I’m not someone who’s drunk much of the AI Kool Aid. I have sipped it. Swilled it around my mouth like you would an 1869 Château Lafite Rothschild.
But I’ve seen enough cult documentaries to know you should spit it back into the glass.
Do I love the opportunities it’s provided me in a work sense? Absolutely. Do I think it’s fundamentally shifted the marketing ecosystem? No. I think it’s expedited what’s been happening for some time.
- Reddit’s resurgence is search-dominated.
- The booming creator economy shows people trust people.
- Word of mouth still travels.
- Content still goes viral.
- People don’t click unless they have to.

LLMs provide a good proxy as to how you’re seen online. And they really lean into review platforms and strong brands. Associating your brand with your core topics, removing ambiguity, and strengthening your product positioning is never a bad thing.
It’s not just about search anymore. In reality, it never should have been. It’s about connecting. Generating value from the different types of media.
TL;DR
- The search customer journey spans TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and everything in between.
- Last-click attribution is outdated: BOFU platforms get the credit, but creators, communities, and discovery platforms do the heavy lifting.
- AI hasn’t broken anything, it’s just exposing how messy, multi-platform, and people-driven it’s always been.
- Brands win by understanding their audience, investing in creators, and building experiences that cut through an enshittified internet.

The Customer Journey Has Changed
True. But it’s been changing for a long time. Paid channels are becoming more expensive, owned channels like search send fewer clicks (mainly a Google-driven mechanic), and earned channels are looking more like the golden ticket to corporate stooges.
The majority of brands use last click attribution (gross, get away from me). A method that overvalues search. For the last decade or more, there have been discovery platforms that are more valuable than search – TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. Pick one.

We tend to use search for finding products, brands, or stories we know exist. And for comparison, related searches. But as AI Mode rolls ever closer and Google looks to greedily take on middle of the funnel queries, Google’s role as a discovery platform will change. Theoretically, at least.
Like every big tech company, enough is never enough, and they don’t want to send you clicks. Unless you pay for them, of course.

Search Is No Longer A Single Platform Journey
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