Rebecca D'Arcy Howard

Four of the best AI tools

Four of the best AI tools available for copywriters

Leave a Comment / Content writing, Technology / By

AI-driven solutions abound for anyone looking to write, edit or proof copy. We are spoilt for choice. Yet not all platforms are created equal. Here are just some of the tools available, with different aspects highlighted to help you decide which is best depending on the type of content or the scale of the output.

1. Grammarly

Grammarly is an AI-powered application that assists the user with writing, checking spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, as well as helping to improve the readability and the tone of your copy, far outrivalling your spell-check facility on Word.

This freemium software offers an impressive service, with unlimited spell check, grammar, and tone suggestions (with a daily limit). The paid-for version offers this on an unlimited basis and provides more advanced recommendations, for example; formatting options illustrating where to use bullet points instead of a long sentence. There are also fluency suggestions, great for the non-native writer. Another top feature is engagement suggestions which show how to use a variety of sentence structures to ensure you grab the reader’s attention, and maintain it! 

Users can download Grammarly as a browser extension, desktop app or keyboard for iOS and Android, working over 500,000 apps and websites. The software continually checks the copy, so you don’t miss a thing! 

Pros: 

  • Saves a considerable amount of time when checking your copy
  • Provides a great teaching platform enabling the user to learn the correct use of spelling, grammar, and tone
  • Includes plagiarism check across websites and educational databases
  • Supports many different languages; a great tool for non-native speakers

Cons:

  • The paid-for version is a sizeable investment at $30/month or equivalent for an annual contract
  • Does not include an AI feature to write copy
  • Does not identify tenses 
  • Not always 100% accurate

Pricing: From $30/month for an annual contract

More information: grammarly.com 

2. Copy.ai

Copy.ai is an advanced, business-focused solution. It offers marketers specifically an impressive array of formats (the ability to select for Instagram captions or marketing emails, for example) so you can drill down quickly to the required content-type, including generating optimised, brand-consistent ad copy. The inclusion of brand voice capabilities within AI-generated copy is a real differentiator. 

Described on their own website as a ‘generative productivity platform that revolutionises the content production process’, copy.ai is a well-developed and expansive option – which operates in 95 languages to boot.

Pros: 

  • A slick offering with flexible usage options according to the tiers of access. Monthly sign-up options exist but are a little more expensive than the annual commitment
  • The significant number of pre-existing templates within the tool saves time for those under pressure to create content for either specific circumstances or for multiple channels and platforms. 

Cons: 

  • Limit of 2,000 free words per month
  • You can get started with it immediately as a basic option, but it requires some time commitment to realise its full potential.

Pricing: Multiple tiers of access at different price points including a free basic option.

  • Starter – $36/month for an annual contract
  • Advanced – $186/month for an annual contract
  • Enterprise – Fully commercial option for companies, non-generic pricing under separate negotiation

More information: copy.ai

3. QuillBot

Offering a very specific but high-demand service, QuillBot is a little different to the majority of current solutions. Marketed directly as a paraphrasing tool, nonetheless it also offers other AI-driven review capabilities such as grammar and punctuation checking, summarising existing content, and scanning copy to detect plagiarism. 

Pros:

  • Now also available in French, German and Spanish 
  • User-friendly and well reviewed 

Cons:

  • The basic package really is quite….basic. In particular, the free paraphrasing tool is limited to 125 words and only less complex grammar errors will be picked up. 

Pricing: Available as a free Chrome extension, for Word or for macOS; Premium package at $8.33/month (billed annually)

More information: quillbot.com 

4. ChatGPT

No review would be complete without reference to ChatGPT. No doubt the best-known solution available, and to some extent, heralded as the saviour of harassed writers the world over, ChatGPT has established itself in just two years as the go-to gen AI solution. 

On the one hand, it has the ability to recall prior user interactions on the platform, generally understanding questions being asked of it and drawing on that user history as part of the process of content-generation. The simple interface is also generally considered to be easy to use, while its creator, OpenAI, places emphasis on making the responses as human-like and realistic in tone as possible. 

On the other hand, in reality, ChatGPT doesn’t always understand the brief – and importantly – doesn’t always provide factually correct information, and should be used with caution. 

In summary, it’s a good way to get the ball rolling when facing a creative brick wall, but be prepared that the output can be generic in tone, and almost always benefits from a human touch to bring the content to life.

Pros: 

  • Can be used in multiple languages
  • User-friendly, with the ability to further refine responses basing on additional questions
  • Serviceable free offering available

Cons:

  • The features included as part of the free tool are limited; some of the more advanced options such as suggested images remain firmly behind the paywall. 
  • Some users report a tendency towards repetition and an information lag that means the tool is not always drawing on the most recent or relevant source material 
  • Frequent factual errors 

Pricing: ChatGPT offers a free tier, plus ChatGPT Plus for $20 USD/month.

More information: openai.com/chatgpt 

A word from the Llamas

Whatever gen AI tools you’re experimenting with – a word of caution if we may: we’re seeing so many ‘content pieces’ being sent to us to “polish up” that scream “AI” from the mere formatting and generic tone of voice. Similarly, user reviews and experiences of the content produced highlight a common theme – that the output generated is always improved by human input. For those scenarios where copy needs to deliver and support meaningful messaging and commercial outcomes in particular, nothing quite replaces the services of a seasoned – not to mention living, breathing – expert.

Chat to us today about your content requirements at lexical-llama.com/contact

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Made for advertising blog

Is MFA the industry’s dirty little secret, and what can we do about it?

Leave a Comment / Adtech, Technology / By

The advertising industry is under pressure to deliver against a whole host of significant priorities in 2024. While publishers, agencies and brands are ultimately motivated by continued revenue growth, they also need to stay focussed on the user experience, maintain an up-to-date knowledge of how AI is impacting advertising practices, and fulfil sustainability objectives. 

But with recent exposés that even ‘premium’ publishers are driving traffic to low-quality domains (e.g. Forbes, retail media sites), where does MFA (Made for Advertising) sit in the programmatic ecosystem today? 

Drawing on key research released this year by Lumen/ExchangeWire and DoubleVerify, here is our take on the role of MFA, and the key considerations when determining its usage. 

Why does MFA exist?

What MFA offers is impressions – technically ‘viewable’ ads served to a large number of users for a relatively low cost. In theory, this delivers against key metrics, enabling greater reach for minimised spend. In reality, though, it can mean multiple ads being placed, and scrolled past, with little engagement.

Yet, as the Lumen report, conducted in collaboration with ExchangeWire, identifies, whether by accident or design, “all marketers reported that some of their ad spend was directed towards MFA sites”. While media buyers who prioritise attention and clicks over reach and cost tend to use MFA markedly less, it still forms part of their campaigns, allowing largely-ignored ad content to be reused and served at scale.

So what should we be doing about it? How can brands approach the MFA challenge head-on?

Key considerations for using MFA

1. Emissions: MFA drives ad clutter, bombarding the user with more and more content – partly in the hope that some of it might stick, but more simply so that publishers can reap the rewards of reaching their targets for viewable inventory. 

But this is an area where there is no room for argument. MFA sites create ad waste and generate more emissions: 44% more, in fact, as measured by Double Verify, compared to the average across media they surveyed.

2. The impact of AI: AI is already being put to work both for and against MFA sites, making it easier to produce and disseminate this content quickly. But crucially, it also offers a valuable tool for assessing and categorising sites more accurately. There is a great opportunity for brands to capitalise on ever-evolving ML capabilities to move away from the low-quality environments of the MFA landscape – but they need to keep up with these solutions to retain control of ad placement. 

3. A responsibility to monitor: Lumen’s report exposed some telling statistics. Three quarters of surveyed brands with a high MFA placement believed that their agencies were determining which sites their ads were appearing on. Somewhat concerningly, the same proportion of agencies with high MFA exposure felt this responsibility lay with the brands themselves. 

The result? Often, more than 20% of ads were appearing in environments which were unlikely to deliver on consumer engagement, conversion or positive brand reputation. Therefore, clarification of roles is vital to keep MFA content in line with brand appetite. 

4. Identity crisis: There is an important distinction to make between fraud, MFA and minority publishers. While it may not always represent high-quality advertising, MFA is not generally considered to constitute invalid or fraudulent inventory. But while it may not be a direct threat to brand safety, it can certainly undermine campaign performance. 

Conversely, there is a very real threat that smaller sites, and less sophisticated publishers, whose content may not appear as professional on the page, and may appeal to smaller audiences, can be miscategorised as MFA. 

The future of MFA

As the research shows, MFA delivers a poor ROI. This points to the need for industry-level guidelines and standards, subject to continuous review and reevaluation, to make sure that MFA can be identified without losing access to valid and relevant audiences. Some initial attempts have been made, such as the IAB’s 2023 guide, and all parties in the advertising lifecycle can throw their support behind such initiatives to enable one another to navigate the MFA challenge.

As a result of these attempts, we’ve seen signs of an overall decline in MFA prevalence in the last 18 months. But while the temptation remains to direct at least part of the budget towards these quick wins, coupled with AI enabling more rapid transactions than ever, it is clear that brands need to work with agencies and publishers to stay on top of this in 2024 – and to ensure quality and transparency remain top of the agenda.

Is MFA the industry’s dirty little secret, and what can we do about it? Read More »

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