Brand’s Raging Comeback

Everyone loves a comeback story. 

A long-forgotten discipline, Brand advertising used to be the only advertising. It was how companies built recognition, trust, and preference over time. Over the last 20 years, the industry shifted hard toward Performance marketing where marketing dollars moved to channels that could show quick, measurable results, and “Brand” investment often took the back seat. 

Performance marketing worked because it was easy to track, fast to optimize, and cheaper for creative production. Brands learned. Businesses grew. Monopolies thrived.   

Something very different is happening right now…This is the corner that most companies will fail to turn, very likely to their slow demise.  

The reliable science of Performance advertising is choking on its recent success. Why?

1. The bottom of the funnel is overcrowded, and it’s brutal down there now.
   • As algorithms got smarter, they got better at making money for the media platforms that deployed them, not the advertisers that funded them.
   • Platforms are swimming in the dollars of ultra-competitive marketplaces. It’s still a Performance seller’s market and advertisers have seen a steady decline in return on ad spend and sales reliability from those platforms. 
2. Tracking loss is real.

The game changer, however, is AI. Generative AI is tirelessly reshaping the landscape of tomorrow. The monopolies that got to where they were from the funding of Performance advertisers are embracing the user-demanded shift to Gen AI interfaces.  

Where users used to click on ads, there are suddenly better options. Faster options. NOT clicking on ads. The immediate aftermath of the rollout of AI answers and AI platforms is a dramatic and steady decline in clickable ad paths to discover or purchase a brand.  

So what wins in a zero-click world? Brand.

Many, many brands and agencies have let their Brand-building muscles atrophy in the steady build-up of their Performance addictions. Right now, however, Brand is what is being rewarded. How? 

1 | Brand is the authority signal that Gen AI platforms and algorithms use to surface reliable answers and options to users.

In a zero-click world, the platforms are under incredible pressure to deliver the right result for a user interacting through voice commands or generally just sick of clicking and backtracking to the results page a dozen times.

The perception of authority comes from the prominence of Brand.

• How much are people talking about the brand?  
• How many media outlets are covering the brand?  
• How many people have happily purchased the brand? 
• How much traffic does that brand have? 
• How reliable is this brand for me to surface as my one-and-only shot for user satisfaction on a particular query? 

2 | Brand is efficiency.

The smartest advertisers have realized, in this ultra-competitive environment, that capturing brand interest is at least 10x cheaper than capturing more generalized interest. 

When people look for a Brand – traffic costs go down and conversion rates go up. This is a variable we often test experimentally. When upper-funnel media goes on, branded searches rise 114% on average. It’s the only elixir available in declining Performance marketplaces that include Search, Retail Media, and increasingly even Social networks. 

3 | Brand tides rise all boats.

It honestly was always this way, but Performance spending seemed faster, better, cheaper. Now that it isn’t, Brand is back.  

When you tell people about good products and services, in a way that connects with who they are and what they might soon or already need, Brand recognition greases the skids for all platforms.  

Even with Gen AI, when brands break through the zero-click environment to get surfaced in an AI result, those brands get a boost. While Search Engine Journal has reported a non-brand search traffic decline of around 40% in some of the earliest AI-impacted categories, there was an 18% lift in branded search traffic for the companies that were referenced in those AI results.  

How brands should adapt now.

The world won’t change overnight, but the fastest to act will always get the greatest relative advantage.

Invest in Creative That Actually Earns Attention

Get an awesome creative partner that knows how to stop some thumbs, build some interest, and get people talking about your brand in a good way. Then give them permission to help you stand out. Be brave.  

Use Creators As Introducers, Not Just Affiliates

Put your brand, with some guidelines, in the hands of Influencers and Creators. They are the new media that will transcend any other platform media shifts or new media entries. They’re your brand’s warm introduction to their followers. Social is part of AI discovery, and Creators are Social. They’re a part of your mix, but not just as an Affiliate – as an Introducer instead.

Bring PR Back Into The Mix

Hire a PR shop or expert. While media “publishers” have been absolutely clobbered for the past decade, they will quickly make a comeback as the Gen AI need for authority signals begin to send them volumes of linked traffic, supporting the ad impressions that fund their business. PR pros know how to get you in the game. 

Build Preference Earlier In The Journey

Invest earlier in the journey and build some preference BEFORE shoppers go shopping. It’s the only thing that helps you keep your head slightly above the water. If you can’t compete with the biggest companies – find your niche.  

You need to be considered first for something. Figure that thing out, starting as small and authentically as it needs to be to deliver on user expectation in a zero-click world. 

Measure Bigger Than One Platform Dashboard

Measure bigger than you ever have. Realize that most data is trash because no data source sees the full picture. You need a full arsenal of tools and data points to make sense of what’s happening at the different layers of optimization you’ll need to tap for growth. There isn’t a silver bullet SaaS platform. Stop looking for it.

Either the biggest brands or the fastest to evolve will survive in this rapidly changing world. Don’t put this on your 2027 roadmap. You’ll already be far behind at that point. Start right now.