When it comes to data, marketers have focused primarily on the quality of the structured data in their CRM and marketing automation platforms over the past 15 years.
In my March article, I discussed why current data governance and management processes must be revisited. This time, I will maintain my focus on unstructured data by diving into the challenges of customer satisfaction surveys.
We’re all familiar with customer satisfaction surveys. For our purposes here, there’s no need to differentiate between an NPS (Net Promoter Score), five-point rating or similar customer experience metrics. Instead, we’re going to focus on the free text box, which is often the last part of these surveys.
How we got here
Whether you are directly responsible for customer surveys or you’re partnering with a customer success team, extracting actionable insights from free-text comments is a common challenge.
There are several reasons for this.
The platform-related challenge: Today’s survey tools range from form-only solutions like Google Forms and Typeform, to full survey solutions like SurveyMonkey, and full enterprise customer experience platforms like Qualtrics and Medallia.
Process-related challenges: There is a range of different survey approaches, resulting in different data formats and different roles responsible for analyzing survey data.
People-related challenges: These include prioritizing voice of customer (VOC) programs relative to other initiatives, properly analyzing unstructured comments, and relying on quantitative metrics that are simply easier to measure, such as year-over-year trends.
In the automation era, we might also be guilty of over-surveying, which leads to even more data — a problem of volume and velocity.
Dig deeper: How to develop a customer marketing strategy from scratch with Google Gemini
Many survey tools and customer experience platforms have embedded algorithms and natural language processing (NLP) capabilities to conduct some analysis. Think of NLP and corresponding algorithms as keyword matching on steroids. They use the surrounding context to help structure the unstructured free-text feedback into various sentiment categories, like positive, neutral or negative.
Some platforms also included human-in-the-loop feedback cycles that ask users to help categorize feedback, particularly if there was additional context in the free text box.
Because this functionality is often embedded in the survey tools, there are a few potential issues:
Thanks to generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, today we all have a black box at our fingertips and can use it to test and validate sentiment categorizations. We can go beyond the positive, negative or neutral rating by probing deeper to understand the specifics.
If your team finds the cost of a full-featured customer survey and analysis platform too steep for its budget, you could even build a DIY solution.
Let’s examine how I put this approach to the test.
First, I created a set of synthetic customer data using ChatGPT to avoid any data privacy concerns. I prompted it to provide a sample of customer data records that engaged with an online retailer, including the customers’ overall satisfaction and open-text box feedback.
A sample of synthetic customer data generated by ChatGPT.
I then uploaded the file into Google Sheets and clicked on the “Analyze this data” button, which puts Gemini’s AI model directly into Sheets.
Within seconds, Gemini generated a top-line summary of qualitative results with broad-based trends to characterize the data.
Without leaving Google Sheets, the embedded Gemini chat asked me if I’d like to delve deeper.
This inline capability demonstrates why the new DIY approach will be so impactful. It’s no longer about separate tools, as I literally chatted with my data to delve deeper with each prompt, like this:
I know what you’re thinking: Shouldn’t I verify this myself?
Yes, but this top-level summary gave me a starting point. It’s no different from what I’d receive from an entry-level analyst (which I’d also want to verify). The critical difference was my ability to do this directly inline, without leaving my data sheet and analysis flow.
I then simulated a similar test. I uploaded the data directly to Gemini and prompted it to do a more complete sentiment analysis.
If you’ve used some of the newer LLM models, you’ve seen how they show their thinking to users. In this case, that’s a critical dimension, as it provided me with its sentiment classification method.
Survey platforms with embedded analysis tools might link unstructured data feedback to the overall satisfaction score. I asked my LLM to determine the sentiment exclusively on the text without anchoring it to the overall rating.
The LLM identified four specific examples in which the anchored sentiment differed from the direct sentiment and why. This could spark other customer service or follow-up actions, all within minutes and within my control.
If you’re currently using a full-featured survey and analysis platform, this exercise might raise new questions about what embedded algorithms do and how they do it. Alternatively, if you run surveys outside of a platform, you’re more capable than ever of separating the collection and analysis of data.
For SMBs, this exercise demonstrates a cost-effective, DIY approach to survey collection and analysis. These teams can leverage basic forms solutions (e.g., Google Forms) instead of full survey platforms.
Data privacy and confidentiality.
It would be irresponsible to conclude this exercise without addressing one of the major reasons these approaches may be limited initially: the lack of clarity regarding data privacy and confidentiality guidelines.
Most experts recommend teams conduct this type of analysis only within the walled garden of their organization’s Team or Enterprise versions of ChatGPT, Microsoft CoPilot or Google Gemini Workspace, based on data retention and do-not-train-the-model settings.
Teams should consult their organization’s legal, compliance, and IT policies before placing sensitive data in an AI/LLM platform. Of course, many individuals may be experimenting already, which leads to the critical step of revisiting your organization’s data governance policies. The latest wave of “chat with CRM” connectors will accelerate these concerns and heighten the need to adjust compliance frameworks.
Although it’s still early, I am encouraged by these early tests of “chatting with data.” Like every other AI-infused trend, the technology has outpaced our ability to adjust processes and platform management. However, when analyzing free-text feedback becomes comparable to running quantitative summaries, my hope is that we can flip our feedback processes to focus more on what they said rather than only how they rated us.
Dig deeper: Why AI-powered customer engagement projects fail before they start
Contributing authors are invited to create content for MarTech and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. MarTech is owned by Semrush. Contributor was not asked to make any direct or indirect mentions of Semrush. The opinions they express are their own.
YouTube is updating its monetization policies to target mass-produced and repetitious content. Here’s you need to know.
In 2025, influencer marketing is nothing new. Nevertheless, some major big-box retailers just launched creator programs in response to the evolution of how people interact with social content and creators.
Best Buy in April launched the Best Buy Creator program, which gives creators the ability to create a storefront to highlight their content and earn a commission on sales of products in their tailored collections with no commission cap. Some of the first influencers to join the program have included Linus Sebastian of YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips, Judner Aura of UrAvgConsumer, and tech and lifestyle creator Jenna Ezarik.
In June, Lowe’s announced the Lowe’s Creator Network, which also offers commissions and storefronts, as well as product samples, training resources like tutorials, and the potential for project funding, long-term sponsorships and access to events like Lowe’s Creator Summit. One of the first creators is popular online video creator MrBeast, or Jimmy Donaldson. On his storefront, shoppers can see his favorite materials and tools and DIY projects inspired by his videos.
CMOs at Best Buy and Lowe’s told Modern Retail they launched these new programs in response to the growing importance of influencers in recommending products to shoppers. The new programs exhibit an evolution beyond affiliate links and toward more personalized shoppable content, measurability and new ways to compensate creators.
Jennie Weber, chief marketing and design officer for Best Buy, told Modern Retail in an interview the focus of the program is on being “creator-first” by giving creators flexibility to tailor their storefronts around their passion areas, from cooking to photography.
“We really wanted to create something that enabled that authentic voice of the creator to come through and really met their needs as a business owner,” she said.
She said the company also plans to offer opportunities to be featured in Best Buy campaigns and for additional bonuses. So far, more than 600 creators have been accepted to partner with Best Buy, and close to 100 storefronts have already launched, according to Weber. Best Buy’s program does not have requirements on audience size, and the company does not dictate which products creators pick.
“We are always looking for ways to help customers discover new technology and thinking about how that technology really amplifies the things they love doing in their life,” Weber said. “We think about their passion points and how technology fits into that, and if you think about it, today, the way that consumers in general are tapping into their passion points — a lot of that is around influencers, and learning from influencers, and getting new product ideas and ways to use products.”
Weber said Best Buy had previously worked with influencers over the years, but as more of an advertising lever to reach customers while they’re scrolling social media — simply doing a campaign with a creator where they talk about Best Buy’s products or services. In this case, however, the creators are working with the retailer on content geared toward shoppers on Best Buy’s website.
“Creators are a critical component of a modern marketing plan, and so we will continue to have influencers that we partner with in that way,” Weber said. “We saw that the market was moving in this direction, where more and more consumers were actually leveraging social platforms for search — they were leveraging influencers for product ideas and almost DIY, or how to set it up, or how to use it. We wanted to be positioned alongside those creators to be able to be in front of consumers and provide that helpful content to them.”
Jen Wilson, CMO of Lowe’s, said in an email that creators and their communities are key to accelerating the company’s online and digital growth. She said the goal is for the brand to reach Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha who trust creators for advice, product picks and inspiration.
“As people consume content through their feeds, they’re inspired to shop more impulsively, especially online,” Wilson said. “Creators are often more trusted than brands, especially among younger generations — who are a key growth audience for Lowe’s.”
One of those creators is MrBeast; the company not only is working with him on storefronts but is also the exclusive building partner for season two of his “Beast Games” series on Amazon Prime Video. Lowe’s employees helped him create a complex to house contestants and serve as the show’s set.
“We want to build and foster those relationships now, before they even own homes,” Wilson said. “Gen Alpha’s influence on family purchases is powerful, and Gen Z is establishing brand loyalty at an early age. We’re also continuing to engage our core home improvement audience, but we’re reaching them in more modern, creative spaces where digital conversations are already happening.”
While Lowe’s has worked with creators before, Wilson said this is the company’s “first formal, network-based program with scale, structure and long-term strategy behind it.” So far, it has 17,000 members in its network from beta testing — which first launched in late 2023 — and aims to grow it to 50,000 creators over the next three years.
The Lowe’s program is unique in being a “hybrid model,” both giving creators incentives for being part of the program — such as the potential for project funding or event access — as well as giving them up to 20% commission, said Keith Bendes, chief strategy officer for influencer marketing agency Linqia.
“A lot of retailers or brands, in general, are saying, ‘What if we provide baseline incentives for being part of this program, whether that’s free product, free access potential or whatever it is, but also give them commission?” Bendes said. “It’s taken this long for leadership to realize they have no other option — this is the new world we live in. … If you want to be relevant, you better be social-first, you better be creator- and influencer-first.”
This more robust approach to working with creators comes as legacy retailers adjust to social shopping.
“Historically, if someone on TikTok said, ‘This is a really great podcasting microphone,’ I would go to Amazon or Walmart after they said that, and I’d buy it,” Bendes said. “Now, TikTok is making it so I don’t have to do that. … The retailers see that and say, ‘We need to have storefronts, we need to keep the recommendations on our site, and we need to have the conversions be on our site.’”
The storefront programs launched by Best Buy and Lowe’s also follow similar initiatives launched by Amazon and Walmart, in 2017 and 2022. They also offer commissions to influencers who create storefronts to showcase products sold on their websites.
Adam Tanielian, svp and head of global gaming client services for BENLabs, said brands have become more focused on ensuring they reach relevant audiences, rather than as many as possible.
“Brands are not as worried about how much scale [they’re] going to get. Obviously, you want to reach mass, but you also want to ensure you’re reaching audiences that care,” he said.
Tanielian said that while in his previous role as head of global community engagement for video game publisher Electronic Arts, the company started to take the approach of letting creators serve as the voice of the brand, giving them more autonomy over the content. Storefronts reflect this approach by using a shopping channel as a storytelling mechanism, Tanielian said, rather than the content solely living on YouTube or TikTok.
“They’re putting the power of creation in the hands of the creators, so that the brand comes to life through the eyes of their community,” Tanielian said. “I think brands are really starting to ask the right questions and to be much more progressive in how they create these programs.”
Paid media is often treated like a checklist item in a marketing plan: launch a few search ads, run a Meta campaign, maybe test YouTube if there’s budget left.
But not all paid media is created equal, and treating every channel the same is a fast way to burn through budget with little to show for it.
Whether you’re working in-house or managing campaigns for clients, understanding the different types of paid media (and what each one is actually good for) can help you prioritize the right tactics, set realistic expectations, and answer the dreaded question: “What are we getting out of this?”
This article breaks down the main types of paid media with real-world examples so you can make smarter decisions about where to spend your money.
Paid media is any type of marketing where you pay to get in front of your audience. That includes things like search ads, social ads, display banners, video pre-roll, and even influencer sponsorships.
While paid media is often used interchangeably with the term cost-per-click (CPC), it’s important to note the differentiation.
It’s the part of your marketing strategy that gives you scale and control. You’re not waiting for someone to discover your blog post or share your Instagram reel organically.
You’re putting money behind your message to drive attention right now.
Paid media works best when it’s tied to a clear goal, like driving leads, sales, or downloads. Without a strategy, it’s just noise with a price tag.
Think of paid, owned, and earned media as different ways to get your message out. You need a mix of all three, but each serves a different purpose.
Some examples of earned media include:
Owned media examples include:
The overlap matters, too. A paid campaign might drive traffic to a landing page (owned media), which then gets shared by a happy customer (earned media). When these channels work together, your efforts go further.
Now that we’ve identified the definition of paid media, let’s take a look at the different types of paid media channels and the purposes they serve.
Before we dive into the different paid media channels, it’s also important to note the difference between ad formats and ad channels.
Ad formats are the type of ads shown in a particular channel. An ad format example could be:
So, while ad formats are important and will depend on the channel, below we will focus on the channels themselves.
There are other types of paid media channels available that are not listed here, such as more traditional methods like direct mail or billboards. These paid media channels have a more physical presence.
Here, we will focus on digital channels.
Paid search puts your ads at the top of search results for specific keywords. It’s often the first paid channel marketers try because it targets people already looking for what you offer.
Platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Ads let you bid on search terms so your ad shows when someone types in something relevant.
Google is the leading search engine in market share, with its sites generating 60.4% of user searches in the United States.
It’s high-intent, measurable, and scalable. But, it’s also competitive, especially in industries like legal, finance, or ecommerce.
Success here depends on more than just bidding. Your landing page, ad copy, keyword match types, and conversion tracking all matter. You’re not just paying for clicks – you’re paying for the opportunity to convert interest into action.
Paid social platforms let you reach people based on who they are, not just what they search.
Many of the platforms offer detailed targeting based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and even job titles.
Some of the most common paid social platforms include:
The most common ad format in social channels is placed within a user’s newsfeed as they scroll. These ads will either consist of one (or more) static images or a video as the main visual.
It’s not just about brand awareness. Many brands use social to drive signups, sales, or downloads. You can run video ads, carousels, static images, or Stories, depending on what fits your brand and goal.
Some paid social platforms are more beneficial for B2B companies than for B2C brands.
For example, LinkedIn advertising consists mainly of B2B brands marketing their product or service to other professionals.
Other platforms like TikTok and Snapchat may be better suited for B2C or ecommerce brands.
The tricky part? Creative fatigue is real.
If you’re not refreshing your assets often or testing different hooks, performance will drop fast. Social ads require constant iteration, but the upside is speed: you can test ideas and get feedback quickly.
Display advertising is what most people think of as “banner ads.” These are the visual ads you see on news sites, blogs, or apps, usually managed through platforms like the Google Display Network or programmatic buying platforms.
The upside is scale. You can reach millions of people across the web without relying on social platforms. The downside? Banner blindness is real. If your creative isn’t compelling, people will scroll right past.
That’s why display works best for remarketing or supporting a broader campaign. Use it to stay top of mind, promote limited-time offers, or drive awareness ahead of a product launch. Just don’t expect cold traffic to convert on the first click.
Affiliate marketing is a way to scale your reach by letting others promote your product for you. You only pay when they drive a sale or lead, which makes it one of the lowest-risk paid media options available.
This model works especially well in industries like fashion, tech, travel, and finance, where bloggers, influencers, or content sites already have built-in audiences.
The key to making affiliate work? Vet your partners. A bunch of low-quality traffic from coupon sites won’t move the needle.
Look for affiliates who create content, have authority, or drive meaningful referral traffic.
And keep an eye on attribution. Affiliate-driven sales often overlap with other paid efforts, so tracking needs to be tight.
This is where the ad formats are married to the paid media channels.
Below are examples of paid media ads from the popular channels listed above. These examples can help provide context when deciding what types of paid media to run.
When searching for [top parental control apps] in Google, the first three positions are examples of search ads.
Screenshot from Google search for [top parental control apps], Google, May 2025While conducting the same search on Microsoft Bing, the ads look slightly different.
There’s even a section above the sponsored ads showcasing different brands and a brief description about what they do.
Screenshot from Bing search for [top parental control apps], Microsoft Bing, May 2025When searching for a product like [nike shoes for women], the ads below are a shopping ad format.
Screenshot from Google search for [nike shoes for women], Google, May 2025
Each social platform’s ad formats look different within their respective newsfeeds.
Here is a LinkedIn newsfeed example:
Screenshot from author’s LinkedIn newsfeed, desktop ad, May 2025
A Facebook ad newsfeed example:
Screenshot from author’s Facebook newsfeed, desktop ad, May 2025
Instagram also offers ads in its “Stories” placement. An example from Fountainhead is below:
Screenshot from author’s Instagram Stories feed, Stories ad, May 2025
Display ads can be in all shapes and sizes, depending on the website or app.
Below is an example of two different display ads shown on one webpage.
Screenshot from author, May 2025
Sometimes, affiliate ads can be difficult to spot.
For example, “Listicle” articles, where a publisher is paid by other brands to be included in a “Top” product article.
Screenshot from FamilyOnlineSafety.com, May 2025
However, if you take a closer look at this example’s “Advertising Disclosure,” you’ll notice that this publisher is paid by the brands for exclusive placement:
Screenshot from FamilyOnlineSafety.com, May 2025
Paid media doesn’t have to be a guessing game. When you understand the role each channel plays, you’re in a much better spot to build campaigns that actually drive results, not just impressions.
From keyword-targeted search ads to affiliate partnerships and social retargeting, each paid media type has its own strengths. Use them deliberately.
Think about where your audience is, how they like to interact, and what action you want them to take.
Remember: success isn’t just about being present on every channel. It’s about showing up with the right message, in the right place, at the right time.
More resources:
Featured Image: Lana Sham/Shutterstock
In this episode of Marketing Vanguard, host Jenny Rooney sits down with Kimberly Paige, EVP and CMO of BET, to explore the intersection of content, culture, and community in modern media.
From judging at Cannes Lions to celebrating BET’s 45th anniversary, Kimberly shares how her extensive experience at P&G, Coca-Cola, and Coty shaped her approach to authentic storytelling and brand evolution.
Learn how BET is pioneering change through strategic brand partnerships, streaming innovation, and a commitment to meaningful content that drives both cultural impact and commercial success.
A must-listen for marketing leaders seeking to understand how heritage brands can stay relevant while maintaining their core mission.
With over two decades of marketing experience, Kimberly previously spent 17 years at Coca-Cola in various leadership roles, including running the global Sprite business and leading their Ventures in Emerging Brands division. She began her career at Procter & Gamble, where she developed foundational marketing skills that continue to inform her approach today.
[03:32] What Good Marketing Looks Like Today — Fresh from judging Cannes Lions, Kimberly emphasizes the importance of authentic storytelling in today’s landscape: “We really wanna get back to real true storytelling—this notion of Marketing with big M. And that really is if it’s meaningful, if it matters, it’ll move the metrics. And I think we’re really trying to get back to meaningful work.” She notes that in a world where TikTok has become a major entertainment competitor, the bar for quality storytelling has never been higher.
[10:06] Applying CPG Principles to Entertainment — Kimberly explains how her diverse background serves her in entertainment: “As marketers, our primary role is demand creation, regardless of the category. The beauty of really having this vast experience is that you see consumers in a variety of different ways in terms of their journeys.” She emphasizes how every brand must now become a great storyteller, making her entertainment experience valuable across industries.
[14:23] BET’s Evolution and Mission — Discussing BET’s 45-year journey, Kimberly explains the brand’s evolution: “Our mission is not just about providing Black content, and I think that’s the difference. It really is about changing outcomes for our community. I think we thrive at this intersection of content, culture, and community.” She emphasizes how BET has shifted from being the only place to see Black culture to focusing on meaningful impact.
[18:51] Strategic Decisions That Changed Trajectory — Kimberly shares two key decisions she’s proud of: leading Paramount Global’s first move into streaming and redesigning BET’s visual identity system. On the logo redesign, she recalls: “Our CEO saying, ‘You broke the logo.’ And I said, ‘No, I liberated it.’ It was really based off an insight around creating this beautiful black blank canvas because I think that’s what culture is. It can’t be defined. It can’t be bound.”
I’ll admit that in the past, I’ve had beef with Marvel film posters thanks to their over-saturation of floating head designs, but recently the studio has been upping its game. Helping to slowly restore my faith, the new poster design for Ironheart has exceeded my expectations, putting an unusually arty spin on the studio’s typical poster style.
While there’s no strict formula for creating the best movie posters, going against the grain is sure to make a memorable design. With its traditional art style, the new Ironheart poster proves that Marvel is back on form with its designs, and I’m excited to see the studio (hopefully) continue to impress.
(Image credit: Marvel)
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An SEO shared on social media that his SEO tests proved that not using a meta description resulted in a lift in traffic. Coincidentally, another well-known SEO published an article that claims that SEO tests misunderstand how Google and the internet actually work and lead to the deprioritization of meaningful changes. Who is right?
Mark Williams-Cook posted the results of his SEO test on LinkedIn about using and omitting meta descriptions, concluding that pages lacking a meta description received an average traffic lift of approximately 3%.
Here’s some of what he wrote:
“This will get some people’s backs up, but we don’t recommend writing meta descriptions anymore, and that’s based on data and testing.
We have consistently found a small, usually around 3%, but statistically significant uplift to organic traffic on groups of pages with no meta descriptions vs test groups of pages with meta descriptions via SEOTesting.
I’ve come to the conclusion if you’re writing meta descriptions manually, you’re wasting time. If you’re using AI to do it, you’re probably wasting a small amount of time.”
Williams-Cook asserted that Google rewrites around 80% of meta descriptions and insisted that the best meta descriptions are query dependent, meaning that the ideal meta description would be one that’s custom written for the specific queries the page is ranking for, which is what Google does when the meta description is missing.
He expressed the opinion that omitting the meta description increases the likelihood that Google will step in and inject a query-relevant meta description into the search results which will “outperform” the normal meta description that’s optimized for whatever the page is about.
Although I have reservations about SEO tests in general, his suggestion is intriguing and has the ring of plausibility.
Coincidentally, Jono Alderson, a technical SEO consultant, published an article last week titled, “Stop testing. Start shipping.” where he discusses his view on SEO tests, calling it “performative theater.”
Alderson writes:
“The idea of SEO testing appeals because it feels scientific. Controlled. Safe…
You tweak one thing, you measure the outcome, you learn, you scale. It works for paid media, so why not here?
Because SEO isn’t a closed system. …It’s architecture, semantics, signals, and systems. And trying to test it like you would test a paid campaign misunderstands how the web – and Google – actually work.
Your site doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Search results are volatile. …Even the weather can influence click-through rates.
Trying to isolate the impact of a single change in that chaos isn’t scientific. It’s theatre.
…A/B testing, as it’s traditionally understood, doesn’t even cleanly work in SEO.
…most SEO A/B testing isn’t remotely scientific. It’s just a best-effort simulation, riddled with assumptions and susceptible to confounding variables. Even the cleanest tests can only hint at causality – and only in narrowly defined environments.”
Jono makes a valid point about the unreliability of tests where the inputs and the outputs are not fully controlled.
Statistical tests are generally done within a closed system where all the data being compared follow the same rules and patterns. But if you compare multiple sets of pages, where some pages target long-tail phrases and others target high-volume queries, then the pages will differ in their potential outcomes. External changes (daily traffic fluctuation, users clicking on the search results) aren’t controllable. As Jono suggested, even the weather can influence click rates.
Although Williams-Cook asserted that he had a control group for testing purposes, it’s extremely difficult to isolate a single variable on live websites due to the uncontrollable external factors as Jono points out.
So, even though Williams-Cook asserts that the 3% change he noted is consistent and statistically relevant, the unobservable factors within Google’s black box algorithm that determines the outcome makes it difficult to treat that result as a reliable causal finding in the way one could with a truly controlled and observable statistical testing method.
If it’s not possible to isolate one change then it’s very difficult to make reliable claims about the resulting SEO test results.
Jono’s article calls out the shortcomings of SEO tests but the point of his essay is to call attention to how focusing on what can be tested and measured can become prioritized over the “meaningful” changes that should be made but aren’t because they cannot be measured. He argues that it’s important to focus on the things that matter in today’s search environment that are related to content and a better user experience.
And that’s where we circle back to Williams-Cook because although statistically valid A/B SEO tests may be “theatre” as Jono suggests, it doesn’t mean that Williams-Cook’s suggestion is wrong. He may actually may be correct that it’s better to omit the meta description and let Google rewrite them.
SEO is subjective which means what’s good for one might not be a priority for someone else. So the question remains, is removing all meta descriptions a meaningful change?
Featured Image by Shutterstock/baranq
Amazon Ads. It’s an expansive ecosystem of tools, insights and performance levers, many of which remain underutilized or unknown by brands and marketers. To ensure your brand gets the most from Amazon, let’s highlight the year’s key features, tools and integrations you might have missed — some old, some new and all effective at driving awareness and conversions.
Non-endemic advertising allows brands that don’t sell products on a retail site to advertise there, tapping into the platform’s existing audience and data. Retailers like Amazon, Home Depot, Walgreens and Macy’s have years of shopper data and behavioral insights, offering an unparalleled picture of consumer preferences, habits and life events. As third-party cookies disappear and data privacy tightens, the value of this first-party data from retail media networks (RMNs) has surged.
RMNs present a powerful opportunity for non-retail brands (like insurance companies, streaming services or education providers) to reach their ideal audiences in unexpected but highly relevant environments. For example, shoppers won’t browse Amazon for a new financial advisor. Still, as they shop for other products, they reveal the interests and demographics that may fit the ideal customer profile for a financial advisor lead generation standpoint.
The strength of non-endemic advertising lies in its targeting capabilities. RMNs segment audiences by traits like location, hobbies, life stage or recent purchases, allowing brands to deliver tailored messaging that drives users to their websites and landing pages.
This strategy doesn’t replace search — it complements it by creating demand ahead of need. These capabilities are only made stronger by the measurement tools in their clean-room solution, Amazon Marketing Cloud, which leads the pack in sophistication and measurement.
It’s the most impactful and exciting thing to happen to a lead generation business since LinkedIn. The ability to find, target and segment retailer first-party data at scale — and at a deeper level of demographics and behavior — is a ridiculously powerful tool.
Despite the growing excitement around retail media, Amazon’s recent launch of its Retail Ad Service made a relatively quiet entrance. Marketed as a centralized platform to manage campaigns across multiple retailers for identical SKUs, the promise was clear: simplify retail ad execution with the backing of Amazon’s mature tech infrastructure.
However, the initial rollout lacked participation from major retailers, instead leaning heavily on niche and long-tail partners like iHerb and SayWee. That limits both scale and value — especially as the offering only supports digital placements, with no in-store or storefront integration.
Other players like Instacart, with its Carrot Ads product, are already executing similar models across smaller grocery chains like Thrive Market and The Fresh Market — and expanding licensing of their tech, recently (and most notably) to Uber Ads. Microsoft previously introduced a comparable solution with its Advertising Network for Retailers but sunset the program after struggling to build out the initial list of retailers participating.
Amazon’s entry isn’t yet a substantial threat to Criteo, Koddi and Epsilon. While unifying campaign management across retail channels is appealing, Amazon’s version currently falls short on critical factors like retailer scale and omnichannel support. Unless broader retail partnerships and execution improvements follow, its impact will likely remain limited.
Dig deeper: Amazon’s new Retail Ad Service brings RMN to the masses
Amazon Attribution is a free measurement and analytics tool (also available via API) that allows brands to track how non-Amazon marketing channels contribute to activity on Amazon. Brands can link product detail page (PDP) views, add-to-carts and purchases to the external sources that drove those actions — like text search ads (via Google and Microsoft), organic and paid social media posts (through Meta, Instagram and TikTok), email and some display ads.
It’s definitely not new — the beta was a couple years long, one of the longest I’ve ever participated in — but it’s still lesser known.
It generates unique tracking URLs (called attribution tags) through the Amazon Attribution platform, which are added to a brand’s external media or campaigns. When shoppers click on those tagged links and visit Amazon, their behavior is tracked, and attribution is assigned to the originating channel.
However, it is only available to vendors, first-party Amazon sellers and third-party sellers enrolled in Amazon’s Brand Registry.
In its current format, it’s not without limitations. For example, suppose a shopper ultimately changes variants or buys a product that didn’t originate their journey (meaning there’s no product halo or brand halo reporting). In that case, you may lose track of that search’s original product — but not the referring source, Amazon.
I’ve worked with too many brands that spend big bucks to send traffic from Meta to Amazon PDPs, only to receive vague, unhelpful metrics that tell them nothing. If you’re investing in this arena, I’d recommend checking out a third-party partner (like ampd) to help track your customers’ paths.
Speaking of Meta and social commerce, Prime Day is nearly here — but with a twist! This year’s event will be four days instead of the usual two.
What does that have to do with social commerce? A lot. We’re already seeing a rise in influencer-produced content on Meta and TikTok, commissioned by Amazon sellers and brands (often via the Amazon Influencer Program) to feature a product or exclusive deal linking to their Amazon PDP, deal or brand store.
This isn’t a surprise. Given its perceived authenticity (especially by Gen Z), U.S. influencer marketing spending is expected to surpass $10 billion this year. And with Amazon advertising exceeding $54 billion last year alone, it’s no shock that influencer marketing is taking a bigger piece of the pie and making that alamode with Amazon Prime Day.
Will TikTok Shop do another “Deals for You Days” to compete ahead of Prime Day like they did last year? Probably, assuming no federal government interventions.
Not to be outdone, other brands will likely follow the same trend to promote their competing sales events during Prime Day on other retailer channels — so expect an inflated amount of sponsored testimonials on your For You Page. And don’t be shy about using your social channels to drive to your Prime Day experiences!
Dig deeper: Ad costs are soaring and retailers are panicking — here’s the fix
Amazon is betting big on both Prime Video and Live Sports.
Prime Video is Amazon’s subscription-based streaming service that offers on-demand movies, TV shows and original content. It’s included with Amazon Prime memberships but can also be subscribed to separately and has ad-supported-supported tiers.
With more than 132 million viewers on ad-supported Prime Video, it’s one of Amazon’s fastest-growing ad channels — boasting impressive measurement and tracking capabilities stemming from its publisher owning the content. Plus, membership will only continue to grow as ad-free subscription prices increase (and consumers become more amenable to ad-supported tiers).
Live Sports is included in the Prime Video suite (unlike some other streaming services) and currently boasts a lineup of Thursday Night Football and other NFL games, the WNBA and, starting this fall for U.S. viewers, the NBA. There are additional opportunities in other countries like the UK and India for soccer, cricket and more big-name sports.
Earlier, I covered non-endemic advertising on Amazon, so let’s bring it together. Consider the last time you watched Thursday Night Football and the ads you saw. Much more than just brands sold on Amazon, right? There were quite a few from State Farm or Geico. See how powerful this landscape can be?
These offerings give marketers two major places to expand, boasting impressive reach and diversity of interests.
Phew! Alright, consider yourself caught up. There are other programs and features to cover — for instance, as workers return to the office, audio ads are back in a big way. But I’ll get to those at a later date. For now, consider yourself fairly caught up on the newest programs with Amazon Ads.
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Like many great image makers, Bade Fuwa has found a space in photography to explore his inner world, speaking through surreal and tender scenes that touch on themes of loss, bereavement and belonging. Following the passing of his late mother in 2019, the photographer has seen a shift in his visual output and a renewed relationship to the discipline: “I believe for that period I had to force myself to stop feeling emotions so as not to grieve to death from the sadness. It was easy for me to express it all with photography, and I think that in that process my works became much bolder as I took photography as a means to live and express what I felt.”
Completely self-taught, the Lagos-based creative only really started to explore photography in 2023 and much of his work to date has been an experiment in self-expression. Turning to image-making from a background of study at fashion school, many of his portraits are an opportunity to carefully art direct and style scenes to convey complex emotions – “truly the most important thing when trying to capture an image”, he says. “I try not to overthink my process or the idea as I believe once you think about it you ruin it.”
Often Bade sticks to shooting in black-and-white, following in the footsteps of some of his largest photographic inspirations: Peter Lingerberg, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon. Rather than finding visual influence in contemporary photography, he has been drawn to those photographers “who lived, created art and truly existed – I study them and their works, not for their style but their story”, he says. Another important vehicle for visual inspiration in the artist’s works is nature: seascapes populate numerous frames and flowers appear to grow out of his subjects in others. “I think currently I’m in love with shooting nature; nature is beautiful and never judges,” he ends. “I feel there is a connection there. I don’t know what it is I’m searching for but I will keep shooting with nature.”
Something important is happening in Google Search.
If you’ve looked at your website data in Google Search Console, you may have noticed something odd. Your pages are showing up more often, but fewer people are clicking through.
These two signals – impressions and clicks – are used to rise and fall together. Now, they’re drifting apart.
We call this “The Great Decoupling.”
Screenshot from Jim Thornton (with permission to use), The SEO Community Slack Group, June 2025
And it’s not just your business. This is happening across industries and most website types.
It became more noticeable as Google rolled out something called AI Overviews – automated summaries that answer questions directly in search results.
If your site traffic from search is falling, but your rankings look fine, this article will help explain why.
We’ll examine the changes, their causes, how they manifest in analytics tools, and the responses of leading companies.
The Great Decoupling describes a new disconnect. Your website can appear more often in search results but get fewer clicks.
That was only “the expected behavior” when the SERP had things like featured snippets, or other special content result blocks from Google.
We’ve seen this clearly in client data during the first half of 2025.
Screenshot from Itamar Bauer (with permission to use), Studio Hawk, June 2025
Near the end of 2024, impressions and clicks were still closely linked. But by early 2025, impressions kept going up while clicks went down.
The click-through rate, the percentage of people who click, dropped sharply.
This trend is widespread. Whether your site is an ecommerce store, a B2B company, or a blog, the same thing is happening – more visibility but less engagement.
Martin Splitt has said that when your pages are shown in AI Overviews, you may get more impressions but fewer clicks.
He also said that people might still convert later, perhaps after seeing your brand in search results, even if they never click the first time.
So, we’re in a new “normal”; impressions alone no longer signal opportunity. It’s what happens after the impression that counts.
Google’s move toward AI-powered results is driving this change. The most significant shift is the introduction of AI Overviews.
AI Overviews are summaries shown at the top of search results.
Instead of a list of websites, Google provides an instant answer. That answer is generated from various sources across the web, including yours, without requiring the user to click.
Your site may show up as both a traditional link and as part of the AI Overview. That boosts impressions but often reduces clicks. People get what they need from the overview.
The AI Overview gives users what they want quickly. However, if their need is met before they reach your site, your traffic will drop.
Generic questions, how-tos, and mid-funnel queries are more likely to trigger AI Overviews. These are often top-of-funnel keywords marketers use to drive discovery.
On the other hand, brand searches and high-intent queries are more resilient.
The point is that it’s not just about where you rank. It’s about whether Google decides to answer the question for the user without needing you.
This isn’t entirely new. For years, Google has provided users with quick answers. Featured snippets, “People Also Ask” boxes, and knowledge panels all reduced the need to click.
AI Overviews are just the next step. They are more advanced, appear more often, and answer a broader range of questions. But, the principle is the same: to reduce the effort for the user.
We’ve adapted before. We can adapt again. However, this shift is more significant and impacts multiple stages of the customer journey, necessitating a more strategic approach.
In Google Search Console, the gap between impressions and clicks is clear. In Google Analytics 4, you see the impact on your traffic and behavior metrics.
Your GA4 report shows fewer sessions from Google, even though your rankings haven’t changed. That’s the result of fewer clicks.
Because fewer but more qualified visitors are reaching your site, session length and conversion rates may look stronger. But, overall, reach is down.
GA4 does not show traffic that came through AI Overviews separately.
Some visitors might return later and be counted as “direct” traffic. Others won’t be tracked at all. This makes it more challenging to attribute SEO’s role in brand discovery.
To understand what’s happening, you need to look at GSC and GA4 together. One shows the visibility. The other shows the outcomes.
The most forward-thinking businesses are making strategic shifts to protect and grow their visibility. Here are four things they’re doing:
When users search for you by name, Google is less likely to intervene. These clicks are holding steady and, in some cases, growing.
Investing in brand and trust is generic advice being thrown around a lot at the moment, but I think you should be looking at your brand in consideration of a user journey and what scope AI platforms have to alter that user journey before your brand is discovered.
Image from author, June 2025
This also means working to understand how well-known your brand is before a user starts at the “top of the funnel,” and whether or not they’re more likely to steer towards your brand due to previous positive brand touchpoints, or the sentiment and user stories of others online.
If your content is generic, Google’s AI can summarize it. If it’s unique, based on experience, data, or opinion, it’s much harder to replace.
Focus on:
Create clusters of related content around a theme. This signals authority to search engines and gives users more reasons to explore your site.
Don’t just list specs. Add real information that helps the buyer:
You want to help the buyer better forecast their experience with the product or service, as well as their understanding of your brand.
Be upfront about as much information as possible, as a negative brand or product experience can be damaging in the long run.
Yes, SEO remains highly relevant despite the rise of AI.
While AI tools are changing how search works and how users find answers, they haven’t replaced the need for a smart, well-executed SEO strategy.
SEO is evolving and becoming more important in new ways.
AI Overviews don’t invent answers. They draw from trusted online sources. That means Google still relies on high-quality, well-optimized content to build its responses.
SEO helps ensure your content meets the standards of E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Even with AI features in search results, users still scroll through traditional listings and click on websites.
SEO ensures your content performs well in these results, whether it’s in the top 10 links, a featured snippet, or a “People Also Ask” box.
AI tools can automate certain aspects of SEO, such as keyword research and content suggestions. But, they don’t replace strategic thinking.
SEO experts continue to guide site architecture, content structure, technical fixes, and intent-based optimization – tasks that AI can’t fully handle alone.
SEO isn’t going away; it’s becoming more sophisticated.
The businesses that succeed will be the ones that blend innovative tools with strategic thinking and treat SEO as a long-term investment in visibility and value.
The new wave of SEO isn’t just about driving traffic. It’s about showing up where your customers are asking questions, building credibility, and creating a footprint that supports all your other channels.
Search may not deliver the same volume of clicks, but it still shapes perception, influence, and decision-making.
SEO remains one of the most effective ways to stay visible and valuable in an increasingly AI-driven world.
The Great Decoupling is not just an SEO story. It’s a business visibility story. More people may see your brand, but fewer will visit your site.
That means you can’t just measure success by traffic. You need to consider engagement, recall, and brand strength.
Search is becoming a reputation game. If people trust you, they’ll find you, even if they don’t click the first time.
The companies that win won’t be the ones who chase rankings; they’ll be the ones who earn attention. Attention is potentially the “new click.”
(Author’s note: The term “The Great Decoupling” was first used to describe this phenomenon by Darwin Santos on X.)
More Resources:
Featured Image: Master1305/Shutterstock
