In this Retail Technology Spotlight episode, Armen Mkrtchyan joins Omni Talk to tackle one of the oldest and most expensive problems in advertising: knowing which ads actually work before spending money to launch them.
Referencing John Wanamaker’s famous quote, “Half of my ads don’t work. I just don’t know which half,” Armen explains why that challenge has only intensified in today’s AI-driven marketing environment. As brands flood platforms with more content than ever, marketers face rising costs, shrinking attention spans, and growing pressure to maximize every dollar of ad spend.
The conversation explores how Extuitive uses its Ad Intelligence Engine to combine real consumer panel data, purchase receipt behavior, and brand-specific performance history from platforms like Meta and TikTok to predict ad performance before launch. Instead of testing 200 ads in-market and hoping for results, brands can pre-validate creatives and launch only the highest-performing options.
From audience targeting and persona modeling to CPA reduction, ROAS growth, and AI-powered creative testing, this episode offers a practical roadmap for how retailers and brands can compete in an increasingly crowded digital marketplace.
If you’re trying to improve ad efficiency, reduce wasted spend, scale paid social performance, or understand where AI can actually create measurable ROI in marketing, this episode is for you.
Key Topics Covered:
• 00:02:58 – Why the advertising problem hasn’t changed in 200 years
• 00:05:40 – Why rising AI-generated content increases pressure to get ads right
• 00:08:17 – Platform incentives and why ad spend can be misaligned
• 00:10:30 – How Extuitive’s Ad Intelligence Engine predicts winners before launch
• 00:13:51 – Combining consumer data with brand ad history for better outcomes
• 00:15:21 – Why AI-generated personas often push everyone toward the mean
• 00:19:33 – How brands use AI to target audiences and create stronger content
• 00:21:47 – Pre-validating 200 ads and launching only top performers
• 00:22:14 – Optimizing campaigns for awareness vs. conversion goals
• 00:25:57 – Real-world case study showing stronger ROAS and lower CPA
• 00:29:07 – How quickly brands can get set up and start seeing value
• 00:30:59 – Minimum requirements to use predictive ad modeling successfully
🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Be careful out there,
– Chris and the Omni Talk team
P.S. See our past 8 years of wonderful Spotlight Series podcast guests, featuring roughly 200 movers and shakers in retail, by clicking here
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Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.