Marketers are using AI search concerns to argue for higher media budgets

But CMOs aren’t looking to GEO tactics to save them. Instead, they’re using consideration concerns to argue for bigger media budgets and increased upper-funnel activity.

Take State Farm, for example. The insurance brand just rolled out the latest of its sports-adjacent brand campaigns as college football season kicked off, with a star-studded effort featuring long-running spokesman and NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes. 

Head of marketing Alyson Griffin told Digiday that AI search-induced shifts in consumer behavior made such work more important, not less. “We value it. We’re not pulling it back,” she said.

Moreover, Griffin said that alarm over the potential impact of AI search on State Farm’s customer acquisition efforts had become a factor in ongoing behind-the-scenes debates over media budgets. State Farm’s ad spend has, like many other advertisers, been essentially static for several years, she said. 

“We have to be there and capture more of the open audience. So we are having those conversations,” she said. 

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) credited marketers increasing media spend partially in service of improving their AI search performance as pushing up U.S. ad spend this year; the IAB revised its annual growth estimates upwards from 9.5% to 12.3%. According to an IAB survey, 44% of buyers say that adapting to changing search habits is their top investment challenge.

“Consumers are becoming more discerning. They’re switching brands, paying for lower-priced brands and looking at store brands,” said Chris Bruderle, vp, industry insights and content strategy, IAB, in a statement. “[Brands] need to make sure their brand equity is strong, particularly in AI environments.”

Marketers know there’s a correlation between brand awareness activity and search performance. Research published by Google and Tracksuit in June suggested that advertisers with high brand awareness also enjoy a high “share” of search, for example. 

“There is a sense that AI is making brands more vulnerable, and so brand investment can shore up some of the cognitive angles there,” said Gartner analyst Andrew Frank.

“We’ve been paying a lot of attention to this,” said Griffin. She said that the company’s emotional assets — its brand and mascots chief among them — were key weapons as it competed with rival insurers to sell policies. “If a choice is given, or if State Farm is offered up, we want the person to at least pause for a moment. That’s a win.“

“That’s why Jake from State Farm personifying what it means to be a good neighbor still matters a lot. It matters because that connection is there,” she said. 

State Farm isn’t alone. Oliver Williams, head of digital performance at Mediaplus, told Digiday the agency now recommended clients attack their AI search performance via both GEO efforts and awareness and favorability-building work.

“We’re not having conversations with clients around it being a performance channel and it paying off immediately,” Williams explained. “We are actively prompting clients to think about putting more spend into that upper funnel in order to improve their favorability in that reference building with potential consumers.”

Mercedes-Benz is running a campaign featuring tennis star Coco Gauff to capitalize on interest in the sport in the wake of the U.S. Open. It’s running paid media on linear TV, paid social, digital display and digital out-of-home in support of the campaign.

Ryanne Webber, senior manager, brand communications and marketing at Mercedes-Benz, told Digiday the automaker was monitoring the impact on web traffic wrought by AI search, particularly due to the long buying cycle associated with cars.

“Most consumers are only purchasing a vehicle every couple years, so our purchase journey is much longer,” she said. The carmaker planned “holistically” for both brand awareness and consideration, she said, adding, “We take all of that into consideration.”

Running shoe brand Hoka, too, is looking to a brand-forward New York City Marathon campaign playing out through the fall to provide a lift to its brand awareness efforts, and customer consideration boost. 

Allie Tsavdarides, vp of North America marketing at Hoka, acknowledged that monitoring a direct link between share of AI search, or share of model, is difficult. “It’s a combination of art and science… performance credibility and emotional connection,” said Tsavdarides.

Griffin, Tsavdarides and Webber each declined to provide media budget details for their respective campaigns. 

Williams told Digiday the agency had begun incorporating AI search performance metrics, including share of model and sentiment analysis, alongside traditional upper-funnel campaign metrics. “Your numbers do the talking… that can unlock investment from the people that hold the purse strings,” he said.

State Farm, Mercedes and Hoka’s campaigns all, incidentally, revolve around sports. But this doesn’t necessarily mean brands will spend more solely on traditional upper-funnel channels like linear. Williams said he expects CTV spending to rise (and the IAB’s projections suggest U.S. spend on the channel will increase 15.6%).

And “Consideration Ads” on TikTok have proven popular among brands competing for back–to-school sales in recent weeks, for example, and paid ads on sites like Reddit — often used by consumers looking for authoritative feedback on products — can also serve this aim, noted Jeff Eisenfeld, director of activation at Media by Mother.

“It used to be that the easiest way to win a customer was to invest in search [because] people are raising their hands and you know can find your customers,” said Eisenfeld. “But now, you really need to fill the top of the funnel for awareness in order to get people down into consideration, to understand who your brand is.”