- Consumers are now using large language models like ChatGPT to shop, requiring changes in traditional marketing practices. In the era of generative AI, companies need more branded content and third-party mentions.
Some consumers are beginning to shop using ChatGPT, and digital marketing that’s geared toward web searches must shift too, experts say.
The threat that generative AI poses to search engines was highlighted when Apple’s senior vice president of services said Safari web browsing recently decreased for the first time in 20 years, attributing it to users switching to large language models.
While Google refuted these claims, saying its search engine continues “to see overall query growth,” other data hints at ChatGPT’s influence in shopping.
Between late October and mid January, Amazon.com was the most frequently visited domain referred from ChatGPT’s search function, accounting for 9.13% of all traffic, according to a survey by Datos.
Overall, e-commerce domains received 12.65%, trailing news (21.42%) and academic (17.81%) domains, Datos said.
The increase in popularity to shop via AI alters a marketer’s approach to get eyes on their brand.
Traditional marketing techniques revolve around search engine optimization (SEO) practices to create a better chance of showing up on a user’s Google query.
To improve the odds that the search algorithm will raise a company’s visibility on the web, SEO practices focus on keywords, a site’s load time, and mobile-phone friendliness.
But marketers now have to optimize for an investigative query from LLMs, which will pull from online content and third-party mentions. That includes a brand’s website and the general consensus on social media platforms like Reddit and X
“Until recently, digital marketing was all about winning the clicks. With the rise of LLMs, it is now all about winning the mentions,” Yaron Litwin, chief marketing officer of the Parent Control App, told Fortune.
Like retail brands, the CMO of the content-filtering software business has adopted AI marketing to get ahead of the trend.
And when it comes to searching for the top-rated running shoes, for example, it’s “more of a conversation,” Erik Huberman, CEO of Hawke Media, a Los Angeles-based marketing company, told Fortune.
The LLM will then give users options by explaining why each shoe is the best fit for that specific query.
While marketers are beginning to optimize for LLMs, Huberman said that the increase in ChatGPT shopping is “not significant enough yet to really throw anyone off.”
“So we haven’t seen like a drop in organic traffic that’s anything concerning…no alarm bells have gone off, but we know it’s coming, so we’re prepping for it,” he added.
Hawke Media is partnering with Gumshoe, an AI optimization expert that helps marketers understand how their brands are perceived and talked about by LLMs by generating thousands of conversations using AI models.
As LLMs take a holistic approach, Pietryla PR & Marketing President Christine Wetzler told Fortune that brand reputation is now “critical.”
“Credibility is being built outside your site now,” so companies must curate “brand storytelling,” Wetzler said.
Brand storytelling echoes the brands voice, in digestible content for an LLM, like articles, blogs, or on-site customer reviews.
“This is your new digital billboard,” Mongoose Media CEO Lauren Petrullo told Fortune. “If your company isn’t correctly represented, AI will fill in the blanks often inaccurately.”
