How AI is used in Marketing Analytics

In 2025, everyone is increasingly familiar with artificial intelligence and its household applications. But what about in its place in marketing?

As AI technology develops, businesses are using it not just to generate content, but to glean insights from marketing activities and make decisions – with little manual input required. This can make optimising your marketing strategy more efficient, although (for the moment) it’s not without its drawbacks.

This post from Adhesion outlines some of AI’s current uses in marketing analytics and reporting, commonly used by NZ businesses – through tools such as Google Analytics, Meta, and Klaviyo.

Smart Reporting

AI uses machine learning to spot patterns, predict behaviours, and automate reporting, providing summaries of key performance trends: e.g. “revenue up 12% on email.” Natural Language Reporting lets you skip the technical jargon and receive reports in plain English, making insights easier to understand and decision-making faster. Without having to comb through data, business owners and marketers can quickly get the highlights of their digital channels and go from there.

Predictive Analytics

In predictive analytics, AI forecasts what’s likely to happen next – which leads might convert, which customers are about to churn. Klaviyo’s predictive segments, for example, identify who is likely to make a purchase, or to subscribe. Features such as these help you prioritise ad spend or send smarter emails.

Automated Campaign Optimisation

In addition to reading data, AI is also able to act on it. Tools like Meta Advantage+ and Google Performance Max automatically shift your budget to top-performing audiences or creatives. These smart campaigns optimise over time without the need for manual input. However, you do have less control over the audiences or channels you target.

Privacy Compliance

As user tracking gets harder due to privacy updates like Apple’s, AI can help to fill in the blanks. Analytic tools can use machine learning models to predict missing behaviour and provide estimates for key statistics. AI can therefore be useful for NZ businesses who want to track metrics such as ROI while remaining compliant with privacy laws, both locally and internationally.

Should NZ Businesses Trust AI for Analytics?

Pros of AI:

• Increased speed.
• Clarity and consistency: AI can make analytics and reports easier to understand, while algorithms provide a measure of consistency.
• Future-proofing: By being mindful of your data and how it integrates with AI, you’ll remain more responsive to technological and economic changes in the future.

Cons of AI:

• AI analytics perform best with lots of data input. This can be challenging for smaller businesses with lower spend and a smaller audience.
• While AI can take care of the technical side of things, it’s important to understand the fundamentals so you don’t misread insights and can verify any information you receive. A developing technology means it’s still able to make mistakes.
• Less oversight equals less control. Be mindful of this trade-off when leaving certain activities to AI.

Keep in mind that AI is best used as an assistant – not as a full replacement for human strategy. Your own experiences, as well as professional insight, should always be relied upon first and foremost.

Conclusion

AI is already here, in the background of your marketing tools. Understanding how it’s used in analytics can help you make more confident, data-driven decisions – without going in blind.

Consider upskilling with tools like GA4, Klaviyo, and Meta Ads that now include powerful AI features, in order to remain up-to-date and to future-proof your business practices.

Need help with your analytics? Just want to learn more about AI? Talk to us at Adhesion for a consultation; we’ll cover everything you need to take your business into the next generation.