蘑菇AV

On today鈥檚 podcast episode, we discuss how retail media is impacting traditional search marketing, and how marketers can best leverage themselves on the wave of new retail media network platforms. Then, we break down how AI tools will affect the future of paid search advertising. Join our conversation with guest host and Director of Reports Editing, Rahul Chadha, Principal Analyst, Sarah Marzano, and Senior Analyst, Max Willens. Listen everywhere you find podcasts and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

The news: Perplexity is in talks with smartphone manufacturers to make its new Comet browser a default app on smartphones to drive adoption and user engagement, per Reuters. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said it aims to reach 鈥渢ens to hundreds of millions鈥� of users in 2026 after a desktop rollout to a 鈥渇ew hundred thousand鈥� testers, a plan that could be aided by expanding Comet access on phones. Our take: While Comet itself is a browser, its integrations with Perplexity鈥檚 AI could streamline access to mobile AI search tools, changing mobile search behavior and forcing marketers to rethink traditional search marketing practices. Getting Comet onto phones could also supercharge Perplexity鈥檚 data on user behavior and boost its ability to improve its AI search tools.

Rapidly growing healthcare providers are reinvesting in online marketing: Incumbents must embrace social and search marketing to ward off competition from telehealth and D2C providers.

According to an October 2024 Pipeline360 and Demand Metric survey, 38% of B2B marketers in the UK and the US rely on SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) for lead generation, ahead of webinars, content syndication, and events. SEO budgets should reflect that up to 90% of search activity still occurs on traditional platforms like Google and Bing.

Search ad spending will not be immune to the economic upheaval caused by the US tariff regime. But it will be less susceptible than other spending areas.

Retail media search ad spending propelled retail media ad spending to its current size. Now, more retail media networks are closing in on search feature parity, and advertisers are looking for ways to approach the critical channel.

The news: ChatGPT鈥檚 referral traffic to websites plummeted 52% in a single month after a fundamental shift in how the AI model operates. OpenAI manually reweighted its system to prioritize sources that provide direct, helpful answers, per Search Engine Land. Our take: Declining web traffic means declining revenues. For marketers and publishers, the mandate is to adapt to GEO or risk invisibility in a world where AI answers, not clicks, dominate. Reshaping web content to be more answer oriented could help surface it in ChatGPT, but that鈥檚 easier said than done for publishers with legacy content. Companies that move early to understand and influence AI citation patterns will secure a competitive edge as this new content distribution landscape takes shape.

The news: Google is turning search results into a customizable, algorithmic feed. The search giant is rolling out Preferred Sources, which allows users to select their favorite blogs or news outlets to appear the most in the 鈥渢op stories鈥� section. The feature aims to help users see more content from their favorite sites, per Google. Our take: If search results become a more limited discovery engine, news sites and blogs may need to rely more heavily on traffic through alternative sources. Joining blogging sites like Medium and Substack could help maintain visibility and surface new readers who will add them as preferred news sources, considering the platforms鈥� focus on content discovery.

The news: Google is looking to sign licensing deals with more publishers, per Bloomberg, to improve its products and address the threat of dwindling AI training resources. It鈥檚 launching a pilot project to partner with about 20 national news outlets, which could help ease tensions between Big Tech players and the publishers that are demanding compensation for their content. Our take: Google鈥檚 increased effort to license more media content shows its gearing up for a future in which AI-generated summaries dominate search. As this shift occurs, brands will need to focus on generative engine optimization (GEO) to get their content into AI summaries, such as by including concise takeaways that LLMs can surface. Preparing for a world where more premium content is behind paywalls could also include deeper publisher partnerships.

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.鈥�

US advertisers will spend $25.9 billion on AI search ads in 2029鈥�13.6% of all search ad spending, up from just 0.7% in 2025, according to 蘑菇AV's May forecast.

The trend: Global visits to the top 100 web domains fell nearly 7% from March 2022 to March 2025, per Semrush, with Google鈥檚 own traffic down 6.4%, according to Similarweb as cited by DataReportal. Our take: Search is no longer a neutral traffic driver. Marketers need to plan for a world where clicks don鈥檛 come easy and genAI responses, not blue links, dictate traffic and visibility. GEO strategies must ensure brands are surfaced in genAI outputs. Marketers should focus on first-party data, brand-owned channels, and social, especially since platforms like TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube are increasingly becoming primary search paths for younger users.

The news: Marketing teams are rapidly integrating AI tools into search engine optimization (SEO) workflows. A vast majority (86%) of US SEO professionals and digital marketers use ChatGPT alongside traditional platforms like Ahrefs (64%) and Semrush (56%), per a Databox survey to understand how generative AI (genAI) is changing their work in 2025. Our take: As shifts from traditional search to AI chatbots continue to alter the marketing landscape, CMOs need to maintain a balanced approach to AI integration while preserving traditional SEO foundations. Combining AI鈥檚 efficiency with human oversight is key to ensure brand control while exploring emerging search and SEO opportunities.

The news: Google claimed that its AI summaries do not impact referral traffic from search after a Pew Research report showed that AI Overviews cut the number of users who clicked on links from overall search results by nearly half. Our take: Despite Google鈥檚 objections, AI Overviews inevitably harm sites that rely on search results and SEO for visibility. But with AI summaries showing no signs of going away, what matters is how brands adapt. Traditional keyword strategies are no longer sufficient in the age of AI.

The insights: YouTube isn鈥檛 Google Search, and brands need to recognize it as a unique platform. Its algorithm prioritizes clicks, watch time, and retention over keywords. Brands and content marketers that rely on blog-style SEO risk getting buried as YouTube and Netflix battle for attention. Our take: Treating YouTube as a strategic content hub, not a recycling center, gives marketers and brands a competitive edge in reach, trust, and conversion potential. By mastering engagement levers鈥攃ompelling thumbnails, sharp hooks, and strong retention鈥攂rands can turn viewers into loyal subscribers and warm leads.