Why earned is your secret weapon in the zero-click search battle
What the rise of GEO means for PR, and how brands can be ready for it.
Our Head of Global PR, Lottie West, is looking at what the rise of GEO means for PR, and how brands can be ready for it.
If you’ve been to a marketing conference recently, you will know that hyperbole around AI shows no sign of waning. Never have the words game-changer or paradigm shift been used so often. While a lot of AI-talk is still speculative, one place we are already seeing real world impact is when it comes to zero-click search.
It is now over a year since Google rolled out AI summaries from its large language model (LLM) tool Gemini as part of its enhanced search responses. Not only do these AI overviews outrank any brand pages, but they often result in the user being served the information they are looking for immediately, resulting in no further clicks. These zero-click searches are rapidly becoming the norm, accounting for an estimated 60% of searches carried out in 2024.
And then there are people directly engaging LLMs to search for information and insight, as they become more confident and adept at using these AI tools to assist with tasks. Anecdotally, at Fox Agency we have noticed a significant uptick in prospective clients telling us they have found out about us via ChatGPT. This isn’t future speculation – it’s real, it’s happening now, and it is influencing business decisions.
At risk of sounding hyperbolic, the implications of this change cannot be understated. But to quote my esteemed colleague Josh Boot, our Head of Organic, “GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) tactical planning is nothing new, it’s just SEO done really well. It’s about understanding your ICPs, their pain points and challenges, and developing genuinely helpful content to support them.”
From a PR perspective, what is interesting – and heartening – is the way that GEO will necessitate a re-prioritisation of earned media. The LLMs will typically favour high authority sources – so brands which are consistently cutting through with earned media will reap the rewards. Put simply, businesses will not win the AI search battle through paid and owned alone.
But with a shrinking and increasingly competitive media landscape, brands will need to work harder to cut through.
For anyone looking to improve their presence on GEO, these are some points to consider when it comes to leveraging your earned approach.
- Content quality is still king: Across both earned and owned channels, brands need to focus on creating audience-centric content which is insight-driven and differentiated to cut through.
- Break down the silos: At Fox Agency we already fully believe in the value of comms and marketing working in lockstep. GEO makes it a necessity, and businesses which still operate in silos will lose out.
- Be targeted: Anyone still using volume metrics as a measure of PR success would do well to consider a more focused and targeted approach, prioritising high authority placements in titles focused on your areas of expertise.
- Be authoritative: Position your brand and your content as a trusted source of information by developing the right signals, author details, updates, and first party insights.