Our agency wants to manage all digital marketing with AI, how should I audit them?

First off, don't open up the entire budget to this setup right away. Carve out just 7,000 AED from your 35,000 AED budget for a pilot test on a single product line. Compare lead quality and CAC against your old baseline for a month.

edit: fixed a few typos.

Pairing broad match with automated smart bidding in search ads can drain a budget fast. Check the search terms report inside the ad manager daily. If you don't build protected negative lists excluding your branded keywords, the system will just bid on people already searching for you and paint a fake picture of success.

What exactly does the agency mean by "AI"? So many shops in the industry slap an AI label on standard native platform auto-bidding tools to sound cutting-edge. Are they using proprietary software infrastructure, or just prompting ChatGPT for ad copy like everyone else?

We worked with a similar agency. When they handed copywriting fully over to bots, the ads read completely robotic instead of using natural local phrasing for Dubai. CTR cratered during the first two weeks—a huge hit when spending 35,000 AED. Once we mandated human sign-off, things recovered.

The agency wants to cut their labor in half while pocketing the same retainer. If their operational costs are dropping they should discount their agency fee. Giving up control while paying the exact same retainer makes zero sense.

edit: fixed a few typos.

definitely keep final say on the copy. like when targeting a local audience bot translations can end up downright embarrassing, dont trash your brand image.

happened to us: the AI misunderstood the fabric spec and labeled non-silk duvet covers as 100% pure silk. dealing with customer returns cost us way more than any ad efficiencies saved. keep your eyes glued to the ad accounts and the copy.

Add three items to your weekly meeting agenda: 1) Number of AI-generated variants launched, 2) Number of negative keywords manually added, 3) Conversion rate of live ads. Track these three metrics and you won't lose the steering wheel.

Thanks, that was the answer I was looking for.

Quick summary for newcomers: Any unwritten clause becomes a point of disagreement later, as both sides remember it differently.

Proven by experience.

Do you think this works at any scale? When you try to change everything at once, nothing settles.

If you have questions, write them; I'll answer as best I can.

The most overlooked point about digital marketing with AI is this: The answer varies greatly by industry; there is no one-size-fits-all rule.

I'm also curious if anyone does it differently.

The discussion got scattered, let me summarize. Mistakes made on the digital marketing with AI side are usually reversible but expensive.

This is my opinion, I'm not claiming it's absolute truth.

Thanks this was very helpful.

I went through the same thing.

Timely topic.

The most overlooked point about digital marketing with AI is this: Everyone rushing into digital marketing with AI gets stuck at the same point.

Just leaving this note, it might be useful.

I didnt know that.