This educational and resources guidance has been collated by the IAB Australia AI Working Group to help provide our industry members with a starting point when researching for resources to start getting to grips with GenAI.
Resources include some suggested tools, online courses, podcasts, newsletters, books, and basic prompt guidance - all designed to build confidence and give people the confidence to begin using these types of tools.
Some Tips for Getting Started & Building Confidence
Start Small: Begin with free, beginner-friendly resources like short online courses or podcasts. Experiment with simple prompts in tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot to generate marketing ideas e.g., 'suggest five email subject lines for a summer sale campaign targeting millennials'.
Focus on Practical Applications: Apply what you learn directly to your work. For instance, use GenAI for brainstorming ad copy or analysing audience trends, which can quickly show tangible results and boost your confidence.
Just ask the LLM for Help: A good tip to start making the most of large language models (LLMs), is to simply ask the LLM for help in crafting an effective prompt. For example, you could ask i to 'help me create a prompt to [describe your task]'. A well-designed prompt will often guide the LLM to provide more accurate and useful responses, helping to streamline your workflow and improve results.
Build a Learning Routine: Try to dedicate at least 30 minutes a day to a newsletter or podcast from the lists below. Consider joining an online community to ask questions and share experiences - remember, even experts started as beginners.
Prioritise Ethics and Governance: As an Australian marketer, align with local guidelines and always to ensure responsible use, avoiding pitfalls like data privacy issues. Ensure that you are up-to-speed on what your company policies are, particularly when leveraging any sensitive information or where client, customer and/or partner IP is involved.
Experiment Safely: Use free tiers of tools first, and test outputs for accuracy and bias. Over time, this hands-on approach will help you feel more comfortable integrating GenAI into your strategies.
Track Your Progress: Keep a journal of what works (e.g., effective prompts) and what doesn't. Resources in this guide include prerequisites where relevant, and most assume no prior technical knowledge - unless specifically stated.
This guidance document collates resources from reputable sources and Australian-specific organisations (such the OAIC) and are categorised for ease, with some additional details on any potential costs, access types, and prerequisites.
We've tried to prioritise Australian-based content as much as possible and have included a dedicated section on ethics and governance. The various sections are outlined below, we hope you find them useful and as always, please feel free to feedback.
Popular GenAI tools and LLMs for marketing, focusing on non-technical users.
Tool/LLM | Type/ Main Function | Description | Access Type | Costs | Pre-requisites | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AdCreative.ai | Generative AI (Ad/Image/Copy) | Generates high-conversion ad creatives for marketing. | Open | Yes; free trial | None | |
Amazon Nova Pro | Generative AI | Multimodal generative model - text, image and video inputs and produce text outputs | No | Paid | Delivered through AWS Bedrock | |
Canva | Generative AI (Design/Image/Text) | AI features for presentations/graphics in marketing. | Open | Free; paid pro option | None | |
ChatGPT | Generative AI (Conversational/Text) | Writing, questions, coding for marketing tasks. | Open | Free; paid pro options | None | |
Claude | Generative AI (Conversational/ Text) | Generates campaign ideas/emails with a safe tone. | Open | Free; paid pro option | None | |
Copilot (Microsoft) | Everyday AI Companion | Microsoft’s AI companion, integrated across M365. | Open | Free; paid pro option | None | |
DeepSeek | LLM (Budget-Friendly) | Reasoning for marketing on a budget. | Open | Free; paid pro option | None | |
ElevenLabs | Generative AI (Voice Cloning) | Text-to-speech for marketing videos | Open | Yes; free trial | None | |
Gemini (Google) | Chatbot (Multi-purpose) | Questions, summarisation, image gen for marketing. | Open | Free (basic) | None | |
Grok (xAI) | LLM (Conversational/ Reasoning) | Advanced reasoning; integrates with X for social data | Open | Free; paid pro options | None | |
Gumloop | Generative AI (No-code Automation) | Build workflows without coding for marketing. | Open/Beta | Free (beta) | None | |
HeyGen | Generative AI (AI Avatars /Video) | Lifelike avatars for marketing content. | Open | Yes; Free trial | None | |
Jasper | Generative AI (Writing/Content) | Content creation/optimisation for brands | Open | Yes | None | |
Llama (Meta) | Multimodal & open-source | Conversational tool for text/image generation | Open | Free | None | |
Midjourney | Generative AI (Image Creation) | Text-to-image for marketing visuals. | Open | Yes | None | |
Mistral2 | AI Code Generation | Code generation, mathematical reasoning, general reasoning | Open | Yes; for Research. Commercial Paid | None | |
NotebookLM (Google) | AI-powered notebook assistant | Builds a private notebook (audio or test) from uploaded documents. | Open | Free; paid pro options | Sources such as PDF files, Google Docs, Slides, or pasted text. | |
Notion AI | AI (Productivity) | Notes and automation for marketing workflows. | Open | Free; paid pro option | None | |
Perplexity | Generative/Assistive AI (Search) | Research trends/competitors with citations. | Open | Free; paid pro option | None | |
PollFish | Predictive AI (Survey/Research) | AI surveys for market insights | Open | Pay per survey response | None | |
Stable Diffusion | Generative AI (Image Creation) | Open-source text-to-image model. | Open | Free; paid pro option | None | |
Suno | Generative AI (Music Creation) | AI music creation program. | Open | Free; paid pro option | None | |
Surfer SEO | AI (Content Optimisation) | Optimises content for search in marketing. | Open | Yes | None | |
Whimsical | Generative/Assistive AI (Diagrams) | Text-to-diagrams for marketing plans. | Open | Free; paid pro option | None |