The future is platforms like Meta being able to manage targeting, creative, and optimization

AI automation threatens traditional marketing roles across campaign management and optimization. Alex Schultz, CMO and VP of Analytics at Meta, explains how marketers can adapt to platform-driven campaign creation. He outlines a three-category framework for evaluating which marketing functions will be automated, which expensive tasks become viable through AI, and which entirely new opportunities emerge. Schultz emphasizes that creative strategy remains irreplaceable and advises marketers to focus on categories two and three rather than routine tasks facing automation. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iHereEverything.com.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  From advertising to software as a service to data, across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55% to 65% open rate.

• 0:36Speaker 02

  Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising.

• 0:42Speaker 03

  Typical life span of an article is about 24 to 36 hours.

• 0:46Speaker 01

  If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.

• 0:53Speaker 00

  Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world-class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

• 1:15Speaker 04

  I'm Benjamin Shapiro and joining me today is Alex Schultz, who is the CMO and VP of Analytics at Meta. Alex oversees global marketing, analytics and internationalization for the company's 3.4 billion daily users and was named one of Forbes' most influential CMOs in the world. And today, he's going to talk to us about his new book, The Art and Science of Digital Advertising, which is a deep dive into how creativity and analytics work together to drive growth in an AI-first world. All right, well, I want to ask the last question here. You're going to look into your crystal ball and tell us marketers what we can expect. Platforms like Meta are creating campaigns to do full campaign creation and optimization.

• 1:59Speaker 04

  So what happens to the marketing profession when you can go to a platform like Meta, say, figure out who my target is, what my optimization tactics are, go get me customers, go make me business? What's the purpose of marketing? What happens to us?

• 2:13Speaker 05

  Well, first and foremost, creative. Right now, these machines aren't creative. It really feels that everyone I've talked to in the field doesn't know the path by which they get creative. And so, first and foremost, the creative idea becomes more and more valuable. That'd be one. And creative idea does not just mean pretty pictures. It doesn't just mean a brand idea. It means how you use data, how you think about the campaign, how you structure things. There's lots of things in creativity. Point two is, for me, there's a framework I look at. One is things that are being done already that are very routine will actually get automated and be made more efficient by AI. A bunch of them will. That will mean, yeah, you're right. What is the job of those people? There will be less work in that space. So that one we just did just this. The second thing that's gonna happen is, and for that, an example I'd use right now

• 2:55Speaker 05

  for us is producing forty-seven different executions of a given banner ad. AI is starting to get very involved in that. The second thing is, stuff that was technically possible but was just really expensive suddenly becomes viable. An example I'd use there is now for Facebook, if you lose access to your account in the US, there's customer support chat that you can use. That is entirely enabled via AI. There's a bunch more humans actually who've been hired. There's a bunch more people who've been hired because at some point the AI has to hand off. There's training from humans, there's labeling, there's measurement, there's evals in the measurement to understand, did we get it right? So actually, that's created jobs because we've taken something that we could have done with an army of people, but there's no way it would ever have been viable, and it's been made viable by AI.

• 3:39Speaker 05

  And then the third thing that will happen is, things that weren't even possible suddenly become possible. The example I'd use there is the unconnected content ranking, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Facebook and Instagram reels, but like on Snapchat. That couldn't be done because there wasn't semantic understanding of content and user intent six years ago. And then the modern AI systems made it possible and you went from all of social media being about followed, joined, liked, friended content to the majority of time on social media now being about unconnected content, and it's just the thing that's gonna excite you the most. So all three of those categories will happen, and in marketing, we need to think about which of our jobs is in category one. Okay, that'd be made more efficient. And what happens in category two?

• 4:22Speaker 05

  What's something we knew we could do, but now we can do it? And then category three, looking for the opportunities that blossom up because entirely new things become available. And all three of those things are gonna happen, and you want to skate towards category two and above all, category three.

• 4:36Speaker 04

  Alex, I know your time is precious. I appreciate you coming on the podcast. I'm very excited to read your book. And honestly, it's, I don't want to say been 20 years, but it's been a long time.

• 4:46Speaker 05

  Not quite 20 years because we had a few things where we crossed paths. But yeah, it's been a while.

• 4:50Speaker 04

  Almost, almost. It is great to reconnect and see you again. And thank you for coming on the show.

• 4:54Speaker 05

  Thank you very much for having me and congratulations on this successful podcast.

• 4:58Speaker 04

  All right, that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks for listening to my conversation with Alex Schultz, the CMO and VP of Analytics at Meta. If you'd like to contact Alex, you can find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on martechpod.com. And of course, you could visit his company's website, which is meta.com. And his book launches in early October. So go ahead and get a copy. We'll have a link in our show notes for that as well. If you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button in your podcast app or on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed next week. All right, that's it for today. But until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

• 6:01Speaker 00

  Thanks for listening to the Martech Podcast and I Hear Everything production. Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand, then visit iheareverything.com.