There’s a healthy debate around the idea of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in different fields. However, there’s some controversy when it comes to using AI image generators for certain projects, including marketing campaigns. Still, when used appropriately, AI image generators can be a powerful tool.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to the world of AI image generators. Then, we’ll talk about our top three AI image generators and when it makes sense to use each of them. Let’s get to it!
What Are AI Image Generators?
An AI image generator is software you can use to create original graphics. The types of graphics you can create will vary depending on what software you’re using.
Typically, these tools work in a similar way. You’ll need to give the tool a prompt, and then it’ll return one or multiple images based on it:
Image generators have come into prominence recently, alongside other types of AI tools, such as ChatGPT.
The goal of using an AI image generator can be whatever you want it to be. Some businesses use them to produce stock images, graphics for marketing, logos, and many other applications.
Out of the many uses that AI image generators have, stock and marketing images are among our favorites. That’s because these types of tools can struggle with very specific instructions or branding. But, they’re great at generating images that you can use to make your marketing content pop on the page or in email.
3 Best AI Image Generators for Your Marketing Campaign
There are a lot of AI image generators you can use for almost any type of project. However, for this section, we’re focusing on tools that work well when it comes to generating stock marketing images instead of other kinds of graphics.
Take Midjourney, for example. It’s one of the most popular AI tools in the market, but its style tends to be focused on artsy images. While that might work for some projects, it somewhat limits its application. With that in mind, here are our suggested picks.
1. DALL-E
DALL-E was the first AI image generator to go viral. It’s from OpenAI, the same company behind ChatGPT. The way the tool works is that you give it a prompt and it returns several images based on it.
If you don’t like the results you get, you can re-run or tweak the prompt to get different images. You can also upload images to DALL-E and ask it to generate “variations” of them. That means the AI will try to understand your images’ content and rework it with slight differences.
In our experience, DALL-E is at its best when it comes to generating images of objects. To give an example, if you’re running an e-commerce campaign for winter coats, you can ask the tool to generate marketing images for it:
One caveat to keep in mind when using DALL-E is that images of humans can sometimes come out looking a bit weird or unrealistic. Keep that in mind and be sure to weed out any images that don’t look appropriate.
You can use DALL-E for free but it limits the number of prompts you can submit to 15 per month. If you want to generate more images, you’ll need to buy credits. The lowest number of credits you can buy is 115 for $15, which is likely a reasonable cost for marketing projects.
If you use WordPress, there are several plugins you can leverage to integrate DALL-E and use it to generate images within the editor. Some plugins for the job include AI Content Writing Assistant and AiBud WP.
On top of enabling you to integrate DALL-E with WordPress, these plugins can also help you generate content in WordPress using ChatGPT.
2. Stable Diffusion
The main difference between Stable Diffusion and DALL-E is that the former is an open-source project. That means you can use Stable Diffusion without signing up for an account, but you’re somewhat limited in terms of image customization.
In our experience, Stable Diffusion can generate images a bit faster than DALL-E, but it’s not as good at following prompts. So, you may need to spend more time tweaking prompts before you can get workable results:
As you can see in the above example, Stable Diffusion stumbles a lot when it comes to images of humans, even more than other similar AI tools. Therefore, if you want to generate marketing materials that include people, you may want to opt for a different tool.
Still, the tool is excellent if you want to generate marketing images of inanimate objects. More importantly, it’s free, which means you can generate as many images as you need without worrying about credits.
3. Adobe Firefly
Adobe Firefly is part of the Adobe suite. It’s a set of AI tools you can use to generate images from text prompts. It also enables you to remove objects or add new elements to existing images, recolor them, extend photographs, and more.
What set of Firefly tools you get access to will depend on the Adobe software you use. If you’re interested in text-to-image generation, that’s available as part of Adobe Express. You can also use Adobe Firefly online by signing up for a beta account:
The results you get with Adobe Firefly tend to be a lot more varied than what DALL-E and Stable Diffusion deliver. Firefly also gives you a lot of control over art styles, colors, and effects without having to state them explicitly in the prompt.
Another advantage of using Firefly is it tends to do better with images of humans than other similar tools. Some people will still come out looking strange when you’re using the Adobe Firefly text-to-image tool, but the results are a lot more consistent than with most alternatives.
Ultimately, we recommend using Firefly if your marketing and design teams are already familiar with or use Adobe products. As we mentioned, you can also test Firefly for free during its beta.
Conclusion
Using AI image generators for marketing campaigns can be a smart move if you struggle to source graphics for blog posts, emails, and other content. As long as you don’t try to generate images related to specific brands or products, you’re safe in terms of copyright. If you’re interested in this type of tool, you can start by testing DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and Adobe Firefly.
Do you have any questions about how to use AI to generate images? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!
Image credit: Pixabay