This article has been updated to include more examples since it was first published on October 27, 2016.
Yes, a lot has been written about the rise of chatbots, the digital assistants that can live in places where we spend time, like Slack and Facebook Messenger.
Brands jumped in early — order flowers in Facebook Messenger or tacos in Slack — and there are chatbots for customer service, health advice and personal shopping assistance, just for a start. But what about chatbots to make the daily work of the digital marketer easier? There’s a chatbot for that.
There are now a handful of chatbots designed to help advertisers stay on top of their digital campaigns without having to be in the ad platforms themselves. Here’s a look at a selection of AI assistants to help you monitor, analyze (and in some cases manage) campaigns from inside Slack, Facebook Messenger, Google Sheets and elsewhere.
Where can I use it? Slack. Plans to expand to Skype and HipChat and other platforms.
What ad networks does it support? Facebook, Instagram. Plans to support Google AdWords, Bing Ads, Twitter Ads and LinkedIn Ads.
How can it help me? Launched last week by Revealytics, RevealBot provides a performance overview for campaigns, ad sets or ads with reports and graphs in Slack.
Users can also set alerts for metrics such as CTR, CPC or CPI to be notified when ads become unprofitable, and pause poorly performing ads right from Slack.
For example, ask the bot “show Black Friday campaign” or “show Fall Sale ad sets from last week” to pull that data immediately and take necessary action using in-message buttons.
Schedule reports on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
What’s the cost? Free while in beta.
Where can I use it? Facebook Messenger, Slack
What ad networks does it support? Facebook and Instagram ads. Plans to add Google AdWords and Twitter Ads.
How can it help me? Launched in May by the makers of Automate Ads, an AI assistant named Zoey can answer questions about your Facebook Ads account in Facebook Messenger. For example, ask Zoey, “Can you show me the best age group by CTR last month?” or “Best locations last week?”or “CPM yesterday?.”
The company plans on integrating optimization systems from Automate Ads so Zoey can send advertisers real-time insights like, “This creative is performing 40 percent worse at the CPA level compared to others in your campaign, remove this ad? (Yes/No).”
What’s the cost? Free
Where can I use it? Google Sheets
What ad networks does it support? Over 16 platforms for social, search, display, including Google AdWords and Analytics, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Bing Ads, Facebook and Instagram, Kenshoo, MediaMath, DoubleClick Campaign Manager and DoubleClick Search, Sizmek.
How can it help me? Developed by RTB Media, SahaBot can answer questions like, “Show me my spend, CPA by week for last month” or “Facebook Conversions from last week by day” in a downloadable Google Sheet template after you connect your ad platforms. SashaBot will respond with either digits or a table that you can customize or add to. You can create a report based on a single question (example above) or one that includes multiple questions.
Where can I use it? Slack
What ad networks does it support? Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Salesforce. This is a chatbot for analytics, not ad platforms, but as digital advertising and analytics go hand-in-hand, it’s worth including here.
How can it help me? Statsbot lets you schedule reports, get alerts, ask questions about your Google Analytics, Salesforce and/or Mixpanel data in Slack. Separate analytics accounts can be linked via their own Slack channels.
Where can I use it? Slack
What ad networks does it support? Google AdWords, Bing Ads, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Yahoo Gemini
How can it help me? The AdStage Slackbot debuted in July 2017 to enable AdStage users to create visual cross-channel reports on their paid search and paid social campaigns within Slack. Users can quickly chart types or apply filters to reports and pause or enable ads and campaigns via the Slack app.
More innovation to come
Most of these companies are already looking at expanding capabilities and availability for their chatbots. This is just the beginning. If you have a chatbot to add to this list or experiences to share, find me on Twitter @ginnymarvin.
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