value to our customers and remaining ahead of the curve in the dynamic digital landscape.
A willingness to try new things and learn from mistakes is key to unlocking long-term success.
At the heart of this is our ethos to embrace innovation and experimentation. It allows us to regularly test new approaches across diverse aspects of our campaigns, such as channels and tactics. The team consistently seeks ways to improve both efficiency and performance and is willing to take calculated risks to achieve our objectives. This approach has helped us to maintain a competitive edge while continuing to innovate and adapt to changing market trends.
And a quick word for the hesitant: Starting small with controlled experiments is an ideal entry point. It can be daunting to abandon tried-and-tested strategies, but a willingness to try new things and learn from mistakes is key to unlocking long-term success.
Create a future that’s more optimized and informed
AI is making remarkable progress and game-changing development – just look at tools like Gemini. Even conversation-based search experiences can help contextualize results, assist with analyzing recent trends or brainstorming improved ways to grow audiences.. None of this goes without rigorous testing and risk mitigation, but AI will have a significant influencer with its continuous innovation and progress.
Our AI-driven approach continues to improve our already high-performing search channel, enhancing lifetime revenue (LTR) and cost per acquisition (CPA).
That’s why AI-powered tools will continue to be an indispensable component of our future marketing strategies. AI’s growth into the dynamic digital landscape signals that more effective marketing solutions are emerging with broader coverage and effectiveness. Our plan is to increasingly leverage AI to: more strategically focus our advertising, use insights to improve conversions, drive high return on investment, and create more value for our customers.
AI lets us deliver bespoke messages to the right people at the right time via the proper channels, and drive traffic to relevant areas of our website. Overall, our AI-driven approach continues to improve our already high-performing search channel, enhancing lifetime revenue (LTR) and cost per acquisition (CPA).
We remain committed to embracing the latest advancements in AI to enhance our marketing strategies, while staying agile and responsive to the ever-changing market shifts. Ultimately, our goal is to deliver value to our customers by way of AI to optimize our acquisition goal, plus lead the way in digital transformation.
