In digital marketing, a common belief is that everything can be measured – clicks, conversions, and ROI.
Many advertisers assume that brand awareness is unnecessary and that performance marketing alone is enough to drive sales.
After all, brand awareness campaigns don’t always generate immediate traffic or conversions visible in analytics.
Their effects unfold over time, making them harder to measure than performance-driven campaigns.
However, this overlooks a critical factor: brand strength acts as a multiplier for performance marketing effectiveness.
A well-known brand increases ad click-through rates (CTR), lowers cost-per-click (CPC), improves conversion rates, and ultimately boosts profitability.
This article explores:
- How a recognizable brand enhances performance marketing results.
- Why brand awareness allows businesses to sell more at higher margins.
- How multiple marketing levers work together to drive business growth.
- Why neglecting brand investment can limit long-term success.
By the end, you’ll see why strong branding isn’t just a “nice-to-have” – it’s a key driver of marketing efficiency and profitability.
Higher brand awareness means a higher CTR
Users are more likely to click on ads from well-known brands that evoke positive associations.
This idea is widely discussed in marketing, though reliable studies directly proving it are scarce.
However, several observations support this claim.
For example, remarketing campaigns using search ads often show higher CTRs for returning users.
While it’s difficult to isolate brand awareness as the sole factor – since market competition and other variables also play a role – user behavior analysis provides indirect evidence.
A reliable randomized controlled trial (RCT) in this context would be nearly impossible to conduct.
Even if some users click on ads without much thought (e.g., on social media), many base their decisions on the ad content and the destination URL.
For search ads, a significant portion of users consider the displayed destination URL.
I conducted a small survey (142 respondents, not representative) and found that 86% of users pay attention to the website URL before clicking on a Google search result.
This suggests that well-known brands tend to achieve higher CTRs in paid search.
Higher CTR means lower CPC
In the Google Ads ecosystem, advertisers don’t pay a fixed rate for clicks.
Instead, Google’s auction system considers Quality Score, where a higher score results in a lower CPC.
Since CTR is a key factor in Quality Score, ads with higher click-through rates typically benefit from lower CPCs.
Why does this happen?
From Google’s perspective, revenue remains the same whether 1,000 impressions generate 200 clicks at $1 each or 100 clicks at $2 each – both total $200.
Therefore, an ad with double the CTR can achieve half the CPC.
While CTR is crucial, other Quality Score factors – such as landing page experience – also play a role, further favoring strong brands.
Dig deeper: How to make your Google Ads brand campaigns more efficient
Higher brand awareness means a higher conversion rate
Numerous studies confirm that brand awareness positively impacts conversion rates.
A well-known brand reduces consumer hesitation by reinforcing trust in product quality and the seller’s reliability.
Strong brands attract loyal customers, enjoy a good reputation (including among experts), and create desirability – significantly increasing the likelihood of purchase compared to unrecognized alternatives.
Stronger brands achieve higher margins
Unlike lesser-known competitors, strong brands aren’t forced into price competition.
Customers trust their quality and reputation, making them willing to pay more.
This allows branded products to be sold at higher prices, increasing profit margins per unit.
Higher prices also accelerate margin growth.
For example, if a product costs $100 with a $20 margin, raising the price by 10% (to $110) increases the margin to $30 – a 50% increase in earnings per unit sold.
Higher CTR means greater sales
With a higher CTR, the same campaign delivers more traffic.
This leads to increased conversions and higher overall margins – driven by greater conversion values and a larger customer base.
Better CPC and CTR, conversion, and margin mean higher ROAS/POAS
Lower CPC, higher conversion rates, and increased conversion values all improve campaign profitability.
While each factor contributes individually, their combined effect is multiplicative rather than additive, significantly boosting overall efficiency.
For example, if CTR and conversion rates double and product margins increase by 50%, profit per sale grows sixfold (2 x 2 x 1.5 = 6).
If ad spend remains unchanged, the higher CTR (and the corresponding increase in clicks) is balanced by a proportional CPC reduction, resulting in a sixfold increase in (profit on ad spend) POAS.
Dig deeper: Branded keywords: How Google Ads drives up CPCs
Leverage effect: Higher profits through operational leverage
As sales increase, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) and operational profits typically grow at an even higher rate.
This happens because fixed costs remain constant regardless of sales volume, making them less significant as revenue rises.
For example, consider a store with $30,000 in monthly sales margin (revenue less variable cost) and fixed costs of $20,000, resulting in a $10,000 profit.
If sales double, the sales margin also doubles to $60,000, and while fixed costs remain unchanged at $20,000, the profit increases to $40,000.
In this case, a twofold increase in sales leads to a fourfold increase in operational profit – an effect known as operational leverage.
Larger-scale advertising and even greater profits
As return on ad spend (ROAS) and profitability improve, companies can invest more in advertising – such as increasing PPC bids or expanding to new platforms.
Higher profits enable them to afford impressions and clicks at previously unprofitable prices, shifting the point of optimal profit and neutral marginal revenue to higher levels.
This advantage allows stronger brands to pay higher CPCs while remaining profitable, further expanding their market presence and pushing less reputable competitors’ ads to lower positions.
As a result, they achieve even greater sales volume, margins, and profits.
How does this translate to numbers?
A strong brand enhances performance marketing efficiency, enabling more aggressive media buying and driving significant revenue and profit growth.
But how significant?
Let’s analyze potential changes using sample data.
For a stronger brand, we assume:
- CTR doubles.
- Conversion rates double.
- Unit prices increase from $800 to $1,000, raising the margin per transaction from $200 to $400 (a twofold increase).
- Fixed costs remain $80,000 (10% of revenue for the “no-name” company).
The table below compares company revenue across three scenarios:
- Without a brand (column 2).
- With a strong brand (column 3).
- With a strong brand plus expanded advertising (column 4).
In this example, branding led to a fortyfold increase in revenue and a 316-fold increase in profit – largely driven by increased advertising investment.
However, as shown in the last column of the table, a company without a brand would incur operational losses if it attempted to scale performance marketing in the same way.
In contrast, a strong brand can afford aggressive marketing, pay significantly more for traffic, and still grow its profits.
The figures in the table were chosen for clarity.
Still, even smaller differences in efficiency between branded and non-branded products demonstrate how brand awareness:
- Amplifies revenue.
- Transforms a barely profitable or loss-making company into a highly profitable business.
If you’d like to test how different values affect the outcome, you can explore the simulation in this Google spreadsheet:
A well-known brand generates direct traffic
The previous calculations don’t yet account for another key advantage of a strong brand – substantial direct traffic.
Brand awareness drives users to visit a website directly, either by typing its address into their browser or clicking on branded search results, whether organic or paid.
These visits typically convert at higher rates than traffic from marketing campaigns, as they come from users with strong intent.
As a result, direct traffic can generate significant revenue with little to no additional investment.
In the earlier example, assuming a 30% increase in sales from direct traffic, revenue would rise to $41.6 million and profit to $10.16 million – compared to just $20,000 for a company without a strong brand.
Investing in brand marketing pays off
The simulations clearly show that as a brand gains recognition and trust, a multiple-leverage effect emerges.
Higher CTRs, improved conversion rates, the ability to raise prices, and more aggressive advertising all drive profitability – further boosted by direct traffic from loyal customers.
A well-known brand also provides additional advantages, such as spontaneous media interest, easier press placements, and stronger negotiating power with suppliers and in the job market.
Brand growth comes with challenges, such as combating counterfeits and managing reputation risks – issues that lesser-known companies rarely face.
While the simulation assumes fixed costs remain unchanged, significant expansion would inevitably lead to higher expenses.
However, these added costs are far outweighed by the benefits.
Investing in brand awareness:
- Delivers measurable returns.
- Improves the efficiency of performance marketing.
- Unlocks growth opportunities unavailable to weaker brands.
That said, building a brand is more than just running ads (display, video, TV, outdoor, etc.).
It requires a cohesive, strategic approach rooted in audience insights, strong messaging, and creative execution.
Simply showing a “big logo” everywhere won’t build a brand – no matter how many times people see it.
DIg deeper: Why over-bidding on your brand could be hurting your bottom line
Meta simplifies Advantage+ campaign setup, adds leads campaigns
Meta is expanding its AI-powered advertising tools to help businesses get better results from their campaigns, with early tests showing significant cost reductions and performance improvements.
Details. Meta is rolling out these new features:
Why we care. Meta is essentially democratizing its most advanced AI tools that were previously limited to specific campaign types, meaning you can now get the same powerful optimization features across all your campaigns (sales, app, and leads) without having to manually configure them.
Also the new streamlined setup removes the complexity of choosing between manual and automated campaigns, making it easier for you to leverage Meta’s best-performing AI features, regarldess of skill level.
The big picture. The company’s Advantage+ suite has become increasingly popular among marketers, with its shopping campaigns growing 70% year over year in Q4, according to Meta.
What’s next. Meta plans to integrate these features into Ads Manager later this year, combining AI optimizations with personalized campaign recommendations.
Between the lines. The move represents Meta’s continued push to automate and simplify its advertising platform while maintaining performance, as the company faces increasing competition in the digital ad space.
Google algorithm changes blamed for 50% traffic drop to news site the Sun
UK news site the Sun ended 2024 by losing half of its audience, due in part to “algorithm changes at certain platforms,” according to the latest earnings report from parent company News Corp.
On the earnings call, News Corp Chief Financial Officer Lavanya Chandrashekar was more specific, blaming “industry headwinds on search algorithms.” Yes, that means Google search algorithm updates.
The drop. Glenn Gabe, SEO consultant at G-Squared Interactive, shared a screenshot showing the massive visibility drop on X:
Why we care. Not all websites are losing Google traffic, but many are and have been over the past couple of years following multiple helpful content and core updates (and others). Another News Corp. publisher, the New York Post, also lost 27% of its traffic during the same time period. Although HubSpot’s traffic collapse was much discussed, HubSpot isn’t the only site struggling with traffic loss.
What the Sun is saying. A Sun spokesperson told Press Gazette they are less concerned about traffic metrics:
So what metric does the legacy media brand care about “more than anything now”? YouTube watch time.
How to master user intent with SEO personas
Mastering user intent is all about putting yourself in your user’s shoes. It’s easier to do that if you know what kind of shoes they’re wearing and why.
Create and incorporate user personas in SEO decision-making to create actionable insights in the best interest of your actual users.
Build your search personas
User personas can help you develop a more customized approach to applying user intent to a topic and to your specific users.
You aren’t just selling a garden rake to someone in Indiana – you’re selling a metal rake to Gretel in Pawnee so she can get rid of slugs in her front yard.
To develop your personas, make a list of your typical users based on what they know, want, and ask. Then, add details about what, how, and where they search.
Consider key factors about your user, then add more specifics based on your industry.
Creative exercises for inspiration
Dig deeper: How to optimize for search intent: 19 practical tips
Example persona exercise
Let’s say you run a gardening ecommerce site.
While all your users have the same hobby in common, the what, why, and how behind their searches might look very different.
Your content needs to reflect your target audience.
Lawn Lover Larry
Beginner Betty
Herbalist Herb
Native Nancy
Greenhouse Greta
Dig deeper: Content mapping: Who, what, where, when, why and how
Use SERPs to validate personas
Analyze search results to see how each persona might be searching. This is where your expertise will come in handy, or where you can lean on a subject matter expert (SME).
SERP example
Using our gardening personas, let’s look at a typical search result. Users coming to a gardening site might be searching for a specific plant they want to research or buy, like the American germander plant.
Keyword: “teucrium canadense”
Think about:
Beginner Betty might have seen the term on a plant tag. Maybe Native Nancy saw the name in a book or blog.
Long-tail keywords
Autofill searches with more specific keywords give us some extra clues about who’s searching and why.
Dig deeper: 9 tips to get the full SEO benefits of long-tail keywords
SERP features
People Also Ask gives us a few more ideas.
Putting personas into action
Do this exercise with a few of the top keywords you’re targeting, and for a few random ones that represent your current website. Use that insight to tweak your personas.
After doing this exercise with a few SERPs, think about whether there’s any search you can’t really pinpoint to a given user or if your personas are so broad they could apply to any search.
Consider any subtypes of users you might want to expand on. Maybe Nancy A is in zone 5, so she won’t be interested in tropical plants or ponds. And Nancy B lives in Hawaii, so you can’t ship to her directly and need to make shipping policies more obvious or show alternative plants or stores.
Dig deeper: How to analyze Google’s SERPs
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.
Optional: Create anti-personas
Is there a type of user you want to avoid attracting?
An anti-persona is someone who might misuse your product in unintentional or nefarious ways and damage your brand.
Including anti-personas can help you avoid PR disasters like the Tide pod challenge.
From our gardening example, maybe you identify an anti-persona, HOA Henry.
He has a specific idea of what a garden should look like.
He might buy herbicide from your site and spray it on neighbors’ yards without understanding how it could harm plants, wildlife, and even pets.
How would you keep someone like him from finding your products? What kind of search phrases and info would he use compared to your target users?
Add some data to your persona identities
Pair your personas with insights from analytics tools, user testing, and customer feedback. Get some real quotes, images, and video clips to pair with your personas.
Go to analytics tools and find out (or guess) what percentage of your user base is and how your site reflects them. Then, build your optimization strategy around what you learn.
Some insight examples from our gardening website:
Approach content for each user persona
Now use your personas to ensure you’re creating content that’s helpful and targeted for each user. Do an audit of your content with each persona in mind.
For example, Larry doesn’t want to know about how leaves can benefit bugs, but he could learn about how they benefit his lawn and save money on fertilizer.
Betty might need to understand her planting zone and frost dates before she starts buying vegetable seeds.
User persona content checklist
As you work through this exercise, does one persona stand out as a potential brand champion?
This is someone who would write glowing reviews and recommend your brand to others.
You may want to spend extra time creating content for this user to help passively build your brand presence.
Homepage exercise
Start with your homepage.
Take a look at any popular gardening website.
Weave personas into your SEO processes
Once you’ve established and refined your personas, include them in any SEO strategy session and decisions.
Encourage your SEO editorial team to identify which personas you’re targeting for a page before they start writing or updating. Come back to your personas regularly.
One fun idea is to invite your users to your meetings. This gets people talking and thinking about what’s best for the user.
Brand + performance: The secret to maximizing ad ROI
In digital marketing, a common belief is that everything can be measured – clicks, conversions, and ROI.
Many advertisers assume that brand awareness is unnecessary and that performance marketing alone is enough to drive sales.
After all, brand awareness campaigns don’t always generate immediate traffic or conversions visible in analytics.
Their effects unfold over time, making them harder to measure than performance-driven campaigns.
However, this overlooks a critical factor: brand strength acts as a multiplier for performance marketing effectiveness.
A well-known brand increases ad click-through rates (CTR), lowers cost-per-click (CPC), improves conversion rates, and ultimately boosts profitability.
This article explores:
By the end, you’ll see why strong branding isn’t just a “nice-to-have” – it’s a key driver of marketing efficiency and profitability.
Higher brand awareness means a higher CTR
Users are more likely to click on ads from well-known brands that evoke positive associations.
This idea is widely discussed in marketing, though reliable studies directly proving it are scarce.
However, several observations support this claim.
For example, remarketing campaigns using search ads often show higher CTRs for returning users.
While it’s difficult to isolate brand awareness as the sole factor – since market competition and other variables also play a role – user behavior analysis provides indirect evidence.
A reliable randomized controlled trial (RCT) in this context would be nearly impossible to conduct.
Even if some users click on ads without much thought (e.g., on social media), many base their decisions on the ad content and the destination URL.
For search ads, a significant portion of users consider the displayed destination URL.
I conducted a small survey (142 respondents, not representative) and found that 86% of users pay attention to the website URL before clicking on a Google search result.
This suggests that well-known brands tend to achieve higher CTRs in paid search.
Higher CTR means lower CPC
In the Google Ads ecosystem, advertisers don’t pay a fixed rate for clicks.
Instead, Google’s auction system considers Quality Score, where a higher score results in a lower CPC.
Since CTR is a key factor in Quality Score, ads with higher click-through rates typically benefit from lower CPCs.
Why does this happen?
From Google’s perspective, revenue remains the same whether 1,000 impressions generate 200 clicks at $1 each or 100 clicks at $2 each – both total $200.
Therefore, an ad with double the CTR can achieve half the CPC.
While CTR is crucial, other Quality Score factors – such as landing page experience – also play a role, further favoring strong brands.
Dig deeper: How to make your Google Ads brand campaigns more efficient
Higher brand awareness means a higher conversion rate
Numerous studies confirm that brand awareness positively impacts conversion rates.
A well-known brand reduces consumer hesitation by reinforcing trust in product quality and the seller’s reliability.
Strong brands attract loyal customers, enjoy a good reputation (including among experts), and create desirability – significantly increasing the likelihood of purchase compared to unrecognized alternatives.
Stronger brands achieve higher margins
Unlike lesser-known competitors, strong brands aren’t forced into price competition.
Customers trust their quality and reputation, making them willing to pay more.
This allows branded products to be sold at higher prices, increasing profit margins per unit.
Higher prices also accelerate margin growth.
For example, if a product costs $100 with a $20 margin, raising the price by 10% (to $110) increases the margin to $30 – a 50% increase in earnings per unit sold.
Higher CTR means greater sales
With a higher CTR, the same campaign delivers more traffic.
This leads to increased conversions and higher overall margins – driven by greater conversion values and a larger customer base.
Better CPC and CTR, conversion, and margin mean higher ROAS/POAS
Lower CPC, higher conversion rates, and increased conversion values all improve campaign profitability.
While each factor contributes individually, their combined effect is multiplicative rather than additive, significantly boosting overall efficiency.
For example, if CTR and conversion rates double and product margins increase by 50%, profit per sale grows sixfold (2 x 2 x 1.5 = 6).
If ad spend remains unchanged, the higher CTR (and the corresponding increase in clicks) is balanced by a proportional CPC reduction, resulting in a sixfold increase in (profit on ad spend) POAS.
Dig deeper: Branded keywords: How Google Ads drives up CPCs
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.
Leverage effect: Higher profits through operational leverage
As sales increase, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) and operational profits typically grow at an even higher rate.
This happens because fixed costs remain constant regardless of sales volume, making them less significant as revenue rises.
For example, consider a store with $30,000 in monthly sales margin (revenue less variable cost) and fixed costs of $20,000, resulting in a $10,000 profit.
If sales double, the sales margin also doubles to $60,000, and while fixed costs remain unchanged at $20,000, the profit increases to $40,000.
In this case, a twofold increase in sales leads to a fourfold increase in operational profit – an effect known as operational leverage.
Larger-scale advertising and even greater profits
As return on ad spend (ROAS) and profitability improve, companies can invest more in advertising – such as increasing PPC bids or expanding to new platforms.
Higher profits enable them to afford impressions and clicks at previously unprofitable prices, shifting the point of optimal profit and neutral marginal revenue to higher levels.
This advantage allows stronger brands to pay higher CPCs while remaining profitable, further expanding their market presence and pushing less reputable competitors’ ads to lower positions.
As a result, they achieve even greater sales volume, margins, and profits.
How does this translate to numbers?
A strong brand enhances performance marketing efficiency, enabling more aggressive media buying and driving significant revenue and profit growth.
But how significant?
Let’s analyze potential changes using sample data.
For a stronger brand, we assume:
The table below compares company revenue across three scenarios:
In this example, branding led to a fortyfold increase in revenue and a 316-fold increase in profit – largely driven by increased advertising investment.
However, as shown in the last column of the table, a company without a brand would incur operational losses if it attempted to scale performance marketing in the same way.
In contrast, a strong brand can afford aggressive marketing, pay significantly more for traffic, and still grow its profits.
The figures in the table were chosen for clarity.
Still, even smaller differences in efficiency between branded and non-branded products demonstrate how brand awareness:
If you’d like to test how different values affect the outcome, you can explore the simulation in this Google spreadsheet:
A well-known brand generates direct traffic
The previous calculations don’t yet account for another key advantage of a strong brand – substantial direct traffic.
Brand awareness drives users to visit a website directly, either by typing its address into their browser or clicking on branded search results, whether organic or paid.
These visits typically convert at higher rates than traffic from marketing campaigns, as they come from users with strong intent.
As a result, direct traffic can generate significant revenue with little to no additional investment.
In the earlier example, assuming a 30% increase in sales from direct traffic, revenue would rise to $41.6 million and profit to $10.16 million – compared to just $20,000 for a company without a strong brand.
Investing in brand marketing pays off
The simulations clearly show that as a brand gains recognition and trust, a multiple-leverage effect emerges.
Higher CTRs, improved conversion rates, the ability to raise prices, and more aggressive advertising all drive profitability – further boosted by direct traffic from loyal customers.
A well-known brand also provides additional advantages, such as spontaneous media interest, easier press placements, and stronger negotiating power with suppliers and in the job market.
Brand growth comes with challenges, such as combating counterfeits and managing reputation risks – issues that lesser-known companies rarely face.
While the simulation assumes fixed costs remain unchanged, significant expansion would inevitably lead to higher expenses.
However, these added costs are far outweighed by the benefits.
Investing in brand awareness:
That said, building a brand is more than just running ads (display, video, TV, outdoor, etc.).
It requires a cohesive, strategic approach rooted in audience insights, strong messaging, and creative execution.
Simply showing a “big logo” everywhere won’t build a brand – no matter how many times people see it.
DIg deeper: Why over-bidding on your brand could be hurting your bottom line
Google Search testing ‘AI Mode’
Google is reportedly testing a new search feature named “AI Mode.” AI Mode in Google seems like a new way to search by asking more open-ended and exploratory questions, with the option to follow up.
What is AI Mode. AI Mode is described as “Search intelligently research[ing] for you – organizing information into easy-to-digest breakdowns with links to explore content across the web,” according to a leaked email obtained by 9to5Google.
AI Mode is more for open-ended and exploratory questions that may not be served well by what we see today from the Google Search results. This includes queries that ask Google Search for advice and comparisons, as well as exchanges that allow for follow-up questions.
It uses Gemini 2.0, according to the details.
What it looks like. Here is a screenshot obtained by 9to5Google:
Types of queries. Here is a list of the types of queries AI Mode is good at answering:
More. We first learned about hints of AI Mode back in early December with through an Android APK finding, in the code of the app. Android Authority than shared some screenshots of AI Mode buttons.
I do wonder if the AI Overview comparison view is part of this or not.
Why we care. AI Mode might be coming to the Google Search apps and maybe somehow directly to Google Search. This may impact how people consume search results and ultimately click to your site.
These AI Overviews are already having a very negative impact on click-through rates from Google to your site. Will AI Mode make it even worse?
AI search is gaining traction, but it isn’t replacing Google: Survey
People are adopting AI as a complement to classic search, not a full replacement, according to a new survey by digital marketing agency Higher Visibility:
Why we care. Classic search engines still dominate – but we also know SEO is becoming more challenging as Google click-through rates are declining. However, AI answer engines and tools, social media platforms (like Instagram and TikTok), and shopping platforms all play a role in today’s messy search landscape.
AI search by generation. All generations are adopting AI search. However, usage varies:
How people search in 2025. Different search platforms dominate depending on the types of queries:
About the data. HigherVisibility surveyed 1,500 Americans in January. Respondents were between the ages of 18 to 76 and represented a variety of income levels and educational backgrounds.
The report. How People Search Today: A Study on Evolving Search Behaviors in 2025
Is rank tracking dead? Why Google’s new rules are changing the game
Google just made a move that disrupted rank tracking, potentially increasing costs and changing how search visibility is measured.
In January, Google implemented a requirement for JavaScript to render search results, which significantly impacted SEO tools that rely on scraping.
(You may recall there was suddenly a great deal of volatility in the SERPs that was initially attributed to another update. Still, it turned out to be a disruption in data collection that was causing the reports to be all over the place rather than the rankings fluctuating.)
This change raises questions about the future of rank tracking and how SEOs can adapt.
While some are ready to declare rank tracking “dead,” the reality is more complicated.
So, what exactly happened now?
Google “introduced” (read: “sprung upon everyone with no warning”) a requirement for JavaScript to render search results, making traditional scraping techniques significantly more difficult.
Since most SEO tools need to scrape the SERPs to track keyword rankings, this new mandate means if the tools want to continue providing this service, they must now execute JavaScript, which adds complexity (and costs) and potentially reduces data accuracy.
Google has framed this as an effort to:
Fair enough.
However, it also benefits Google by keeping ads highly visible and making AI-driven search features, like AI Overviews, harder to bypass.
This shift means that SEO tools scraping the SERPs must now navigate AI-generated content, potentially requiring them to distinguish between organic rankings and AI-driven responses (this is the added complexity part).
Why this makes sense for Google
Google’s decision to require JavaScript isn’t about making life harder for SEO tools.
It also conveniently supports their push toward AI-driven search features in a few key ways:
Rendering AI Overviews
AI-generated content, such as Google’s AI Overviews, is dynamically inserted into search results.
Since JavaScript is required for rendering these elements, enforcing its use ensures that all users (including scrapers) interact with AI-generated content in the same way as human users.
Complicating data extraction
Requiring JavaScript makes it harder for SEO tools to extract clean ranking data, especially when AI Overviews push traditional organic results further down the page.
Scrapers may now have to differentiate between AI-generated responses and standard search listings, increasing complexity.
Encouraging more Google dependence
By making it more difficult for third-party tools to scrape SERPs, SEO professionals might find it easier to use Google’s own data sources (like Google Search Console and Google Analytics), which naturally integrate AI-powered search insights.
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.
How bad is this going to hurt your favorite SEO tools?
With Google requiring JavaScript to render search results, SEO tools that rely on scraping now face increased costs.
Executing JavaScript requires more computing resources, which means tools must invest in more powerful infrastructure or develop more sophisticated methods to continue gathering data.
This likely means higher overhead, and those costs may be passed down to you.
Some rank tracking services may need to shift their pricing models.
Others may discontinue rank tracking features entirely if they become too expensive to maintain.
Some tools might find ways to work around this limitation by leveraging browser-based scraping techniques, but this could introduce latency issues and further drive up operational costs.
But does this mean rank tracking is dead-dead?
Before we change into our mourning attire, let’s consider what “dead” means in this context.
Traditional rank tracking – the act of monitoring exact keyword positions across devices and geographies – is without a doubt becoming more difficult.
But does that mean it’s completely dead?
No, rank tracking isn’t all dead – more like mostly dead.
But, as Miracle Max said, “mostly dead is still slightly alive.”
Rank tracking can still shape SEO strategies – it can help you monitor competitor activity, spot trends, and gauge progress.
But let’s be honest – most of the time, it’s a reporting metric for stakeholders.
While rankings can be useful, they’ve never been the sole indicator of success.
SEO has evolved beyond a keyword position arms race, and the industry needs to shift toward more meaningful ways of demonstrating results.
Which brings us to…
Finding new ways to prove SEO is working
Lately, rank tracking has been more of a reporting tool than a core driver of SEO strategy.
The industry needs to consider alternative ways of demonstrating success.
Look at this shake-up as an opportunity to get smarter about measuring success. Here’s how to stay ahead.
Diversify metrics
Move beyond rank tracking to focus on holistic performance indicators such as organic traffic growth, conversion rates, and engagement metrics.
Understand visibility
Embrace tools that measure “share of voice” or visibility across broader topics rather than individual keywords.
Leverage Google’s tools
Take advantage of Google’s own platforms, like Search Console and Google Analytics, which provide actionable insights without the risk of disruption.
Explore JavaScript-ready solutions
Some tools are developing advanced JavaScript rendering capabilities to handle the new challenge.
Keep an eye on these emerging solutions.
Communicate with stakeholders
If clients or leadership teams rely on rank reports, start conversations now about transitioning to alternative metrics.
Highlight how these changes align with their broader business goals.
As AI reshapes how search works, the ability to track organic rankings will continue to diminish.
The user-observed SERPs already have so much personalization and localization, and they’re only going to get more fragmented.
Smart SEOs will pivot early and embrace more sophisticated ways to measure and report success.
Quit pronouncing everything dead
SEO isn’t dead, nor is rank tracking – but clinging to outdated methods is.
The game is evolving. You should, too.
SEOs must rethink their reliance on old-school metrics and adapt to this more dynamic and user-centric search ecosystem.
In a landscape where the only constant is change, we must be flexible and adapt to remain effective.
Google refines ad quality systems to improve user navigation
Google introduced a new prediction model to better evaluate the quality of landing page experiences for search ads. This update is designed to reduce frustrating ad experiences and make it easier for users to find the information they need without unnecessary backtracking.
Driving the news. Google’s new model improves its ability to predict whether a landing page provides a seamless experience. The focus is on reducing “unexpected destinations” by evaluating whether pages offer easy navigation to relevant content.
Ads leading to hard-to-navigate pages are now less likely to appear in search results.
Why we care. This update encourages advertisers to prioritize user-friendly, easily navigable landing pages. Ads leading to confusing or irrelevant destinations are less likely to appear in search results, which could impact traffic for businesses with poorly optimized pages. By investing in creating seamless navigation experiences, you will likely see better engagement and long-term value from your search campaigns.
How it works. Previously, Google’s systems primarily assessed the relevance of landing page content. The updated approach puts greater emphasis on the overall user experience, including navigational clarity.
Real-world example. If a user clicks on an ad expecting a login page but is directed to a promotional page instead:
Bottom line. Google’s update underscores the importance of creating relevant, user-friendly landing pages.
For advertisers. To stay competitive, brands should ensure their landing pages are intuitive and help users efficiently access desired information.
What’s next. Google plans to continue refining its ads quality systems as search behavior evolves. Expect further updates focused on improving ad experiences and delivering more relevant results.
Google Ads optimization: What to stop, start, and continue in 2025
Early this year, I asked my team to recommend what we should stop, start, and continue doing in 2025 to improve our collaboration.
As a leader, it was a valuable exercise that highlighted to me what we can do to improve different aspects of our working life.
This exercise also got me thinking about how to apply the same framework to Google Ads – and use it to define what we should stop, stop, and continue doing to optimize our clients’ Google Ads programs this year.
Rethinking optimization: Why Google Ads strategies must evolve
Techniques once seen as “best practices” no longer work.
As Google Ads has evolved, so has the complexity of optimization.
That’s why I can’t name a single best strategy. PPC success will vary depending on many factors.
That said, the most important “strategy,” if we can call it that, is a mindset shift.
It’s not about narrowly following any particular sure-fire approach.
It’s about thinking, testing, and analyzing every method you try.
Remember this as you read through my start, stop, and continue recommendations below.
There are no strictly good or bad strategies.
And a “bad” strategy right now might become a good strategy in the future.
With that important caveat, let me walk you through my start, stop, and continue recommendations for different Google Ads optimization strategies in 2025.
Keyword strategies
Stop
Stop trying to squeeze more from your search campaigns by actively bidding on every variation of keywords that has converted.
Bidding on keyword variations is a traditional optimization strategy I’ve always trained my team on.
We prided ourselves on the ability to spot emerging trends related to our keywords and bid on them.
But it isn’t what it used to be – and it can cause more harm than good, especially if no follow-up analysis is done.
We stepped away from this strategy quite some time ago. But every once in a while, we get pulled back in.
This happened recently with a client account. We identified a handful of trending keyword phrases that stood out and added them to the account.
The results?
An increase of $5 more per lead (with fewer total leads) and a decrease in conversion rate from 1.28% to 1.10%.
We reverted this change.
Start
Start narrowing and streamlining your keyword lists.
Try using broad match of your top converting keywords instead of adding endless variations.
Continue
Continue to question and test – there’s no single right or wrong strategy.
Mastering keyword strategy is a learning curve. There’s no universal approach, and it varies across accounts.
Dig deeper: PPC keyword research: What you need to know
Performance Max strategies
Stop
Stop giving up on Performance Max at the first sign of spam leads.
B2Bs often see an initial spike in spam when launching PMax, and we’ve abandoned our share of campaigns over the years.
But not every PMax campaign will be a home run – some will work, and others won’t.
For example, we can see the performance of different PMax asset groups for this B2B client:
Because this client can pull their Salesforce data into their Google Ads account, we can see the actual value of the business closed.
The top two asset groups look great, but the third – not so much.
You win some and lose some.
Start
Start communicating with your clients to work through these initial issues.
We struggled with the above campaign at first. It produced some spam leads.
But with lots and lots of communication with the client and their teams, we figured it out. We made some adjustments – and so did the client – to make it work.
Continue
Continue to optimize Performance Max campaigns.
Even though PMax is more automated than Search campaigns, there’s still room for optimization.
You can, for example:
Dig deeper: 5 ways to get the most from Performance Max in 2025
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.
Audience-first strategies
Stop
Stop thinking of your keyword selections as the whole (or even the most important part) of your ad program strategy.
Obsessing over the millions of keyword variations you can bid on to describe your company’s products and services is no longer a viable approach.
Start
Instead, start building an audience-first strategy.
Think about your customers’ needs – and then strategically align your keywords with those needs and the stages of the customer journey.
Then, align those ad campaigns with your customers’ big-picture business goals.
Continue
Continue focusing on value-added components in your Google Ads account that complement your keywords.
Use first-party data, such as customer and website audience lists, to include, exclude, and create lookalike opportunities.
Last year, we onboarded a client with valuable customer data that their previous agency had ignored.
Instead of leveraging this data, the agency kept adding new keywords, cluttering the account with thousands of low-value terms.
We proposed an audience-first strategy, requiring a shift in their approach.
The client was hesitant to allocate the same budget as before.
Despite a smaller budget, we exceeded expectations.
We restructured the account, removed thousands of ineffective keywords, and built a strong foundation.
By leveraging remarketing and customer lists, we efficiently targeted prospective, past, and current customers.
Our approach was simple: we understood the client’s business and goals, then used customer segments to attract new customers while excluding existing ones.
This ensured we met each audience’s needs at the right stage of their search journey.
Now, with a scalable structure in place, we’ve successfully expanded product offerings and recently launched a new category – something that wouldn’t have been possible under the previous setup.
What will you stop, start, and continue in Google Ads in 2025?
These start stop, start, and continue recommendations for Google Ads optimization won’t work for every account.
But the most critical element of any optimization is review and follow-up.
With every change you make to optimize an account, you need to assess what the change improved (or didn’t improve) and then move forward in a way that puts your client closer to their business goals.
What is ChatGPT and why SEOs should care
Interest in AI technology and, more specifically, OpenAI’s ChatGPT product has skyrocketed in recent years.
People are looking for information about both topics.
Millions are writing about ChatGPT across the web…
…and talking about it in various communities.
Interest shot up almost immediately. This is the first couple of weeks after ChatGPT launched to the public.
And as you can tell from the graphs, all of this happened quickly.
Whether your X and LinkedIn feeds have been persistently inundated with threads and posts about AI in general and tools like Claude, DeepSeek, and ChatGPT (like mine), or you’re just stumbling on the topic, you may want answers to two questions before investing your time and energy into learning ChatGPT:
In this article, I’ll help you answer these questions by telling you:
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot created by OpenAI that can be accessed at https://chatgpt.com/.
As of this writing, there are a few different product offerings:
Out of the box, the free version’s interface is simple, with an empty dialog to enter a prompt.
The tool can perform various tasks and return text, files, images, and videos in response. Some examples of tasks ChatGPT can execute include:
ChatGPT launched in late November 2022, on the heels of AI Content Generator Jasper.ai receiving $125 million in funding at a $1.5 billion valuation earlier the same month. The tool reached a million users in less than a week.
But each session has a specific cost associated with it.
In the interest of helping fund those costs (and further growth), Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI at a $29 billion valuation.
This move, combined with ChatGPT’s growth and word of mouth, might have fueled Google’s subsequent reported concerns about ChatGPT as a possible threat.
Most recently, OpenAI raised another $6.6 billion at a valuation of $157 billion in October 2024.
It’s been rumored that OpenAI is in talks to secure another $40 billion in funding at a $340 billion valuation (on the heels of new competitor DeepSeek, which is rumored to have spent only $5.5 million).
Now that you understand what ChatGPT is, it’s equally important to learn how it works, who built it, and the goals and motivations behind its development.
How does it work and how was it trained?
That said, when using tools like ChatGPT, you will want to know where the information it generates comes from, how it determines what to return as an answer, and how that might change over time.
That way, you can understand what level of trust to put in ChatGPT answers and output, how to craft your prompts better, and what tasks you may want to use it for (or not use it for).
Before you start using ChatGPT for anything, I strongly recommend you check out OpenAI’s blog post about it and become aware of some of its failures and limitations.
There, they have a nice graphic explaining how it works and a more in-depth explanation.
AssemblyAI also has a detailed third-party breakdown of how ChatGPT works, some of its strengths and weaknesses, and several additional sources if you’re looking to dive deeper.
One of the most important things to remember about how ChatGPT works is its limitations. In OpenAI’s own words:
Another that’s important to highlight:
ChatGPT was fine-tuned on a GPT model that completed training in June 2024, meaning it won’t have knowledge of events that occurred after that unless prompted to access the web.
Who built ChatGPT?
Similarly, understanding who built the application and why is an important background if you hope to use it in your day-to-day work.
Again, ChatGPT is an OpenAI product. Here’s some background on the company and their stated goals:
Notable points to consider, whether you’re interested in ChatGPT as an SEO tool or as a potential alternative to Google, include:
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.
Why should SEOs care about ChatGPT?
There are three core reasons for SEOs to be interested in how the ChatGPT product evolves:
Dig deeper: How to gain visibility in generative AI answers: GEO for Perplexity and ChatGPT
Here, I’ll focus on use cases to help perform SEO functions. What follows are ChatGPT’s use cases for SEO.
AI content generation
Generating SEO-focused content with AI is probably the most talked about element of AI and SEO.
From creating blog posts and other content whole cloth to generating images and videos, generating meta descriptions, or editing and rewriting content, ChatGPT and OpenAI’s tools can help with a number of specific functions related to content creation generally and SEO-focused content creation specifically.
An important concern here is how Google thinks about AI content in general.
SEOs need to identify the specific instances where ChatGPT can make them more efficient or enhance their content.
At the same time, it’s crucial to understand the potential risks to rankings and organic traffic when using ChatGPT-generated content in different ways (mainly if you’re relying on content created by writers you don’t have a relationship with).
Dig deeper: Does Google’s helpful content update penalize AI content?
Keyword research and organization
Similarly, there are several specific tasks ChatGPT can execute related to keyword research and optimization, such as:
A key consideration for SEOs is how this relates to your current and optimal processes for these tasks.
ChatGPT isn’t designed to be an “SEO tool,” so it won’t emphasize search volume, competition, relevance, and co-occurrence like more focused keyword research or organization tools.
Code generation and technical SEO
ChatGPT is helping people generate code and build things, and it’s no different for specific technical SEO tasks.
Depending on the prompts, ChatGPT can help with schema markups, robots.txt directives, redirect codes, and building widgets and free tools to promote via link outreach.
As with any type of content creation, you must QA the code that ChatGPT generates.
If the code ChatGPT generates is incorrect, your site’s template, hosting environment, CMS, and more can break.
Dig deeper: Can AI perform technical SEO analysis effectively?
Link building
ChatGPT can generate lists of outreach targets, emails, free tool ideas, and more that may assist with link building work.
Here again (you may be sensing a theme), two things to keep in mind:
Dig deeper: How to create linkable assets with ChatGPT
How to think about ChatGPT as an SEO
Ultimately, given its early functionality and reception along with OpenAI’s founding team and investors (and level of investment), ChatGPT will likely have longevity as a tool.
There are a ton of use cases for ChatGPT to help with your daily work, including:
I would encourage SEOs to become familiar with ChatGPT (what it’s capable of and what its shortcomings are), get creative with how you can use it to speed up or improve your current processes, and to get used to carefully checking its output.