Cut out the AI Search Summary middleman with radio

There’s something happening with search. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), the traditional term of reference for search strategies, is evolving. With 50% of google searches already returning AI summaries according to McKinsey, a figure set to rise to 75% by 2028, GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is emerging as the term of the moment in the evolving digital landscape.

This AI-driven disruption, through apps like ChatGPT or AI Overviews, is predicted to put 20-50% of traffic from traditional search channels at risk. This means if you are an advertiser you need to rethink your content strategy to increase your brand or products’ visibility on AI powered-search summaries. So yet another digital minefield that you will need to negotiate successfully or suffer the consequences of your product or brand effectively disappearing, because us humans are fundamentally lazy (busy) so we aren’t going to spend too long on extra scrolling. But what if there was a more direct route to shepherd customers safely through to their destination website with minimum disruption?  Step forward radio advertising. With the ability to generate awareness and interest for brands and deliver a clear call to action to mass audiences within highly trusted content, radio advertising can help brands circumnavigate the AI-search middleman and drive traffic direct to site. This was one of the key findings from the recently-launched ‘Radio: The Performance Multiplier – The Amplified Edit’  study, which used regression modelling to investigate the influence of 7.2bn multi-media impressions on 195m web sessions across eight in-market performance-led campaigns, revealing how 43% of the increase in direct web traffic for the participating brands was driven by radio advertising.

The study also demonstrated how radio advertising’s impact on performance extends way beyond just direct traffic. Detailed analysis of the increase in web sessions by referral source reveals how radio amplifies the effect of paid search and paid social activity, helping brands derive improved effects from their digital media spend.

Read the full study to find out more, including:

• the cost-efficiencies of radio vs other demand generation media
• how to maximise the effectiveness of your traffic-driving radio creative
• how to best measure the impact of radio within performance-led campaigns to capture its full effects

For CMOs and performance marketers facing rising digital costs and, in the case of AI summaries, diminishing returns, this research reframes radio not as a support medium, but as a demand-generation turbocharger. Not just a nice-to-have, radio is proven to play a primary role in driving improved campaign performance. In today’s world of AI-generated summaries disrupting search behaviours, radio’s ability to send people straight to a brand’s website without relying on click-based journeys could become an even more valuable asset for marketers.