Our Embrace Change header begins with ‘A’ for Analytics. So formidable, you find analytics’ influence and impact everywhere—from the executive suite of Wall Street big-hitters and businesses large and small to the coaches’ offices of professional and college sports teams.
But today, you also need to include ‘A’ for Artificial Intelligence. AI is becoming firmly established as the tool to evaluate massive amounts of existing real-time data, which can ultimately help in predicting future trends.
At Strong Automotive, ‘A’ is also for Arthur—as in Avery Arthur, Director of Paid Ads. Arthur has been instrumental in our company achieving the 2025 Google Partner Premier Status. His assessment of Analytics plus AI is expert testimony to the power of the two together.
Arthur explained, “For Google Ads in particular, we use Google Value-Based Smart Bidding in the majority of our campaigns. This is an AI- and machine learning-based automated bidding method that involves tracking conversion data on-site through Analytics and placing values on different conversions to prioritize the most valuable shopping actions.”
While analytics came before AI, Arthur expanded on AI’s emerging role: “Once enough data is collected, Google’s machine learning ‘smart bidding’ algorithm refines your ad delivery by looking for users whose online behavior indicates that they are more likely to convert.” Note the key words: enough data gathered, refines ad delivery, more likely to convert—all accomplished faster and with less labor. The ultimate result is incremental conversion value growth by using analytics data and AI to optimize bids in the Google Auction—it takes both.
Another strategic benefit of using AI-driven analytics is to inform audience targeting. Once again, by collecting large amounts of data, the result is a larger profile of users whose behavior indicates they are in-market. By then finding users across the web who display similar characteristics, Arthur explains the payoff: “This works to refine targeting and cut out wasted ad spend, while also expanding our reach to users who may not be physically searching for a vehicle but whose user activity indicates they are likely to make a car purchase in the near future.”
The key is utilizing the impact of analytic data at the speed of AI. As a digital advertiser, your goal is to be budget-effective while far-reaching in guiding the market to you, as both a shopper and a buyer. Utilizing Analytics and AI at that level is why I give Arthur’s team an A+.