Performics' Rob Georgeson on AI Rewriting the Rules, Publishers' Dwindling Traffic, and Diversification

"For the better part of two decades, the digital marketing ecosystem has operated on a simple, unspoken contract: content creators make the web interesting, and search engines send them traffic. In exchange, publishers run ads, brands get reach, and users are rewarded with access to "free" content. This intricate dance, orchestrated by Google and Meta's algorithms and monetised through clicks and impressions, has defined countless marketing playbooks. But the mood music is changing faster than ever."

"The rapid ascent of AI-powered answer engines like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity is fundamentally rewriting the rules of information discovery. These platforms do more than just point to answers; they synthesise them, delivering concise, direct responses that often negate the user's need to click through to a source website. This shift from search engine to answer engine represents a marked disruption to the ad-funded open web and a critical inflection point for every digital marketer."

"The core of the issue is the abstraction of the user from the publisher. When a user asks Gemini for "the best marketing strategies for e-commerce in 2025", it crawls the web, digests information from dozens of expert articles, and presents a neat, bulleted list. The user gets their answer instantly. The publishers who created that original content, however, get nothing- no page view, no ad impression, no chance to capture a lead."

Digital marketing relied on an implicit exchange: content creators produce engaging material and search engines drive traffic, enabling publishers to monetise through ads and brands to gain reach. AI-powered answer engines like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity now synthesise information and provide concise answers that often remove the need to click through to source websites. This abstraction of the user from the publisher erodes page views, ad impressions, and lead capture. Industry data shows 58% of informational Google queries end without a click to a non-Google property. The shift from search engine to answer engine threatens ad-funded open web inventory and pressures the creator economy.

Read at Exchangewire