Use AI for Marketing: 3 Smart Skills You Probably Haven’t Tried Yet

In this article, you will learn three advanced AI marketing techniques—uplift modeling, reinforcement learning, and multimodal ads—that can help you move beyond basic automation and boost your results.

Alex is a marketing director at a busy online store. He already uses AI tools to help write emails and set up ads. But lately, his results have stopped growing. His usual tricks aren’t working like they used to.

If you’re like Alex, this article will help you learn three advanced AI techniques that go beyond the basics — and could give your marketing strategy a serious boost.

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1. Uplift Modeling: Focus on the Customers Who Will Actually Respond

Most marketers group people by age, interests, or past behavior. That helps — but it doesn’t tell you who will actually take action because of your ad or email.

Uplift modeling is different. It uses AI to find out which people are most likely to change their behavior after seeing your message.

• Instead of sending a discount to everyone, you send it only to the people who really need the push.
• This saves money and increases results.
• A Harvard Business Review study showed this method gives better returns than regular targeting methods (source).

How to try it:

• Start simple: Add a control group (people who don’t get the message) in your next email or ad campaign.
• Go deeper: Use tools like Meta’s Lift Test, SAS Customer Intelligence 360, or Zetaris to build and test uplift models that show who’s really influenced by your marketing (source) (source).

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2. Reinforcement Learning: Smarter, Faster Testing and Pricing

A/B testing is helpful—but slow. You wait days or weeks to pick a winner.

Reinforcement learning (RL) uses AI to test and learn in real time.

• Let’s say you’re running two ad headlines. RL shows both, but quickly starts favoring the one getting better clicks.

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• It’s also great for dynamic pricing—changing prices based on real-time customer actions (like in airline or hotel pricing).

This method helps your campaigns adapt fast, without wasting time or money on losing versions.

How to try it:

• Try now: Use Google Optimize (source) or GA4 Experiments (source) to run a quick “bandit test” on homepage buttons or headlines.
• Level up: Platforms like Optimizely, Adobe Target, and Dynamic Yield can help you test prices, offers, and creative in real time using reinforcement learning.

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3. Multimodal AI Ads: Let AI Create Custom Content for Each Persona

Most ads today use a single image and message. But multimodal AI can mix words, images, and even videos to create content that’s made for different kinds of customers.

• These tools use large language models (like ChatGPT) with image search and product info to build custom ads.
• For example, the AI might make one ad for a young shopper and a totally different one for a business buyer — all automatically.

Why it matters: People are more likely to click on ads that feel personal. A 2023 paper from Stanford showed that AI-created persona ads had up to 60% better results than generic ones (source).

How to try it:

• Start simple: Use tools like Jasper, Writer, Canva AI, or Copy.ai to write and design ad versions for different buyer types.
• Expand later: Build systems that combine product data, customer segments, and AI to automatically generate ads that match each persona’s style and needs.

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Conclusion

These AI tools aren’t just for data scientists or engineers—they’re powerful, practical solutions that smart marketers can start using right now. You don’t need to know how to code. You just need curiosity, a willingness to experiment, and a mindset that’s ready to evolve past the basics.

Whether it’s identifying the right customers, optimizing in real time, or creating more personalized content, these advanced techniques can give your strategy a measurable edge in a crowded market.

So here’s the big question: Which will you try first—uplift modeling, reinforcement learning, or multimodal ads? Your next big breakthrough could be one experiment away.