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The End of Google ? The Impact of ChatGPT Search on Ads and SEO

TLDR – My Search GPT Predictions

OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT search is finally here. Could this finally be the end of Google’s monopoly on Search?

By Jeremy Easterbrook; Founder of Index, 15+ years in Digital Marketing & AI evangelist

Here’s where I think Search is moving and who is expected to win :

  1. Generative Search Adoption: expect generative search to see traction among specific population segments, shaping new patterns of search behavior.
  2. SEO and AI: Google has announced to stick to SEO basics – there are strategic moves you can make now to gain a competitive edge
  3. Search Ads: expect a further drop on CTRs, especially if you are bidding on non-commercial keywords
  4. Winners & Losers : SearchGPT will be big, Bing is Rising, but Google Remains King

1. Adoption of Generative Search vs Traditional Search

Before we jump on Generative Search, Google’s Traditional Search model was already under siege: Google was recently perceived as an antitrust with Google, Chrome, Android; lawmakers are keen on breaking its monopoly.

For me, the days of Google’s absolute information source were already numbered : 

  • People are increasingly turning to social media like Reddit, Tiktok, Facebook and Youtube
  • Alternative search engines are gaining steam : Bing, Duck Duck Go
  • Conversational Search (Voice + Mobile) is on the rise and affecting our search patterns
  • Multiple reported spam updates because of content farms and AI-generated content. 

As Generative Search became a feature offering from competitors (META, Perplexity, OpenAI), Google acknowledges it faces a growing threat. Google launched Search Generative Experiences (SGEs) in May 2023. SGE results appears at “Position 0” as Featured snippets, special boxes that appear at the top of search results, offering quick, concise answers to user queries. We are already seeing these results in Google – research shows up to 87% depending on the queries !

The future of Google’s Search Generative Experiences (SGEs) remains uncertain, as the company continues to refine and improve its Gemini model. While Google is racing to keep up with evolving AI search trends, this shift still underscores a critical moment for marketers and businesses.

On the other hand, there is a need to recognize a counterpoint: digital professionals often overestimate AI adoption because it already dominates our daily lifes. This perspective creates a “digital bubble,” overlooking the reality that many older and younger demographics harbor a deep-seated distrust of AI technologies. It’s important to understand how your core persona is using Generative Search at all. 

Nevertheless, if your strategies remain Google-centric and your agency is not actively adapting to these changes, there is a serious risk of falling behind. The implications for organic and paid listings demand careful consideration and proactive strategy shifts, which I will elaborate on further.

2. SEO in the Age of AI: A Whole New Game

The advent of Generational Search, especially from a serious play like OpenAI, calls for a reflection of our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies. 

While Google has the whole web at their fingertips,Open AI they do not have the capacity to crawl the entire Web periodically. Search GPT thus consumes Bing’s Search Results (Microsoft) to power their results. This puts a unique spotlight on Bing now. 

Key considerations for your SEO strategy:

  1. In the short term: Google says basic SEO principles have not changed.
  2. Monitoring Bing : because SearchGPT is powered by Microsoft, monitoring focus queries (keywords) in Bing through a third party tool will become essential. Optimizing a website for its respective factors is not different from Google’s SEO basics, but results can vary significantly for the same query.
  3. Reverse Engineer “Position 0”:   We talked about Position 0 earlier, so reverse-engineering these results is researching the specific elements, formatting, and quality signals that increase a page’s chances of ranking. Once you understand how featured snippets are generated, create content that matches those requirements to increase your chances of being the top answer.
  4. Rise of Featured Snippets: Position zero (featured snippets) and rich FAQs will become more crucial as AI relies on structured and authoritative content. CMS do not have the capacity to fully integrate server-side snippets, so I expect an increased acceptance of JSON and Javascript snippets.
  5. Shift from Rankings to Findability: Brands must ensure their content is clear, thorough, and optimized for AI models. Large Language Models (LLMS) have the tendency to hallucinate answers and I like the hypothesis that a web-connected LLM would generate the result then find a page which matched the answer it is trying to give.
  6. Audio-Visual Opportunity : Large language models (LLMs) have not yet achieved scalable and high-quality production of images and videos, this presents a valuable opportunity for differentiation.
  7. Content Syndication: Syndicating content through authoritative (trusted) publications increases reach and strengthens the brand’s presence. This has always been the case in Old School SEO, but this time being picked on in AI datasets. This can be reverse-engineered by asking Generative Search models where they are taking their sources (see screenshot below) to identify content distribution opportunities.

In the future we may need to look at which articles make the most sense. So if you have blog articles around restaurants to go to, etc., they could be in danger of losing traffic but it’s not going to replace a query of someone looking for fresh content.

While I put the emphasis on Bing’s growing importance, the odd thing is that  Microsoft recently announced they were pulling back on a lot of features to simplify search results :  https://www.seroundtable.com/microsoft-unshipped-27-bing-features-38232.html . Let’s now discuss the impact on Search Engine Marketing advertising.

3. PPC and AI Search: A Decline of CTR and Volume

Historically, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has been a cornerstone of digital marketing. However, with the rise of Generative search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) ads will undergo substantial changes.

Key considerations for your PPC strategy:

  1. Less Visibility for Conventional Ads: Users now receive personalized, distilled responses, reducing the visibility of traditional ads.
  2. Sponsored Answers : Commercial queries may still feature paid messages, but expect reduced top-of-funnel volume if you are bidding on informational queries.
  3. Google Ads in SGEs : we don’t yet know the CTR data for ads in SGEs because as stated earlier in SEO, nobody knows Google’s final Format yet. I anticipate a lower CTR than traditional SERP results.
  4. Search GPT Ads : OpenAI could follow suit as well, as monetized responses could be introduced with Microsoft Ads involvement.
  5. New Opportunities for Sponsored Content: Brands will need to discover how Ads integrate into the new conversational experience.

 

4. The Winners and Losers

Bing is emerging as a rising competitor in the digital marketing and search landscape. Backed by Microsoft’s strategic investment in OpenAI, Bing benefits from the integration of OpenAI’s advancements and is expected to continue leveraging fresh data, which positions it as a formidable player in generative search technology.

Google remains the 800-pounds Gorilla, receiving 82 billion monthly hits compared to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which draws 3.2 billion visits per month according to SimilarWeb data. Despite the growing competition from OpenAI, Perplexity AI, Apple Siri, and others, Google’s vast lead, proven track record, and unmatched resources allow it to maintain its supremacy in search, making it a difficult contender to dethrone.

 

5. Takeaways from Search GPT

In conclusion, the digital marketing landscape is changing rapidly.  Prepare for a new era of search that’s driven by AI responses interactions.

Since 2015, I have highlighted the immense potential of deep learning in marketing, and now we are witnessing its impact on search technologies. However, the future of Generative Search Engines (GSEs) remains unpredictable; their form and function could evolve significantly over the next six months.. 

One significant challenge to achieving human-level AI interactions lies in the unresolved issue of symbolic representation within AI models. While this remains a complex problem with no current solution, a breakthrough is around the corner. This could dramatically change Search even more. 

In the meantime, your SEO strategy’s focus should remain quality content. Your SEM should become more diversified. 

 

More references

*Other Search Engines marketshare

**Interested to learn more about Symbolic AI? listen to this clip about PhD Yoshua Bengio, one of the 4 “godfathers” I had the pleasure of listening live many times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3sxeTgT4qc