As a paid media marketer for regulated fields such as healthcare, financial, or legal industries, AI can raise flags for concern. Whether it’s the “black box” of automated bid strategies colliding with organizational concerns around targeting, or questions around AI usage to generate creative, I recommend knowing your company’s policies and industry guidelines is a crucial step.
In this article, we’ll examine both broader AI usage and some specific platform concerns to keep in consideration.
AI Policies
While any company in a restricted industry tends to be cautious about AI usage in advertising, the level of caution can still vary between organizations. Be sure to understand what level of comfort your organization has and where the biggest points of concern may lie.
For instance, a company may not be comfortable with auto-generated creative that has not been able to be previewed in advance, but may still be open to a certain level of AI involvement in creative images or videos that are then approved. Other organizations may still completely avoid AI usage in producing creative.
Additionally, organizations in strict industries will likely be extra cautious around disclosing any involvement of AI in ads. If AI was used in any step of creative, most ad platforms include an option to check a box that calls this out (in line with regulations required for some countries and U.S. states).
Be aware of what data you are feeding to AI tools when analyzing results or generating copy ideas. You can potentially violate privacy regulations if there is customer data involved, and organizational rules may prohibit uploading documents that contain proprietary information.
See also: Can You Use AI To Write For YMYL Sites? (Read The Evidence Before You Do)
AI Max
While some advertisers have noted success testing AI Max strategically in their accounts, this feature comes with concerns that especially hit advertisers in restricted industries. The text customization option can pull in ad copy that may not line up with approved messaging, while final URL expansion can link to unwanted pages on your site.
If you do test AI Max, you’ll likely want to disable the above two features to focus solely on the keyword expansion aspect. Below is a screenshot from Google Ads campaign settings; note that Microsoft Advertising contains similar options.
While the platforms cite brand guidelines as a method to better align text customization to your organization’s requirements, this feature is still risky for industries where compliance approval hinges on precise wording. For instance, even if it is referencing your website or prior copy, it could pull in a claim like “award-winning products” without including a necessary disclaimer, such as the source of the award.
See also: Ask A PPC: How To Manage Brand Safety In PPC
Performance Max And Demand Gen
Be aware of any options in ad platforms that can auto-generate creative or unexpectedly modify your own creative. Too many surprises can arise when an approved image is seen in the wild with a different layout than what was approved.
Within Google, here are some settings to be aware of. First of all, Performance Max has settings at the campaign level for Asset Optimization, which includes text, image, and video. Leaving these on could entail noncompliant copy or creative unexpectedly running.
Demand Gen has similar settings at the ad level, including the potential generation of a video that contains your assets. This may not be in line with your branding approach and also might not include necessary disclaimers.
Meta Enhancements
In my experience, Meta is notorious for sneaking in a wide range of visual enhancements, which can vary your ad appearance dramatically from your original design. While the placement of these options in the interface changes frequently, look for sections such as “Creative setup” and “Advantage+ creative enhancements” where you can then toggle these off.
Generally speaking, these options can risk brand and compliance issues as colors, fonts, and design choices may change. Unwanted text and links can also be included with ads.
Be sure to preview your ads across the Meta placements you have turned on. Your ad may look fine and brand-safe in a feed ad, but the format in a Reels ad may have elements covering a required disclaimer.
Targeting And Bidding Concerns
While platforms already have limitations for many restricted industries, there may be additional internal restrictions within your organization. For instance, you may need to avoid using age targeting even within platforms that allow it, due to regulation affecting your industry.
List-based targeting can also be a concern, with some sensitive industries being extra cautious about syncing customer data to ad platforms. For example, in the U.S., HIPAA regulations have strict protocols around how healthcare-related data can be used.
Retargeting is often another pain point here. Multiple platforms completely ban pixel-based retargeting for healthcare and some other industries. Be aware of any internal policies in your organization where you may run afoul even if you technically can use this feature for your industry.
With automated bidding, there may be concerns around the underlying models in the ad platforms potentially biasing toward individuals in a way that raises flags for your organization. For instance, compliance with fair lending rules within a financial organization means scrutiny around avoiding any discrimination based on age, gender, or location (including any underlying bias that may happen within an algorithm). Working with your ad platform reps can help to provide documentation to relieve concerns here.
Advantage+ targeting in Meta and optimized targeting in Google can unexpectedly take you outside of your intended target. Be aware of where you can turn off settings to avoid expansion of audiences beyond the reach you wanted, especially when compliance or risk is involved.
Conversion Tracking
As ad platforms increasingly move towards AI-driven bidding algorithms with looser targeting options, passing back accurate conversion tracking has become all the more crucial. Optimizing toward the individuals most likely to complete a valuable action on your site (such as submitting an application or opening an account) is often the best way to target potential prospects, especially when audience targeting is extra limited for some industries.
At the same time, internal processes and restrictions can make the task of setting up tracking pixels and offline data uploads extra tedious. Make sure to allow time to work with the proper teams to ensure you can get the tracking in place that you need, and be prepared to justify the value.
If your organization restricts the usage of tracking pixels (perhaps out of distrust for a particular platform or due to blanket policies), you may need to decide on alternate methods for measuring results. For instance, you can make sure to include UTM parameters when form fills occur, and associate leads with the source that drove them.
Start Auditing And Documenting
Take some time to audit your current paid media setup to see where AI usage can raise concerns in your organization. Within ad platforms, document features such as automated assets and enhancements that could tweak previously compliance-approved creative in an unwanted way. Look for where you can add safeguards to features such as AI Max and campaign types like Performance Max.
Kick off discussions within your organization around where you should and should not use AI for the processes of data analytics and creative development. In summary, make sure you’re clear on how to approach the combination of platform policies for your industry, internal compliance rules, and regulatory needs.
More Resources:
- Google Ads Now Requires Disclosure Labels On AI-Generated Content
- How To Leverage AI Ad Placements For Stronger PPC Performance
- Why Paid Search Foundations Still Matter In An AI-Focused World
Featured Image: Master1305/Shutterstock
