Adapting to the Shift: Reaching Voters in an AI-Driven Search Landscape
Search ads remain both effective and necessary, especially as AI tools like Google’s Gemini are limited in their ability to answer politically related queries as elections approach. While current AI features haven’t reduced the performance of political search campaigns, political advertisers should anticipate future changes as Google and ChatGPT will likely move to monetize AI-driven search with new ad formats. This shift may also elevate the importance of SEO or “AI optimization” as AI models prioritize well-ranked, content-rich sites, making assets like Wikipedia pages and sponsored articles more valuable. In the long term, the advertising industry will likely require tools to test how campaigns appear in AI-generated answers to ensure visibility and relevance.
