Artificial Intelligence. A term that has grasped the world's attention, but why has it grasped our attention? Because whilst AI has the potential to be extremely beneficial to us, it also carries the potential to be damaging. In regards to your Mobile Advertising campaign, however, AI is mostly going to be a good thing.

Here's why.

When launching your mobile advertising campaign, in most cases, the goal is to achieve results that increase popularity, profit or something in between. When using a good Demand Side Platform - either via self-serve or managed functionality - an algorithm can optimise towards the conversion (whatever this conversion may be). This algorithm learns and performs actions based on results achieved in the past and, in this context, ‘the past’ is a relative term because it can actually mean a few milli-seconds ago.

Let’s take a step back. Especially in mobile advertising, optimising algorithms have a lot of variables to optimise on. A smartphone, for example, is very personal and as such, mobile advertising campaigns can be targeted to specific audiences. A good algorithm collects data and learns from every second that a campaign is live; it detects in which situation the owner of the smartphone in question is most likely to convert and autonomously adjusts it’s targeting behaviour based on that. A conversion nearly always comes from a specific origin, or – as you would call it – a specific situation in which the owner of the device converts. Without adding a scale of importance, the following variables are at play:

• AdExchange
• Publisher
• Device (type/make/model)
• App/website placement
• Ad Size / Dimensions
• Creative type
• Day of the week
• Hour of the day
• Type of device
• Operating system

Additionally, specific demographic variables can be targeted, using 3rd party data. The combination of these variables produces an almost infinite amount of options. Luckily, an algorithm is here to help us and Artificial Intelligence is here to help us.

So, the algorithm accounts for and checks these variables. This can happen before a campaign starts (based on results of campaigns in the past). With that, in almost all cases, the starting point is more effective. Secondarily, the algorithm optimises and learns as the campaign progresses.

‘Being that we are a Programmatic Advertising Specialist (Targetoo); we have witnessed some very interesting data and have seen very strange mobile behaviour. For example, location has a huge influence on conversion. We have seen that Product A performs well in certain areas of a city, on a specific model of phone; whilst a totally different product performs well in the same area/location, but on a different type of phone.

Also, it is important to bear in mind that the time of the day has a huge influence on conversions. It would be impossible to optimise manually being that there are so many variables in mobile display advertising to optimise on. We simply have to use a learning algorithm, or Artificial Intelligence, if you can call it that. Because the algorithm optimises to the best setting possible – autonomously - this technology exists in the first place. Again; without it we would be nowhere.’ -

Isua Botman, Founder of Targetoo

Programmatic Mobile Advertising is one of the few widely-accepted fields in which Artificial Intelligence is starting to become beneficial. The people involved, who are developing these algorithms, are competitively trying to add new variables and patterns. Staying ahead of the game is a goal for those involved.

As beautiful as it is dangerous - the commercial thrive of creating the best performing algorithm (in most cases based on the discipline of Logistic Regression), is adding intelligence with every improvement.

That being said, the activity of major digital companies (or conglomerates) like Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook – concerning Artificial Intelligence, is on another level.

‘It’s these companies who have to take care and responsibility on the AI they develop – there will be a point at which AI will exceed us, humans.

Personally, I love the idea of merging a human with AI; possibly it would mean our human bodies or minds will receive enhanced intelligence and memory. Perhaps we’ll even be able to tap right into all available data that we as humankind possess, by simply just thinking.

We’ll see.

For now; current signs of AI are beneficial. Because a smartphone has so many variables – or behaviours – to target on, AI falls right into place when it comes down to mobile programmatic advertising. More than ever, it’s flourishing.’

Remon Pepers (CTO of Targetoo)