What If SEM Goes Away?
This week the Wall Street Journal published a compelling essay by Joanna Stern who says she has “quit” “search” for AI – and isn’t going back.
Ms. Stern set the search bars on her iPhone and laptop to ChatGPT, also testing Claude, Perplexity and even Google’s Gemini. Her conclusion? We’ve been living in a search “hell” of SEO sludge, sponsored links and clickbait.
Whoa.
And, yet, she’s not wrong. Last month traffic to retail sites from generative AI increased by 1200% since July of last year. More than half of shoppers plan to use generative AI.
Couple tips for retailers who want to win the generative AI search game:
- Focus on structured and clear content, using bullet points, FAQs and product specs.
- Add schema markup to your product and FAQ pages.
- Use natural language that would match queries.
- AI chatbots also like links to credible sites. Contribute to data sources they use, like Reddit, Quora, YouTube or high-ranking publications.
Perhaps most of all, be prepared for your SEM budget to change – perhaps shifting more to content marketing, influencer partnerships and affiliate programs.
Other Areas Media Usage Is Changing
Other interesting stats we saw announced this week, helpful in channel planning:
- Meta is offering a $5k “breakthrough bonus” to TikTok creators to post on FB and Instagram Reels. Oracle has been in talks to buy TikTok, but Meta’s not waiting and looking to scoop up video viewers. Not to be outdone, Substack is increasing its video capabilities and offering a cash prize to TikTokers.
- LinkedIn announced updates to Campaign Manager, adding a “media planner” tool to forecast campaign results pre-launch. The tool uses AI-predictive modeling. One other handy upgrade: You now have the option to duplicate campaigns and accounts, making scaling a bit easier.
- YouTube sees record viewing, and, for the first time, surpassed Disney in TV viewing share. Capturing nearly 12% of time spent watching TV, YouTube is crushing it. The bump is mostly due to older audiences, which is a positive sign for more share to come.
- Digiday reports that marketers are stepping back from the AI promises of ad platforms, particularly Google’s P-Max and Meta’s Advantage+. These tools promised easier media buying, but marketers are feeling like the promise is pretty opaque. Given recent news reports about nefarious placements of ads in illegal and disgusting environments, marketers need more transparency and control.