How To Crush B2B Digital Advertising in This Post-AI World
Search is Changing
In the beginning, users searched for a keyword and search engines matched their queries to relevant content.
Then came Google Hummingbird and Google started to interpret the meaning behind the search and present results accordingly.
Now with AI search and AI Overviews, Google is not only interpreting the meaning behind your query, but they’re also attempting to answer the follow-up questions you haven’t even asked yet. They’re giving you all the information they think you’ll need so you don’t ever have to leave Google.
This has led to what many in the search industry are calling The Great Decoupling, where search clicks and impressions are no longer correlated. Impressions are increasing, but clicks are decreasing. One study from Bright Edge notes that impressions are up 49% year over year, while clickthrough rates are down 30%. In fact, we’re now seeing users spending 10 clicks on Google before leaving to another website.
The big reason is AI Overviews. The search results page that used to include links, ads, images, videos and the knowledge graph, is now full of AI-generated responses, pulling together content from across the web to answer every part of the user’s query.
AI Overviews now appear in about 40% of searches, with longer queries triggering AI Overviews more frequently.
And while the answers are always presented with authoritative language, every instance notes “AI responses may include mistakes.”
While in some cases they have led to better results for advertisers, users aren’t as impressed. A recent survey notes that 42% of consumers find that search engines like Google are becoming less useful.
ChatGPT & Other AI Search Tools
While Google is still the number one search engine around the world, AI search is evolving quickly. ChatGPT search is increasing in popularity and is expected to surpass 1% search market share in 2025. A recent LLM referral analysis by BrightEdge showed a 44% month-over-month increase in search traffic from ChatGPT and a 71% increase from Perplexity.
While the total number of visits from AI search is still small, it is time to start accounting for visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and other tools in your reporting.
What About Ads?
To this point, we’ve been focused on organic search, but ads have undergone major changes as well.
Over the last few years, Google has made big changes to keyword match types and ad targeting. Keywords have become more broad as Google looks beyond the keyword you’ve bid on to match your ad with users who it thinks are looking for what you’re selling.
Exact, Phrase and Broad have very different meanings than they used to.
Beyond making keywords match to searches they wouldn’t have matched with before, Google has prioritized the use of Broad Match. This match type both receives more data signals and is eligible for more placements—AI Overviews and AI search tab—than the more restrictive phrase and exact match.
There’s a trade off with broad match, you’re able to appear in more searches which means an increase in both relevant and irrelevant queries. This benefits Google by increasing ad costs, however casting a wider net has led to some improved results.
Data deep dive
We were very skeptical about broad match, especially as it related to some of our clients in niche manufacturing industries. Their keywords are often very precise and have little search traffic.
Over the last few years, we’ve conducted limited tests of broad match keywords on a range of manufacturing Google Ads accounts and found that when tightly controlled, closely monitored and run with a lot of negative keywords, broad match can lead to improved performance.
For a CNC machine manufacturer, the use of broad match keywords in the account led to a 36.5% decrease in cost per conversion.
For a food and baking industry manufacturer, a combination of broad and phrase match keywords led to 40% more conversions compared to running phrase match only.
For a CNC machine parts manufacturer, the use of broad match keywords led to 79% year over year increase in conversions.
What does this mean for me?
Back in the day, the smallest marketing teams could compete and win against the biggest brands when armed with the right keywords and bid strategies. The new changes are making it harder for smaller advertisers to compete.
As search results become more broad and less precise, potential customers searching for a specific part or application you could help with are less likely to find it. An AI Overview might provide them with an answer but there’s no way to tell whether or not it was the right answer. All while your ads are also becoming less relevant, relying on Google’s limited knowledge of your industry and terms to match with potential customers. Plus, you may be losing ground competing with bigger advertisers with the large budgets needed to cast a wide net with AI-Max and Performance Max campaigns.
Essentially, these developments in search, especially for those in niche B2B industries, mean it will be more difficult to capture bottom-of-funnel conversions from search.
How do I adapt?
Hope is not lost. There is still tremendous opportunity for digital lead generation, but the old ways aren’t going to work much longer.
Think of search as top-of-funnel lead generation
You can’t rely on search to drive bottom of funnel conversions any longer. You can never be sure which searches are going to trigger your content in results and you can never really be sure what Google will say about your content when it does appear. There’s no question that traffic is declining, but there is some debate as to whether the traffic that is getting to websites is better qualified and more likely to convert.
Either way, it is more important than ever before to capture leads when people do get to your website. Get the contacts into your database when you can and then rely on other marketing channels—that you own—to nurture those leads and create sales opportunities.
Landing pages should address users at multiple stages
Because search is becoming less precise, you can’t say this keyword will drive this person to this landing page with an offer geared directly toward the interest implied by their search. Your content should be flexible enough to accommodate and convert users regardless of where they are in their decision making process.
Landing pages should include multiple conversion points that cover the entire funnel: everything from email sign ups and brochure downloads, to application requests and quote request submission forms. It also wouldn’t hurt to include customer service and support links for existing customers.
Your data is critical
All these fancy new AI tools rely on data. The better data you put in, the better your results will be.
It is critical to track and understand the lifetime value of your leads. When looking at ad performance, you should be able to tie contacts generated through ad sources back to the ad and keyword that led to their creation and then follow their progress throughout the sales process.
Tracking key offline conversions like quote requests, conversations with sales, event attendance and then importing that data back into the ad platforms to teach the system about the leads that are most valuable to your company is critical for improving targeting and unlocking the full potential of the new AI tools.
Update your metrics
As search continues to evolve, your reporting will need to adapt to keep up. We know clicks from search are declining while impressions are increasing across the board, so simply monitoring organic search traffic in GA4 doesn’t tell you the whole picture about your website’s performance. We also want to start thinking about search visibility.
In Google Search Console, looking at impressions and average position can help you understand how frequently and where you’re appearing in search results. Then clicks and clickthrough rate can help you understand the quality and relevance of your snippets.
The traditional search ranking tracking tools are still important for measuring visibility in search and comparing to your competitors. Plus, many of these tools now include features to help track which keywords are including your links in AI Overviews.
Build your brand
Developing a strong brand is a long-term investment that also pays off in the short term. Building a strong brand makes your company stand out from the competition, enhances the perceived value of your products and creates a lasting emotional connection with your customers.
Smaller, purpose-driven communities are the future of the internet. People are abandoning massive platforms in favor of tight-knit groups where trust and shared values flourish and content is at the core. Brands that can foster these personal, human-scale interactions are going to be the winners.
Alternatively, get expert brand building help
Building authentic brands that grow reputation and revenue is a specialty of ours at Ivor Andrew. Contact us anytime and tell us about what you’re looking for.
