September marked seismic shifts for digital marketers. Google launched user-controlled preferred sources. TikTok’s search ads started delivering 2x purchase lift. AI tools cited Reddit more than Wikipedia. Meta rolled out culture-first targeting that actually works.
These aren’t incremental tweaks but major changes with how visibility works across every platform that matters.
Key Takeaways
Google’s “Preferred Sources” changes mean visibility now depends on user opt-in, not just algorithmic SEO.
Community platforms like Reddit are leading the way in LLM citations, AI trusts people more than publishers.
TikTok is officially a bottom-funnel platform. Search ads are driving 2x purchase lift.
Influencer marketing is evolving, from content partners to product creators and campaign co-leads.
LinkedIn is now delivering measurable B2B ROI and rewarding volume with visibility.
Generative SEO requires structured, comprehensive content and strong off-site signals to earn citations.
Google Gives Users More Control—And Publishers More Uncertainty
Google’s new “Preferred Sources” feature lets users choose which publishers they want to see in their Top Stories feed. Right now it’s only live in the U.S. and India, but the ripple effect could be global.
Why it matters: Google just changed the rules. Algorithm optimization isn’t enough anymore, users decide who gets seen. Publishers banking on SEO alone will lose traffic to brands that earn the opt-in.
What to do:
Add a “Make us your preferred source on Google” CTA to blogs, email footers, and resource pages.
Incentivize returning users through newsletters or community content.
Don’t assume visibility is earned by merit alone anymore. Earn the opt-in.
Google’s Spam Update Tightens the Screws
The August 2025 spam update started rolling out late in the month, and it’s still shaking things up. Cloaked content, hacked sites, thin AI pages, Google’s targeting them all.
Why it matters: Google’s first spam update in eight months targeted the obvious stuff, which isn’t a surprise. But I’m seeing legitimate sites get hit for “over-optimization.” Google’s tolerance for search-first content is shrinking fast.
What to do:
Audit your thin content and internal links for anything that feels “search-first.”
Replace AI filler with genuine perspective or proprietary data.
Watch for ranking drops that point to a need for quality upgrades, not technical fixes.
Why it matters: Meta isn’t hiding its priorities. This signals a possible shift to Reels-first UX across all devices. If it performs well on tablet, expect mobile and desktop to follow. Short-form video is becoming Instagram’s front door.
What to do:
Monitor Reels metrics for signs of boosted distribution.
Prioritize thumb-stopping video formats with strong hooks.
Keep visuals mobile-first, but prep higher-res assets for larger screens.
Focus Friend Hits #1—Influencer-Built, Not Just Backed
Hank Green’s Focus Friend, an ADHD productivity app, soared to #1 on the App Store—outranking ChatGPT, Threads, and Google itself.
Why it matters: This goes beyond just influencer reach. It’s a blueprint for product-led storytelling. When creators build tools rooted in their audience’s needs, they win big.
What to do:
Co-create with creators early, ideally pre-launch.
Think of influencers as collaborators, not just promoters.
Build products with shareability and emotional design.
Meta Leans Into Culture-Led Ad Targeting
Meta is expanding Reels trending ads, rolling out new Threads formats, and extending value-based bidding rules to brand campaigns.
Why it matters: Meta’s new targeting focuses on trending topics and cultural moments, not just age and location data.
What to do:
Build creative that aligns with trending topics or cultural moments.
Use value rules to allocate budget based on predicted conversion quality.
Test Threads ad formats before competition drives up CPMs.
Reddit is AI’s Most Cited Source
SEMrush analyzed 150,000 AI-generated responses and found Reddit is cited more than Wikipedia, YouTube, and traditional websites combined.
Why it matters: Generative AI tools trust communities over content farms. If you’re ignoring Reddit, you’re invisible to AI discovery tools.
What to do:
Audit where your brand shows up in Reddit conversations.
Engage authentically in niche threads—don’t spam.
Use Reddit as a visibility play for both SEO and LLM inclusion.
Top Strategies for LLM Visibility: Structure, Schema, Mentions
Organic Labs analyzed over 10,000 LLM responses to crack the code on AI citations. The winning formula: clear content structure (FAQs, bullets), schema markup, and consistent brand mentions across the web.
Why it matters: This moves generative SEO (GEO) out of theory and into actionable strategy. We have data-backed tactics now that marketers can start putting into action.
What to do:
Add FAQs, bullets, and concise summaries to long-form content.
Use schema to identify key entities and page context.
Build brand mentions through digital PR, digital citations, and guest content.
TikTok Search Ads Deliver 2x Purchase Lift
TikTok isn’t just an awareness tool anymore. Their Search Ads are now driving 2.2x lift in purchases for enterprise advertisers, with 86% of Gen Z searching on the platform weekly.
Why it matters: Search volume is up 40% year-over-year. TikTok has become a discovery engine where intent meets inspiration—users search out of curiosity and convert through creativity.
Target curiosity-driven keywords, not just branded terms
Create discovery-moment content that answers “how” and “why” questions
Influencers Join Super Bowl Creative Teams
Brands are integrating creators into Super Bowl 2026 campaigns, not just for amplification, but for strategy, storytelling, and on-site activation.
Why it matters: Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that creators are just media buys. They’re narrative architects who bring human relevance to big-budget campaigns.
What to do:
Involve influencers in campaign strategy and creative development, not just content promotion
Use them across the full event cycle: pre-launch buzz, live coverage, and post-event storytelling
Think bigger than social amplification. Creators can handle on-site activation and audience engagement
AI Still Sends Users to Broken Pages
Ahrefs found that 1% of AI-recommended URLs lead to 404s. Google’s rate? Just 0.15%. AI assistants account for just 0.25% of site traffic compared to Google’s 39%, but their error rate is six times higher.
Why it matters: AI tools are already crawling and citing your content, whether you know it or not.
What to do:
Optimize your 404 page like it’s a landing page.
Create a comprehensive sitemap that helps AI tools find and reference your best content.
Don’t sleep on technical SEO, as it could be your AI safety net.
LinkedIn Rewards Brands That Show Up
Buffer analyzed 2 million posts and found that companies posting 11+ times a week get 16,000+ more impressions. But there’s bigger news: LinkedIn Ads now show 113% ROAS—the only platform delivering positive returns across the board.
Why it matters: Frequency doesn’t just maintain reach—it multiplies it. But quantity only works when paired with quality.
What to do:
Post 3–5 times weekly at minimum.
Blend thought leadership, employee advocacy, and industry reaction.
Prioritize value, not volume.
LinkedIn’s new CAPI integration and advanced conversion tracking let B2B marketers prove pipeline impact like never before. The platform rewards volume with visibility, but only if your content sparks professional conversations.
Final Word: Visibility Is About Trust, Not Just Tactics
It’s not enough to rank. Or go viral. Or show up in someone’s inbox.
The playbook changed in September. Visibility now spans platforms, algorithms, user preferences, and AI models. And each one has its own logic, signals, and expectations.
Google wants trust. LLMs want structure and mentions. Social wants stories. Users want relevance. None of it works in isolation.
Start with three moves: Set up Preferred Sources CTAs this week, audit where your brand appears in Reddit discussions, and test TikTok Search Ads if you’re in retail or direct-to-consumer. The brands moving first on these changes will own the advantage while others catch up.
This is the new search. It’s happening everywhere. And your brand needs to be ready for it.
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Brand mentions are a form of social proof, and they carry more weight than many marketers realize.
They work because people trust what others say about you more than what you say about yourself.
Search engines are starting to act the same way.
When your brand gets mentioned online, even without a link, it sends a strong signal. It tells Google you’re credible. It tells AI models you’re relevant. And it influences how your brand gets pulled into AI summaries and what search engines consider credible.
So, if you’re only chasing backlinks, you’re missing part of the SEO equation.
In this article, I’ll break down what brand mentions are, why they matter for SEO and large language models (LLMs), and how to get more of them.
Key Takeaways
Brand mentions, linked or unlinked, build trust with both Google and AI models.
Search engines treat mentions as implied links, which support rankings and authority.
Large language models (LLMs) use brand mentions as signals for credibility in AI Overviews and generated answers.
Digital PR, guest posting, and thought leadership are proven ways to earn high-quality mentions.
Tools like Google Alerts, Brandwatch, and Mention help you track where and how often you’re mentioned.
What Is a Brand Mention, and Why Do You Need Them?
A brand mention is any time your business, product, or domain name gets referenced online. It doesn’t need a link to carry value.
Mentions show up in blog posts, podcasts, review sites, and even Reddit threads. These are known as implied links: non-clickable references that tell Google your brand matters. For example, Asana is mentioned (but not linked to) in this article about project management tools.
Search engines use mentions to connect your brand to key topics and measure your credibility. A steady stream of mentions from trusted sites strengthens your authority and signals that you’re relevant in your space.
Mentions also help with AI discoverability. Large language models use brand references to learn which companies to trust. The more often your brand appears in high-quality content, the more likely you are to show up in AI-generated answers.
The benefits don’t end there. Mentions also build brand recognition, drive referral traffic, and often lead to backlinks over time.
If you’re building a visibility strategy, brand mentions need to be part of it. They’re a core signal of authority in both traditional SEO and AI-powered search.
Implied Links and Google
The key thing to know about brand mentions? Google treats them as implied links.
Trusted references, even without a hyperlink, strengthen your credibility and relevance in the algorithm’s eyes. They’re extra signals that help Google connect your brand to topics and decide if you should rank.
LLMs rely on them, too, scanning unlinked mentions across reputable sources to figure out which companies belong in AI-generated answers.
The takeaway? Think of mentions not as background chatter, but as authority signals that influence rankings and AI results.
How Search Engines and LLMs Process Brand Mentions
As we’ve established, search engines and LLMs rely on signals that help them understand how your brand fits into the broader digital ecosystem.
How Google Processes Brand Mentions
Google’s algorithms crawl billions of web pages to find context around specific entities. When your brand name is mentioned, even without a link, Google uses that data to:
Associate your brand with key topics
Measure how often and where your brand is discussed
Evaluate the credibility of sources that mention you
These signals contribute to an entity profile that shapes how Google understands your brand. That profile helps determine whether your content is a good match for user queries. Take a look at the Knowledge Panel that pops up when you enter my name.
If you are mentioned consistently on high-authority, topic-relevant pages, your chances of ranking increase regardless of whether you earned a backlink.
How LLMs Process Brand Mentions
Large language models do not crawl the web in real time. Instead, they are trained on massive text datasets that include web pages, articles, transcripts, and public databases.
When your brand appears frequently in quality sources, LLMs begin to associate it with specific topics, qualities, and relevance. That’s how you get:
Included in AI-generated responses
Suggested as a resource in conversational tools
Recognized as a relevant entity in related topics
See some of the brand names mentioned in the AI Overview below.
Just like Google, LLMs reward consistent, high-quality brand visibility. Mentions lay the groundwork for trust and inclusion.
While backlinks are still useful, brand mentions are more likely to appear in AI-generated responses. That’s because LLMs extract entities and context from plain-text references, not just hyperlinks. Check out how Ubersuggest gets namedropped along with several other tools in the ChatGPT answer below.
Even without links, brand mentions increase the likelihood of being cited in tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, or Bing Copilot.
Mentions help models “learn” that your brand is relevant to a topic. The more consistently you appear across reputable sites, the more likely you are to become part of the model’s output when users search for solutions.
The Role of Brand Mentions in an SEO Strategy
Most SEO strategies focus on content, backlinks, and technical fixes. But brand mentions for SEO are just as important.
Think of them as the connective tissue between your content and the broader web. They help search engines confirm that you’re a real entity doing real work, and that people are talking about it.
Mentions complement what you’re already doing. If you’re investing in content marketing, digital PR, or thought leadership, you’re likely earning mentions already. Now it’s time to track and amplify them.
The bottom line is this: Brand mentions don’t replace traditional SEO efforts. They strengthen them. And in an environment where visibility is increasingly AI-driven, you can’t afford to overlook them.
Find Sources for Brand Mentions
Once you start earning brand mentions, the next step is knowing where they show up.
Most brands get mentioned more than they realize. It could be a blog reference, a podcast quote, a casual shoutout on social media, or a Reddit discussion.
The key is to track these mentions consistently so you can measure your reach, spot missed opportunities, and even turn unlinked mentions into backlinks.
Here are a few tools that can help you find, monitor, and manage brand mentions across the web.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a free, simple tool that tracks brand mentions across indexed web pages.
You can set up alerts for your brand name, product, domain, or even competitor names. When a new mention appears, you’ll get an email notification.
To set one up: 1. Go to google.com/alerts. 2. Enter your brand name in quotes (e.g., “Neil Patel”). 3. Click “Show options” to customize frequency, sources, and region. 4. Hit “Create Alert.”
You can create multiple alerts to monitor different products, team members, or brand terms.
It’s not the most advanced tool, but it’s great for catching early mentions and easy wins.
Mention
Mention is a real-time media monitoring tool that tracks brand mentions across websites, blogs, forums, and social media platforms.
It offers far more data than Google Alerts, with filters to segment mentions by sentiment, platform, or influence level.
You can set alerts for your brand, product names, executives, or even keywords your audience cares about. Mention also assigns influencer scores, helping you identify which mentions are worth acting on.
It also lets you respond to mentions directly inside the platform, making it easy to engage or follow up when it matters.
While it’s a paid tool, the extra visibility is worth it, especially if you’re running a content or PR-driven strategy.
AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic isn’t a traditional mention-tracking tool, but it’s one of the best for discovering how people talk about your brand (or brands like yours) online.
Enter your brand name or a relevant keyword, and you’ll get a visual map of real user questions, comparisons, and search phrases.
This helps you spot indirect mentions and gaps where people are asking about your product category but not naming you yet.
You can use this data to create content, launch PR pitches, or see how people discuss competitors in public conversations.
It’s especially helpful if you’re building a strategy around long-tail mentions or brand positioning.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is best known for social media management, but its monitoring features make it a strong tool for tracking brand mentions across multiple networks.
You can set up custom streams to monitor your brand name, product terms, or campaign hashtags in real time.
For SEO teams, this means you can track how often your brand is mentioned, what context it’s being mentioned in, and whether those mentions are trending positive or negative.
Brandwatch is especially useful if you’re running large-scale PR campaigns, managing multiple brands, or need to report on brand visibility over time.
How to Get Brand Mentions
If you want more people talking about your brand, you need to give them something worth talking about.
Earning mentions is about showing up in the right places, with the right message, at the right time.
Here are five proven ways to earn more brand mentions across blogs, media, social, and communities.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging still works, when you do it right. Forget the old tactics of mass-pitching templated posts to low-quality blogs. Instead, focus on targeting high-authority, niche-relevant sites where your content can actually deliver value.
Here’s how to approach it:
Start withUbersuggest. Type in a topic your audience cares about. Then go to the Content Ideas report to see top-performing articles related to that topic.
Let’s use social media marketing as an example topic.
Make a list of 25 to 50 potential sites that already publish similar content and get solid engagement. Prioritize blogs with real audiences.
Maybe you want to create a blog post titled Must-Listen Social Media Podcasts for 2025. The fourth listing, businessgrowth.com, is a good website to target, as one of its top-performing pieces of content on this subject is The Best Social Media Books for Your Holiday Reading. It’s similar to what you want to pitch.
Pitch content that fills a gap. From there, visit each website, read the guidelines carefully, and follow the rules. Make sure you know exactly what the blog wants. Review their existing articles. What’s missing? What’s outdated? What fresh angle can you offer?
Include natural brand context. You don’t need to force a link. A casual mention of your brand as part of a relevant example or tip is enough.
Finally, promote the heck out of your post. Go social, email people, do whatever it takes.Every live guest post becomes another opportunity for people and platforms to talk about your business.
Launch Social Campaigns Built for Sharing
Want organic mentions across X, Reddit, LinkedIn, and beyond? Create campaigns people want to join. The right social campaign can make a huge difference.
Great campaigns are interactive, emotional, and aligned with what your audience is already doing.
Once you have a thorough understanding of your audience, create a campaign that capitalizes on their interests.
Make sure your campaign has clear-cut objectives, and make sure you choose the right platform for the right campaign.
After you have the baseline information, these tactics make great starting points:
Run a user-generated content challenge. Ask people to share photos, workflows, or tips related to your product. Incentivize with visibility rather than just prizes.
Create branded hashtags that are easy to remember and invite participation. Track these through tools like Hootsuite or Brandwatch.
Build real-time engagement. Respond to posts, reshare creative entries, and feature participants. This increases visibility and encourages more organic mentions.
Social media moves fast. When you nail timing and context, brand mentions follow naturally.
3. Use Digital PR to Earn Media Mentions
PR isn’t just for huge companies. Digital PR makes it possible for startups and solo founders to get featured in major publications, podcasts, and niche blogs.
Think of it as link building’s cousin: Instead of chasing backlinks directly, you’re landing coverage that earns you credibility and visibility in the form of implied mentions.
Here’s how to get started:
Sign up for HARO (Help A Reporter Out), Featured.com, or Qwoted. These services send daily prompts from journalists looking for sources.
Respond quickly. Reporters work on tight deadlines. Give short, quotable responses that make their job easier.
Don’t over-promote. Lead with value, and let your brand name appear naturally in your title or quote attribution.
Even without a backlink, appearing in articles in niche trade outlets or contributor-friendly sites like Forbes or TechCrunch gives your brand SEO value through implied mentions.
Deliver Experiences Worth Talking About
Customers talk about what stands out. If your onboarding is frictionless, your support is personal, or your product actually solves a real problem, people will mention you. In reviews. On Reddit. In tweets. In YouTube comments.
To maximize these customer service moments:
Ask happy customers to share their experiences. It doesn’t need to be a testimonial, just a screenshot or a quick post.
Monitor brand sentiment and UGC through review sites and brand monitoring tools. You’ll uncover mentions you didn’t know existed.
Respond. Publicly. Engaging with brand mentions, even untagged ones, builds community and visibility.
This is the long game. But it pays off with a steady stream of positive, authentic brand mentions over time.
If you have truly great support and guide your customers, you’ll get rave reviews all over the web.
You can also monitor your mentions on review sites like Yelp.
If you get positive feedback, thank the customer. If you get negative feedback, try to reconcile the situation.
It’s a simple tactic, but it brings big results.
5. Partner with Influencers and Creators Who Actually Use Your Product
Influencers aren’t limited to big names in the B2C space anymore. In fact, micro-influencers and niche creators can deliver more brand value than big names, especially if they’re embedded in your industry.
Here’s how to collaborate with these influencers strategically:
Identify creators who already align with your space. Look for podcast hosts, Substack writers, YouTubers, or LinkedIn voices who talk to your audience.
Offer them value. That could be early access, behind-the-scenes insights, or co-branded content.
Don’t force a script. Let them reference your brand in a way that fits their tone and audience.
These types of mentions often feel more real, get shared more often, and are more likely to be picked up as brand signals in search or AI-generated content.
Turn Mentions Into Links
I know what you’re thinking: “Didn’t you say Google is moving away from links?”
That’s true. But it hasn’t happened yet.
As of right now, high-quality backlinks still matter. They still influence your rankings in the SERPs.
The first step is to find an unlinked mention using one of the tools I showed you. Hootsuite, Google Alerts, Mention, or Brandwatch all work well.
Next, use Ubersuggest to check the domain score of the site:
After entering the domain and clicking “Search,” you’re taken to the Traffic Overview with the following data:
Domain Authority
Organic Traffic
Backlinks
Top Pages
If the site has a good score (generally 40 or higher), contact the site and ask them nicely to change the mention into a link.
You should either contact the site owner or, if the mention is in an article, the author of the content.
Simple works fine. Try something like this:
Hi [Name of site owner or content creator], I saw you mentioned my site in [name of article or content here]. Just wanted to say thanks for the mention. If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind linking to our homepage here: https://example.com? Either way—appreciate the shout-out. Sincerely, [Your name]
That’s all there is to it. No pressure. Just a friendly ask.
Most site owners and authors will be happy to take a few seconds and give you a link, especially if they already mentioned you positively.
You don’t have to use this technique for every single brand mention you find.
Focus on creating more brand mentions and turning some of the strongest ones into backlinks when it makes sense.
Brand Mentions vs. Brand Sentiment
Brand mentions don’t just feel good; they should move the needle.
If you’re investing in digital PR, guest content, or influencer outreach, you want to know if those mentions are actually paying off.
Here are a few smart ways to track the return on investment (ROI) of brand mentions:
1. Monitor Changes in Branded Search Volume
Use tools like Google Search Console, Ubersuggest, or Semrush to track whether more people are searching for your brand name or products over time. A spike in branded searches often follows strong media or influencer coverage.
2. Analyze Referral Traffic
Go to your analytics platform (like Google Analytics) and check referral sources. See which blogs, media outlets, or social posts are sending you traffic, even if they didn’t include a link.
3. Track Backlinks from Mention Campaigns
Not every mention includes a link up front. But if you’re running outreach or thought leadership campaigns, keep an eye on Ahrefs or BuzzSumo to see which mentions eventually earn backlinks.
4. Measure Lead Quality and Mentions in Sales Conversations
If your sales team uses a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, check notes and call transcripts for brand mentions from prospects. Ask: “How did you hear about us?” or, “Have you seen us mentioned anywhere recently?”
5. Set Baselines and Compare Month Over Month
Track your number of mentions, brand reach, and visibility in AI results. Tools like Profoundcan help you benchmark how often and where you’re showing up specifically in AI results.
FAQs
What is a brand mention for SEO?
A brand mention for SEO is any time your brand name appears on another website, even if there’s no hyperlink. Google uses these mentions (also called implied links) to assess your brand’s credibility, relevance, and authority in search results.
How do you get brand mentions?
You earn brand mentions by showing up where your audience is. That includes writing guest posts, getting quoted in articles, collaborating with influencers, delivering great customer experiences, and running campaigns that get people talking online.
Conclusion
Brand mentions aren’t just good for your reputation. They can boost your rankings, increase visibility across the web (indirectly increasing visibility in AI tools), and drive more traffic over time.
This strategy isn’t too complicated. Anyone can do it, and it works best when you already have a great product or useful content to share.
If you track your mentions, run campaigns to earn more, and turn high-value mentions into links, you’ll start seeing results.
It won’t happen overnight. But over time, it adds up.
Mentions help people find you, trust you, and talk about you in all the right places.
Add this to your SEO strategy, and you’ll get more out of the work you’re already doing.
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For the first time, Search Central Live is coming to Dubai on October 21, 2025!
After events in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, we’re continuing our mission to help
you enhance your site’s performance in Google Search, live in Dubai, UAE.
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OpenAI just dropped a hint that could reshape digital advertising forever. They’re exploring ads on ChatGPT.
Right now, ChatGPT doesn’t run ads. But OpenAI’s CFO recently confirmed they’re considering advertising for non-paying users as a way to monetize their massive free user base. With over 800 million weekly users asking high-intent questions regularly, this could become one of the biggest new ad opportunities since Facebook launched business pages.
Here’s what matters: ChatGPT users aren’t passively scrolling. They’re actively seeking solutions. What does this mean for marketers?
It opens up a potentially powerful new channel to reach highly engaged users who are already in problem-solving mode. And just like search or social ads, it could become a staple in your paid strategy.
Let’s break down what we know, what we can guess, and how to get ready.
Key Takeaways
OpenAI is exploring ChatGPT ad options to monetize free users, potentially creating a massive new advertising platform.
ChatGPT advertising will likely integrate directly into conversations, making ads feel more natural than traditional display formats.
Early ad formats may include sponsored responses, product recommendations within answers, and context-driven placements.
Businesses should start preparing now by optimizing for AI visibility through better content, stronger authority signals, and structured data.
Even without paid options, brands can already improve their chances of being mentioned in ChatGPT responses through smart SEO strategies.
What Do We Know About ChatGPT Ads So Far?
The short answer? Not much, but enough to get excited.
Sam Altman previously called ads a “last resort,” but that was before ChatGPT’s infrastructure costs skyrocketed. Running AI at this scale isn’t cheap.
The financial reality is pushing them toward advertising. And honestly, it makes sense.
ChatGPT’s user behavior is perfect for ads. People ask specific questions like “What’s the best project management software for remote teams?” or “How do I fix a leaky faucet?” This is what we would consider a high-intent query.
Compare that to social media, where users may be scrolling mindlessly through content. ChatGPT users come with problems they need solved. That’s advertiser gold.
Recent reports suggest OpenAI is testing different monetization approaches, including partnerships with publishers and potential sponsored content integrations. While they haven’t confirmed an advertising timeline, the infrastructure for targeting and personalization already exists within their platform.
The user base numbers tell the story. ChatGPT reached 100 million users faster than any consumer app in history, and that number has only grown since then. That’s a lot of advertising inventory waiting to be unlocked.
What Might ChatGPT Ads Look Like?
Nobody knows for sure, but we can make educated guesses based on other AI platforms and ChatGPT’s interface.
Sponsored Responses: Think Google Ads, but conversational. Instead of clicking a blue link, users might see a sponsored answer at the top of ChatGPT’s response, clearly marked as an ad. For example, someone asking “best CRM for small business” might see a Salesforce-sponsored response before the organic recommendations.
Native Product Mentions: This could be subtle. ChatGPT might naturally weave brand mentions into its answers, similar to how it currently references tools and services. The difference would be that some of these mentions are paid placements.
Contextual Recommendations: The AI could suggest specific products or services based on the conversation context. Ask about marketing automation, and you might see HubSpot mentioned alongside technical advice. We can see how this might play out in Google right now, where AI overviews and paid ads sit alongside each other.
Targeting Capabilities: ChatGPT already personalizes responses based on conversation history. Ads could use similar signals:
Query intent (what the user is asking about)
Conversation context (previous questions in the thread)
User behavior patterns (topics they frequently discuss)
Industry focus (B2B vs. consumer queries)
Pricing Models: Expect familiar models with AI twists:
Cost-per-click (CPC): Pay when users click on your sponsored links
Cost-per-engagement (CPE): Pay when users interact with your ad content
Subscription packages: Monthly fees for guaranteed mention opportunities
Performance-based pricing: Pay based on leads or conversions generated
The auction system will probably reward relevance over pure bid amounts, similar to Google’s Quality Score. ChatGPT won’t want to serve irrelevant ads that hurt user experience.
What ChatGPT Ads Mean For The Paid Media Landscape?
This isn’t just another ad platform. It could fundamentally change how advertising works. Let’s talk about why.
The Intent Advantage: ChatGPT captures intent differently than search engines by describing problems and solutions in natural language. That gives advertisers richer context about what people actually need.
Instead of bidding on “CRM software,” you might target conversations about “managing customer data across remote teams.” More specific, higher intent, better results.
Budget Reallocation: Smart marketers will test ChatGPT ads by shifting budget from other channels. Google Ads might lose some search volume as users turn to AI engines for answers. Social media budgets could move toward conversational platforms.
Screenshot suggestion: Pull up any major digital advertising spending report from eMarketer or Statista showing platform distribution. This visualizes how ChatGPT could disrupt current ad spend allocation.
Competitive Response Google won’t sit still. They’re already testing ads in their AI Overview results. Microsoft will push Copilot advertising harder. Meta might accelerate their AI assistant features. ChatGPT’s success will force every major platform to evolve their ad offerings.
The biggest impact might be on content marketing. If ChatGPT starts citing fewer sources in favor of sponsored answers, organic content creators will need new strategies to maintain visibility.
Are ChatGPT Ads The Right Fit For Your Business?
The opportunity is exciting, but it’s not universal. Businesses should weigh their target audience, funnel stage, and goals.
Who might benefit most:
SaaS: Those solving niche problems where buyers ask “what’s the best tool?”
E-commerce: High-consideration products like electronics, fitness equipment, or B2B supplies.
Education: Online courses and certifications.
Professional services: Law, finance, healthcare, and marketing.
Who might not:
Brands selling impulse-buy, low-cost items.
Niche industries with limited digital demand.
User Demographics and Behavior: ChatGPT’s user base tends to skew younger and more tech-savvy than average. If your customers are primarily older or less digitally engaged, this platform might not deliver strong ROI initially.
Budget Considerations: Early adopters often pay premium prices on new platforms. Plan to test with smaller budgets initially while the auction dynamics stabilize. Think of it like Facebook ads in 2008—high potential, but expect to learn through experimentation.
How You Can Prep For Ads on ChatGPT
Smart marketers start preparing before the platform launches ads. Here’s your playbook:
Map Customer Questions: Use tools like AnswerThePublic, Google’s “People Also Ask” feature, and your customer support logs to identify common questions your audience asks that could end up being entered into ChatGPT.
Develop Conversational Ad Copy: Start writing ads that sound natural in conversation. Instead of “Buy Our CRM Today!” try “For remote teams managing customer data, many companies choose [Your CRM] because it integrates with existing workflows.”
Audit Your Brand Authority: ChatGPT pulls information from authoritative sources. Strengthen your presence on:
Industry publications and news sites
High-authority directories and review platforms
Academic or research publications in your field
Influential podcasts and media mentions
Test Conversational Marketing Now: Experiment with chatbot marketing on your website or social media. This gives you practice with AI-style interactions before ChatGPT ads launch.
Prepare Attribution Models: Conversational ads might not follow traditional customer journey tracking. Users might mention your brand to colleagues or search for you later without clicking directly through ChatGPT. Plan for longer attribution windows and multiple touchpoint tracking.
Build Your Knowledge Base: Create comprehensive FAQ sections, detailed product documentation, and thorough how-to guides. The more authoritative content you publish, the more likely ChatGPT will reference your expertise.
Getting Your Business Featured on ChatGPT Without Ads
Strengthen Your Content Authority: Focus on E-E-A-T signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Publish detailed guides, case studies, and research that demonstrates deep knowledge in your field.
Optimize for Conversational Queries: Write content that answers questions the way people actually ask them. Instead of targeting “email marketing best practices,” create content around “how to write emails that people actually open.”
Build Relevant Brand Mentions: ChatGPT values brand mentions and links from trusted sources. Earn coverage from industry publications, news sites, and authoritative blogs in your space.
Use Structured Data: Implement schema markup on your website to help AI systems understand your content structure. FAQ schema, product schema, and organization schema can all improve your chances of being referenced.
Monitor Your Brand Mentions: Set up Google Alerts for your brand name and key executives. This gives you baseline data for how your brand is being discussed.
FAQs
Does ChatGPT have ads?
No, ChatGPT doesn’t currently run ads. OpenAI has acknowledged they’re exploring advertising as a revenue option, but no timeline has been announced. The platform remains ad-free for now.
Are ChatGPT recommendations sponsored?
Not yet. ChatGPT’s current recommendations come from its training data and real-time web access. No paid placements exist in the system today, though that may change as advertising features develop.
How can I get my business mentioned in ChatGPT?
Focus on building content authority through strong SEO, earning backlinks from reputable sources, and creating comprehensive content that answers user questions. While you can’t directly control it, ChatGPT is more likely to reflect information from well-established, authoritative sources.
Will ChatGPT ads work like Google Ads?
We don’t know the exact mechanics yet, but expect similarities in auction-based bidding and CPC pricing. The key difference will be conversational ad formats instead of traditional search result listings.
Should I shift budget from Google Ads to ChatGPT?
Not immediately. Wait for the platform to launch advertising features and establish performance benchmarks. When it does launch, test with small budget allocations before making major shifts from proven channels.
Conclusion
ChatGPT advertising isn’t live yet, but the foundation is being laid. Smart marketers are already preparing for what could become a massive new customer acquisition channel.
The opportunity is significant because ChatGPT users exhibit high-intent behavior in a conversational environment. That’s different from any existing ad platform and potentially more valuable than traditional search or social advertising.
Start building your authority now through better content, stronger industry connections, and optimized ChatGPT visibility. These investments will pay off whether you eventually run paid ads or simply want to improve your organic mentions.
Need help preparing your brand for AI-driven marketing? NP Digital specializes in emerging channel strategy and can help you build authority across all AI platforms.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-09-23 19:00:002025-09-23 19:00:00ChatGPT Advertising: A New Channel for Marketers?
Google Ads’ Demand Gen campaigns – once thought of as mid-funnel discovery tools – are evolving into full-funnel, conversion-focused campaigns, with YouTube at the core.
Why we care. Marketers are under pressure to prove ROI across channels. Demand Gen now blends social-style ad formats with Google’s AI-driven targeting, giving advertisers new ways to drive sales, leads, and app installs from audiences they can’t reach elsewhere.
What’s new:
Target CPC bidding: Advertisers can now align Demand Gen with social campaigns for apples-to-apples budget comparisons.
Channel controls. Run ads only on YouTube, or expand to Display, Discover, Gmail, and even Maps.
Creative tools. Features like trimming and flipping help repurpose social assets for Shorts and other placements, lowering barriers to entry.
Feeds + app support. Product feeds in Merchant Center show a 33% conversion lift; Web-to-App Connect now extends to iOS for smoother in-app conversions.
By the numbers. According to Google advertisers using Demand Gen have seen on average:
26% YoY increase in conversions per dollar
33% uplift when attaching product feeds
Between the lines. Google says Demand Gen’s shift from contextual matching to predicting user intent and purchase propensity has made it a contender for bottom-funnel performance. In short: YouTube is no longer just discovery – it’s decision-making.
What’s next. Expect more AI-driven creative tools, expanded shoppable formats, and deeper integrations across channels.
The takeaway. Don’t wait for “perfect” YouTube creative. Lift, adapt, and test now — Demand Gen is no longer a mid-funnel experiment, it’s a performance channel.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/How-to-tell-if-Google-Ads-automation-helps-or-hurts-your-campaigns-o1pxxb.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=110801920http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-09-23 18:22:082025-09-23 18:22:08Google pushes Demand Gen deeper into performance marketing
My SEO mantra in the age of GEO is from the great Lil Wayne, “Real G’s move in silence like lasagna.”
Translation for SEO marketers: the most effective GEO moves aren’t loud growth hacks. They’re the subtle edits and formatting that make AI cite you without fanfare.
To help with your GEO audit, here’s an inside peek into my secret menu.
As Google’s Danny Sullivan has been telling rooms full of marketers, “Good SEO is good GEO.”
That’s why I like to think of GEO as SEO’s MTV Unplugged version. It’s the same band, same lyrics, just stripped down, reimaged, and way more personal.
Alright, enough philosophy. You came here for the secret recipe. Let’s crack open the GEO content audit template and see how it works in practice.
Use this GEO content audit template
Cool. You’ve made a copy of the GEO content audit template. Now what?
Here are the key sheets you’ll work through:
Summary: High-level snapshot once you’ve scored everything.
Action list: Quick recap of next steps that summarizes all your findings from the other tabs.
Content inventory: This is the backbone. Filters include:
URL.
Action.
Strategy.
Page title.
Last updated date.
Author.
Word count.
Readability.
Average words per sentence.
Keywords.
Canonical.
Internal links.
And more.
Indexability/architecture/ URL design/on-page: Your technical health is still important.
Structured data: Markup needed and where.
International: Hreflang, language, local cues (currency, units, spelling, trust marks).
Speed: Yes, page speed is still important.
Content and gaps: Quality scoring and what’s missing.
Linking: Internal link plans and external targets.
Refresh: Cadence schedules by asset type.
You’ll bounce between content inventory, structured data, content, content gaps, and linking the most.
Tools you’ll want on hand
Crawling and gaps: Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Semrush for keywords and links.
Search Console: Build a regex brand view (brand + misspellings + product names) to watch demand move as AI answers spread.
Prompt testing: Manually test core buyer prompts in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews/AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity. Log inclusions and citations. BrightEdge’s dataset shows that you’ll see a lot of disagreement across platforms. Expect that.
Attribution: Roadway AI (or similar) to connect topics/pages to pipeline and revenue for your QBR.
How to do a GEO content audit (with the template)
1. Set goals
Pick outcomes that map to how people actually find you now:
Inclusion rate: Percentage of target prompts where your brand is mentioned inside ChatGPT/AI Overviews/AI Mode/Perplexity/Copilot.
Homepage and direct lift: Buyers often go to AI → Google → your homepage. This is why you’ll want to watch branded impressions and homepage sessions.
Revenue by topic/page: Wire this to your attribution tool.
Why this mix?
Because AI boxes change, and engines disagree.
A blended scoreboard helps you avoid chasing one fragile metric.
Pro move: Add “ChatGPT/AI Search” to “How did you hear about us?” in forms and sales notes and review weekly. Many teams report this is where the hint of AI-assisted discovery shows up first.
2. Build your content inventory
Using Screaming Frog, export every URL with: title/H1, last updated, author, canonical, word count, readability metrics, internal links, and a target query/theme.
Add a few custom fields:
Direct-answer present (Y/N): Is there a <120-word summary up top that answers the main question?
FAQ present (Y/N): Does it mirror prompt fragments and include FAQ schema?
Why?
If your page is tidy, answer-first, and properly marked up, it’s far easier to reference.
3. Segment by site, market, and language
Break your inventory into:
Domain/subdomain/folder (e.g., .co.uk, /fr/).
Market language variations (U.S. vs. U.K. English, Spain vs. Mexico Spanish).
Evidence: Proprietary data, SME quotes, methods, and links out to credible sources.
Trade-offs: Where your product is not the best fit.
FAQ block that mirrors prompt syntax (e.g., “best X for Y,” “X vs Y,” “pricing,” “implementation time”).
Schema: FAQ, HowTo, Product, Organization/Author with published/updated dates.
6. Map gaps and conflicts
Create a hit list:
Duplicates and cannibalization: Merge or redirect. If two pages answer the same thing, decide which one lives.
Missing BOFU pages:
“[Competitor] alternatives.”
“X vs Y.”
“Pricing.”
“Industry-specific use cases.”
Offsite holes: Are you absent from “Best of” lists, comparison hubs, review sites, and relevant forum threads? That’s where AI models shop for context. The more you appear on those domains, the likelier you are to get named in answers.
7. Establish next steps
Turn findings into a real plan:
Fixes
Hreflang clean-up.
Canonicals.
FAQ/HowTo/Product/Organization/Author schema.
Direct-answer summaries added to target pages.
Net-new assets
“Alternatives,” “X vs Y,” pricing explainer, implementation guide.
Video explainers (YouTube) with clear chapters.
Region-specific FAQs and CTAs.
Earned presence
Shortlist the publishers and communities your buyers read.
Pitch data-led pieces. Offer SME quotes and screenshots.
For review sites (G2/Capterra), set up a gentle ask after X days live.
Attribution
Connect the page/topic to the pipeline and revenue so that GEO progress is reflected in QBRs (e.g., Roadway or similar).
Let’s see what this looks like in practice. Here’s a sample workflow that uses the GEO content audit template step by step.
Create your goals:
Hit 40% inclusion across 50 priority prompts in AI Overviews/ChatGPT
+15% homepage sessions QoQ
+25% topic revenue for X cluster.
Load all URLs. Pick the top 100 URLs to tackle first. Manually update columns with and complete the action with: keep, update, merge, redirect.
Plan to add FAQ where you mirror prompt fragments. Think about adding Organization/Author (with bios and dates).
Check hreflang and copy cues (currency, units, etc.). Flag any market where your “local” page reads like a machine translation or uses the wrong signals.
List missing BOFU pages and industry variants. Prioritize by buyer impact.
Add internal links from top-traffic pages to the pages you want cited. Short, descriptive anchors that mirror the question asked.
Turn your action list into tickets. Dates. Owners. Status. Nothing lingers.
For each of your 50 prompts, record: engine, date, question, inclusion (Y/N), snippet, and other brands named. Check weekly for movement. Why weekly? Because Google keeps tinkering with AI Mode, links, carousels, and new UI, your presence can shift with those tweaks.
Keep these moves in mind to keep your audit on beat
Refresh cadence
Fast vertical (finance, travel, fast-moving SaaS)? Aim for quarterly.
Other verticals can run biannual or annual content refreshes.
Both are leaning hard on recency and clarity, and Google is actively testing more visible links in those AI blocks.
Local content beats translation
U.K. ≠ U.S.
Spain ≠ Mexico.
Adjust spelling, units, currency, trust marks, and examples.
Tune the FAQ to local search habits and buyer objections.
If your Canadian page says “sales tax” instead of GST/HST, people notice – so do models.
Track what matters, not just what’s easy
Inclusion rate across engines
Brand regex impressions in GSC
Homepage/direct lift
Revenue by topic/page
Chasing “LLM rankings” is sketchy. Use trackers as signals, not gospel.
What’s really the difference between a GEO content audit and an SEO content audit?
It’s a review of your content and your offsite footprint through an AI lens: Is your stuff scannable, citable, up-to-date, and backed by authority that LLMs trust?
SEO audit focuses on ranking and traffic on your own site. You crawl, fix indexing, resolve cannibalization, etc. It’s the classic playbook.
GEO audit focuses on representation and citability. You still care about structure and technicals, but you also score whether your brand appears in AI answers, even when the cited page isn’t yours.
You check if your content opens with a direct answer, mirrors prompt questions (and has FAQ schema), and is referenced by publishers, YouTube videos, Reddit threads, and review sites.
You need both
Skipping either is like training your upper body only. You’ll look fine in a tank top, but probably should avoid shorts.
Rankings still matter for discovery and for the content AI scrapes.
GEO pushes you to become answer-worthy across the broader web.
Or in Sullivan’s phrasing, good SEO already points you toward good GEO.
Pour one out for your old SEO friends – GEO is part of the scene
GEO is here to stay. Call it bad news delivered with a good whiskey.
Visibility is shifting to AI answers. If you’re referenced in AI answers, you’ll feel it in your top-funnel numbers.
Competitors can “win” even when their site isn’t ranking because third-party pages that mention them get cited.
“You want a content plan that isn’t sipping vodka Red Bulls like it’s still 2015, then blacking out the second AI changes the playlist.
This is your GEO content audit curtain call
ChatGPT doesn’t even have a SERP. It has an answer. If Google leans further into AI Mode, that answer becomes the main act.
Your job: be the source cited.
You want a content plan that doesn’t involve sipping vodka Red Bulls like it’s still 2015 and blacking out the second AI changes the playlist.
So run the audit, tighten structure, add proof, win some offsite mentions, and track inclusion, not just rankings.
Tie this to revenue so nobody calls this a science project.
Google has refreshed its Ads scripts documentation to make it easier for advertisers and developers to build, test, and customize automations.
Why we care. Scripts help advertisers save time and scale campaigns, but the old documentation was clunky and fragmented. The overhaul puts guides, references, and examples into a more intuitive flow that reduces friction for both beginners and power users.
What’s new:
Guides are now grouped by experience level and campaign type.
A dedicated reference tab makes it easier to browse available script objects.
Solutions and examples have been merged, centralizing sample code in one place.
Bottom line: Advertisers and agencies relying on automation should be able to work faster and with less guesswork, while new users have a smoother entry point into scripts.
Their answers often cite Reddit as one of the sources.
And this isn’t just anecdotal.
A Detailed.com study shows Reddit dominates product-related search terms in Google’s new “Discussions and forums” feature.
Semrush research backs this up, saying Reddit is the most-cited domain in AI answers.
In short:
Reddit now sits at the heart of your customers’ decision-making.
From the first flicker of curiosity to the final purchase, chances are good they’ll hit Reddit along the way.
Reddit Influences Buyer Trust
People trust Reddit more than your polished marketing.
The open grievances and the unfiltered praise make Reddit feel real in a way your ad copy never can.
Be honest:
How often do you tack “reddit” onto a Google search? I do it all the time. And Semrush data proves I’m not alone.
That’s Reddit becoming the internet’s social proof engine.
As Rob Gaige, Reddit’s Global Head of Insights, says:
“91% of people who discover a product on another platform are passing through Reddit to validate the claims they’re finding elsewhere.”
In other words, buyers don’t just take your word for it. They take Reddit’s.
Reddit Gives You an Edge Competitors Can’t Easily Copy
There’s no copy-paste trick when it comes to Reddit marketing.
Like you, your competitors have to put in the time to learn the culture and earn their keep.
That’s why the earlier you start, the stronger your position becomes. Every month you engage, you’re stacking credibility that shortcuts can’t match.
Yes, some try to game the system. And that might work briefly.
But eventually, Reddit’s algorithms, volunteer moderators, and the community’s BS detector flush them out.
(And with spam on the rise, the rules are only getting stricter.)
The Reddit Marketing System to Build Karma & Cred
Forget Reddit SEO “hacks,” like slipping links past moderators.
That’s short-sighted thinking.
Here’s the thing:
Reddit’s power isn’t clicks. It’s credibility and influence.
Earn it inside Reddit, AND it reverberates into search results and AI answers.
You don’t earn that trust with Reddit marketing tricks.
You earn it by contributing and becoming part of the community.
Here’s how.
(Shoutout to Ken Savage of Launch Club AI, a Reddit marketing agency, for sharing his insights from the trenches.)
Step 1: Build a Profile That Says “Redditor,” Not “Marketer”
The best way to optimize your Reddit profile? Do nothing.
A shiny, over-engineered profile from a Reddit newborn is a dead giveaway: You’re here to take, not give.
Sure, change your avatar if you like. But, resist the urge to polish.
Instead, keep it plain:
Leave the bio blank
Don’t link to your site or socials
Forget the “curated” look
Let your engagement history do the talking
Take ItsWahl, a plumber’s profile. You don’t see business links or calls-to-action. But scroll through his comments and post history, and you instantly know what he does.
That’s the beauty of Reddit. Reputation builds itself.
The profile follows.
Username tip: Just pick something forgettable. Maybe it’s an old gaming handle, a random word combination, or your pet’s name plus some numbers. The more unremarkable, the better.
Step 2: Get Fluent in Reddit Before You Speak
In your first week (or two) of Reddit marketing, don’t post. Just watch.
Study the culture and pay attention to tone and the little quirks of how people interact.
Why?
Because that look-at-me energy that Instagram and LinkedIn reward is exactly what gets you mocked or banned on Reddit.
It’s the platform’s general code of conduct, which includes:
Remembering the human behind the screen
Using proper grammar and spelling
Assuming good intent until proven otherwise
Formatting posts and comments clearly
But here’s the twist:
Reddit isn’t one community.
It’s thousands of communities, called subreddits (subs), with their own rules and expectations.
What gets you praise in one can get you flagged in another.
For example, in r/Entrepreneur, you need 10 comment karma (Reddit points from helpful comments), and self-promotion is banned.
But in r/Pen_Swap, buying, selling, and trading is the whole point.
Think of it as two layers: global expectations and local rules.
Break either, and the community will remind you. Sometimes, not too gently.
So, before you comment or post, always check the subreddit’s rules. They’re pinned at the top or listed in the sidebar.
The Reddit Moderators (aka Mods) and Their Power
Moderators are the gatekeepers of subreddits.
They control how the community runs within Reddit’s sitewide rules.
You can see who moderates any subreddit by checking the sidebar and clicking “Moderators.”
And yes, they have powers. They can:
Remove posts or comments
Issue warnings
Ban users
Your mileage with mods will vary.
Most are fair and invested in building solid communities.
Others, less so.
As one Redditor put it, “picky and easily angered.”
What most people miss about moderators is this:
Many of them run communities with tens of thousands, sometimes millions, of members. Managing these subreddits takes an enormous amount of unpaid time and effort.
It’s really in your interest to make their jobs easier by:
Reading and following the rules
Contributing genuine value
Respecting their authority
Do that, and you’ll stay on their good side.
Ignore it, and you’ll learn just how much power they really have.
Reddit Language
Reddit speak is conversational and BS-free. Humor, sarcasm, and the occasional bit of self-deprecation are all part of the mix.
It’s also full of shorthand and in-jokes that longtime users expect you to know.
You don’t need to memorize them all, but it’s worth knowing the basics if you want your Reddit marketing to have legs.
Here are a few common ones.
OP: Original poster
ELI5: Explain like I’m 5
TL;DR: Too long didn’t read
TIL: Today I learned
OC: Original content
NSFW: Not safe for work
IIRC: If I recall correctly
FTFY: Fixed that for you
AMA: Ask me anything
Most of these you’ll pick up through context.
But it’s worth bookmarking the full list for reference.
Karma & Voting
Karma is Reddit’s point system.
(Or, as Reddit’s “welcome” guide calls it: fake internet points.)
You’ll see your karma score in your profile sidebar, split into post karma and comment karma.
Here’s why these “fake” points matter:
Karma is the closest thing Reddit has to a reputation score. It affects where you can post and how you’re perceived.
You earn it through upvotes. If people find your post or comment useful, they tap the arrow pointing up.
But there’s a flip side to this democracy.
The down arrow — the downvote — takes karma away.
It’s the community’s way of saying “this doesn’t add value.”
The most-upvoted posts and comments rise to the top. Which means more people see them and more people engage.
(And the cycle reinforces itself.)
Those top comments also tend to spread beyond Reddit through shares or even showing up in search results.
Side note: Karma isn’t a clean one-upvote, one-point system. Reddit muddies the math to stop spam. Your goal is to earn more upvotes than downvotes and stay out of the red.
Step 3: Choose Subreddits Strategically
The subreddits you join will decide how quickly (or how slowly) you earn Karma.
Aim for a mix of niche communities tied to your expertise, plus a sprinkling of subreddits on topics you genuinely enjoy.
The rookie mistake is jumping straight into the biggest subs, hoping for easy upvotes.
But big subs move very fast. Their rules are stricter, and mods are hyper-vigilant.
Take r/AskReddit, for example, which has over 57 million members.
To stand out in your Reddit marketing, you need perfect timing, luck, and genuinely compelling content.
Otherwise, your post just disappears.
So, it’s better to start with smaller subreddits. They move at a manageable pace and are often more forgiving while you learn the ropes.
Side note: You can join as many subs as you want. Once you’ve built experience and have more time to contribute, you can always branch out to bigger subs.
How to Find Subreddits
My go-to method to find new communities is the Reddit search bar.
From the front page, type in your niche.
In the results, click “Communities,” and check two numbers:
Total members and currently online.
That ratio tells you how active a subreddit is.
For example, when I type “SEO” I see r/SEO with 421k members and 64 online, while r/seogrowth has 31k members with 16 online.
Even though r/SEO is bigger, I’d definitely consider also joining r/seogrowth as it’s more “alive.”
When you’re starting out, join 10–15 subreddits.
That’s enough range to test where you get traction. Over time, you’ll naturally narrow to 3–5 subs where you’re most active and recognized.
Getting the Lay of the Land
For your first 1–2 weeks, resist the urge to post. Just observe and absorb (aka lurking).
See which questions people ask repeatedly.
Go hang out in the comment sections. That’s where you’ll get a real feel for the community’s personality. You’ll pick up on how people joke, offer support, or tear bad ideas apart.
And above all: Read the rules.
They’re listed in the sidebar of every subreddit, and they can vary wildly.
For example, r/nutrition has a long list of guidelines to keep discussions science-based, while r/machinedpens has only three rules.
This is also the perfect time to gauge buyer sentiment about your brand or products.
I’ve used Reddit this way for years. And it’s helped me improve product page conversions, get better returns on Meta ads, and even given sales teams a clearer picture of buyer objections.
Take a hair supplement brand I worked with.
Their Meta ads had gone flat.
So, I spent hours in subreddits like r/haircare, r/hair, and r/hairloss scanning threads for brand sentiment and figuring out the deeper psychology behind purchase decisions.
Those insights fueled a creative refresh with new campaign angles, helping turn their Meta campaigns around.
Step 4: Join Conversations Without Being Annoying (The E.A.R.S. Reddit Marketing Framework)
Three hours a week of Reddit marketing is enough to make steady progress.
Here’s how to spend it using the E.A.R.S framework:
Explore: 5-10 minutes/day discovering threads
Add insight: 10–20 minutes/day reading, upvoting, and commenting
Respond: One 30-minute session/week writing and publishing
Share: 5-10 minutes/day amplifying your posts and comments
And no, your weekends aren’t part of the deal.
Side note: Three hours is a benchmark. In practice, it’s between 2-4 hours a week. Some weeks you’ll breeze through, others will take more. The good news is that the longer you do this, the quicker and easier it gets.
Explore: Find the Right Threads (5–10 Minutes/Day)
“Explore” is your foundation for quality and time control.
Your goal is to find 4-7 threads worth engaging in every day.
Get disciplined. This shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes.
Pro tip: Set a timer. Without one, it’s easy to slip into “just five more minutes” and somehow end up deep in r/oddlysatisfying watching hedgehogs take baths. (We’ve all been there.)
Here’s what to do:
Open a few of the subreddits you joined in the previous step.
Then, filter the threads by “Rising.”
This shows new posts starting to gain traction.
Get in early, and your comment is more likely to get noticed while the thread is still developing.
Next, cross-check with “Hot” to show the top posts.
As you scan both “Rising” and “Hot,” focus on threads where you can genuinely add value.
That means:
Answering a question with your knowledge
Filling in missing context
Clearing up a common misconception
Sharing a story from experience
Offering practical help to a “how-to” question
Top tip: Adjust your picks by subreddit size and activity. In large subs (over 1M members or 100+ posts/day), look for posts with 50+ upvotes and 15+ comments. In smaller subs, 5+ upvotes and a handful of comments are enough.
Add Insight: Write Comments That Get Upvotes (15–20 Minutes/Day)
“Add Insight” is the engine of your Reddit SEO strategy.
It’s your daily commenting session to build trust and visibility.
(And get those karma points climbing.)
Your goal is to leave 4-7 high-value comments a day. That’s it.
To leave comments, you have two options:
You can reply directly to the main post by clicking “Join the conversation.”
Or you can reply within a thread by clicking “Reply” under someone else’s comment.
The catch is:
What you say is only half the battle. How you format your comment decides whether people will give it the time of day.
(Because even the smartest insight dies as a wall of text.)
So, formatting matters. If you want eyes (and upvotes):
Break paragraphs early and often (but don’t go full broetry — that one sentence per line LinkedIn thing)
Use spacing to guide the eye
Bold key ideas when the subreddit allows it
Like this:
You can do all this using Reddit’s built-in comment editor.
Click the “Aa” icon in the comment box, and it will expand to show formatting options similar to Google Docs.
Now, comment with a purpose.
You want upvotes, and Reddit doesn’t give those willy-nilly. You get them by making the conversation better.
There are a few ways to do that.
The Explainer Comment
This is perfect when answering direct questions like “How do I…?” or “What’s the best way to…?”
Just give a direct answer with a bit of reasoning and extra info to support your answer.
The Gap Filler Comment
Use this when replies are missing something important.
Acknowledge what’s already been said, then add the missing piece.
The Shared Experience Comment
When the question overlaps with something you’ve been through, comment by sharing what you tried, what happened, and the key lesson.
The Source Comment
This is great for when a thread is full of assumptions, but you’ve got credible info.
Share the source and summarize in everyday language.
And if you’re the source, by all means join in the conversation.
The Case Study/Lived Experience Comment
Best for when you have real-world results to share: yours or someone else’s. Great for “does this actually work” questions.
Simply outline the situation, what you did, and the outcome.
The Checklist Comment
Sometimes, a checklist is all you need to be helpful.
This can be a step-by-step guide, tips, or just a few boxes to tick.
The Brand Comment
If your brand comes up in a thread, that’s a perfect opportunity to be visible in conversations about your brand.
Identify yourself and answer plainly.
Keep it useful, not salesy. Show that you’re listening and willing to help.
This works great when multiple people share similar problems. Tag them with u/ and put in the username after the slash
You can say “u/username above had the same issue. Worth comparing notes.”
Acknowledge + Build
Highlight a good point from someone else, then add your own idea. It builds goodwill while boosting your credibility.
Say something like:
“Great point, I hadn’t considered that angle. For anyone reading, here’s why it matters:“
Think Before You Reply
Not every reply deserves your energy.
Here’s a quick response matrix to help you decide what’s worth engaging and what to ignore.
If the reply…
Action
Example Response
Adds useful detail or perspective
Thank + expand
“Good point, thanks. I’d also add [extra detail]”
Corrects your point respectfully
Acknowledge + clarify
“Fair call. You’re right in general. I was thinking of [specific angle/context]”
Comes with mild sarcasm
Likely ignore
No need to reply. Better to save your energy than get pulled into a spiral
Is hostile or trolling
Ignore, downvote, report
(No response)
Share: Publish a Strategic Post (30 Minutes to 1 Hour/Week)
At some point, you’ll want to go beyond commenting and start your own threads.
There’s no magic karma number that unlocks this.
Each subreddit sets its own bar. Some require account age or karma, others don’t care at all.
The real question isn’t “Can I post?,” but “Should I?”
That depends on softer factors:
How well you know the community
How much you understand its culture
How much you’ve already contributed in comments
For context, I’ve posted with less than 50 karma when I had a genuine question.
That’s different from posting to build visibility or reputation, where the bar is much higher.
Ken Savage recommends getting a karma score of 500 before posting anything that mentions your brand:
“I’ve never been removed for anything above 500 karma. You can usually get that in two to four weeks of 20 minutes per day, five days a week, commenting. The core principle is to be authentic and provide detailed, thorough answers to people’s questions, as if you were getting paid for it.”
Once you’re ready, focus on posts with weight.
That means content that has a real shot at earning upvotes and visibility. These topics often come from:
Your top-performing comments
Recurring questions people ask you
Threads where the same issues keep surfacing
Once you’ve got a promising topic, package it in a format Reddit loves.
Here are some of the best.
Case Studies
Great for credibility-building. Walk readers through a real experience: yours, your customers’, or someone else’s.
Set up the problem or situation, explain step by step what you did, and share the outcome. Close with a clear takeaway.
Lessons Learned & Common Mistakes
This format works when your goal is to teach.
These posts show where you went wrong and how you fixed it: the “what I wish I knew” or “what I learned” stories.
To make this work, frame the mistake or lesson clearly, share the story behind it, and then give a practical fix.
Keep it simple.
One mistake per point makes it more relatable and easier to apply.
For example, if you’re a financial advisor, your topic could be “the budgeting mistakes I see most in new families and quick fixes that help.”
Discussion Prompt
Discussion prompts flip the spotlight back to the community and get people talking.
(Exactly what you want to happen in your Reddit marketing playbook.)
They work best when you give people a chance to share their stories.
Keep the question short and specific, and follow up in the comments to keep the thread going.
Some examples include:
Teachers: What’s one low-cost classroom supply you can’t live without?
What’s the best cleaning hack you’ve found for fur all over the house?
What’s the most surprising product you’ve found through ecommerce AI search?
Checklists & Step-by-Step Tips
Checklists help people self-diagnose and improve.
They work best when Redditors in the community are often worried they’re “doing it wrong” and want a quick way to check.
For example, if you’re in the beauty niche, you can post a topic on “a 4-step test to see if your skincare routine is helping or hurting.”
Then, break the process into 3–7 simple checks and explain why each one matters.
Here’s a Redditor who nails this format.
Myth-Busting
Myth-busting posts are always welcome on Reddit, especially in spaces where misinformation spreads fast.
Lead with the myth people believe and then refute it with proof or experience.
For example, a good topic in personal finance could be “the 3 biggest myths about credit scores and what actually improves them.”
Behind-the-Scenes
These posts pull back the curtain and show how things work.
They get a lot of upvotes because people love insider knowledge, especially when it reveals details they wouldn’t otherwise see.
Set the context, share the surprising or little-known details, and close with why it matters.
If you’re launching a new product, for example, you could show how it’s made and the trade-offs you wrestled with.
Free Resource
Offer something the community can actually use.
Spreadsheets, calculators, templates, swipe files, SEO checklists, mini-guides, code snippets.
Basically, the stuff people would normally charge for, but you’re cool enough to give away.
A few things to keep in mind:
Experiment with timing to find the best time to post. Generally, early weekday mornings and early evenings outperform weekends, but test for your specific communities.
Stick around after you post. Reply to comments and amplify good responses to help the thread grow.
Repurpose smartly. If a post lands, adapt it for 2–3 related subreddits. Tweak the angle and tone for each community. Plus, space them a few days apart to avoid looking spammy. Also, always check the subreddit rules. Some subs ban cross-posting or set timing restrictions.
Reddit Best Practices: How to Talk About Your Brand Without Getting Banned
Big caveat up front:
Don’t even think about promoting your brand until you’ve built karma and credibility.
Jumping in too early is the fastest way to get downvoted.
Once you’ve established trust, here are three ways to bring your brand into the conversation.
The Profile Discovery Method
This method keeps your brand mentions off your comments and lets your profile do the “selling.”
Your comments are focused on helping, and you let curious readers click through if they want to know more.
Pro tip: Once you’ve built some credibility, you can add a short professional bio or link your site/socials in the designated profile fields. Established Redditors do this on their profile.
The Expertise Sharing Method
This approach uses your role or business as context for why your perspective matters.
It signals credibility without sounding like a sales pitch.
Important: Don’t force it. If your comment works just as well without the brand mention, cut it. If not, Redditors might call that self-serving. No bueno for your karma.
The Direct Mention Method (Use Sparingly)
This Reddit marketing method involves naming your brand or product in comments. It’s a risky approach. So, make sure it adds to the conversation.
The key is balance:
Don’t make it an ad, and don’t act like your product is the only solution.
Ways You Can Lose Karma (& Trust)
Now, let’s talk about the fastest ways to torpedo your reputation and send your karma into free fall.
In short, things not to do.
Posting Like You’re on LinkedIn
Polished “thought leadership” and humblebrags are vomit-inducing on Reddit.
What’s modus operandi on LinkedIn reads as braggy here.
Keep it casual, conversational, and other-focused. Always.
Karma Farming
Yes, you can farm karma with memes and throwaway comments.
But that’s empty calories. It might get you numbers, but it won’t get you credibility.
And if you’re not building relationships and contributing to the community, you’re missing the whole point.
Link-Dumping for Quick Clicks
Dropping bare links or thinly disguised self-promo is Reddit’s oldest sin.
If your post exists just to drive clicks, expect downvotes.
Side note: Even if you play by the rules, downvotes happen. Bots filter posts. Mods nuke comments for reasons you’ll never know. That’s just Reddit being Reddit. Let it go and move on. You’ve only got three hours a week to spend here.
Stop Marketing, Start Belonging
This Reddit marketing strategy isn’t about farming karma.
Sure, you’ll earn enough to look legit and stop tripping newbie filters.
But the real win is this: You’ll start thinking like a Redditor.
And you’ll shed the marketing reflexes that get you downvoted and booted off threads.
With that, you become a trusted Reddit local.
And that’s when the ripple effect kicks in. You get seen more on Google. And through LLM seeding — where AI models pull from sources they trust — you also influence AI answers.
Bottom line: Play Reddit right and you etch your brand in a positive light into the internet’s DNA.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-09-23 12:49:002025-09-23 12:49:00Reddit Marketing in 3 Hours/Week: From 0 Karma to Real Cred
A controlled test compared three nearly identical pages: one with strong schema, one with poor schema, and one with none.
Only the page with well-implemented schema appeared in an AI Overview and achieved the best organic ranking.
The results suggest that schema quality – not just its presence – may play a role in AI Overview visibility.
Schema, AI Overviews, and the need for proof
AI Overview visibility is becoming increasingly important to businesses.
One debate within the SEO community has stood out: Does adding schema improve the chances of being cited in an AI Overview?
Schema was created to make webpages more machine-readable, and it has even been shown to help large language models – like Microsoft’s – better interpret content freshness.
That makes it tempting to assume schema is a best practice for AI visibility.
Still, AI Overviews are the result of complex and layered processes.
It’s difficult to draw firm conclusions from logic alone or from limited glimpses into one part of a model’s behavior.
That uncertainty is what motivated us to run a controlled experiment.
In earlier work, Molly analyzed 100 healthcare sites and found a slight correlation between schema use and AI Overview visibility. But the correlation was not statistically significant, and the analysis had two limitations: it didn’t assess the quality of the schema, and because it wasn’t an experiment, site differences in content, structure, and audience couldn’t be controlled.
At the same time, Benjamin’s experiments showed that ChatGPT retrieved information more thoroughly and accurately from pages with structured data. Those findings pointed to schema’s role in AI visibility, but they didn’t address Google’s AI Overviews.
With those perspectives in mind, we decided to collaborate on a test that would build on Molly’s earlier analysis and extend Benjamin’s experiments into Google Search – focusing directly on whether schema quality plays a role in AI Overview visibility.
We built three single-page sites to compare schema directly:
One with well-implemented schema.
One with poorly implemented schema.
One with none.
Aside from schema, the pages were kept as similar as possible, with keywords chosen to match in difficulty and search volume.
After publishing, we submitted all three for indexing to see whether they would rank – and, more importantly, whether any would appear in an AI Overview.
The result: Only the page with well-implemented schema appeared in an AI Overview
The page with well-implemented schema was the only one to appear in an AI Overview.
It also ranked for six keywords in traditional search, reaching as high as Position 3.
Rank 3 was the highest conventional search rank achieved by any page in our experiment, and it was also the query that triggered the AI Overview appearance.
The page with poorly implemented schema ranked for 10 keywords and peaked at Position 8, but none of its queries surfaced in an AI Overview.
The page with no schema was crawled by Google within minutes of the others, but was not indexed.
Without indexing, it didn’t rank for any keywords and could not appear in AI Overviews.
Methodology: How we controlled for variables and defined ‘good schema’
To isolate schema as the variable, we kept everything else about the test pages as consistent as possible – from keyword choice to site setup.
Keyword selection
We used Ahrefs to choose three keywords with identical metrics. Each returned an AI Overview at the time of selection:
“How much does a marketing team cost.”
“What are common elements in the promotional mix.”
“Data pool vs. data lake.”
Metrics (Ahrefs)
Keyword difficulty: 3
Monthly search volume: 60
Traffic potential: 20
We also chose keywords that were qualitatively similar and within the same general industry (marketing/martech).
Site build controls
All three were single-page sites deployed on Vercel, with the following constraints applied consistently:
No JavaScript.
No custom domain name or homepage.
No sitemap.
No robots.txt file.
No canonical tags.
Schema treatments
To create a page that exemplified a solid implementation of schema best practices, we included:
Complete Article schema with all required fields.
FAQ schema for common questions.
Breadcrumb navigation schema.
Proper date formatting.
Author and publisher information.
Educational level and audience targeting.
Related topics and mentions.
Word count and reading time.
We deliberately introduced errors into the poor schema page, including:
The third site was built without any schema at all.
All three sites were submitted to Google on Aug. 29 and crawled the same night.
Interpreting the results: Promising, but inconclusive
We don’t consider these results to be absolute proof that well-implemented schema plays a role in AI Overview presence.
However, the story is clear: the page with well-implemented schema was the winner in our small, carefully controlled test. It achieved the best organic rank and was the only page to appear in an AI Overview.
We don’t see any obvious alternative explanation for why this happened, either.
Unseen variables could have muddied the waters, and there’s always the possibility that our results were simply a coin-flip-style fluke of the Google algorithm.
As a follow-up, we plan to de-index the pages, create new pages with identical content, and then swap the schema.
We want to see if putting schema on the “no schema” page gets it indexed and ranked. That would be a very compelling result indeed.
Appendix
For those who want to review the test materials directly, here are the URLs of the sites and supporting documentation:
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Google-AI-Overviews-data-pool-vs-data-lake-MyzdfU.webp?fit=1600%2C862&ssl=18621600http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-09-23 12:00:002025-09-23 12:00:00Schema and AI Overviews: Does structured data improve visibility?
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How Rallio helps brands gain visibility in AI-powered search
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https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Ignite-Visibility-20250923-header-nsWDQ8.webp?fit=1500%2C800&ssl=18001500http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-09-23 11:00:002025-09-23 11:00:00The must-have social media tool for multi-location brands in 2026 by Rallio
