Aja Frost.
Aja Frost, Senior Director of Global Growth & Paid, HubSpot
ChatGPT ads are now live in the US, with Australia likely next in line. Hot takes are (of course) everywhere on LinkedIn, and marketers are asking: what does this mean for advertising and where it’s headed?
This confirms what we’ve long theorised: people aren't just using ChatGPT for casual research; they're using it to make actual buying decisions. Real purchase intent exists in AI-powered search, and that’s a game changer for marketers.
If buyers are making decisions inside ChatGPT, marketers need to understand how visibility works in that environment. As HubSpot’s own testing shows, there are two ways to show up: organic mentions within ChatGPT answers, and paid placements below them. Both influence decisions, but they operate in fundamentally different ways, and success will depend on understanding the role each plays.
When someone asks "what's the best CRM for small businesses," ChatGPT recommends specific brands in its response. That's organic AI visibility, driven by how much consensus about your brand exists across the internet. Then ads appear below as additional options. Similar to traditional search, the brands that will win aren't just the ones with ad budgets, they're the ones AI knows and trusts enough to mention organically first.
Can AI find you?
This is where answer engine optimisation (AEO) becomes critical. If AI doesn't know who you are, can't find authoritative content about you, or doesn't trust your brand enough to mention you, you're starting from zero. Building that organic foundation makes everything that follows work better.
I've been watching how brands appear in ChatGPT responses, and the difference is stark. The brands consistently being mentioned have earned a foundational level of trust.
What AI actually looks for
The shift from SEO to AEO isn't about abandoning what worked before. It's about understanding what AI looks for when someone asks a question.
Traditional SEO rewarded keyword density, backlinks, and meta tags on your website. AEO, on the other hand, rewards clarity, reputation, and authority across the entire internet. LLMs look in many different places to evaluate that: from Reddit threads and industry forums to YouTube comments and LinkedIn posts.
That distributed presence also matters because buyers aren't starting the research phase on your website or blog anymore; they're starting on Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, and increasingly, AI tools. At HubSpot, we call this the “amplify” stage of Loop Marketing: understanding that when AI can surface content from anywhere, where your message lives and who delivers it becomes as important as the message itself.
The traffic trade-off nobody's talking about
AI is already cutting into traditional website traffic. 60% of Google searches now end without a click, as AI Overviews answers the user’s question directly on the page — and that’s if a user goes to Google in the first place.
But, as my team and I have seen at HubSpot, the traffic you do get will be dramatically higher quality.
We've seen traffic from large language models convert at three times the rate compared to traditional sources. AI-assisted buyers arrive at our website more educated and ready to act. When AI recommends your brand, the person clicking through has already been convinced by a trusted source.
What to do right now
Start by tracking how often your brand gets mentioned in AI responses compared to competitors. Free tools like AEO Grader can show you how leading answer engines like ChatGPT and Gemini interpret your brand. Or manually search for 10–15 questions your customers are likely to ask — like “what's the best way to automate my email marketing?” or “which CRM should I use for a small business?” Run these questions through ChatGPT and see what brands it recommends.
Then create content that answers those specific, high-intent questions. Improve your brand sentiment across review sites and forums (specific to your industry) where AI looks for validation. And make sure your website clearly labels key information — pricing, product features, reviews and testimonials — so AI can easily extract and cite it. Brands with competitor comparison pages also tend to show up in results when someone asks to compare options.
The ChatGPT ads launch proves AI-powered search is where buying decisions are increasingly happening. Build an organic presence that makes AI trust your brand — so you can be part of the answer, before paid even comes into play.