AI has completely killed digital marketing. You'll hear this from your favorite digital guru, read it on that Substack newsletter you browse through as you take your coffee, and get it from your auntie over family dinner.
The truth is, AI has not killed digital marketing. If anything, there has never been a better time to market your products on digital channels. What AI has done is move the value from controlling distribution to influencing what gets distributed.
Let's dive in.
First, Yes, The Numbers Are Bleak
AI has changed the online landscape, and some of the numbers are bleak. As one media expert notes, organic clicks have declined 42% since Google began displaying AI overviews. After all, why click on yet another link when your question has been answered? Another study found that users click a link only 8% of the time when there's an AI overview, compared with 15% when there's no overview.
It goes beyond Google rankings. LinkedIn's organic reach is down 50% YoY, with many blaming the algorithm change that followed the shift to 360Brew.
So, Where Did the Value Move?
01
From Clicks to Answers
The internet business model has been built entirely on getting users to click to your site for over 20 years. With AI, the value is purely on whether you can answer a user's question and provide value. Click-baiting just doesn't work anymore, and for those that have been working hard to offer value when everyone else was chasing the viral moments, it's like nirvana.
02
From Ranking to Inclusion
Google rankings have been the most important metric for anyone building an online presence. In the era of LLMs, the goal has become to be included in the answer.
03
From Owned Distribution to Third-Party Authority
Third-party authority has always been vital to your online reputation, and AI is doubling down on this value. LLMs value what others say about you way more than what your own website says about your products.
04
From Content Volume to Information Quality
Dropping 20 new articles was once a sense of pride, but now, AI can spin out 100 articles in minutes. The value has now moved to the quality of information, with original data, expertise, first-hand experiences, and proprietary research becoming a gold mine.
Becoming a Trusted Source > Owning the Channel
Most brands spend vast resources building and promoting their channels. And rightfully so, as that's what potential consumers judge the brand by. However, with AI, becoming a trusted source is far more important than any owned channel.
When researchers analyzed over 160,000 URL citations, they found that 85.7% of the citations pointed to third-party sites.
Think Shopify; anybody thinking of starting an e-commerce business automatically goes to Shopify. Very few of us heard about Shopify from its ads or reading its blogs.
Of course, Shopify is a global giant, and most brands will never hit that level. However, the principle remains: what others say about your brand is way more important than your blog or social media. If others view you as a trusted source, so will AI.
Why PR is Vital for AI Discovery
All these changes have tripled the value of PR. While brands could scrape by with bold repeated claims on the old internet (can't believe we're now calling the non-AI internet old), AI needs sources, and this is what PR gets you.
In May this year, Meltwater found that earned media continues to dominate AI answers with 37.6% domain share. Google has also explicitly stated that it will emphasize original reporting in its AI search products.
So PR is no longer getting humans to notice your company; it's now about putting credible information about your firm into the pool from which AI sources its answers.