"For the past three decades, most of digital advertising has revolved around one obsession: performance. Marketers leaned on channels that could prove conversions: search ads, programmatic retargeting and affiliate links. A purchase trackable to a click was gold. Multi-touch attribution (MTA) models thrived. Conversely, brand-building was often dismissed as harder to justify next to the cold precision of ROAS spreadsheets."
"Instead of browsing and comparing, people give AI assistants prompts like, "What's the best waterproof sunscreen for kids with sensitive skin?" or "Book flights on a good airline to NYC with the best chance of an upgrade." Rather than scrolling through a dozen search ads, Amazon tiles or airline listings, they'll get a handful of recommended options ... or even just one."
For three decades digital advertising prioritized performance and conversion-tracking, with channels like search ads, programmatic retargeting and affiliate links valued for click-attributed purchases. Brand-building was often deprioritized compared with ROAS-focused tactics. Large language models and AI shopping agents change consumer behavior by answering prompts and returning a few recommended options or a single choice, collapsing the messy middle of the purchase funnel. Observable events relied on by attribution models will become scarcer, including organic exploratory searches, affiliate review links, coupon scraping and retargeted social impressions. Marketers must make AI aware of their brands and track how that awareness drives ecommerce results.
Read at AdExchanger
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