Microsoft is officially winding down its DSP, Microsoft Invest, and naming Amazon DSP as its preferred transition partner – a move that deepens ties between the two tech giants and reshapes Microsoft’s advertising strategy.
Starting Feb. 28, 2026, Microsoft will sunset Microsoft Invest as it shifts focus to its core advertising products: Microsoft Advertising Platform, Monetize, and Curate. The company says the partnership with Amazon DSP will ensure advertisers experience a smooth transition and continue achieving performance goals.
Why we care. Microsoft’s move to sunset its DSP and align with Amazon DSP means advertisers who use Microsoft Invest, will need to migrate campaigns, data, and workflows – but in return, they’ll gain access to Amazon’s powerful audience insights, premium inventory, and stronger performance capabilities across both Amazon and Microsoft ecosystems.
The details. Microsoft Monetize will also join Amazon Ads’ Certified Supply Exchange program, enabling Amazon DSP advertisers to access premium Microsoft inventory and curated deals that combine Amazon shopping insights with Monetize’s supply. Publishers using Microsoft Monetize gain expanded access to high-quality demand and improved monetization efficiency.
What they’re saying. Microsoft emphasized its commitment to supporting customers through the transition, calling Amazon DSP a “natural fit” for advertisers seeking scale, performance, and transparency.
Bottom line. As Microsoft pivots toward conversational and AI-driven advertising, this collaboration offers advertisers a seamless bridge between the two platforms.
OpenAI is turning ChatGPT into more than a chatbot. The company’s latest update lets users access third-party apps (e.g., Spotify, Canva, Zillow, Expedia) directly inside conversations.
Why we care. This shift could make ChatGPT a high-intent marketing channel, reaching 800 million users where they’re already engaging – in chat.
How it works. Users can call apps by name (“Figma, turn this sketch into a diagram”) or ChatGPT can suggest them automatically based on context – like surfacing Booking.com when discussing travel.
Apps act like actions, not separate tools, within ChatGPT’s conversational flow.
OpenAI calls this a step toward a “conversational operating system” – one interface where users access software and services.
What they’re saying. Nick Turley, ChatGPT’s product lead, described the goal:
“If we can evolve ChatGPT the right way… maybe you’ll be spending a lot of time in ChatGPT. But it won’t feel like you’re in a chatbot.”
The marketing angle. This platform play could turn ChatGPT into a valuable discovery and conversion engine for brands. Some potential upsides for marketers:
Massive reach: 800 million users. Apps appear at the moment of intent.
Contextual discovery: Brands show up naturally as users describe needs — not through search.
Interactive experiences: The Apps SDK supports visuals and dynamic UIs. Zillow can show listings with maps; Canva can design in chat.
What’s next. More brand integrations are coming – including Target, Uber, Peloton, and Instacart. Developers can start building now; OpenAI plans an app store and publishing reviews later this year. Apps meeting high design and functionality standards will get higher visibility.
OpenAI also hinted at “agentic commerce” – one-click transactions powered by AI. It already tested in-chat Etsy shopping for U.S. users and is hiring for ad tech and attribution tools.
The big picture. This evolution opens new paths to brand interaction, contextual engagement and possibly commerce – all within a single, AI-mediated interface. This gives marketers a chance to meet consumers where they act, not just where they search.
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If you have ever run your writing through a readability checker like Yoast SEO, you have probably come across the Flesch reading score. This metric was developed more than 70 years ago and is still one of the most widely used ways to measure how easy your text is to read. But what does it actually mean, and how does it affect your writing for the web?
In this guide, we will explain how the Flesch reading score works, why it became so prominent in publishing and SEO, and how you can use it effectively today. We will also show you where it fits into the Yoast SEO plugin and why we have introduced new readability checks alongside it.
Reminder: We made changes to our readability analysis in Yoast SEO 19.3. We replaced the Flesch Reading Ease Score with the word complexity and sentence length assessments. You can find the Flesch reading ease score in the Insight tab, but we won’t use this assessment in our readability analysis anymore.
What is the Flesch reading score?
The Flesch reading score, also called the Flesch reading ease test, was created by Rudolf Flesch in the 1940s. His goal was simple: to give writers a quick way of checking whether their text was easy to understand. The formula combines three basic elements: sentence length, word length, and syllable count. When these figures are combined into the formula, which I’ll explain in just a moment, they generate a score between 0 and 100.
The highest scores are reserved for the easiest text. For example, a score in the 90s suggests that a typical 11-year-old child should be able to read it without any difficulty. A score of around 60 is closer to plain English that a high school student would be expected to understand. Scores under 30 are considered very difficult and are only really found in academic or legal writing.
Here’s a quick overview of the ranges and what they mean:
Score range
Readability level
Who can understand it
90–100
Very easy
An average 11-year-old student
80–89
Easy
Middle school students
70–79
Fairly easy
Teenagers aged 13–15
60–69
Standard
High school students
50–59
Fairly difficult
College students
30–49
Difficult
University graduates
0–29
Very confusing
Specialists, academics, or experts
Just for fun: this article itself scores around 63 on the Flesch reading score, which puts it in the “standard” range.
How the Flesch reading score is calculated
The formula behind the score looks intimidating, but don’t worry, it is surprisingly straightforward. In fact, it’s only based on two things. The total number of words divided by the total number of sentences, which gives us the ASL or Average Sentence Length, and the total number of syllables divided by the total number of words to get the ASW or Average Syllables per Word. Once we have these figures, we enter them into this formula:
206.835 – (1.015 × ASL) – (84.6 × ASW)
This will give us a score between 0 and 100. The longer your sentences and the more complex your words, the lower your score will be.
Let’s take a quick example by looking at this short text below:
“The cat sat on the mat. The dog barked.”
This has very short words and sentences, so it would score in the 90s, which means it is very easy to read.
Now compare it with:
“The domesticated feline reclined languidly upon the woven floor covering, while the canine produced a resonant vocalization.”
This is essentially the same meaning, but longer words and clauses drop the score dramatically, likely into the 30s.
This example shows why the Flesch reading score works well as a proxy for readability. It rewards writing that is concise and simple with a high score and wags a finger at writing that is dense and complex, ultimately giving it a low score.
Why the Flesch reading score became important
The Flesch reading score spread beyond classrooms into business and publishing because it answered a universal question: Is my writing easy to understand?
By the 1970s, the U.S. Navy was using it to ensure that training manuals were clear for recruits. Later, several U.S. states made it part of their official requirements for insurance documents and consumer contracts. Healthcare organizations also began using it to ensure that patient information was accessible.
When personal computers became common, Microsoft Word added the Flesch reading ease test to its spelling and grammar tools. Suddenly, anyone writing a school essay or business report could get instant feedback on readability. That mainstreamed the score and kept it relevant well into the digital age.
In the world of web writing, readability became even more critical. Online readers scan rather than study text. Research shows they decide within seconds whether a page is worth their time or not. That makes clarity a competitive advantage. Tools that included the Flesch reading score gave web writers a way to benchmark themselves and improve user experience.
The Flesch reading score in Yoast SEO
When Yoast introduced readability checks to the plugin, the Flesch reading score was one of the first tools we built in. We popularized the use of tools to score your content. It gave writers using WordPress an instant way to measure whether their content was accessible to a broad audience. You can still find the Flesch reading ease score inside the plugin today, in the insights tab.
This has helped thousands of users discover that shorter sentences and simpler words often improve how people engage with their content. While the score does not guarantee better rankings, it does contribute to a positive reading experience, which in turn can influence user behavior and SEO outcomes.
The Insights tab contains a lot of information, including your Flesch reading ease score
Why Yoast moved beyond Flesch
The Flesch reading ease score is a useful tool, but it has its limitations. For one, it only looks at sentence and word length, ignoring context, tone, and audience. A medical blog, for example, might score poorly even if it’s perfectly suited to its readers.
There’s another issue: the Flesch score combines two factors, sentence length and word length, into one number. If your score is low, you won’t know which part needs fixing. That’s why we added separate checks for sentence length and word complexity. Word complexity doesn’t just measure length; it also takes into account a few other elements, like how common a word is. Based on all these factors, it assesses the difficulty of your vocabulary, giving you clearer feedback.
This way, you can still use the Flesch score as a quick guide, but with sharper insights to refine your writing.
Should you still care about the Flesch reading score?
The Flesch reading score remains a valuable guide for writers who want to make their content more approachable. If your text scores very low, it may be worth shortening sentences or replacing long words with simpler alternatives. But you do not need to obsess over getting a perfect score.
Readability is about more than numbers. Think about your audience, their expectations, and the purpose of your content. Combine the Flesch reading score with other readability signals to create a text that is clear, engaging, and optimized for both humans and search engines.
How to use the Flesch reading ease score to improve your writing
We’ve come to the essential question. How can you use the Flesch score to improve your writing? Well, you write for an audience and know your audience the best. Before writing or editing, consider what kind of texts fit your readers. Do you sell clothes or organize photography workshops? Or do you write for a mom blog or make step-by-step DIYs? Your content should be relatively easy to read in all these cases since you are targeting a broad audience.
However, remember that you do not have to chase a high Flesch reading score at all costs. For example, you may write about complex, specialist topics for a specific, more knowledgeable audience. Or, perhaps you are an academic blogging about your research? It makes sense if the Flesch test produces a lower score in those cases.
Still, whatever your situation is, your text always benefits from concise language. So, if you want to benefit from the feedback the Flesch reading ease score gives you, focus on two things:
1. Shorten your sentences
Too many long sentences make your text difficult to read, while short sentences keep the subject clear. When the sentences in your text are short, you allow your readers to absorb the information in your text. As a result, they don’t need to use all their attention to decipher what you want to say. That is why we advise you to break down long sentences; your text will be much easier to read.
And please, don’t think that by using short sentences, you will oversimplify your text. Let’s compare two short texts to show you what we mean. First, we have this sentence:
My favorite place to visit during weekends is my grandparents’ house near the lake, where we love to fish and swim, and we often take the boat out on the lake.
Did you find this sentence easy to read? Wasn’t it too lengthy, confusing, and difficult to process? Breaking it into two or more sentences can make it much clearer:
My favorite place to visit during weekends is my grandparents’ house. It’s near the lake, where we love to fish and swim. We also often take the boat out on the lake.
These few short sentences are much easier to read. Yet, you give the same information as in the long sentence, so there is no oversimplifying. Using short sentences keeps the subject clear and lets your readers absorb the information you’re presenting.
Shorten your sentences with Yoast SEO
The Yoast SEO Readability analysis helps identify long sentences with its sentence length assessment. You can also use Yoast AI Optimize for sentence length for quick, automated improvements.
2. Limit your use of difficult words
Words with four or more syllables are considered difficult to read, so try to avoid them where possible. Or try not to use them too much. For example, try words like small instead of minuscule, about instead of approximately, and use instead of utilize. We have the word complexity assessment in Yoast SEO Premium to help you with that.
If you want to reach a broad audience, you should also try to avoid using jargon. If you’re a medical expert, you’re probably familiar with terms like analgesic, intravenous, and oophorectomy. However, keep in mind that most people aren’t. When you can’t find a better alternative, make sure to explain it for users who might not know the word.
Conclusion
The Flesch reading score has been around for decades, and it is not going anywhere. It still offers a quick way to test whether your writing is easy to follow, and it continues to play a role in Yoast SEO. At the same time, readability isn’t just about scores. Readability is about meeting your goals. By breaking down the Flesch reading ease score into clearer checks (like sentence length and word complexity), you get actionable feedback to refine your writing. That way, your content stays readable and effective.
So next time you write a blog post, take a look at your Flesch reading score. Use it as a guide, not a rule. The result will be content that your readers and search engines will thank you for.
TLDR
You should care about your score, but do not chase perfection. Balance readability with your audience’s needs
The Flesch Reading Score measures how easy a text is to read, using sentence length and word length
Scores range from 0 to 100: higher is easier. For example, 90–100 is very easy, 60–69 is standard, and 0–29 is very confusing
It became popular in education, government, and publishing before being integrated into tools like Microsoft Word and SEO platforms
In Yoast SEO, the Flesch reading score still exists in the Insights tab, but we now also use word complexity to provide more accurate feedback
Go Premium and get free access to our SEO courses!
Learn how to write great content for SEO and unlock lots of features with Yoast SEO Premium:
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Omnichannel marketing is a way to make your brand feel the same everywhere: website, email, ads, social, SMS, app, and in-store. People can start on their phone, switch to a laptop, and buy later without friction.
Why is this important?
Your customer doesn’t think in channels. They see one brand. If your ads, emails, site, app, and store don’t match, money slips through the cracks. Omnichannel marketing closes those gaps and moves more people to buy.
But how many more people are buying from omnichannel campaigns versus single-channel campaigns?
A lot, actually.
An Omnisend study found the purchase rate of omnichannel marketing campaigns to be 287% higher than single-channel campaigns.
Creating a seamless experience for your customers means better brand perception and higher revenue. It’s a real win-win.
This guide walks you through omnichannel marketing strategy benefits, best practices, and examples. By the end of it, you’ll understand what goes into creating an omnichannel campaign that drives results.
Key Takeaways
Omnichannel marketing creates a seamless customer experience across every touchpoint, including website, email, ads, SMS, social, app, and in-store.
Brands using an omnichannel strategy saw purchase rates 287 percent higher than single-channel campaigns in one study.
Unlike multichannel marketing, omnichannel connects your data and messaging across platforms so everything works together, not in silos.
Benefits include better customer experiences, stronger brand recognition, more personalization, higher loyalty, and increased revenue.
To get started, map your customer journey, centralize data, integrate your channels, and follow clear brand guidelines for a consistent feel.
What Is Omnichannel Marketing?
Omnichannel marketing is a marketing strategy that seamlessly integrates all of a business’s marketing channels to create a cohesive shopping experience for each customer.
As customers move through the sales funnel, an omnichannel strategy ensures all touchpoints seamlessly speak to each other so that no matter where a potential customer makes contact with your business, it feels like the same channel.
Here’s how it looks in practice.
A customer might check out a product on a brand’s website. They decide they’re not yet ready to make a purchase, but then they’re met with ads for that product across different social media channels. They can easily click through and buy the product, even though it’s not the same channel they initially used to shop.
This is what omnichannel looks like on a small scale. At enterprise scale, the same idea gets bigger. Your teams share a single customer profile, so service reps, store staff, and ads all see the same context. POS and ecommerce pull from the same inventory. Loyalty rewards apply online and in-store. Buy online, pick up in store just works.
That’s an omnichannel marketing strategy: connect data and creative across channels so customers move forward, and your revenue does too.
Omnichannel Marketing vs. Multichannel Marketing
Before we dive deeper into what omnichannel looks like, let’s talk about how it differs from a similar tactic called multichannel marketing. Both obviously occur across different channels. But they work slightly differently.
Omnichannel marketing uses multiple channels, but it ensures that all channels are integrated seamlessly, creating a connected experience. Meanwhile, multichannel marketing just occurs across different channels, treating them more as separate entities than trying to build an interconnected ecosystem.
Multichannel is useful for quick reach and simple campaigns. Think one-off promos, early tests, short cycles, or when tools and data are basic.
Omnichannel is best for cross-device shoppers, syncing online and in-store experiences, and longer, more complex customer journeys.
Bottom line: start with multichannel, then shift to an omnichannel marketing strategy when you’re ready to connect data and deliver one continuous experience.
Why Omnichannel Marketing Is Important
Your buyers don’t stick to one platform. They search on Google, watch a review on YouTube, see a Reel, ask ChatGPT for a product comparison, click an email, price-check on Amazon, and walk into a store. If you only optimize for organic search, you miss the moments that push customers to act.
Omnichannel marketing lets you show up at key points in the customer journey and connects those touchpoints so the experience feels cohesive. Your ad matches the email. The site matches the app. The cart follows the customer across devices. Service and store teams see the same history. That consistency builds trust and cuts friction, which leads to more sales.
An omnichannel marketing strategy also spreads risk. If one channel slows down, you still have paid social, SMS, marketplaces, and retail working together.
It improves measurement, too. Shared data tells you which mix drives first purchases, repeat orders, and higher order values.
People discover, compare, and buy across many platforms. Brands that coordinate messages and data across those platforms win more often. If you’re serious about growth in today’s digital world, build an omnichannel marketing strategy so your brand is clear, consistent, and present at every step.
Benefits of Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing has a number of benefits. These advantages can provide your business with better results and happier customers.
Think of omnichannel marketing as the glue that holds your entire shopping experience together.
Improved Customer Experience
Omnichannel marketing focuses on creating an interconnected experience no matter where your customers are interacting with your business. Because of this, it creates a seamless customer experience that’s vastly better than if the different channels couldn’t speak to each other.
Here’s what that means for customers: progress carries over (carts, wish lists, support tickets), and context follows them from device to device. If they ask a question on chat, your email workflow resurfaces it. If they browse a size in the app, your site remembers.
Abandon cart emails are great examples of omnichannel marketing in action. A customer visits your website and adds an item to their cart. They leave your site without completing the purchase. That action is sent to and triggers an ‘Abandon cart’ workflow in your email marketing platform.
They receive an automated email with the item in their cart and some encouraging words and/or a discount to get them to complete the purchase.
An omnichannel marketing strategy reduces repeats, dead ends, and mixed messages so buyers feel understood and move forward faster.
Better Brand Awareness
Creating a consistent experience across platforms (including in-store) makes it easier for customers to recognize your brand. Plus, as more people have positive omnichannel experiences with your brand, they’re more likely to share it with their friends and family, boosting word-of-mouth referrals and awareness.
Consistency is a key component of a strong brand strategy. When people see the same appearance, messaging, and offers across channels, recall and trust in your brand grows. Pair that with targeted campaigns across search, social, and marketplaces, and your brand shows up more often for relevant terms with the same look and promise.
Personalization
When your marketing channels speak to each other, you’re presented with even more opportunities for gathering customer data that can be used to personalize experiences across all channels, and not just the ones they’ve used before. This personalization is just another way to improve the overall experience with your business, making it easier for customers to work with you.
Use customer actions, like product views, cart adds, and website searches to customize messaging. Recommend items that fit past behavior, pause promos after a purchase, and nudge at the right time (not just more often). Keep consent and preferences front and center.
Done well, omnichannel personalization feels like help, not hype.
Customer Loyalty
As customers discover how easy it is to work with your business, they’re more likely to stick around and continue to buy from you again and again. Why bother finding a competitor if your business has created such a seamless shopping experience?
Loyalty grows when every interaction feels smooth and familiar. Connect rewards across store and online, recognize returning customers, and close the loop on issues fast.
Use lifecycle triggers, like welcome, re-engagement, and win-back, to stay relevant without spamming. The easier you make repeat buying, the less tempted people are to price-shop elsewhere.
Competitive Advantage
Just like we mentioned, there’s no need for customers to shop around and test out your competitors if you’ve provided such a great shopping experience. Omnichannel marketing gives you a major competitive advantage, fueling more of your target audience to head straight to you rather than others in your industry.
Most teams still run channels in silos. You’ll move faster because your data, inventory, and messaging are already in sync. Creative can be reused, offers are consistent, and measurement is clearer. That speed compounds into lower costs and better customer outcomes, an edge that’s hard to copy without a true omnichannel strategy.
Higher Revenue and Conversion Rates
Naturally, if people are sharing their positive experiences, sticking around longer, and ultimately having a great relationship with your brand, you’re going to reap those benefits in the form of higher revenue and conversion rates. Which is the ultimate goal, right?
More relevance and less friction mean more adds to cart, more checkouts, and bigger orders. Omnichannel marketing also improves attribution, so you can double down on the mix that actually drives purchases and repeat business.
Over time, the flywheel kicks in: Better data leads to sharper targeting, which leads to stronger retention, which leads to higher revenue.
Best Practices for an Effective Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
Your goal is simple: build an omnichannel marketing strategy that feels consistent everywhere and moves people forward. Start with what customers do today, not what you wish they did. Then connect the channels and tools you already use, fill the gaps, and measure what actually changes behavior.
Follow along with these steps to learn more about creating an effective omnichannel marketing strategy that will boost your customer satisfaction.
Collect & Analyze Customer Data
Start by centralizing truth. Pull website analytics, email metrics, ad performance, POS data, support logs, and audience sentiment into one view so you can spot insights like:
The channels your customers prefer to use when interacting with businesses
Which devices your customers spend the most time on
The types of messaging that seem to resonate most with them
How your customers feel about your current shopping experience
Then, pick an attribution model that fits your business. Each model is tailored to different types of customer journeys and campaign goals.
For example, position-based tracking is better for businesses with longer sales cycles, like B2B and lead gen. And data-based attribution is great for omnichannel e–commerce strategies, marketplaces, subscription apps, and retailers with steady traffic.
Check out the graphic below for a full breakdown of attribution models you can use to measure the success of your omnichannel marketing efforts.
Map Out the Customer Journey
Your next step is to map out your current customer journey. Outline each step that a Your next step is to map out your current customer journey. Outline each step that a customer would have to take from first discovering your business all the way to becoming a repeat customer.
As Matthew Santos, SVP of Products and Strategy at NP Accel, explains, “Customer journey mapping involves visualizing a customer’s various touchpoints with your brand, from initial awareness to purchase and beyond. By understanding these touchpoints, you can identify which channels are most important at different stages of the journey.”
To create your map:
Identify your customers: Identify your customers’ names, addresses, and other demographic information. Look in your CRM or use a current buyer persona.
Understand their pain points: What drives your customers to make a purchase? What challenges do they want to solve?
Find out where they hang out: What platforms do your customers use during the purchase process?
Track the conversion path: How do most of your customers convert? Their path is unlikely to be straight. They might visit your website, view your Instagram reels, and then purchase in-person, in your store. Aim to define the most common paths.
In the end, your customer journey map might look something like this:
Now it’s time to identify and integrate your different sales and marketing channels, which could include:
Social media
SMS marketing
Email marketing
Your website and online store
A physical store
A mobile app
Make sure to include all channels that you’re currently using to reach your target audience plus any channels you’ve discovered your customers prefer.
For example, you might not have previously incorporated SMS messaging into your overarching marketing strategy, but your customer data analysis showed you that your target audience prefers that method of communication.
Once you’ve selected the different channels you’ll use to communicate, market, and sell to your customers, it’s time to get them to work together.
To properly integrate your marketing avenues and create a successful omnichannel strategy, you’ll need the right technology. Some tools to consider include:
CRM: A CRM can help you store customer information so that it’s accessible across channels. It can also help you segment out your audience to create even more tailored and personalized experiences. Omnisend is a great option for building out specific segmentations.
Marketing Automation Software: To build an effective omnichannel marketing strategy, you need marketing automation tools to engage more on social media, send scheduled emails, or move users through the conversion process. Many tools you already use, like email marketing, CRMs, and social media management, have built-in automation features. You can also use a tool like Zapier to build custom triggers.
Social Media Management Tools: This type of tool can make it easy to communicate with your audience across various platforms. Get access to a social inbox that puts all conversations across all platforms in one single messaging dashboard. Use auto-replies or canned responses that ensure communication is consistent across the board. Hootsuite and Sprout Social are both great options to consider for your social media management.
Customer Data Platforms (CDPs): A CDP pulls data from all your touchpoints—site, app, ads, email, POS—into a single customer profile. That unified view makes it easier to segment audiences, personalize campaigns, and keep experiences consistent across channels. Tools like Segment or mParticle help you clean, connect, and activate data without needing a dev team for every change.
Once you’ve set up the right tools and integrated all your channels, it’s time to make sure your teams are all on the same page. If your customer support team is using different messaging than your social media team, your overall strategy is going to feel disjointed.
By creating documented brand guidelines that cover how your customer-facing teams should be communicating with customers and talking about your products, you can ensure your channels feel connected.
Your brand guidelines should include things like:
Guidance for brand visuals, like logos, imagery, colors, and graphics
How to handle customer support issues or questions to create positive and consistent experiences
Tone and voice guidelines with “do’s and don’t’s” examples
Copy guidance with channel-specific examples (e.g. email subject lines vs. educational blog content)
Legal guidelines on what you can and cannot discuss, if applicable
Share your brand guidelines with your entire team and make sure everyone is familiar with them. Give constructive feedback when you see people straying.
Brand consistency is the glue that holds an omnichannel marketing strategy together.
Test & Measure Your Efforts
After sharing your brand guidelines across your company and implementing your omnichannel approach, it’s time to test everything out. Run through each of your marketing channels the way you might if you were a new customer to make sure the experience feels seamless from discovery to purchase.
Then, think about how you’ll measure success.
In omnichannel marketing, you need to consider metrics that touch every part of the funnel. For example:
Discovery: Impressions, educational blog traffic, mentions in the media
Consideration: Engagement on social media, product views, visits to company pages
Conversion: Orders, checkout rate, CPA
Loyalty: Repeat rate, time between orders, customer reviews
Use clean UTM rules, consistent naming, and dashboards that show both channel and journey views. Review the data weekly for anomalies, monthly for trends, and quarterly for bigger bets.
3 Examples of Omnichannel Marketing
Let’s look at a few examples of omnichannel marketing in practice so you can get an idea of what this could look like for your own business.
1. Sephora
Sephora offers an amazing omnichannel experience for its customers. First-time customers are able to sign up for a Sephora account using their phone number, and then keep track of all purchases there.
Customers can figure out what they’ve purchased before and when, which makes it easier for them to restock on the products they love. It also makes it easier for the marketing team to tailor messaging and special offers to each customer’s unique shopping preferences.
Sephora accounts also track customer rewards points, as well as when their birthday month is. Whether they make a purchase online or in the store, Sephora sends the customer a little sample-size product as a birthday gift.
This omnichannel strategy makes shopping with Sephora feel easy and personal, no matter where someone is making a purchase.
2. Starbucks
The Starbucks app makes for an amazing omnichannel experience that the coffee brand’s customers love. Not only can customers order through the app then pick up in a nearby store, they can also reload gift cards, pay in-store, earn and redeem rewards, and more.
The app also makes it extremely easy to find stores near you and personalizes its offerings based on the local weather. Starbucks is already a wildly popular coffee chain, but their omnichannel marketing strategy helps boost sales even more.
3. Target
Target is another great example of what omnichannel should look like. Again, customers can create an account and easily track past purchases so they can reorder products again and again with ease.
Target also has its own rewards program called Target Circle that allows users to rack up rewards they can put towards future purchases.
But one of the best things about Target’s omnichannel strategy is that customers can check online if a product is in stock at stores near them. And it’s wildly accurate, even during huge sales events like Black Friday.
The Future of Omnichannel
Omnichannel isn’t standing still. AI, automation, and privacy changes are reshaping how brands connect with customers. Search engines and social platforms now answer questions directly, sometimes before a click. In fact, nearly 60% of searches result in zero clicks.
So how does this apply to an omnichannel marketing strategy?
For marketers, it means two things.
First, you’ll need stronger first-party data—think email lists, purchase history, loyalty programs—to fuel your targeting as third-party cookies fade. Second, you’ll need systems that can use that data in real time, adjusting offers and content across every channel without manual work.
Expect channels themselves to keep expanding. Voice assistants, connected TV, chat apps, and even in-car systems are becoming part of the customer journey. The brands that win will be the ones that stay consistent across all of them.
The future of omnichannel marketing is smarter, faster, and more connected. Get your data house in order now so you can adapt as AI and new platforms evolve.
FAQs
What is omnichannel marketing?
Omnichannel marketing is the practice of connecting all your marketing and sales channels so customers get one seamless experience. Instead of each channel running in isolation, they work together. For example, a shopper might browse on mobile, add to cart on desktop, and finish in-store, with their data and offers synced across all steps. This consistency builds trust, reduces friction, and increases conversions by making every touchpoint feel like part of the same journey.
What is the difference between multichannel and omnichannel marketing?
Multichannel means using multiple platforms, but each runs separately. Omnichannel connects those platforms so the experience is unified, not siloed.
How to implement omnichannel marketing?
Start by collecting customer data, mapping the journey, and picking channels your audience uses most. Then integrate tools like CRM, automation, and analytics to sync messaging and measure results.
Create Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy Today
Your customers want an omnichannel experience, so it’s your job to give it to them. Figure out how to make your channels work together so your customers get a personalized, consistent, and seamless experience every time they shop with your business.
Sounds like a lot, but if you follow the steps above, you can start to build a more cohesive journey for your customers. And if you’re looking for additional help, an omnichannel marketing agency like NP Digital can bring your strategy to life.
You’ve probably heard the term “topical authority” thrown around a lot in SEO circles lately. And for good reason.
If Google recognizes your site as a trusted source on a subject, your chances of ranking higher increase. It’s not just in organic search, but now in AI-powered answers too.
So what is topical authority? How does it work? And why should you care?
It’s simple. When you consistently create high-quality content around a specific topic, you prove to both users and search engines that you know your stuff. You’re not just tossing out a few blog posts. You’re building trust.
If you want to become the authority in your space, I’ll show you how. In this article, we’ll break down what topical authority means, why it matters, and the exact strategies you can use to build it.
Ready to increase your authority? Then let’s begin.
Key Takeaways
Topical authority is a signal to Google (and AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity) that your site is the trusted source on a subject.
You build topical authority by covering a topic in-depth, not just with one article but across a network of related content.
More topical authority means better rankings, stronger visibility in AI-powered answers, and more qualified traffic.
Internal links, backlinks, and consistent brand voice all play a role in reinforcing your authority in search.
There’s no single score for topical authority, but tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Ubersuggest can help you track keyword coverage and content gaps.
Adding subject matter expert (SME) insights and publishing under real authors can boost your trustworthiness and increase your chances of LLM citation.
The Basics of Topical Authority
Topical authority tells search engines and AI tools whether your site is a credible expert on a subject. This goes beyond publishing one article to creating a library of content that covers every angle.
The more accurate, relevant, and well-organized your content is, the more trust you build. That trust leads to higher rankings, stronger visibility, and more traffic.
Let’s take this site as an example. Because I’ve built topical authority on SEO and digital marketing, my new content on related subjects often ranks faster and performs better than sites with less focus in this area.
You’re also more likely to get cited by AI tools that draw on expert sources. Take a look at the ChatGPT answer below, which cites a variety of different sites to answer a digital marketing question:
The History of Topical Authority
Google didn’t always care about how deep your content was. In the early days, ranking was mostly about keywords and backlinks. Then came Hummingbird in 2013, and that changed everything.
Hummingbird marked the shift from keyword matching to semantic search. Google started understanding meaning, not just strings of words. That shift laid the foundation for what we now call topical authority.
Since then, updates like RankBrain, BERT, and the Helpful Content System have continued pushing in the same direction. Google now evaluates how well you cover a subject, not just how often you mention it. You can see how these shifts connect with other critical Google ranking factors.
And with AI Overviews and tools like ChatGPT pulling content from trusted sources, topical authority isn’t just about search rankings, but being the kind of content AI is most likely to reference.
The bar keeps rising. If your content doesn’t go deep, connect across topics, and come from real expertise, you’ll lose visibility both in organic results and AI-driven answers.
Why Topical Authority is Important For SEO
Topical authority in SEO isn’t optional anymore. If Google doesn’t see your site as a trusted expert on a subject, your rankings will stall.
When you build topical authority the right way, you earn better rankings, attract more links, and increase your chances of being cited by AI tools that rely on trusted sources.
Achieving topical authority is great for your SEO, but it can also help you achieve broader marketing goals. Here’s what it can do for your website.
More Organic Traffic
One of the best things about having topical authority is that it ensures more potential customers head to your website instead of your competitors. That’s because better topical authority means higher Google rankings and higher rankings mean more traffic.
When your site covers a topic in full, including related subtopics and common user questions, you rank for more long-tail keywords and increase your chances of winning more SERP features. This also improves your chances of being cited in AI Overviews, which pull from trusted content to answer queries directly.
While AI keeps more users on the SERPs, the ones that do click through to your website are more intentional, engaged, and ultimately higher quality.
More Backlinks To Your Website
That visibility creates a feedback loop. The more backlinks you earn, the more authority you build.
It also signals to search engines and AI systems that your content is trustworthy, which boosts your chances of being featured in search results and AI Overviews.
Instead of chasing links, you start attracting them naturally just by owning the topic.
Increased Brand Reputation
Consumers trust experts. And if your website appears at the top of every search result related to a particular topic, you’re naturally going to be considered an expert.
Ranking at the top gives people a reason to trust your brand before they even click. You become the name people associate with credible advice, helpful insights, and solutions that actually work.
Over time, this trust turns into customer loyalty, word-of-mouth referrals, and bigger opportunities for your business.
Supporting E-E-A-T
E-E-A-Tstands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust — and it’s one of the ways Google evaluates content quality.
You can’t fake these signals. You earn them by consistently publishing content that reflects deep knowledge, solves real problems, and shows first-hand understanding of your topic.
That’s exactly what topical authority is built on. When your site covers a subject from every angle, connects related ideas, and links to reputable sources, you’re hitting the same benchmarks Google looks for with E-E-A-T.
Signs A Website Has Topical Authority
It’s not always obvious whether a website has strong topical authority. There’s no single score or tool that can tell you outright.
But there are clear signs Google and AI models look for, patterns that show you know your topic inside and out.
Let’s break down what they are.
A Strong, Authoritative Domain
Websites with strong topical authority usually have strong domain authority too. That’s because backlinks fuel both. The more high-quality links you earn, the more your domain gains trust in the eyes of Google, and that trust helps your content rank.
Metrics like Moz’s Domain Authority and Ahrefs’ Domain Rating are two reliable metrics you can use to track this. They aren’t perfect, but they give a useful snapshot of how authoritative your site looks from the outside.
A good example is MayoClinic.org. It ranks consistently for health-related terms because its content is accurate, comprehensive, and backed by years of trust signals like backlinks and citations.
When your site earns that kind of authority, your topical coverage becomes harder to compete with.
Robust Internal Link Profile
A strong internal link profile suggests that a website has a lot of pages about a similar topic. After all, you’d only link to another page on your website if it is related to the topic you’re currently writing about.
Internal linking also helps distribute authority across your site, making it easier for your pillar content to rank. Building a structure of relevant, topic-aligned pages linked together is one of the core tactics in effective internal linking.
One site that nails this is Healthline. Articles on conditions, symptoms, and treatments all connect cleanly through relevant anchor text. That structure helps readers and search engines navigate the topic more easily, and it boosts the site’s topical authority.
Number of Ranking Keywords
Generally speaking, the more keywords a website ranks for, the more topical authority the website will have. Each ranking keyword is another signal that Google trusts your content to answer a specific query.
It’s easy to see how many keywords a website is ranking for using Ubersuggest. Just run a Site Audit on your own or your competitor’s website, and organic keywords is one of the headline figures you see.
You can click on the tab to get a complete rundown of all the keywords that the site ranks for.
LLM Citations
Large language models like ChatGPT and Perplexity pull answers from high-authority websites and getting cited by them is a growing sign of topical authority.
These tools are designed to favor high-quality, well-structured content. That means the more consistent, well-organized, and trusted your content is, the more likely it is to be referenced in AI-generated responses.
Sites that rank well in search and demonstrate strong E-E-A-T signals tend to show up in these results. So do sites that use clean HTML structure, clear headings, and publish under real authors.
Citations in AI tools reflect what Google and LLMs are both looking for: consistent, trustworthy expertise.
Best Practices To Build Your Topical Authority
You don’t become a topical authority by accident. It takes a focused strategy, consistent publishing, and a deep understanding of what your audience actually cares about.
The good news? There are proven ways to get there, and they work across industries, niches, and business models.
Here’s how to start building real authority in your space.
Create an Awesome Content Strategy
A solid content strategy is the foundation of topical authority, but it needs to go beyond just publishing regularly. You need to identify content gaps, map out supporting subtopics, and prioritize the questions your audience is already searching for.
Start by auditing your existing content to see where you’re weak, then use tools like Ubersuggest or Ahrefs to find the topics your competitors are covering and you’re not.
Each piece you publish should serve a clear purpose: build depth, target a keyword cluster, or reinforce your site’s expertise.
Over time, that structure signals to search engines and AI models that your site isn’t just participating in the conversation, it’s establishing leadership and authority within it.
Build Topic Clusters
When selecting topics to write content about, focus specifically on a couple of key topics, and use them as pillars for your website, creating content clusters.
Make sure you create the very best piece of content about these core topics, then start branching out into other related topics, most of which will have a smaller search volume than your key topics.
When you write about these smaller, related topics, make sure you are linking back to the bigger topics and between all of the other smaller topics that are related to your key topic.
It will look something like the diagram below from HubSpot.
This structure helps search engines recognize your site as an expert on the subject, improving crawlability and reinforcing your topical authority.
Understand User Intent
Google ranks content that aligns with what users are really trying to accomplish, not just what they type.
Most content marketers will implement a plan surrounding user intent to improve their topical authority. It is no secret that Google’s search engine algorithm has become extremely good at understanding user intent.
If a user searches for information on a subject via a given fact or specific keywords, Google’s algorithm tries to establish the intent behind that particular search and deliver the most relevant result.
That means your content strategy must take into account the intent of the user searching for that keyword. If it’s informational, write a how-to article. If it’s transactional, consider targeting an e-commerce page. This varies based on your platform of choice, as the chart below shows:
You can go even further by reverse-engineering the search results. For instance, run a Google search yourself for a target keyword and see what kind of articles come up.
Below I’ve run a search for the term “Keyword research.” As you can see, the results are a mixture of how-to articles and tools.
This tells me that I can either market my keyword research tool, Ubersuggest, or create a how-to guide that includes my keyword tool and others like it. This satisfies the user intent and what Google thinks the user intent is.
That’s why I created a full breakdown of keyword research strategies, because the content format matches what users actually want.
Build High-Quality Links
One final strategy you should use to improve your website’s topical authority is to build high-quality backlinks with other authoritative websites.
The key is to get links from websites that have strong domain ratings and that are relevant to your industry. For example, if you have an SEO tool, getting a link from my blog would be a great link.
But it’s not just about volume, quality matters. The best backlinks come from sites with topical relevance, natural anchor text, and contextual placement within content.
Strategies like guest blogging, HARO outreach, and contextual mentions can all support high-quality backlink building when used the right way.
Strong links help boost your rankings and strengthen the authority signals search engines and AI tools rely on.
Define Your Brand Voice
A consistent brand voice makes your content more recognizable, trustworthy, and easier to connect across related topics.
If your tone, structure, and perspective shift from post to post, it’s harder for users and search engines may struggle to recognize your expertise.
That consistency becomes especially important when you’re building out topic clusters. Each piece should sound like it comes from the same point of view, even if multiple people contribute.
Clarity, tone, and editorial consistency are part of what makes your content feel authoritative, not just to readers, but to algorithms evaluating how well you cover a subject.
Add SME (Subject Matter Expert) Insight<h3>
One of the fastest ways to build topical authority is to bring real subject matter experts into your content. That could mean using named authors, pulling in expert quotes, or publishing under people who have actual experience in the field.
I love doing this on this blog. You hear a lot from me, but I like having other experts from my agency chime in when it comes to topics they have specific expertise on.
Users want to hear from people who’ve actually done the work. Adding expert input isn’t just for show, it’s what separates credible content from filler.
Topical Authority Metrics
While there’s no single topical authority score, these metrics show you’re building credibility:
Number of ranking keywords: Shows how well your site covers a topic at scale
Keyword depth: Measures how many related long-tail queries you rank for in a cluster
Content-to-topic ratio: Indicates whether your site goes deep or just scratches the surface
Internal linking coverage: Signals whether you’re connecting related ideas effectively
Growth in backlinks to topic-related pages: Suggests rising authority within that subject
LLM citations (like ChatGPT) offer indirect proof that your content is seen as trustworthy
Once you know what to look for, you can use tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs to track keyword clusters, compare topic coverage against competitors, and audit internal link paths.
Ubersuggest lets you monitor keyword growth over time, check traffic by page, and spot gaps in your content strategy.
And while no tool will hand you a “topical authority” badge, tracking the right metrics will show whether you’re moving in the right direction, and where to focus next.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is topical authority?
Topical authority is how search engines evaluate your site’s credibility on a specific subject. The more high-quality, in-depth content you create around a topic, and the better you organize, link, and structure it, the more likely Google is to trust your site to rank for related searches. It’s not about one post. It’s about building a library of connected, expert-level content that proves you know the space.
How do I build topical authority?
You build topical authority by going deep, not wide. Start with a few core topics, publish content that covers every angle, and connect everything with a strong internal structure. You also need to align with user intent, bring in subject matter expertise, and keep your content updated. That shows search engines and readers that you’re committed to covering the topic thoroughly.
Do backlinks play a role in establishing topical authority?
Yes. Backlinks matter. When trusted sites link to your content, it signals to Google that others see you as credible. But it’s not just about quantity. Relevance, context, and anchor text all affect how much a backlink supports your authority.
Conclusion
Topical authority is one of the most valuable assets in modern SEO. It helps you rank, earn trust, and get cited by AI tools looking for expert sources.
You won’t build it overnight, but if you commit to going deep on the topics that matter to your business, the results compound. Solid on-page SEO and forward-looking strategies like LLM seeding help position your content where it matters most.
If your content consistently delivers real value, Google will notice. Your audience will too.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-10-03 19:00:002025-10-03 19:00:00Topical Authority: What Is It, & How Does It Work?
AI has infinitely sped up the hype cycle in marketing.
So when the term “vibe marketing” came onto the scene, you may have rolled your eyes for a moment before you said, “I have to try this.”
In basic terms, vibe marketing means using AI to run entire marketing workflows. Usually, this involves a combination of:
Vibe coding: No-code AI tools where you type what you want (e.g., “Build me a landing page”), and the tool spins it up
AI agents: Always-on assistants that handle background tasks, like checking your inbox for leads or updating your CRM
And whether or not they consider themselves “vibe marketers,” many teams are already doing this.
In a survey of marketing teams doing $100m+ in revenue, GrowthLoop found that more than a third of those teams use AI to optimize campaigns or predict customer behavior.
And those embedding AI into their processes report more effective strategies.
So, is vibe marketing the next wave of marketing methodology? Or just more AI hype?
In this guide, we’re diving into real-world case studies that show how marketers are using AI in their daily workflows.
Plus, we’ll test the hype against reality based on my own experiments and the perspective of industry experts.
Vibe Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing
With vibe marketing, things like campaigns, segmentation, and competitor analysis can happen in the background. So you can focus more on creative work and strategy.
Here’s how it stacks up against traditional marketing:
Task
Traditional Marketing
Vibe Marketing
Campaign creation
Weeks of strategy, briefs, handoffs, and approvals
Concepts, landing pages, and emails drafted in hours
Audience segmentation
Manual data exports and persona-building
AI builds real-time dynamic segments
Competitive analysis
Manual research on competitor websites, social feeds, reports
Automated data scraping and AI summaries
Performance reporting
Hours compiling data into slides
Real-time dashboards + plain-English insights
This all sounds incredible, and it’s all technically possible for marketing teams today.
But here’s the catch: AI workflows are still clunky and experimental.
Hootsuite reports that while 83% of marketers say their AI budgets have increased, 4 in 10 companies waste at least
10% of their AI budget on tools that didn’t deliver.
Bottom line: Don’t expect AI workflows to run your marketing overnight. Sometimes building them takes longer than doing the task manually (I learned that firsthand — more on that later).
So, what does vibe marketing look like when it does work?
6 Examples of Vibe Marketing in the Wild
Vibe marketing can seem like a vague concept.
But when we talk about using AI to automate social listening workflows, follow up with inbound leads, or run competitive analysis, all of a sudden this ambiguous concept takes on real-world meaning.
We’ll see six examples of brands using vibe marketing in their daily workflows.
Plus, how you can copy these ideas into your own strategy.
1. Build Enterprise-Level Campaigns Without Reliance on Technical Teams
The biggest slowdown in most campaigns isn’t the marketing work itself. It’s the wait for other teams to deliver what you need.
At the job site, Indeed, those delays stretched to an average of 3.5 months per campaign.
Even simple requests — like defining an audience segment — meant analysts had to pull data from their warehouse. Then, engineers had to reformat it before marketing could use it.
With vibe marketing, the team broke that bottleneck.
They used the AI platform GrowthLoop to turn raw customer data into ready-to-use segments.
Now, their team can type a plain-English prompt (e.g. “nurses in the U.S. who searched jobs in the last 30 days but haven’t applied”) and instantly generate that segment.
Instead of waiting a whole quarter to get in front of job seekers, the team can now react to hiring needs in almost real time.
Try It Yourself:
If you’re on an enterprise team already using a data warehouse tool, GrowthLoop’s makes it easy to type a goal, generate audiences, and send them directly into campaigns.
On the other hand, let’s say you keep customer data in a CRM or spreadsheet — names, emails, recent purchases.
With a tool like Clay, you can import those leads and use the built-in AI to enrich them with more data.
Then, you can create campaigns that automatically go out based on that enrichment.
For example, when a company has received funding in the last three months, they can be automatically added to a campaign.
In seconds, you’ve got a list ready to target.
What makes this powerful isn’t just faster data access.
It’s the AI layer that turns raw information into something marketing can actually act on, without waiting on anyone else.
2. Automate Social Listening Workflows
Getting a lot of mentions on social media is great — until it isn’t. Some social media managers can spend hours every day sifting through comments and posts that tag the brand.
More than just being a tedious task, this is completely unsustainable.
Which is exactly what Webflow’s two-person social team realized.
Between Reddit, X, YouTube, and forums, they faced 500+ daily mentions. But only a handful actually needed a human reply.
Finding those few was like looking for needles in a haystack.
So, they built an AI workflow to do the sorting for them.
The system scans every mention, tags it by sentiment and urgency, and pushes the important ones straight into Slack.
Out of 500+ daily posts, the team now sees just 10–15 that matter most — and responds within the hour.
Pick one high-volume channel — maybe Reddit, X, or even a busy community forum.
Use a tool like Gumloop or Apify to pull in mentions of your brand. Then, run them through an AI categorizer to flag sentiment and urgency.
Start small, check the tags for accuracy, and only then scale to other platforms.
Note: To take this workflow a step further, add a tool like ManyChat or Yuma.ai to generate automated responses to posts and DMs. Entrepreneur Candace Junée did this and saw a 118% increase in leads while saving 15 hours per month answering Instagram DMs.
3. Create On-Brand Content Assets
Ever tried to turn a 40-page technical document into a blog post or campaign copy?
The content is there, but shaping it into something clear — and in your brand’s voice and style — takes time.
At Pilot Company, with multiple sub-brands and channels to manage, that challenge multiplied.
Writers spent hours summarizing technical docs into usable briefs. Designers waited for copy that matched the right tone before prototypes could move forward.
And inconsistencies crept in across brands.
So, the team used Jasper to help build consistency in style and tone.
They used the tool’s summarizer to condense long technical documents into actionable outlines, and the brand-voice model to keep messaging aligned across sub-brands.
Designers could even pull realistic placeholder text without waiting on writers.
The result: Each team member saved 3–5 hours a week, freeing them up for strategy and storytelling instead of slogging through documents.
Try It Yourself:
With a tool like Jasper, you can add specific instructions about your brand voice, audience, and even include source material to show what great content looks like for your brand.
Then, you can use it to create copy and content for entire campaigns.
You can also use tools like Notion AI, Claude, or ChatGPT to turn long documentation into campaign content.
Start by inputting your brand voice, style, target audience, and any other details that might be useful. Then, upload documentation and ask the AI to turn it into specific pieces of content.
Test the tools to find your favorite. Make sure to give specific instructions on what kind of output you’re looking for.
Use AI to generate briefs, draft first passes, or speed up design prototypes — and reserve human time for the creative polish.
On paper, 500+ inbound marketing leads a day looks like a dream for a small agency.
But for Tiddle, a six-person influencer agency, it was a nightmare.
They were buried in the flood of messages, with only a few that were worth pursuing. Sorting through the noise ate up 6–8 hours a day — time that should’ve gone into client campaigns and outreach.
Instead of hiring more staff, they brought in AI.
Using Lindy, every inbound email was screened automatically.
Low-quality offers were politely declined, while promising ones were flagged and routed to the right person.
If terms weren’t a fit, the AI could even suggest counteroffers.
The team went from slogging through hundreds of emails to focusing only on the 10–15 real opportunities that mattered.
As Tiddle’s CEO, Mike Hahn, says, “Every deal we’ve closed in the last few months came from Lindy surfacing the right conversations.”
Try It Yourself:
Pick one channel where inbound volume is overwhelming (email, DMs, LinkedIn).
Define the “must-haves” for a qualified lead (budget, offer type, brand fit), then use a tool like Lindy or Clay to screen and tag incoming requests.
You can even set up conditional logic so the tool can change how it responds based on specific conditions.
Note: Small companies aren’t the only ones making use of AI for inbound leads. Ariel Kelmen, president and CMO of Salesforce, recently said that they use AI agents to handle interactive follow-ups with leads. And those agents manage the first 80% of the conversation.
5. Build Hyper-Personalization for Your Ideal Customer Profiles
“Hi [first name]…” personalization doesn’t cut it anymore. But manually tailoring every message to your ideal customer profiles (ICPs) is impossible to scale.
Oren Greenberg, a solo marketing consultant, faced this problem.
And since there was no system that fit his ideals of hyperpersonalization, Oren built his own.
He coded a workflow in Replit that filtered a 50,000-company dataset, excluded existing contacts, and generated outreach tailored to each company’s stage and challenges.
The result: outreach so specific it only makes sense for the intended recipient.
Pro tip: Hyper-personalization works only if you deeply understand your ICP — AI can’t do that thinking for you. But once you know who you’re selling to, it can scale bespoke messaging in ways you couldn’t manually.
Try It Yourself
If you’re a highly technical person with the skills and know-how to recreate something like this in a vibe-coding tool, then by all means have at it.
For the rest of us, using a tool like Clay is a fast path to get 80% of the way there.
Start by defining your ICP.
Then use Clay to pull in business data, filter it against your ICP criteria, and enrich it with extra context.
With that data in place, you can add an AI-powered column that drafts personalized outreach for each prospect.
Run a pilot batch of 50–100 and iterate until the system feels like true one-to-one messaging.
6. Run Competitive Analysis
New marketing roles often start with 30-60 days of slow discovery.
Who are the real competitors? What do customers actually care about? What language do they use?
Semrush’s former VP of Brand Marketing Olga Andrienko found a way to shortcut that process.
Before Day 1 at a new job, she suggests running an AI-powered competitive analysis.
Pull your site and the top competitors’ pages, transcribe the most-viewed YouTube reviews, and mine Reddit and forums for repeated complaints.
Then, feed that into an AI summarizer to surface frequent feature praise or criticism and real customer phrasing. Tools like Google Opal or Gemini help cross-link those insights into a positioning map.
Whether you’re stepping into a new role, launching a campaign, or scoping out a new market, the same workflow applies.
First, pick your brand and three competitors. With a scraper tool like Apify, get your website copy and grab a handful of top YouTube reviews and forum threads.
Then, feed those into a tool like Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT to summarize and analyze the data.
Extract the top five pains and language customers use, and sketch a one-page positioning map you can bring to meetings.
That way, you start your campaign with clarity — not uncertainty.
My Disastrous Vibe Marketing Experiment (What I Learned the Hard Way So You Don’t Have To)
Giving you examples is great, but I wanted to put all this to the test and see if I could build a usable AI workflow for myself. (Spoiler: It did not go well.)
Goal: Save time replying to LinkedIn comments without losing my voice.
Constraints: Something I could test immediately, for free, and that would actually be useful.
Method: Build a workflow that scrapes comments, learns my style, and drafts replies I could approve before posting.
Time spent: 4+ hours
1st Attempt
First, I created an account in PhantomBuster, a tool that automates actions on social platforms like LinkedIn.
Then, I connected my LinkedIn account and set up the “LinkedIn Post Commenter and Liker Scraper” tool.
I asked it to retrieve only comments from my LinkedIn posts from recent days, which it did successfully.
Next, I created a new “Scenario” in Make, a no-code automation and AI agent tool, and added PhantomBuster as the start of that workflow.
Then, I built a Make AI Agent that would draw from my previous posts to learn my voice..
I added that Make AI Agent into the workflow, giving it instructions to analyze the comments scraped by PhantomBuster and produce a reply.
And finally, I added Google Docs as the final output. The idea was to create a document where I could see both the original comment and the AI-generated reply.
The whole workflow ran successfully, which I took as a win and closed up shop for the night.
But when I opened my laptop the next day to check all the wonderful replies my new AI buddy had written for me, all I found was this lovely Google Doc:
Still undeterred, I decided to try something different.
2nd Attempt
Along the same lines, I wanted to build an automated AI workflow that would scrape content from LinkedIn that I’m interested in. Then, write comments in my voice and style using my existing content as a foundation.
I used a similar workflow: PhantomBuster to scrape the content, Make AI Agents to analyze and write comments, and getting the final output in a Google Sheet.
Unfortunately, that gave me the exact same result (only this time in spreadsheet format, woohoo!):
What especially irked me was that the automations themselves were running successfully. But I still had no output.
So after more than four hours of work (and a lot of back-and-forth with ChatGPT), I finally gave up.
Could I have figured out this AI workflow eventually? Yes, I have no doubt.
But at that point, how much time would I be saving?
Does a little time saved on writing comments justify spending hours building an AI workflow (and what should’ve been a relatively simple one, at that)?
Here’s what I learned from this experiment:
If you’ve been secretly feeling a little skeptical about vibe marketing, you were right
The folks building vibe-coded apps and AI workflows in five minutes have years of practice. The rest of us can’t expect the same speed.
The tools that are currently available for vibe coding and AI automations aren’t ready yet for the average user to just jump in and build
If someone with a background in tech (me) struggled so much with a simple workflow, imagine the challenge of something more complex
And while it’s true that others are seeing success with vibe marketing (like the examples that we saw above), there are also clear downsides.
It’s Not All a Bed of Roses: The Caveats of Vibe Marketing
Vibe marketing is like any new marketing buzzword: We all love to join in the hype, even if we don’t quite get it.
The problem is, the hype can obscure reality.
After running my own experiments, I also talked with other experts in the field. What emerged was a clear pattern — vibe marketing is powerful, but the gaps between promise and practice are real.
It’s Harder Than It Looks
The idea that you can tinker around with AI for five minutes and produce a usable workflow just isn’t feasible for the majority of us.
And yet, that’s the promise we’re seeing over and over again:
This all sounds great, but we’re marketers: We know better.
Simple automations? Sure.
But robust, real-world systems usually need engineering support or serious AI chops.
Without that, you risk fragile prototypes that break the first time they’re stress-tested.
Oren Greenberg, the AI marketing consultant we talked about earlier, told me:
“The level of hype is out of this world. Vibe coding is cool, and there are a few people who’ve built a nice small business out of it. But it’s mostly the vendors who are minting cash.”
Here’s the point: Don’t get swept up in the hype. Check the source.
The Infrastructure Is Messy
AI workflows look slick in a demo. But in practice, you have to plug into your marketing stack.
And that’s where things get complicated.
For example, you might build the perfect AI agent to score inbound leads, only to realize that your CRM can’t accept the data the way you need.
As Austin Hay, Co-Founder of Clarity and MarTech teacher at Reforge, noted in a recent interview:
“Everyone’s excited about unstructured data, but unstructured data is useless when it needs to play nice with structured systems.”
For traditional marketing teams, this means your AI workflows may not play well with your company’s established martech systems.
And if your tech’s API documentation is outdated (or worse, nonexistent), it will be nearly impossible to vibe code your way to integrations between existing tools.
AI Can’t Invent Outside its Datasets
Another misconception around vibe marketing is that you can throw any messy, undefined problem at an AI agent and it will figure it out.
The reality is less glamorous.
AI thrives on patterns it’s seen before. Point it at a well-scoped, repeatable task, and it shines.
But ask it to invent outside of its training data — or solve a fuzzy, novel problem — and you’ll end up with loops, errors, and wasted hours.
Speed Only Works When You Know Where You’re Going
AI can help you move fast. But if you don’t know what metrics matter and where you want your workflows to lead, faster will just mean getting lost sooner.
Marketers who succeed with vibe coding are the ones who define the finish line first. AI then becomes a vehicle to reach those goals faster, not a substitute for setting them.
Kevin White, Head of Marketing at Scrunch AI, put it this way in a recent interview:
“AI multiplies the abilities of people who already know their craft. Treat it as a force multiplier for your expertise rather than a substitute for it.”
Vibe Marketing Tools Free Up Time…But for What?
As more marketers build AI workflows and vibe code their way to productivity, a philosophical question arises: why?
AI workflows and automations free up time (when they work). But, what are we freeing up time for?
By eliminating the busywork, we’ve saved only the most demanding tasks for ourselves. And while creating and strategizing may be what we enjoy most, it’s impossible for most people to do that kind of mentally-taxing work for eight hours straight.
“In conversations with CMOs, it’s clear that GenAI has become a core part of how modern marketing teams operate. What separates the winners is a commitment not just to scaling the technology, but to empowering the people who use it. Those CMOs investing in tools and talent are the ones rewriting the playbook.”
Ready to Try Your Own Vibe Marketing Experiment?
Vibe marketing isn’t snake oil. But it’s not a silver bullet, either.
The hype can make it feel like anyone can vibe code and automate their way to a marketing edge. But the reality is far more nuanced.
The marketers getting real value from vibe marketing are the ones with strong fundamentals, clear goals, and often a layer of engineering support behind them.
For the rest of us, the takeaway is simple:
Vibe marketing is worth experimenting with, but it won’t replace strategy, judgment, or hard-won expertise.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-10-03 14:08:552025-10-03 14:08:55Vibe Marketing: Hype, Reality, and Real Case Studies
Most marketers treat SEO like a traffic tool. They get the clicks, but the brand still doesn’t stick.
Here’s what I see happening: Marketers chase clicks but forget about recognition. You get the visit, but not the return customer.
That’s a problem. If people can’t remember you, they won’t come back. If Google doesn’t see signals of your brand’s authority, you’ll lose visibility in search.
AI search is shifting how people find answers. Instead of 10 blue links, people now see answers. And those answers often include brands Google already trusts.
This makes brand SEO a must. You need to show up and stand out.
I’ve been tracking this shift for months: 1 out of every 3 search queries on Google is branded. That means you’re already behind if you’re not building brand recognition.
In this post, you’ll learn how to build a brand that ranks, earns clicks, and sticks in people’s minds. No gimmicks. Just smart, brand-first SEO.
Key Takeaways
Brand SEO helps you rank for branded searches and builds trust with users and Google.
Strong branding increases click-through rates (CTR), backlinks, and visibility in AI-driven results.
Brand mentions across trusted sites, combined with consistent content and E-E-A-T signals, reinforce your authority in search. Owning your branded search engine results page (SERP) is just as important as ranking for non-branded keywords.
AI summaries and featured answers pull from trustworthy brands. If your content feels human and credible, you’ll be in the mix.
What Is Brand SEO (and Why It Matters More Now)?
Brand SEO builds your reputation in search results. You want to control how you appear, not leave it to chance.
In newer AI features like AI Overviews (AIOs), I’m seeing trusted brands surface more often. If you’re not showing credibility, you’re not showing up.
Brand SEO closes that gap. It tells search engines and users who you are, why you matter, and why they should click.
You still need the foundations: SEO basics like page speed, keyword optimization, and mobile responsiveness.
But technical SEO alone won’t build your brand’s reputation. You also need signals like brand mentions, consistent content, and trust indicators, especially those tied to E-E-A-T.
Key brand SEO signals include:
Branded keyword visibility (e.g., company name, product names, founder name)
Clear authorship and real-world experience across pages
Brand SEO works across platforms. Google is no longer everyone’s go-to. Many now use TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, ChatGPT, and other platforms to search and discover brands.
That shift is why I call it search everywhere optimization. Your brand needs to be visible wherever your audience is searching.
How Branding Impacts SEO (and Vice Versa)
Google doesn’t just rank websites. It favors recognizable and trusted brands.
If your name is recognizable and trusted, people are more likely to click. If they stick around and engage, Google sees that as a signal you’re worth ranking higher.
Here’s something most people miss: Good branding actually improves your technical SEO metrics. It improves click-through rates. It builds trust. It earns backlinks and mentions without you having to ask.
And it works both ways. Showing up at the top of search results makes your brand look more credible, even to people who’ve never heard of you before.
This creates a growth loop. If your brand shows authority and credibility, you have a better shot at getting pulled into AI-generated summaries, carousels, and featured snippets.
Your brand strategy and SEO plan can‘t sit in separate silos. They have to work together.
Even unlinked brand mentions count as credibility signals. If someone references your business in a blog or Reddit thread, Google sees that as a sign your brand is real.
Strong brands get ranked. Ranked content strengthens the brand. That’s the loop. You want to be in it.
Strategies to Improve Your Brand SEO
A lot of brands don’t think about how they appear in search until there’s a problem. But by then, you’re already lagging.
People are going to find you in search anyway. Brand SEO decides whether they trust what they see or bounce.
The strategies below are designed to boost visibility and build credibility, helping your brand stand out where it matters most: directly in the search results.
1. Optimize for Branded Search Queries
When someone Googles your brand, what do they see? Your homepage? A competitor ad? A half-filled profile on a review site?
Not actively managing your branded search presence means giving up control of your first impression.
Go search your brand name right now.
You should see your site, social profiles, top content, third-party reviews, and, ideally, Google’s Knowledge Panel. If anything looks off, you’ve got work to do.
From there, tighten the basics.
Claim and optimize your listings on review platforms and business directories. Add schema markup to your site. Build out your brand’s presence on YouTube, LinkedIn, and other authoritative channels.
Don’t forget your core pages, either.
Use your home and About pages to clearly state who you are, what you do, and why people should trust you. These pages often show up first in branded searches.
These searchers already know your name. Now your job is to make sure you look like the obvious choice.
2. Build E-E-A-T with Your Brand
Google rewards brands that demonstrate real experience and clear expertise. Those are the exact qualities E-E-A-T is built to measure.
So, how do you show that in search?
Start by putting a face to your brand. Make it visible in search. How?
Add real authorship to your content.
Use bios with credentials.
Publish original data.
Share customer stories that prove you’ve done the work.
Your About page matters, too. It tells both users and search engines why you’re credible. That includes your track record, leadership team, certifications, and partnerships. These are all signals that support your SEO.
You can also strengthen E-E-A-T through off-site brand mentions. Even unlinked references from trusted sources help Google connect your brand to your niche.
If your brand is missing from expert conversations, you’re not getting full credit in search.
Google tracks brand mentions across the web, even when they aren’t linked. That includes product roundups, reviews, Reddit threads, and press coverage.
These mentions act as trust signals. They show Google that your brand exists, has a reputation, and is relevant in your space.
Start by identifying the sites, creators, or communities that already talk about your niche. Then pitch them stories, data, tools, or quotes that tie back to your brand. You don’t need a backlink to make the mention count.
You can also earn mentions through original research, expert commentary, or sponsoring newsletters and industry events.
Track your results with a tool like Brandwatch, Mention, or Google Alerts. When you see new mentions, screenshot them. Use them in pitches. Mention them in your About page. They build credibility fast.
4. Use Content to Reinforce Brand Values
Your brand strategy isn’t what you say about yourself. It’s what people remember after reading, watching, or hearing from you.
Every piece of content sends a signal. Blog posts, product pages, even your FAQs: Each shapes how people see your brand and how search engines define it.
If your blog is friendly but your homepage sounds like legal copy, that disconnect hurts both trust and SEO. You want a consistent voice, message, and point of view across all channels.
That’s how you build long-term recognition. And it’s also how Google learns what your brand actually stands for.
The fix starts with content that reflects your values. Are you positioning yourself as an educator? A disrupter? A resource for beginners? That should come through clearly in your headlines, body copy, and calls to action.
Take a look at NerdWallet’s homepage and recent blog.
NerdWallet leans hard into being a trusted guide. On the homepage, it’s all about making finance simple and approachable: “The Nerds can find your next financial product in minutes.”
In the article, it’s about being relatable and human, explaining a tough job market with plain language, real data (and even a touch of humor).
Brand stories aren’t marketing fluff. They’re how you show what your business does, who it helps, and why it matters.
Common Mistakes That Hurt Brand SEO
Brand SEO breaks down when your signals don’t align. These aren’t technical SEO errors. They’re brand gaps. Good news, though: They’re fixable.
Here’s what weakens your visibility and trust in search:
1. Mixed or Inconsistent Messaging
I see this constantly: brands that sound corporate on their homepage, casual on social, and educational in their blog. Pick a voice and stick with it.
People notice. Google picks up on those mixed signals too. You lose credibility if your voice, offer, or positioning shifts depending on the platform.
2. Neglected Branded SERPs
If you’re not ranking for your own name or product terms, someone else will fill that gap.
Check your branded queries regularly. Do your homepage, social profiles, and About page show up? Do review sites outrank you? Own your real estate by optimizing those pages and building out what’s missing.
3. No Authorship or Trust Signals
Google wants to know who’s behind the content.
If your blog posts have no author bios or credentials, they look like filler. Add real names, real expertise, and clear reasons to trust the advice. These are key SEO trust signals.
Here’s an example featuring NP Digital’s VP of SEO, Nikki Lam, who contributes thought leadership expertise to this blog:
Author pages like this help reinforce transparency and authority, making your content harder to dismiss.
4. Lack of Off-Site Brand Presence
If your brand never shows up outside your own website, it creates a credibility gap for both search engines and users.
This usually happens when all your energy goes into content on your blog, but no one else is referencing your brand. That might be because you haven’t done outreach, you’re not sharing anything unique, or you’re not part of the conversations happening in your industry.
The fix doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
Start small. You might share original insights or research on LinkedIn or pitch a quote to a roundup post. Or you could jump into relevant Reddit threads or sponsor a niche newsletter or event.
The goal is to get your brand name mentioned on trustworthy third-party sites, even if there’s no backlink.
FAQs
How do I improve brand awareness with SEO?
Start by creating helpful content that solves problems for your audience. Focus on long-tail keywords tied to your niche. From there, own your branded SERPs by optimizing your homepage, About page, and key product or service pages. And don’t stop with your own site: Build authority by earning mentions on trusted third-party sites, even without links.
How important is branding for SEO?
It’s bigger than most people realize. Google favors content from trusted, recognizable sources. A strong brand improves click-through rates, time on page, and off-site signals like mentions and reviews. All feed into your organic performance.
What is a brand mention for SEO?
A brand mention is any time your business is referenced online, even if there’s no hyperlink. This could be in a product roundup, blog post, news article, forum thread, or podcast transcript. Google can interpret these mentions as signals of authority and relevance.
Conclusion
SEO has evolved beyond traffic generation. It’s how your brand earns visibility, trust, and authority across search and AI-driven platforms.
If you’re not showing up as the trusted choice in branded queries, featured snippets, AI overviews, or other AI-generated answers, someone else will.
Brand SEO helps you fix that. It gives you control over how your business appears, what people say about it, and whether Google sees you as credible.
Doing this well goes beyond technical fixes. It’s about your content strategy, review signals, authorship, off-site presence, and everything in between. It’s not optional if you want to grow.
You don’t build a brand by hoping people recognize your logo. You build it by showing up everywhere they look and giving them a reason to trust you.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-10-02 19:00:002025-10-02 19:00:00How to Use SEO to Build Your Brand
ChatGPT recommends products — complete with photos, pricing, and purchase links — to its 700 million weekly users.
And now customers can complete purchases without leaving the chat.
BIG deal.
But will ChatGPT recommend your products?
That’s not automatic. And you can’t pay for placement.
What you can do is optimize your site so ChatGPT understands what you sell, trusts your brand, and surfaces your products when buyers search. This guide shows you how.
You’ll learn the eight-step framework for getting featured in ChatGPT Shopping.
I also spoke with Leigh McKenzie, Backlinko’s Head of Growth and founder of the ecommerce brand UnderFit, to get his insights on what’s actually working.
First, let’s look at how ChatGPT decides which products make the cut.
How ChatGPT Shopping Works
ChatGPT Shopping kicks in automatically for some shopping intent prompts.
While it doesn’t fire every time, I found it appears more often than not after testing 100+ prompts.
The key? Typing a prompt with clear buying intent.
Like “e-bikes that can handle potholes.”
Instead of just explaining things or offering advice, ChatGPT Shopping recommends specific products.
This includes product images, pricing, and links to online stores and websites where users can make a purchase.
Side note: The ChatGPT Shopping experience isn’t consistent. Even with the same prompt, the carousel may (or may not) show. It can also appear at the top, middle, or bottom of the chat. This variability suggests the feature is still evolving.
If your store gets recommended, countless high-intent shoppers will see your products.
For example, when I tested the e-bike query, ChatGPT gave me a brief explanation of what features to prioritize.
But it also provided a visual product carousel with eight products, each in its own card with key details.
(It looks similar to Google Shopping ads, except you don’t have to pay for them.)
Clicking on any card opens a side panel with:
Additional product photos
A list of stores, prices, and direct links
A short “why you might like this” summary
Sentiment pulled from reviews and forums
From there, users simply click “Visit” to reach the merchant’s product page.
But this experience is changing.
As of September 2025, OpenAI is rolling out Instant Checkout — a feature that lets shoppers buy directly inside ChatGPT.
This is a huge shift.
ChatGPT is no longer just a product discovery tool. It’s a full shopping destination.
Right now, Instant Checkout is only available to Etsy sellers in the United States.
But OpenAI plans to expand this feature to Shopify merchants and other countries soon.
Not on either platform?
They’re also accepting applications for merchants to build their own integrations. (More on this in Step #7.)
How ChatGPT Selects Products to Recommend
A shopper describes what they’re looking for (“running shoes with arch support under $150”), and ChatGPT’s AI goes to work.
It scans the web for the most relevant products based on that request.
And weighs details like product names, descriptions, features, reviews, brand authority, and other signals to find the best matches.
If your product checks the right boxes — and the information on your site is clear and crawlable — it has a chance to be recommended.
ChatGPT may also consider the user’s location and preferences when making recommendations.
Ultimately, all product recommendations must also pass through OpenAI’s safety systems.
This filters out low-quality, misleading, or unsafe products.
So, what does all of this mean for you?
ChatGPT Shopping is evolving fast — and the brands that keep up will win the most visibility.
Here’s how to ensure ChatGPT can understand, trust, and recommend your products.
1. Add Structured Schema Markup to Your Site
ChatGPT needs structured data to understand what you sell.
Schema markup is code that labels key details on your product pages (and website as a whole): name, price, description, availability, reviews, and more.
It turns raw HTML into data AI tools can parse instantly.
Without it, ChatGPT (and other AI systems) have to guess what’s on your page.
With it, they see clean, structured information they can confidently include in product recommendations.
At a minimum, your product schema should include:
Product: Name, description, brand, image, and identifiers (GTIN, SKU, MPN)
Offer: Price, currency, availability, and URL
Review: Individual reviews with reviewer names and ratings
It may look intimidating, but many content management systems — like WordPress, Shopify, and Wix — offer plugins or built-in tools that generate the markup for you automatically.
Once your markup is in place, test that it’s working correctly using Google’s Rich Results Test or Schema.org’s validator.
These tools make it easy to check that your structured data is valid, visible, and error-free.
Pro tip: Go beyond the schema basics. Add AggregateRating for average review scores or FAQPage markup to answer common buyer questions. The more context you provide, the easier it is for AI to surface your product in response to specific prompts.
2. Create and Maintain a High-Quality Product Feed
A product feed is a structured file that packages up your product details and sends them to platforms like Google Merchant Center, Shopify, and Etsy.
It includes details like titles, prices, availability, images, links, and more.
ChatGPT may use data from major platforms like Google to decide which products to recommend.
Pro tip: Want to add your product feed directly to ChatGPT? OpenAI will notify interested merchants when this feature is available. Fill out the Merchant Application form for consideration.
For example, if your Google Shopping feed is outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate, ChatGPT may return bad information about your products.
Or skip recommending them entirely.
That’s why a high-quality, up-to-date product feed is critical.
Side note: If you’re on an ecommerce platform like WooCommerce or Shopify, feeds are usually created automatically.
But keeping feeds accurate is easier said than done.
There are a lot of moving parts, like site updates, refresh schedules, and third-party tools.
And it only takes one slip for mismatches to creep in.
Here are a few common product feed issues — and how to fix them:
Product Feed Problem
Why It Happens
Fix
Price Mismatch
Feed not refreshed, sync delay
Enable daily/real-time feed updates. Use one consistent pricing source.
Inaccurate availability
Inventory updates on site, but feed refresh lags
Sync stock levels in real-time whenever possible. Double-check before campaigns.
Wrong or Truncated Title
Feed title auto-truncated or different from H1/meta
Align feed titles with on-page H1/meta. Keep product names consistent.
Incorrect image
Feed defaults to first gallery image
Set hero/product image as primary in CMS and feed
Missing reviews
Reviews hidden in JS or not in schema
Add Review and AggregateRating schema in HTML
Conflicting schema
Multiple apps/plugins overwrite each other
Use one schema source. Validate with Schema.org or Google’s Rich Results test
Automation keeps most updates in sync. And manual checks before major launches or sales help catch anything that may slip through.
Here’s how Leigh maintains a balance of the two for his ecommerce store:
“I keep all my product data in a spreadsheet. Whenever I change a product detail, I update it there first. WooCommerce uses that data to update my site’s pages and schema automatically. Then, Channable takes the same spreadsheet and syncs those updates into my product feeds. That way, my site and my feeds are always pulling from the same source, so everything stays consistent.”
3. Make Sure AI Bots Can Read Your Site
If ChatGPT can’t read your site, it can’t recommend your products.
Two simple technical issues block many ecommerce sites from showing up: hidden content and restricted crawlers.
Check for JavaScript
Many AI bots — including ChatGPT — still struggle with content that only loads via JavaScript.
If key details aren’t in the page’s raw HTML, the bot might never see them.
This includes your product descriptions, prices, and images.
Eek.
Here’s how to check if that’s happening:
Pull up a product page on your website or online store
In Google Chrome, go to “Settings” > “Privacy and security” > Site Settings
Under “Content,” click “JavaScript” and toggle “Don’t allow sites to use JavaScript”
Reload the product page you’re testing
If your product details disappear, it means they’re only loading through JavaScript.
To fix this, work with a developer to ensure all essential information is in your site’s raw HTML.
They’re onboarding merchants on a rolling basis and will reach out when you’re accepted.
Once you’re in the pipeline, you’ll need to:
Provide a structured product feed that meets OpenAI’s product feed specs. Leigh recommends starting with your existing Google feed and updating it as needed to meet OpenAI’s requirements.
Enable ACP checkout. ACP lets ChatGPT place and complete orders in your system. If you’re on Stripe, setup can be as simple as one line of code. If not, you can still integrate using Stripe’s Shared Payment Token API or the Delegated Payments Spec — no provider switch required.
Connect your payment provider. You’ll still process transactions and remain the merchant of record.
Pass certification requirements. OpenAI requires sandbox testing and end-to-end checks before you go live.
Pro tip: Even if ChatGPT Instant Checkout isn’t available for your store yet, preparing your product data, feeds, and backend now will help you move faster when it is. This should give you a head start as this feature gains popularity.
8. Track Your ChatGPT Visibility
It’s not enough to show up in ChatGPT Shopping.
You also need to measure how well you’re performing.
Start with tracking traffic.
The easiest way is through OpenAI’s built-in UTM tag.
utm_source=chatgpt.com
This is code that OpenAI automatically adds to all outbound links. And looks like this:
Set up a custom segment in Google Analytics to track and analyze ChatGPT traffic to your site.
Once that’s done, look for patterns:
Is ChatGPT traffic increasing month over month — or slowing down?
How does the conversion rate compare to other channels?
Do visitors stick around or bounce right away?
Side note: Not every ChatGPT mention will be traceable. Some users see your product in a chat and search your brand directly on Google instead of clicking. Look for spikes in branded search traffic or direct visits to gauge the broader impact of LLMs.
But traffic only tells you what happens after people click.
You also need to measure what happens before — specifically, which prompts surface your products.
To do this, it helps to understand the kinds of prompts shoppers type.
Most fall into four buckets.
Price-based: “Best dog food bowl under $20,” “luxury ceramic dog bowl”
Use-case: “Dog bowl for messy eaters,” “raised bowls for large breeds”
Feature-based: “Non-slip stainless steel dog bowl,” “slow feeder BPA-free”
Problem-solution: “Dog bowl that keeps ants out,” “dog bowl that doesn’t slide on tile”
Think of these buckets as templates.
Test prompts in each category and ask yourself:
Does your product show up? If so, are the details accurate?
If not, who does — and why? (Are their reviews fresher, their authority stronger, or their copy closer to buyer language?)
Repeatedly run these checks to gather more data.
You’ll learn which prompts lead to product mentions, how your LLM visibility changes, and how buyers talk about your brand.
Rather automate this process?
Tools like Semrush’s AI SEO Toolkit let you:
Track which prompts surface your products
Monitor brand sentiment
Compare visibility in different platforms
Beyond ChatGPT Shopping: Your AI Visibility Playbook
There isn’t a magic formula for getting ChatGPT to recommend your products.
But the brands that consistently get recommended all have three things in common:
A rock-solid technical foundation
Clear, buyer-focused product copy
Strong trust signals across the web
Get these right, and you’re not just optimizing for ChatGPT Shopping.
You’re setting yourself up to be discovered across EVERY AI platform out there.
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If I had a dollar for every time someone said “know your audience,” I could retire from marketing altogether.
And yet, most teams are completely winging it.
Too often, marketers equate audience research with half-baked customer relationship management (CRM) data, some social media metrics, and a few buyer interviews.
But that’s just organizing information you already have.
Real audience research means discovering what you don’t know yet.
It’s the exact words people use when they’re frustrated. The solutions they’ve already tried and dismissed. The moment they decide to trust one source over another.
When you get this right, you move from guessing what might work to creating content from what your audience is already telling you.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to find those insights across five key channels, with practical tactics you can use right away.
Download our free Audience Research Tracker
As you go through these methods, I’ll show you how to capture insights in our Audience Research Tracker and turn them into actionable content ideas.
Why You Can’t Skip Audience Research
If you’ve ever lost hours scrolling TikTok or binge-watched “just one more episode” on Netflix until midnight, you’ve experienced the power of audience research.
Platforms like Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok own our attention because they know us better than we know ourselves.
They’ve built this advantage by making audience research a core function.
Netflix, for example, treats “Consumer Insights” as one of its nine core research areas, which shows just how pivotal understanding users is to their success.
For these winning brands, audience research isn’t an afterthought.
It shapes everything: what gets built, how products are positioned, and which messages resonate
And the payoff is massive — delivering experiences tailored to your customers that keep them coming back for more.
In stark contrast, many marketing teams run on fragments.
SEOs chase keywords, social focuses on engagement, and product marketing fine-tunes messaging. Everyone has a piece of the puzzle, but no one can put it together.
As a result, campaigns are designed for specific channels instead of real people.
Done well, audience research can close this gap to:
Sharpen your messaging that customers find relatable
Prevent wasted spend by showing you where people actually are
Speed up creative cycles by giving teams validated insights to work with
In short: This research legwork aligns marketing with real customer needs, winning customer trust in the process.
And the good news is you don’t need Big Tech’s expensive resources to pull this off.
I’ll show you how to conduct audience research and out-empathize the competition with your existing team and budget.
5 Channels to Conduct Audience Research for Content Marketing
Your buyers are already telling you what they want. You just need to listen carefully.
Let’s learn how.
Make sure to download our tracker and jot down all the information from your audience research techniques.
Tap Into Intel Within Your Company
Some of the most valuable audience insights are already within your reach, sitting with your sales and customer success (CS) teams.
These groups are on the front lines.
They regularly interact with prospects and customers about their frustrations, aspirations, objections, and goals.
For marketers figuring out how to conduct audience research, collecting these insights is a great starting point.
Here’s how:
Source of Insight
How It Works
What You’ll Learn
Listen to conversations
Sit in on sales demos, onboarding calls, or quarterly check-ins
Use a simple template to document key takeaways
How buyers describe challenges
Words and phrases they repeat
Factors they prioritize
Sync with frontline teams
Run regular sessions with sales, CS, product, and marketing to share notes
Common challenges
Objections that block deals
Features customers love or struggle with
Interview & survey customers
Conduct 1:1 interviews with prospects and customers
Use surveys to validate patterns
Why buyers looked for a solution
Their decision-making process
Alternatives considered
Listen and Capture First-Hand Conversations
The fastest way to understand your audience is to literally listen.
Sit in on a sales demo, a customer onboarding call, or a quarterly check-in meeting.
This will bring you raw insights you can’t get from surveys, like:
The way buyers frame their challenges
The decision factors they prioritize
The words they repeat
But listening alone isn’t enough.
You need a simple system to document the key takeaways from every conversation and share them across teams.
Here’s an example of what that might look like for a fictional coffee brand:
Our Audience Research Tracker will help you distill these conversations into meaningful content opportunities.
You can jot down recurring problem statements in your buyers’ language and identify their biggest pain points.
Then, prioritize ideas based on our four key parameters like urgency, business value, and more.
Sync with Frontline Teams
Another way to capture these insights is by regularly connecting with your customer-facing teams.
When teams work in silos, each one only sees a part of the puzzle.
This creates a disconnect in your customer experience because no one has the whole picture of what buyers want.
That’s why it’s worth setting up regular cross-team sessions for marketing, sales, customer success, and product teams to compare notes.
These sessions can surface insights that no single team could uncover on its own.
Interview and Survey Customers
Besides internal data, hearing directly from buyers can give you a deeper, more reliable understanding of what drives their decisions.
Customer interviews provide essential context about the why behind their behavior.
You can find out:
How they first discovered your product or category
What pain points pushed them to look for a solution
The decision-making process they followed
What alternatives did they consider
With surveys, you can validate these insights and see which ones apply broadly versus one-off anecdotes.
The bottom line: Before spending anything on new research, look inward to collect and process information you already have.
Use Reddit for Unfiltered Conversations
Unlike other social media platforms, Reddit gives you access to candid and often brutally honest conversations.
Take this post on frustrating skincare routines.
It voices raw and real emotions that people face when dealing with skincare challenges.
And in the comments, there are even more stories and nuanced perspectives.
They offer crucial insights about the audience, like “skincare feels like a tough road of trial and error” and the “emotional toll of poor skin health.”
So, how do you use Reddit to know your buyers better?
Start with the Right Filters
Reddit’s filters make it easy to sift through posts and find what matters most.
You can sort results by:
Relevance: Best for finding posts that match your keyword directly
Top: Surfaces the most upvoted posts over a time period
Hot: Shows recently trending posts with the most upvotes
Comment count: Sorts posts with the most comments
New: Shows you the freshest discussions
Plus, you can filter results by timeframe to see what’s trending now versus what’s been a consistent pain point over time.
In my search for “moisturizer for oily skin,” filtering by “Relevance” shows the closest matches, while “Hot” surfaces the most recently upvoted posts.
Pro tip: Use Google with the search operator site:reddit.com “keyword.” This often works better than Reddit’s native search, especially if you’re looking for niche phrases.
Find the Right Subreddits
While it’s easy to find bigger and popular subreddits, it’s equally important to look for smaller, niche spaces where your audience might hang out.
Remember, the same buyers may express themselves differently depending on the space they’re in.
For instance, a skincare brand could find valuable insights across:
r/SkincareAddiction: Broad, general skincare conversations
r/AsianBeauty: Discussions centered on Asian markets
r/30PlusSkincare: Catering to an older demographic
Each subreddit reflects a different slice of the audience.
Read Posts and Comments Like a Researcher
A good Reddit post will give you context into people’s problems, goals, and lived experiences.
But the comments add more nuance to the original post. This is where people expand on the issue, discuss solutions, and share personal stories.
Here’s a post where the original poster (OP) shares their concerns about using Retinol, an ingredient known for its anti-aging properties.
Other Redditors share their take and advice on this issue, highlighting some alternatives to consider.
For a skincare brand, this post is helpful to understand:
Buyers’ concerns regarding Retinol
Commonly used and recommended solutions
Based on these insights, the brand can create content focusing on the best practices for Retinol use. Another great idea is to make a beginners’ guide for using Retinol and taking care of your skin.
Besides, Reddit also offers something other platforms can’t: clear signals of what not to do.
Upvotes highlight ideas and opinions people love. Downvotes show the perspectives or advice they reject.
Find AMAs (Ask Me Anything)
Ask Me Anything (AMAs) can be a gateway to your audience’s biggest questions or issues they’re curious about.
Any industry expert or influencer with trusted credentials can host an AMA.
Here’s an example from a certified dermatologist.
Questions asked in this thread reveal issues where people need an expert’s guidance.
For example, one Redditor asked for basic skincare regimens while another shared a question about stretch marks.
Pay attention to questions with high upvotes. Those are the ones that most people want advice on.
Check Out YouTube Comments and Videos
YouTube is the second-largest search engine where people go to solve problems, compare options, and learn new skills.
Naturally, it can reveal a lot about your buyers.
An audience intelligence tool like Sparktoro is a good starting point for YouTube research.
When you enter any keyword, it lists the most relevant YouTube channels for this audience.
Visit these channels and extract rich insights based on the steps I explain below.
For example, this video comparing stainless steel pans with cast iron skillets tells you the creator’s subjective take on the topic.
But when you scroll through the comments, you’ll find which option people prefer — and why.
Here’s a quick and easy process to document insights from as many YouTube videos as you want.
Copy comments from every video in one go. Then, paste them into ChatGPT or any LLM tool of your choice.
Share this prompt to extract common pain points and themes:
I have added a collection of YouTube comments below. Please analyze them as if you’re conducting target audience research.
Identify:
→ The most common themes and topics people talk about
→ Motivations, desires, or positive outcomes they want
→ Patterns in language (words/phrases that repeat often)
Present your findings in a structured summary. Create a table highlighting frequent pain points, frustrations, or complaints, and add users’ quotes for each pain point.
Here are the comments:
[Paste comments]
This way, you can turn hundreds of scattered thoughts into a structured list of what your audience actually struggles with in their exact words.
I tried this myself and here’s how it went:
I found a clear breakdown of my audience’s pain points spelled out in their exact words.
Add these to our research tracker — and just like that, I have topics for my next few Instagram reels, like “Health concerns around non-stick pans” and “Why stainless steel pans are better than non-stick.”
Learn From User-Generated Content
Beyond comments, user-generated content (UGC) can also offer a direct line into what your buyers care about.
Think product reviews, unboxing videos, comparisons, or even vlogs where people share how they use a product.
Notice the kind of pros and cons that people highlight in these videos.
For example, this YouTube creator made a video about his decision to stop using Hexclad pans.
He explains:
Why he bought these pans
What went wrong with these products
What alternatives he considered and switched to
Use these insights to understand key buying factors and some pain points worth exploring.
Explore Social Media Platforms Your Buyers Use
Social media works best as an audience research method when you know where your buyers actually spend their time.
Tools like Similarweb make this easier by showing you which channels your audience prefers.
Add your website and a few key competitors to get started, like this example with TechCrunch, Wired, and other competitors.
Here’s how the tool breaks down each brand’s audience share on different social media platforms:
The takeaway: Identify the platforms that matter most to your buyers and dig deep into those spaces.
LinkedIn
On LinkedIn, start by identifying people who fit your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
Pay close attention to the posts they share — their wins, failures, roadblocks, and processes.
These real-world updates reveal where your product or service can make a meaningful impact.
For example, if your ICP includes customer success teams, this LinkedIn post shows how leaders are experimenting with AI tools.
It highlights both opportunities and gaps you could address — like growing interest in a trend (opportunity) or frequent complaints (gap).
To scale your research, use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to apply filters and zero in on the right people within your ICP.
For example, you can filter results by industry, keywords, location, seniority, language, and more of these filters.
Instagram
Instagram hashtags are a great way to discover audience interests.
Start with broad themes like #mealprepideas to see what’s trending.
Each hashtag (like a keyword) surfaces a collection of posts tagged with this term.
Look for posts with high engagement because they signal what truly resonates.
For instance, this post earned over 393k likes because it offered clear, visual recipe ideas that people found useful.
Like LinkedIn, you can also follow influencers or niche creators in your space to get closer to your audience.
Their posts (and especially the comments) often pinpoint the questions, frustrations, and goals your buyers are struggling with.
TikTok
To use TikTok as an audience research method, create a fresh account dedicated to your niche.
Interact only with videos specific to your space, and TikTok’s algorithm will start curating a feed of trending content.
Once you see relevant videos, dive into the comments to spot recurring themes and pain points.
For example, the comments on this meal prep video include many questions about the containers and the recipe.
You can also search for your keywords and toggle between “Top,” “Users,” “Videos,” and “LIVE” content to explore different kinds of content on the app.
X
X has powerful tools for audience research if you know where to look.
Use the advanced search function to filter posts by keyword, engagement, account, or time frame.
Another underrated feature for target audience research: “Lists.”
It lets you build a curated feed of accounts you want to hear more from, like potential customers, influencers, or industry voices.
You can either follow existing lists or create a new one.
For instance, searching for “vibe coding” lists shows ready-made feeds you can tap into for insights.
Compare Platforms with Semrush Social Tracker
Semrush’s Social Tracker helps you zoom out and learn more about your audience from multiple channels at once.
It pulls data from Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok, so you can see how your audience interacts with different channels.
With this report, you can identify which platforms generate the strongest engagement from your target audience.
And it’s easier to spot popular post formats (Reels, carousels, videos, etc.) and hashtags that drive interaction.
To get started, connect your social accounts and add competitor profiles in Social Tracker.
Use the “Overview” tab to compare follower growth, posting activity, and engagement side by side.
Then, jump to platform-specific tabs to get in-depth reports for each platform.
Mine Customer Reviews
A single customer review may just be one person’s opinion.
But when you analyze these reviews at scale, clear patterns start to emerge.
For starters, look for factors that led people to buy a product. Or, notice the cons people mention in low-rated reviews.
Both indicate pain points you can target.
For example, this customer calls out weak product durability and a disappointing warranty process.
You also want to find what success looks like for your potential customers. Is it saving time, cutting costs, improving quality, or something else?
Document the features they call out as good or bad.
This insight can shape your messaging and even suggest improvements for your offering.
See if reviews pinpoint any competitors that people considered. Note why they chose or didn’t choose a specific brand over others.
Similar to the exercise I suggested for YouTube, collect product reviews from different platforms.
Ask any LLM tool to analyze these reviews and prepare a list of pain points.
Here are the review platforms you should check out based on your business type:
The more you know about your buyers, the stronger results your marketing efforts can produce.
What’s even better, your audience is already leaving signals about what they want.
When you listen closely and capture these insights, you can create content and launch campaigns that hit closer to home.
Download our Audience Research Tracker to easily document this data and turn these insights into content opportunities.
Next up: Wondering how to tie all your audience-centric content ideas together? Check out our guide on building a customer-focused content strategy to put this research to work.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-10-02 13:35:112025-10-02 13:35:11Audience Research: Stop Guessing What Your Buyers Care About
Turning paid ads into profit is a proven path to scalable, predictable growth.
When you nail it, paid media gives you a steady stream of customers, without depending on Google’s latest update or social media’s shifting algorithms. In fact, digital ad spend hit $259B in 2024 and is expected to keep growing.
But which channels are right for you? How can you weave them together into an effective strategy? And what’s the best way to measure your performance?
Here’s what you need to know.
Key Takeaways
Paid media is any form of advertising you pay to place on platforms you don’t own, like Google ads, Facebook posts, banner placements, or influencer partnerships.
The big three categories are display ads (banners and videos that stand out), native ads (sponsored posts that blend in), and traditional media (billboards, TV, radio).
Search ads and influencer partnerships are the most trusted paid channels because they catch people with intent or leverage existing relationships.
A winning campaign has seven steps: get your team aligned, set specific goals, budget for real costs (not just ad spend), know your audience, pick the right channels, create compelling ads, and optimize relentlessly.
Track five key metrics: return on ad spend (ROAS), overall return on investment (ROI), cost per click (CPC), impressions, and click-through rate (CTR). These tell you whether you’re making money or just spending it.
Paid Media Basics
Paid media is any kind of promotion that meets two criteria: it happens on a platform you don’t own, and you pay for it.
Banner ads are everywhere, like the ones shown in the Wired article below.
Paid media drives real revenue, whether you’re running a startup or managing a global brand.
In research from my team at NP Digital, we found that paid ads make up a meaningful chunk of revenue across businesses of all sizes.
Paid Media vs. Earned Media vs. Owned Media
Think of marketing like a three-legged stool. The three legs here are paid, earned, and owned media.
Understanding how they work and how they work together can help you build a strategy that covers your blind spots and scales over time.
As mentioned earlier, paid media is any promotional placement you pay for. Think search ads, social ads, banner placements, influencer partnerships, and more.
Earned media is unpaid publicity that your business receives from other people and websites. It’s what others say about your brand mentions in news articles, influencer shoutouts, customer reviews, backlinks, or viral social shares.
Owned media is the stuff you fully control. Your website, blogs, social media accounts, newsletters, and email list, fall into this category. You manage the content, the experience, and the message.
Here’s how they fit together:
Paid media helps you get visibility fast, especially when you’re just starting out or entering new markets
Owned media builds trust, it’s where your brand message lives
Earned media amplifies both. It kicks in when people start talking about what you’re already doing well
The best campaigns use all three. Paid gets attention. Owned keeps it. Earned multiplies it.
Categories and Examples: Paid Media in the Wild
Paid media is evolving fast. Search, social, video, and display are table stakes, but newer formats are gaining traction too, including ads inside large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini.
Even with all this growth, most formats fall into three core categories: display, native, and traditional. There’s often overlap between them, but these labels help keep things simple.
Display ads: These are visually distinct image, video, and text ads that appear alongside content on the web. Website banners, YouTube ads, and interstitial pop-ups are all examples.
Native ads: These are ads that fit within the flow of content and are often indistinguishable from it at first glance. Influencer recommendations, advertorials, and sponsorships are well-known forms of native advertising.
Traditional media: Commercials, billboards, and direct mail are examples of traditional media. You don’t get the same tracking or targeting you’d see with digital, but these channels still play a role in large-scale brand awareness.
Now that we’ve covered the broad categories, let’s break down some of the most common paid media channels, and where each one fits.
While Google Ads dominates the space, Bing Ads (now part of Microsoft Advertising) can offer lower CPCs (cost per click) and a different audience, especially for B2B brands. Amazon Ads also work well for product-heavy businesses.
We foundthat search ads across platforms drive some of the highest conversion rates in paid media, second only to channels like LinkedIn and influencer marketing.
Here’s what the advertising process looks like:
Open an account with the ad network (like Google or Bing)
Choose the keywords you want to appear for, such as “gardener in Arizona”
Set your maximum bid for those keywords (top bidders appear first)
Create your advertisement, which will be text-based
Launch your campaign and let Google serve your ad on relevant SERPs
The benefit of SEM is intent. You’re targeting users who are already searching for what you offer, which puts them closer to a buying decision.
And if you’re willing to bid competitively, your ad can appear above the organic result, even above your competitors.
Here’s an example of search engine ads for the keyword “paid media consultant.” Note the “Sponsored” label, which helps users distinguish paid ads from organic results.
Third-Party Banner Ads
Banner display ads are shown on a third-party online property, usually a website or app.
Most people think banner ads only appear at the top of pages. Not true. Inline banner ads also show in the flow of content. A banner ad is simply a square or rectangular display ad (an ad that is distinct from surrounding content).
NP Digital research shows that banner ads are the least trusted of all paid media formats, underperforming search and influencer ads significantly.
That said, banner ads are good at raising brand awareness. As customers see the same ad repeated across different websites, “brand memory” strengthens. The average person needs to see a brand at least seven times before they make a purchase.
Here’s an example of a fairly conspicuous banner ad on UK news site the Daily Mail:
The Google Display Network, the world’s biggest display network, consists of over two million websites and mobile apps that businesses can display their ads on—reaching 90 percent of web users worldwide. When someone clicks on an ad, Google Ads and whoever hosted it share the spoils.
Paid Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is big business. The global market was worth an impressive $252.95 billion at the end of 2024, and this is set to grow in the future.
According to NP Digital research, Facebook generated over $100 billion in ad revenue last year, making it the top-performing social ad platform. Instagram followed at $70.9 billion.
Here’s an example of paid media advertising on Facebook. This sponsored post is by McDonald’s and appears in relevant customers’ newsfeeds, enticing them to try their $8 Chicken McNugget Meal. These ads blend into the feed but still offer clear calls to action.
And it’s not just for B2C. In the LinkedIn ad below,Microsoft targets professionals in banking with an ebook download offer.
Social ads work because they meet people where they’re already scrolling. Nearly 60 percent of the world’s population has at least one social media account.
Even better, social platforms give you advanced targeting tools. Most platforms let you target people by age, gender, and location, as well as their hobbies and other social media accounts they follow.
Video Advertising
Video content gets more engagement than static text or images. In fact, one NP Digital study found that short-form and long-form videos accounted for 31.38% and 15.51% of all engagement, respectively.
That kind of engagement makes video a powerful paid media tool, especially on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
Video ads show up before or during content users are already watching.
What makes video ads effective is how they combine storytelling with visual cues. Create a stylish, funny, or cool video, and people will naturally want to discover your brand. Like display ads, videos are great for capturing people’s attention on mobile as well.
In-App Ads
In-app ads are paid placements that show up inside mobile apps while someone is using them. These can be banner ads, video ads, interstitials (full-screen takeovers), or rewarded ads where users watch a video in exchange for in-app perks.
You’ve probably seen these in gaming apps, news apps, or streaming services. They appear between levels, in feed scrolls, or before content loads.
These ads work well if your audience spends a lot of time on mobile, and even better if you’re targeting users by behavior, interest, or location. App data gives you targeting options you won’t always get on the open web.
Performance varies by industry, but in-app ads tend to perform best for consumer apps, entertainment, retail, and local services.
Digital Out of Home (DOOH) Ads
DOOH ads are digital billboards, transit screens, and signage in public spaces. You’ve seen them in malls, airports, gas stations, elevators, and even gym treadmills.
Unlike traditional out-of-home ads, these use screens and software, which means you can update them in real time and target by location, time of day, or audience segment.
They’re a great fit for local campaigns, brand awareness pushes, or national advertisers who want visibility in high-traffic areas. You won’t get click data, but they can be effective for driving searches, visits, and offline conversions.
DOOH is especially useful when paired with mobile or geotargeted campaigns. Seeing a screen ad in a gym, then getting a related offer on your phone, is the kind of multi-touch experience that performs well.
Connected TV (CTV) and Over-the-Top (OTT) Advertising
Connected TV (CTV) and Over-the-Top (OTT) ads show up inside streaming content, on platforms like Hulu, Roku, YouTube TV, and Peacock. These are the ads you see while watching shows or movies on smart TVs, streaming boxes, or even mobile apps.
The big difference? CTV runs on television screens. OTT can run on any device.
These ad formats are great for reaching cord-cutters who’ve moved away from traditional cable. They’re also more trackable than old-school TV ads, with options for targeting by location, device, behavior, and even interests.
CTV and OTT ads are especially useful for brand awareness, product launches, and retargeting. You can run short video ads in high-attention environments—and often get better completion rates than on social.
Large Language Model (LLM) Ads
LLM ads are an emerging format of paid placements that appear in large language model tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity. These ad types are still in the early stages, but they’re gaining momentum as AI assistants become part of everyday search behavior.
Right now, some platforms are testing sponsored response blocks or product carousels within AI-generated answers. These typically appear when users ask for recommendations, product ideas, or service comparisons.
For marketers, LLM ads offer a new way to show up during early-stage research, especially in verticals like travel, consumer products, software, and education.
Unlike traditional search ads, these placements are more dependent on content quality and relevance than keyword bidding. That gives brands with helpful, trustworthy content an advantage.
This space is still evolving, but it’s one marketers should keep a close eye on. Testing early gives you a head start as AI search platforms build out their ad offerings.
Sponsorships and Advertorials
Sponsorships, advertorials (paid articles), and influencer marketing are the most prominent examples of paid native advertising.
These ads blend in with regular content.
Here’s an example: an article written by a company executive who’s part of Forbes Council, a paid program that entitles members to publish a set number of articles every year. It looks like editorial content, but it’s paid for, and the author gets guaranteed publishing rights.
Sponsored posts are everywhere, especially on social. The Instagram post below is clearly labeled as a “Paid partnership with Gymshark.” This post feels authentic because it comes from a trusted influencer, not a brand’s ad account.
Along with that, since the influencer has a loyal, engaged following—the post has over 140,000 likes—the ROI will likely be positive for the advertiser.
What makes these work? Trust. When the message comes from someone users already trust, it tends to land better, and perform better.
Benefits of Paid Media as a Marketing Channel
Here are some key benefits of paid media for marketers:
You have more control. As you pay to advertise, you get more say over your ad’s appearance. Conversely, if you submit a press release to a publication, they may edit it to suit their in-house tone of voice.
You get immediate visibility. Search engine optimization (SEO) costs less than paid media, but it can take three to 12 months to see optimal results. With paid media, if you’re happy to pay, you can appear in front of prospective customers immediately.
You can measure results. Paid ads platforms offer detailed analytics so you can see how your ads are doing. Some even provide a quality score so you know which campaigns you need to optimize.
You can tailor your ads. You can target your ads to specific groups of customers and even tailor content toward a location. This increases the chances of people responding positively to your advertisements. Similarly, you can advise who you don’t want your ad to show to.
You can implement automation. You can be as hands-on or hands-off with your advertising as you want. For example, Google Ads offers automated bidding where it automatically optimizes your bids to appeal to people more likely to help you achieve your goals.
Top 5 Paid Media Metrics for Paid Media
You could track dozens of metrics, but these five matter most.
There are lots of metrics you can use to track the success of your paid media campaigns. The risk is that you get lost in a sea of data.
I recommend a simplified approach. One that lets you hone in on channels with potential, drop those that aren’t working, and demonstrate a clear ROI throughout.
Here are my top five metrics for paid media:
These give you a clear picture of performance and help you decide where to optimize or pull back.
Return on ad spend (ROAS): ROAS tells you how much revenue you’re generating for every dollar spent on ads. It’s important to measure this separately because it’s the first thing you need to remedy if you’re not achieving a positive ROI overall. If your ROAS drops, you may need to adjust your targeting, creative, or offers.
Return on investment (ROI): This is the big one. If you’re generating more from your paid media campaigns than it costs to run them, you’re on the right track. Account for everything—creative costs, time managing ad accounts, A/B testing, etc.—and not just the ad platform fees. Paid media without ROI is just spend. Use this number to decide whether to scale or pause.
Cost per click (CPC): This is the average amount you pay whenever someone clicks on your ad. Ideally, this should be as low as possible. It’s a ripe area for optimization. CPC is most useful when viewed alongside CTR and conversion rate. A low CPC doesn’t help if nobody converts.
Impressions: This is the total number of times users see your ads. A high reach shows that you’ve chosen a channel that gives you exposure to a large audience, which is important for brand building. Low impression count? It might be time to evaluate the reach of your chosen channel. Impressions alone won’t drive results but they show whether your ads are getting visibility in the first place.
Click-through rate (CTR): This is the percentage of people who see and click on your ad. A high CTR shows that people find your ad interesting and valuable.
How to Create a High-ROI Paid Media Campaign: 7 Steps
Paid media can generate traffic, leads, and revenue, but only if you approach it with a clear plan. Skipping strategy and jumping into ad spend is one of the fastest ways to burn through your budget.
Because large amounts of money are involved, caution is your ally. Many businesses burn through cash before giving up on paid media, wondering what went wrong.
Your paid media strategy should clearly cover the following:
Which internal stakeholders you need to include
Goals you want to achieve
Characteristics of your audience
Platform-specific budgets
Viable paid media channels
Products and services you want to promote
Metrics for gauging success
The process doesn’t need to be complicated. These seven steps will help you build a campaign that’s focused, efficient, and ready to scale.
1. Obtain Internal Stakeholder Buy-In
Getting buy-in goes beyond simple approval. Your team needs to fully understand what’s happening, why it matters, and what role they play.
Start by identifying who needs to be involved. At a minimum, that usually includes:
Sales (if the campaign impacts lead gen or pipeline)
Don’t wait until after launch to bring these teams in. Paid media works best when everyone is aligned from day one.
Set up a short kickoff meeting to walk through the campaign plan. Cover what you’re promoting, who you’re targeting, what platforms you’re using, and how results will be reported.
It doesn’t have to be a big formal process. A shared doc, quick sync, or even a Slack thread can go a long way.
The goal is to eliminate surprises and make it easy for other teams to support the strategy.
2. Set clear goals and KPIs
You need to know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish. Metrics are important (we’ll come to those later), but goals lay the foundation.
If you don’t know what success looks like, it’s easy to waste money. That’s why clear goals are the first thing to lock in, before budgets, platforms, or creatives.
Start by asking one question: What do you need this campaign to accomplish?
This could include:
Lead generation
Product sales
Free trial signups
App installs
Event registrations
Traffic to a specific landing page
Brand awareness in a new market
Be specific, not general. “More leads” isn’t a goal. “Generate 250 demo requests this quarter at a CPL (cost per lead) under $80” is. Pass your goals through the SMART test: are they Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely? The more detailed you make the goals, the easier they will be to achieve.
After that, you can pick KPIs and metrics that match your objective, which we will be talking about in a little bit.
3. Determine budget
With paid media campaigns, it’s essential to set a budget and stick to it. Many paid media platforms let you set a definite upper limit for your ad campaigns. If you exceed this budget, the platform stops showing your ads.
Your budget isn’t just ad spend, but it fuels the entire campaign. Along with the baseline budget for your paid media ads, you must also consider additional costs. These include ad copywriting, graphic design, and videography. If you use an agency, you’ll have to cover ongoing account management fees.
Start by figuring out what success looks like. If your goal is to get 100 leads at $50 each, you’ll need to spend at least $5,000 in ad budget alone. That’s your baseline.
Then add in the supporting costs:
Ad creative (copy, graphics, video, landing pages)
Tracking and analytics setup
A/B testing budget to compare variants
Management costs if you’re outsourcing or using tools
Different platforms also have different minimums and cost expectations. Running paid social on Facebook or Instagram can be more flexible for smaller budgets. Search ads on Google or Bing often require more competitive bidding to see traction.
Don’t spread your budget too thin. It’s better to run fewer campaigns with enough spend to test and optimize properly, instead of trying to be everywhere with limited reach.
And whatever number you start with, keep a reserve. Paid campaigns almost always need tweaking in the first few weeks.
4. Know Your Audience
The more specific you get with your targeting, the less you waste on clicks that go nowhere. If you’re paying for media on a publication or newsletter, you can compare your ideal customer profile (ICP) to the audience specs.
Research all the following points for your ICP:
Industry or niche
Company size or household income
Job titles or demographics
Location
Pain points and goals
What platforms they use most
What influences their buying decisions
Here’s how your audience research translates into paid media results:
Ad platforms: Choose based on where your audience actually spends time
Creative: Match tone, visuals, and messaging to their mindset
Offers: Promote what solves their problem, not what you want to sell
Targeting settings: Use demographics, behaviors, and interests to narrow reach
Retargeting: Build separate campaigns for cold traffic vs. returning visitors
The goal is to reach the right people at the right stage and give them a reason to click.
5. Choose Channels
Not every platform fits every goal. The right channel depends on who you’re targeting, what you’re promoting, and how fast you need results.
Take the following into consideration when choosing where to advertise:
Use search ads (like Google or Bing) if you’re targeting high-intent keywords. People searching are already looking for solutions.
Use social ads (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn) to create demand or raise awareness. These platforms are great for targeting by interest, behavior, or job title—even if people aren’t actively searching yet.
Use display or retargeting to stay in front of people after they’ve engaged. These can bring users back to your site to finish what they started.
You can also learn a lot by seeing where your competitors are advertising. Tools like Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center, and manual Google searches will show you what channels they’re using and how often they show up. Look at their messaging, creative, and landing pages. If it’s working for them, it might work for you.
Budget matters, too. Some platforms are better suited to lower ad spend. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok can give you meaningful reach on a modest budget. Search or YouTube may require more competitive bidding to see real traction.
For smaller budgets, focus on one or two channels where your audience is most active. Don’t try to be everywhere if you can’t afford to run meaningful tests.
And don’t lock yourself into one format. The best campaigns evolve. Start with the highest-potential channel, then expand once you’re confident in performance.
Don’t be afraid of being “loud”—you want an ad that customers stop and look at.
Keep your ad copy clear and concise.
User-generated content and testimonials show prospects why existing customers love your brand.
If you’re using search advertising like Google Ads, take advantage of assets that tell customers more about your business for no additional cost.
Run multiple variants of your ads from the get-go for some quick A/B test wins.
But good creative is more than just how your ad looks, it also covers what you say and how fast you get to the point. Lead with the benefit, keep the message tight, and match your CTA to the user’s intent.
Make sure your offer matches the awareness stage also. A discount works well for bottom-of-funnel buyers. But for top-of-funnel, try a quiz, guide, or video to build interest first.
Finally, try to avoid launching with just one ad. Rotate in multiple headlines, formats, and visuals early so you can learn what actually converts before you scale spend.
In addition, some paid media platforms have ad libraries where you can see examples of paid media ads from your competitors. Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, LinkedIn, and Google Ads all have libraries. They’re fantastic sources of inspiration.
7. Optimize Your Campaigns
Like all digital marketing campaigns, paid media is not something you can set and forget. When it comes to optimization, little and often wins the race.
I recommend checking your paid media accounts at least once a week, even once a day if you’re running a short-term campaign.
Paid media is excellent for running multivariate and A/B testing. You can create multiple ad versions with small differences—such as CTA texts or color schemes—and test them against statistically significant sample sizes.
But don’t stop at testing creative. Optimization includes your audiences, bidding strategy, landing pages, placements, and even campaign structure.
Here’s what to review regularly:
Which ads are getting clicks but not conversions? Pause or adjust those.
Which campaigns are spending without results? Reallocate that budget.
Are certain audiences or geos outperforming others? Double down where it counts.
Is your cost per result trending up or down? That’s your early warning system.
Document what you’re testing and why. Optimization doesn’t mean quickly reacting without thinking. Your team needs to learn over time and building a smarter strategy with every round.
Paid Media and AI: Trends You Need to Know
AI is already shaping how campaigns are built, optimized, and scaled. My team and I ran research looking at AI vs. human-generated ads, for example, and found that AI ads converted at 1.28%, less than half a percentage point below human ads, which converted at 1.54%. Yes, human ads performed better. But not by a huge margin.
I would urge digital marketers to keep the following four points in mind when it comes There are already a growing amount of applications for AI in the world of paid media:
Marketers are using AI to:
Write ad copy faster (especially for high-volume campaigns)
Build and test ad creative using AI image and video tools
Generate audiences automatically based on existing customer data
Optimize budgets in real time across channels
Predict what offers or creatives will perform best, before spending anything
These aren’t experimental use cases anymore. They’re being built directly into the tools marketers already use.But things are changing fast. Here’s some key points to keep in mind:
Paid media isn’t going anywhere: Most paid media channels will remain viable. People will continue to read their favorite publications, open newsletters, follow influencers on social media, listen to podcasts, and so on. Even if traditional SEO and search ads vanish, LLMs like ChatGPT will need to monetize at some point.
Revenue from ads provides stability: As AI changes the way people consume content online, revenue from ads can actually provide more stability. Unlike organic traffic, they’re not dependent on algorithms over which you have no control.
Paid media helps you build brand citations: Branding will be more important than ever in the age of AI. Citations around the web are one of the ways LLMs identify and measure the relevance of your business to a particular query. For example, if “NP Digital” appears often in AI training materials next to “advertising agency,” my brand is more likely to be referenced in response to related questions.
Now is the time to start experimenting with AI: As was shown in the research by me and my team, AI can perform nearly as well as humans. For a head start when AI is truly ready to assist with paid media campaigns, you should start experimenting and learning now.
That said, AI is a tool, not a strategy. You still need strong positioning, good creative, and clear goals. But if you’re not testing AI workflows now, you’re going to fall behind the brands that are.
Should You Focus on One or All Channels?
Most marketers think they need to be everywhere. That’s usually wrong.
To be clear, I’m a big proponent of omnichannel digital marketing.
When you’re everywhere, you reach more of your prospects. Yet you would be amazed at how many businesses fail to grasp this simple fact.
With that said, for paid, omnichannel may sound great, but isn’t always the right move.
With large amounts of money at risk, you need to do two things: research and test.
If you’re just getting started with paid media, stick to one or two platforms where your audience is most active. That gives you enough budget and data to learn what works without spreading yourself too thin.
Once you’ve found a winning message and offer, then it makes sense to expand. You can start repurposing creative, retargeting across platforms, and building a true full-funnel system.
Here’s the truth: omnichannel paid marketing only works when you have the team, budget, and systems to support it. Otherwise, it turns into a mess of disconnected campaigns.
Ask yourself:
Do you have the creative capacity to build for multiple formats?
Do you have enough budget to collect meaningful data across platforms?
Can you track performance in a way that ties everything together?
If the answer is yes, go for it. If not, focus and scale intentionally. The best paid media campaigns start small, then scale up.
FAQs
What is paid media?
Paid media refers to any marketing or advertising content a brand pays to place on a third-party platform. Common examples include search engine ads, social media ads, display banners, video ads, influencer sponsorships, and traditional placements like radio, print, or TV.
The key benefit of paid media is the ability to generate visibility and traffic quickly, often with precise targeting and measurable results. Brands typically use paid media to reach new audiences, promote offers, or support other marketing efforts. It works best when paired with earned and owned media in a broader strategy.
How often should you evaluate your paid media budget?
Most brands should evaluate their paid media budget weekly. This allows time to monitor spend, performance, and early signals on what’s working.
For short-term or high-investment campaigns, daily budget checks are recommended to catch issues before they impact results.
Monthly or quarterly reviews are useful for larger budget adjustments, channel planning, or reallocation based on return.
Consistent monitoring ensures your budget is supporting your goals and allows for real-time optimizations, rather than reactive fixes after performance dips.
How do you build a paid media strategy?
A strong paid media strategy starts with setting a clear objective, such as lead generation, product sales, or brand awareness.
From there, define your target audience and select platforms that align with where they spend time. Creative should match the platform and campaign goal, while KPIs like ROAS, CPC, or conversion rate help track progress.
Budget should be allocated based on priorities and expected return, with room for testing.
Successful strategies are built on iteration—launching, analyzing, and optimizing based on what the data shows.
What’s the difference between earned media and paid media?
Paid media includes advertising you pay for, such as social ads, search ads, sponsored content, and display banners. It gives you control over placement, timing, and messaging.
Earned media refers to organic exposure you don’t pay for—such as press coverage, backlinks, user reviews, or social shares.
While paid media drives immediate visibility, earned media builds trust and long-term authority. Most marketing strategies benefit from a mix of both, with paid media often used to accelerate early reach.
Conclusion
Most marketers treat paid media like throwing money at a wall and hoping something sticks. That’s expensive and frustrating.
The brands winning with paid media treat it like a system. They start with one platform, nail their message and targeting, then scale what works. They track the right metrics, test relentlessly, and aren’t afraid to kill campaigns that aren’t delivering.
If you’re just getting started, pick Google Ads or Facebook—whichever platform your audience uses most. Set a budget you can afford to lose while you learn. Create multiple ad variants from day one so you can see what resonates.
