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We’ve all heard the expression, you get what you pay for — the inference being that something free might not be worth much at all. That notion can sometimes be challenged, as in the other expression, the best things in life are free.
Falling somewhere in between these two philosophical bookends, at least for media agencies that want to dip their toes into the world of generative AI without investing too much, is AdsCopilot, a new free app offering from the Know Co., which is a strategic angel investor of sorts in Canadian and U.S. media agencies.
AdsCopilot functions as a real-time, AI-powered assistant directly within the user’s web browser. Operating as a Chrome extension, it overlays and interacts with existing ad platforms that media agencies use, such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads, and it does so in real time using a screen reader that can manipulate and analyze the data up on a screen.
Stephanie McCabe, president of Knower Tech, the tech development arm of Know Co., argued that a human-based approach to developing tools for agencies will always win out. “We start from really putting that media planner at the center of the way that we develop our tech,” said McCabe. “It’s designed to empower that individual to be smarter at their job day to day, and for them to be able to really work within their environment.”
That’s a contrast from competing products, most often separate platforms that require agencies to log in to their interface, which connect to ad accounts via APIs to pull data — meaning analysis and work are done within their ecosystem. AdsCopilot works directly on the ad platform’s native interface, providing contextual insights and suggestions as users navigate and manage campaigns.
It also offers contextual help with planning as well as campaign performance analysis. For example, an agency can analyze Excel reports and receive immediate optimization suggestions without having to reconfigure the data to fit an LLM. And it can be set on three levels of sophistication: beginner, intermediate and advanced, the last setting getting used more by senior managers at agencies.
Jen Griffith, a co-founder and principal of San Diego-based full-service media agency Bridge Insights & Media, has worked with other units of Know Co., partnering with IKPN, which takes small stakes in media agencies and helps them to up their tech game. “I’m not doing a lot of the button pushing and optimization work at this point,” said Griffith, who also uses it to prepare digital performance reports for clients, saving a ton of time. “I’m using [ACP] to go in and look at a high level what’s going on. And then if we’re presenting to a client … it’s taking away a lot of the manpower needed.”
Dan Szabolcs, digital director at MPP Marketing Group, a Toronto-based full service shop, said he likes AdsCopilot because it’s just easy to use and offers a seamless workflow. “It’s built in right into the browser, and it has this killer functionality of being able to see exactly what I’m looking at on my screen. It uses a browser integration to be able to take screenshots of exactly what it is I’m looking at, and then interpret it… that saves me three or four steps.”
Without replacing any other staffer, Szabolcs said, “it’s like having a colleague, a really, really smart colleague, looking over my shoulder while I’m working.”
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