We’ve all been hearing more about AI agents. But it’s more than just a buzzword.
On Tuesday, software company Inuvo launched IntentKey, an audience insights platform that uses an advanced AI agent to create real-time models for targeting ads.
IntentKey’s custom-built large language model (LLM) analyzes either a URL or a simple prompt and compares it to publicly available online data gathered by Inuvo’s web crawler. Then, the tool generates a real-time list of trending concepts that a related audience might search for or be interested in.
In a demonstration for AdExchanger, the platform was fed a blog post from the website of James & James, an Arkansas-based furniture brand. Based on the text, IntentKey suggested terms, such as “hardwood,” “chair” and “interior design,” all with numerical scores to mark which concepts might be most appealing to the brand’s target audience.
The platform can also calculate which geographic locations to target down to state and ZIP code, as well as audience size and demographics. Those last two data points, however, are more for reporting and insights than for targeting, said Inuvo SVP Amir Bakhshaie.
Advertisers can also share their own first-party data and remove or add additional keywords as needed to further zoom in on a target audience. At the end of the process, IntentKey generates a deal ID that can deployed by Inuvo directly or handed off to the client to input into their DSP of choice.
Inuvo gathered feedback from clients like James & James as it built IntentKey, but it also went a step farther. The company created and manufactured its own brand of electric bikes to test the platform firsthand. (More on that in a bit.)
Don’t be creepy
Like many other insights products hitting the market today, IntentKey was designed to reach audiences without relying on any private or identifying information.
“We started off with the thesis of, ‘Can we make ad tech that’s not creepy?’” Bakhshaie said.
Not being creepy, in this case, means the deal IDs IntentKey generates don’t contain any cookie-based targeting criteria or specific data segments.
Instead, IntentKey evaluates every bid request for characteristics that align with a designated audience model and selects matching ones to buy – sort of like header bidding, according to Bakhshaie.
IntentKey also doesn’t track IP addresses or profile users over time, and it discards anything it collects at the end of each day, ensuring the signals are as strong and fresh as possible.
This setup allows Inuvo to adapt to current privacy regulations and any that might be passed in the future, which Bakhshaie is personally very passionate about.
“I think users do care about privacy,” he said. “And I think for us to be good stewards in the industry, we should honor what people really want – not just the letter, but the spirit.”
Custom furnishings (and segments)
Since becoming one of Inuvo’s managed service clients six months ago, James & James has seen a “tremendous” improvement in efficiency with media spend and audience targeting, said CMO Tristan Cameron.
Grabbing an off-the-shelf audience of furniture intenders is easy, Cameron added. But it’s not always useful for James & James, which specializes in customized heirloom pieces and has a much higher average order value than other brands in the space.
In addition to helping advertisers drill down on a target market, the IntentKey platform also offers insights into other things an audience is interested in, allowing James & James to conceptualize new products.
“If we see a wood species popping up, we may consider incorporating it into our lines, because people want this type of wood,” said Cameron.
Trust the process
But listening to how clients use the platform evidently wasn’t enough for Inuvo.
Inuvo also launched its own retail brand to test IntentKey’s capabilities and give its internal teams a taste of what clients go through, from product development to setting up a Shopify storefront and running social and SEO ads.
It didn’t go halfway with its little side-hustle, either. Rather than sell simple white-labeled goods, Inuvo created Emerald, a small line of foldable e-bikes and accessories.
Why such an expensive product? Because the audience of people interested in e-bikes would be big enough to target, but still niche enough to require some finessing. (It also certainly doesn’t hurt that Inuvo CEO Richard Howe is a huge fan of e-bikes himself, said Bakhshaie).
IntentKey wasn’t only used to create audiences but throughout the entire development process. Inuvo used audience insights to decide on the most popularly requested e-bike features – like off-roading capabilities or long battery life – and then worked directly with a manufacturer to include those features in the design.
Similarly, members of Inuvo’s marketing team featured RVs prominently in ad creative after noticing how often that keyword showed up on the platform, said Katie Cooper, Inuvo’s director of marketing.
But, of course, the real test was how well the e-bikes performed with Emerald’s target audience – which it clearly did, as the stock is nearly sold out.
“We actually can reach users – they come to the site,” said Bakhshaie. “We’re not using anything else, and they’re buying our product because of our targeting.”
Whether the Emerald brand will continue on after it runs out of inventory is still undecided. Bakhshaie suggested that Inuvo might try creating a different ecommerce product next.
In the meantime, the e-bike brand has helped prove the effectiveness of Inuvo’s new AI agent tool – even if the methods used were more than a little “extra.”
