In January of this year, OpenAI finally introduced monetization models on free user accounts of ChatGPT via display ads rolled out under the chatbot’s responses. For many this was an expected move following significant the company’s financial losses incurred over the previous few quarters. Marketers were excited about the potential to tap into the fast-growing technology, but perhaps they weren’t ready for such steep costs; in the US the advertising CPM was announced at $60, way above the market standard, higher than most TV and streaming ($20 to $40) and web and social ($10 and under).
The high cost, despite offering little in terms of broad network appeal or granular performance analysis, clearly aims to sell AI as a premium media channel as opposed to a Facebook-style, bread-and-butter cost-saving marketing tool.
In this context, it is important to become familiar with the current landscape around AI chatbots and search marketing to capitalize on opportunities that are not cost-prohibitive. The capabilities offered by platforms such as ChatGPT, AI Overviews and Perplexity AI are yet not fully taken advantage of by companies that are still relying on traditional marketing tools; indeed, approximately 33% of companies that rank well in traditional SEO do not appear in the responses of generative AI.
Companies are now looking out for strategies such as answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO) to optimize their content and lead generation tactics - the new alternative to organic growth via Google Ads and SEO. Whereas traditional website rankings criteria that applied with search engine indexing are still reliable factors in AI visibility, there is a renewed requirement for authoritative content to be developed and formatted to cater to the questions submitted to chatbots and answered by AI tools by way of ‘citations’.
One of the main tactics to drive up citations is engineering reliable sources and sharing unique case studies that capably answer more complex questions including more advanced terminology. Crucially, tests carried out using AI overviews showed that increasing data cited by chatbots was outside of top-ranked web pages, instead relying on deeper, more pertinent and optimized information sources.
Today is an auspicious time for marketers ready to make themselves early adopters of new technology with enormous potential and become market leaders quickly. Fortunately for companies there is expertise and support that can be easily put to work to develop specialist content that is indexed directly within LLMs, and structured specifically to show up in citations. With Future B2B’s owned brands, content and channels that are powered by our proprietary first-party audience and signal ecosystem you can power your branded content campaigns to influence LLMs and drive up your discoverability on AI searches.
Ready to start? Contact one of sales representative now for more information.
