The world seems enthralled with the risk/reward of mainstream artificial intelligence. It’s fun to think about how some of these automated processes can make our lives easier, while on the other hand, we wonder how prophetic the T-800 (the muscled-up Austrian cyborg from Terminator) will turn out to be. Will robots one day be making our lunch… or be the ones eventually taking it from us? Well, as for now, it seems they might already be picking your pocket more than you realize.

Many people think these topics belong on the SyFy Channel and are far off in the future, but more automation is being weaponized to influence our decisions right now than we can possibly understand. I saw an article recently that really opened my eyes to how seductive and hurtful technology can be to the unaware.

The story was about a beautiful model named Milla Sofia, who went viral on the internet posting bikini photos and gaining hundreds of thousands of followers over just a few weeks’ time. Her Instagram and other social media platform’s influence was valued at $1.6 million per year and she had just “signed” her first endorsement deal to become a brand spokesmodel. This part is nothing new or unusual. Many people have found internet fame and fortune, and some based on their looks alone. The real story (pun intended) was… Milla Sofia is not a real person. She was designed using AI to have the most desired physical female characteristics and created with only one purpose – to build the largest and most dedicated fanbase as quickly as possible. Guys all over the planet fawned over her and she received multiple marriage proposals, then her fans were devastated to find out she was just a very lifelike cartoon. Maybe Arnold should have warned us to be aware of a different kind of monster.

New technology always follows a predictable yet concerning path. While those who want to use it responsibly sit around, debate the ethics, and wait for legislation, people who couldn’t care less about crossing ethical lines are already weaponizing and monetizing it against us. The small business marketer is already under attack right now, and the biggest challenge is knowing what’s real.

Marketing is, by simplest definition, using media to broadcast your message out to a larger audience. And as capitalism dictates, you pay to promote your message using multiple media types – but how do you know which media types are the most effective? Results, right? Clicks, views, form submissions, calls, etc. – whichever one is getting the largest feedback of potential, you double-down on. But then a troubling thought needs to enter your mind here – how many of those “people” out there in that audience are actually real people? Is there a viable audience there AT ALL? Or could it possibly be AI bots costing me money for every click, but only returning false hope and a customer as fake as Milla Sofia?

We’re all victims already, it’s just hard to gauge to what extent. Our email boxes are full of spam, bots cruise websites millions of times a day skewing analytics numbers, Google has to change their algorithms at a frustrating pace to keep up with the predators, and they’re getting better and better at figuring out CAPTCHAs, too. It’s not enough just to ask, “Are you a robot? Yes or No,” anymore, and if you’re paying by the click, view, or “opportunity” like in an Angie’s List model, the battle is won for the company by skewing your numbers. To further the problem, some of these thieves are not even robots at all; they’re living, breathing people, often halfway around the world paid to call and pose as someone in your neighborhood who needs a service.

A business cannot survive without marketing, and in today’s climate it’s harder than ever to know you aren’t just tossing money into the wind. Here are a few tips to keep your audience full of flesh and blood Joe Homeowners and not C3Pos:

Return to the Classics: Possibly the simplest solution to avoid manipulation is to take a less techy approach with some of the time-tested classics of marketing. Do you know what you’re guaranteed to find when you send out a direct mail piece (qualifier: if you have a good list)? There will be a real live prospect on the other end taking your advertisement out of the mailbox with a chance to respond. Until we have fully automated self-driving cars that allow us to sleep during our commute, no one can argue that billboards still get seen by millions of real, human eyes every day. No one’s suggesting you need to ditch the website and stop paying for online marketing, but maybe this shift will show us why traditional marketing methods have stood the test of time.

Target your Marketing: The more targeted and specific you get with your audience the harder it is for fakers to play the part and not get exposed. When boosting posts on Facebook or setting a target audience for Google promotions, be as granular and specific as possible. Outline your exact service area, age demographic, household income, age of head of household, and any other qualifiers available to only return exactly what you’re looking for. This drastically reduces the net you’re fishing with and will decrease your number of overall leads, but 10 REAL leads you can potentially close are better than thousands of ghosts.

Develop or Hire Trained Eyes: Here’s the advice that can be worth its weight in marketing-dollar gold: Know what a fake looks like or hire only people who do. When the US Mint wants to train someone how to identify counterfeit money, they make them so familiar with the real thing that fake currency sticks out immediately. Here’s the hard truth: it’s called PAY PER PLICK (PPC) for a reason. Google will charge you for each and every ad click whether it’s a real prospect or not, and the onus is left on you (or who you trust to manage it) to set the campaign up correctly and monitor it well. Contractors get solicitations every day from companies wanting to manage different parts of their marketing, but a trained eye working inside the trades knows when the numbers might be skewed, or a lead doesn’t look right while someone unfamiliar with your business might never second guess it. Nickels and dimes add up quickly over time, especially when something is giving you false success numbers.

The reality is, it’s hard to tell what is REALITY these days. It’s never been more important to have someone you trust helping you get the most out of your marketing spend, and at Hudson,Ink we have our fingers on the pulse of what you really want: real, live homeowners. I’d love to do an audit of your marketing to see where you might be unknowingly wasting money and offer some simple solutions to get you back on track. Shoot me an email to [email protected] to connect.