CMOs are thinking about how their brands can rank higher in search results on AI tools like ChatGPT. Dado Ruvic/Reuters
For marketers exploring AI search, this year’s Black Friday weekend delivered both a moment of clarity and a series of questions.
The websites of 20 large retailers from Best Buy to Etsy averaged 183,000 daily visits from people sent by ChatGPT and other large language models, according to marketing software firm Semrush. That is still tiny compared with traditional search traffic but nearly eight times last year’s daily average. In 2023, daily results ranged from zero to the low hundreds for each site.
AI search is on a trajectory to drive revenue. How companies should prepare remains up for debate.
“Every chief marketing officer today is thinking about how they’re showing up in ChatGPT,” Anil Chakravarthy, president of the digital experience business at Adobe said last month when the software company announced a $1.9 billion deal to buy Semrush.