Beyond the Prompt: 3 Ways Marketers Can Use AI in Paid Digital Media (That Isn't Just for Creative)

When marketers hear "AI," most immediately jump to content—headlines, visuals, copy. That's where the conversation has been focused. But if you're managing serious paid media budgets, especially in the middle market where every dollar counts, AI can do much more than generate creative assets.

It can sharpen your strategy, speed up analysis, and surface insights that drive better decisions. I can tell you that the marketers who are thinking beyond AI-generated headlines are the ones gaining real competitive advantages.

Here are three real-world ways I'm seeing marketers use AI to improve paid digital advertising—from planning through post-campaign—plus the tools that actually make it possible:

1. Pre-Campaign Planning: Smarter Audience & Channel Strategy

Before the brief is even written, AI can help you decide where and to whom you should be allocating budget. Large Language Models can analyze your campaign data, spot overlooked opportunities, and recommend targeting strategies based on performance patterns you might never catch manually.

This isn't about replacing strategic thinking—it's about having a co-pilot that can process massive amounts of data and surface the insights that matter.

Try this with:

• ChatGPT Pro with Code Interpreter – Upload campaign exports and ask for patterns in ROAS by audience, channel, or geo

• Polymer Search – For interactive analysis of performance data without needing SQL or a BI team

• Delve AI – Automatically builds personas and audience insights from web and CRM data

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Sample prompt: "Review our last 6 months of Google and Meta campaigns. Which placements and demographics consistently underperform or over-index on ROAS?"

For middle-market brands, this capability is transformative. You get enterprise-level analytical insights without enterprise-level overhead.

2. Faster Competitor & Market Intelligence

Competitive intelligence used to mean manually combing through the Meta Ad Library or watching YouTube pre-rolls. That approach was time-consuming, incomplete, and frankly, outdated.

AI tools can now scan, summarize, and analyze your competitors' paid ads, landing pages, and messaging across platforms—so you can adapt smarter and faster. It's like having a competitive analyst who never sleeps and processes information at machine speed.

Try this with:

• ChatGPT with Web Browsing – For summarizing competitor messaging or value propositions

• AdCreative.ai + Similarweb – To identify ad formats, spend estimates, and positioning themes

• AdSpy / BigSpy – For scraping and categorizing large volumes of paid ads from competitors

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Sample prompt: "Compare the brand tone and offer strategy of Competitor A vs. B in Meta ads over the past 90 days."

This gives you the intelligence you need to make smarter strategic moves—not just faster ones.

3. Post-Campaign Reporting That Explains the Why

Here's where things get really interesting. Traditional reporting focuses on the what—CTRs, CPCs, conversion rates. But for strategic decision-making, you need to understand the why behind those numbers.

LLMs don't just summarize performance—they interpret it. Instead of delivering a wall of metrics, you can prompt AI to surface the why behind the what, flag anomalies, or even create slide-ready insights for your team or clients.

Try this with:

• ChatGPT + Excel uploads – For natural language analysis of performance data and pivot tables

• MindStudio.ai – To build lightweight internal AI agents that auto-generate campaign wrap-ups

• Narrative BI – To connect directly with platforms like GA4 or HubSpot and get instant insight narratives

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Sample prompt: "Summarize the top three reasons this campaign outperformed our Q1 benchmark, and suggest two changes for next quarter."

It's like having a strategist who cuts straight to the insights that matter most for your business decisions.

The Real Strategic Advantage

The real power of AI in paid media isn't replacing human expertise—it's amplifying it. These tools are quickly becoming a strategic co-pilot that enhances everything from initial planning to post-campaign optimization.

For middle-market brands, this represents a massive opportunity to compete more effectively against larger players. You can access sophisticated analytical capabilities that were previously available only to brands with significant internal resources.

The key is thinking beyond the obvious applications. While everyone else is focused on AI-generated creative, forward-thinking marketers are using these tools to fundamentally improve their strategic decision-making process.

Not every AI tool lives up to the hype. The key is knowing which tools actually deliver and which ones are just riding the AI wave.  If you're exploring how to apply these tools in real campaigns, I'm happy to share what's working—and where the hype doesn't match reality. What's your experience with AI in paid media beyond creative? Drop a comment below.

Sean Sweeney

Founder and CEO

First Position Digital