How AI Search Is Changing Digital Marketing
By Ian Woodruff, Senior Manager Optimization & Reporting and Sarah Linkenhoker, Manager Optimization & Reporting
We had the opportunity to attend the Philly Ad Club’s Impact & Innovation Series event, From Keywords to Conversations: The Rise of AI Search event recently. Speakers Alisa Scharf, VP SEO & AI at Seer Interactive, and David Sonn, President of Arc Intermedia , lead us through how AI is changing digital marketing, and how to respond.
Here’s what we learned.
Current Landscape of AI Search
While Google’s future is less uncertain following the Antitrust ruling that stopped them from monopolizing open-web digital markets, they’re not off the hook with AI competition. In the sea of acronyms –– SEO, GEO, LLMs, etc. –– it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important in the changing search landscape.
Key trends shaping AI search behavior:
- AI platforms prioritize the best answer, not just a keyword match. This weakens the value of traditional SEO alone.
- ~60% of all 2024 searches were “zero-click”, meaning users didn’t engage with search results beyond the AI overview on the query screen.
- Each AI platform has its own unique crawling capabilities and content preferences. For example, Googlebot and ChatGPT bots don’t access or weigh content in the same ways.
- Bot access can be limited by “crawl traps” or other restrictions. Log file analysis can be used to understand which bots are crawling your content.
Strategic Shift: SEO vs. GEO
While you may have heard of GEO, what does it actually mean? Let’s break down how it’s different from SEO and why this matters.
- SEO is the matchmaker: It connects user queries to a single best-fit webpage, using keywords, backlinks, and domain authority.
- GEO is the reporter: AI platforms act like journalists gathering facts across many sources to assemble the most complete and credible answer.
SEO vs. GEO Comparison:
The Impact of AI Search Traffic
AI search may drive lower overall traffic volumes, but the quality of that traffic may be higher:
- Users arrive more informed and more conversion-ready, having already done comparison shopping or research on AI platforms.
- Session length and conversion rates are often higher from AI-driven traffic sources.
- Measuring success by site traffic alone is no longer as meaningful. Focus must shift to business outcomes like leads, phone calls, or purchases.
Example: A customer is looking to buy a new computer. They might use ChatGPT to compare which retailers have the best prices on the model they want and then visit Best Buy’s site only to complete the purchase. The decision happened before the click.
Challenges in Measuring AI Search
- Attribution is harder across platforms.
- Traffic is declining as more questions are answered off-site.
- Traditional KPIs (like CTR or bounce rate) are less effective in evaluating content performance in the AI era.
- Tangible outcome-defined metrics like lead generation, customer acquisition, and other retention metrics should be prioritized.
- There is limited tooling for tracking AI visibility. Most platforms don’t yet offer dashboards or analytics. Google Analytics can report out on referral traffic from AI searches, but there isn’t yet an industry standard to tell marketers how content is being ingested, represented, or analyzed by LLMs.
Best Practices for AI Search Content Creation
To improve content visibility across AI platforms, marketers should build content for the “reporter.” That means making your brand easier to understand, cite, and trust. Focus on:
- Who – Make sure the brand name is written in clear, plain text
- What – Define your product or service plainly
- Where – Include geographic references (location matters)
- When – Highlight recency; use dates in the content (month/day/year)
- Questions – Use FAQ-style formatting and answer multiple related questions
- Why – Explain why something matters or differentiates your brand
- Facts – Cite data and metrics for credibility
- Quotes – Use quotes with names, titles, and companies; AI models favor this format
- Proof – Include case studies and measurable results
- Sources – Publish, promote, and moderate your content on third-party sites (Wikipedia, Reddit, industry blogs)
Three Questions to Consider for 2025
1. Are you tracking where your audience is?
2. Are your KPIs telling an accurate story?
3. Are you effectively incorporating GEO into your search strategy?
The Athena Advantage
We bring together strategy, creative, project management, and a deep understanding of audience values and behaviors to help brands thrive on the world’s biggest stages — from the World Cup to the Super Bowl and beyond.
Whether you’re launching your first sports activation or scaling an enterprise-level campaign, our team knows how to make bold ideas happen — and how to measure what matters.
From helping cities win global bids or guiding Fortune 500 brands through tentpole events, we deliver experiences that resonate both locally and globally.
Want to make the most of 2026 and beyond? Let’s talk.
Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for more insights.