The How AI Search Can Drive Gross sales & Increase Conversions webinar, introduced just lately by Bartosz Góralewicz, touched on one thing that I believe each marketer wants to know about how individuals truly make selections at the moment.
This isn’t nearly Reddit anymore; we’re speaking about the way forward for how manufacturers truly join with clients once they’re making actual selections.
Picture from creator, September 2025
Bartosz shared some knowledge from Cloudflare that’s wild: 10 years in the past, Google crawled two pages for each one click on. Six months in the past? Six pages per click on. At present, it’s 18 pages for each single click on! OpenAI is crawling 1,500 pages for every click on they ship. And get this, in 2024, 60% of Google searches led to zero clicks, as LLMs more and more serve solutions instantly on the web page, in keeping with Justin Turner, Head of Thought Management at Reddit.
As Bartosz put it, quoting Cloudflare’s CEO: “Folks belief AI extra and so they’re simply not following the footnotes anymore.”
However right here’s what everybody’s lacking: Reddit is simply the messenger.
What Reddit Actually Reveals Us
Reddit seems in almost 98% of product evaluation searches as a result of it’s fixing an issue that conventional advertising and marketing content material can’t contact. When somebody searches “iPhone 16 vs Samsung S25,” they’ll discover tens of millions of YouTube views however nearly no conventional search quantity knowledge.
The dialog is going on, simply not the place we’ve been trying. Turner’s analysis exhibits Reddit is the No. 1 most cited area throughout all main AI platforms, accounting for 3.5% of all citations throughout AI fashions, almost 3 times greater than Wikipedia.
What Reddit gives, and what Google and OpenAI are paying for, is genuine peer recommendation as an alternative of company advertising and marketing messages. Customers wish to really feel understood, not bought to. They need contextual recommendation that seems like somebody truly will get their particular drawback.
As Bartosz defined it, when somebody is researching a automotive, they don’t wish to hear from paid bloggers. They wish to speak to somebody who truly drives the factor day-after-day and may inform them the radio breaks 11 instances within the first 12 months. That’s the stuff you received’t discover on the corporate web site.
The Actual Journey Folks Take
Throughout our webinar, Bartosz walked by this good instance from his personal expertise. He purchased a wool carpet, found he couldn’t use his Dyson on it (voids the guarantee), and now wanted a suction-only vacuum.
Picture from creator, September 2025
Bartosz confirmed how this creates a development that almost all entrepreneurs by no means see:
- Stage 1: “Why can’t I take advantage of Dyson on wool carpet?”
- Stage 2: “Suction solely vacuums for wool carpets”
- Stage 3: “Miele C1 suction solely vacuum protected”
Every reply informs the following query. As Bartosz defined, understanding this development isn’t nearly Reddit; it’s about understanding how individuals truly assume and analysis!
The factor is, typically, this whole buyer journey condenses into one good reply. Bartosz confirmed us how, when somebody requested, “Why is it dangerous to make use of Dyson on wool carpet?” Perplexity instantly really helpful Miele as the answer. One dialog, huge conversion potential.
However as Bartosz emphasised, you may’t manufacture this by guessing. You need to hearken to precise conversations and perceive the actual issues individuals are making an attempt to resolve. That is precisely why he created ZipTie.ai, to assist manufacturers determine these vital moments in buyer conversations the place they will genuinely clear up issues slightly than simply promote merchandise.
And right here’s proof that this method truly works: Turner’s knowledge exhibits customers referred from ChatGPT view 42% extra pages per session than these referred from Google, exhibiting extra intent, deeper curiosity, and stronger engagement.
Why This Adjustments Every thing
I’ve been searching for this shift in advertising and marketing for years, ready for it to come back again to the precise science behind why individuals make selections. The funnel is longer now, individuals are utilizing extra locations alongside the best way, and when you will discover what individuals actually need, actually, content material actually is king once more. However not content material for content material’s sake, problem-solving is all you actually need.
Bartosz’s Miele instance exhibits one thing that’s usually ignored. You wouldn’t see this in your common web site knowledge or in conventional Google articles. It’s not seen to most manufacturers as a result of we’re so conditioned to look down this logical advertising and marketing path that we miss the conversations occurring proper in entrance of us.
We began seeing it extra clearly when individuals started giving us alerts by writing on Reddit. Why are they doing that? As a result of they need validation. While you give them that validation by real problem-solving, it really works!
The New Success Metrics
Bartosz talked about how we have to cease chasing previous metrics. Rankings, clicks, and key phrases nonetheless matter, however they’re not the entire story anymore.
Picture from creator, September 2025
As he put it, right here’s what truly issues now:
- Are you the really helpful answer all through the shopper journey?
- Do you present contextual relevance that makes customers really feel understood?
- Are you able to observe your affect by precise conversion paths?
As Bartosz mentioned, “The groups which are going to win these days are going to be the groups which are going to resolve probably the most quantity, the most important quantity of issues that customers have.”
The Authenticity Downside
To be genuine, it’s important to speak about positives and negatives. The largest problem I’ve in discovery calls with enormous manufacturers is that they inform me, “we can’t say we don’t do that or we don’t do that.”
However that’s precisely what you must do!
I at all times inform individuals Reddit success comes down to 3 overlapping areas: what Redditors anticipate from you, what you actually have to present, and the place your online business objectives align. That overlap is your space of affect.
A TikTok marketing campaign I did years in the past began with 300 messages telling me to mainly get misplaced (wasn’t as sort although). However as soon as individuals realized we had been actual people having actual conversations, every thing modified. Folks began enhancing their posts, sending enchancment concepts, giving us awards.
That’s the ability of genuine engagement.
The Psychology Behind It All
Folks wish to share each choice they make with any person as a result of it’s our nature to wish to share accountability. It’s a method of validating that we’re not complete idiots; we at the very least explored the dialog. “I talked to my pal John and he mentioned it was a very good cellphone.”
However there’s extra to it than simply sharing accountability. We’re additionally searching for validation that somebody has truly skilled the problem, product, or service we’re researching and has actual info to share about it.1 We wish to hear from individuals who’ve been there, not from somebody studying a spec sheet or writing content material that’s been paid for, influenced, and even fully faked. There’s so little belief in conventional search outcomes anymore as a result of we all know a lot of what we discover is compromised.
Additionally, we not often have the correct drawback once we begin looking out. We expect we want “the most effective vacuum” when what we actually want is “a vacuum that received’t destroy my wool carpet.” It takes dialog and depth to uncover what the actual drawback truly is. That’s why these Reddit threads go so deep: Persons are working by layers of points collectively.
Most significantly, we wish to really feel like we discovered sufficient to come back to our personal choice. We don’t need somebody to inform us what to purchase; we wish to really feel good about figuring it out ourselves with good info from individuals we belief.2
I’ve been speaking about these ideas so much these days, however this isn’t simply my private principle. This conduct is extensively researched throughout psychology, behavioral economics, and choice science. Research persistently present that individuals actively search to share choice accountability to cut back remorse and reduce the psychological burden of adverse outcomes. Analysis demonstrates that people usually tend to be part of teams or search validation after experiencing adverse outcomes, and that sharing accountability helps defend individuals from the emotional penalties of dangerous selections.
What This Means Going Ahead
This method works as a result of it aligns with human psychology. While you perceive that core aspect, fixing customers’ actual issues, every thing will get higher. Your commercials, web site copy, social media advertisements, customer support. Every thing improves when you already know what individuals truly have to really feel snug making a choice.
Reddit simply occurs to be the place these conversations are most seen proper now. However the rules apply in every single place: Perceive the actual issues, be part of genuine conversations, and deal with fixing points slightly than selling options.
The manufacturers that determine this out first will personal the following part of digital advertising and marketing. Those that hold chasing conventional metrics will hold questioning why their visitors is declining whereas their opponents appear to effortlessly present up in every single place that issues.
Positively, positively take the time to know your consumer’s journey. Don’t be lazy about it. Actually perceive what individuals want at every stage, what issues they’re truly making an attempt to resolve, and the place they go to get that validation they should make selections.
It’s not difficult, nevertheless it requires you to decelerate and truly hearken to your clients as an alternative of speaking at them.
Sources:
- https://tutorial.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/51/1/7/7672991?login=false
- https://acr-journal.com/article/consumer-trust-in-digital-brands-the-role-of-transparency-and-ethical-marketing-882/
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/convergence-product-marketing-seo-ai-search-era-ziptieai-aotnc/
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