AI search is a very different animal from traditional search. You can’t buy your way to the top of a large-language model. At least not yet.
If you want your brand to show up – and show up well – you’ve got to play by a whole new set of rules, says Tracy Morrissey, SVP of media and performance at full-service agency Innocean USA, on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks.
Nobody’s cracked the code. But there are things that brands can do to influence how – and if – they get mentioned, Morrissey says.
The most important thing is to create content that directly answers the types of questions people are actually asking. Prompts are an excellent indicator of interest and intent.
And brands should also make sure their content appears on trusted, authoritative sites – as in, sources that LLMs frequently reference.
Wikipedia, retailer sites and a brand’s own website are all great examples, says Morrissey, who always makes a point of clicking through to the original sources when she uses AI search in order to try and understand where the answers came from and why they’re being shown.
Meanwhile, there’s also a growing category of companies that measure how and where brands are being referenced in AI-generated search answers, including Profound, Bluefish and Semrush (which was acquired by Adobe for $1.9 billion just one week after this podcast was recorded).
Even so, there’s no guaranteed formula for success.
“Every LLM and gen-AI tool is going to have their own methodology and reasons and algorithms for delivering on the answer,” Morrissey says. “It’s just [about] getting as much factual content out there from trusted sources [as possible] – it’s the most crucial thing.”
Also in this episode: AI tool fragmentation and the need for better orchestration, why we still (and will always) need human expertise to guide strategy and the impact of more automation on the future of media planning. Plus: how Morrissey’s unexpected journey into dog training during the pandemic has influenced her leadership style.
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