Female Founder World

How Will AI Change Marketing in 2026?

December 15, 2025

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  • The shift from traditional Google search to LLMs like ChatGPT for product discovery necessitates a new marketing focus called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), which can yield results much faster than traditional SEO. 
  • Traditional PR strategies must evolve to incorporate data-focused approaches, potentially including affiliate/commission structures, as the consumer purchase journey condenses into single interactions within LLMs. 
  • For effective GEO, brands must focus on specific authoritative press, smaller content sites, strong SEO backbone, and technical back-end optimization (like schema and specific product page descriptions) to influence LLM recommendations, noting that community forums like Reddit are currently highly influential, while social media is not. 

Segments

Introduction to GEO and Guest Background
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(00:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, applies SEO principles to the world of AI and LLMs for product discovery.
  • Summary: Jasmine Garnsworthy introduces Emma Grace Moon, founder of Praize, an editorial and AI optimization agency. The core topic is GEO, defined as search engine optimization as it applies to AI and LLMs. Emma Grace Moon founded Praize at age 21 after being pushed to prove ROI in a previous role, leading her to affiliate marketing and then affiliate PR.
Affiliate PR and Client Success
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(00:01:58)
  • Key Takeaway: Praise has driven $15 million in PR-attributed revenue for clients like Jones Road and Victoria Beckham Beauty since launching in 2021.
  • Summary: Emma details her early work in affiliate PR, pitching media with commission links as ad revenue slowed for publishers. She notes that media prioritized brands offering commission. Her company, Praise, has successfully driven significant revenue through this data-driven PR approach.
Decline of Google and Rise of LLMs
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(00:02:41)
  • Key Takeaway: A decline in Google search activity in April signaled a major shift toward LLMs for product recommendations, evidenced by a traffic decline across top news sites.
  • Summary: The first decline in Google search activity through Safari in April signaled a major industry change. The hypothesis was that consumers are moving to ChatGPT and LLMs for product recommendations. This shift is supported by a year-over-year traffic decline in 44 out of 50 top news sites by July.
GEO Strategy and Beta Results
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(00:03:51)
  • Key Takeaway: Marrying PR with GEO influenced an 85% increase in one client’s ChatGPT sessions within 10 days of implementing the strategy.
  • Summary: Praise began marrying their data-driven PR approach with GEO to influence sessions from ChatGPT, helping brands get recommended for specific queries like ‘best hiking boots.’ A beta test showed an 85% increase in ChatGPT sessions and a 20% increase in site-wide sessions after implementing their strategy.
Impact on Traditional Marketing Strategies
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(00:04:50)
  • Key Takeaway: Brands relying on traditional PR must adopt a more data-focused approach, as the media ecosystem is changing due to consumers bypassing traditional click-throughs to go directly to LLMs.
  • Summary: The media ecosystem relies on traffic and commission cuts, which are threatened when consumers use ChatGPT instead of clicking through articles. Brands need a data-driven PR strategy, and the purchase journey is condensing as visibility, education, and conversion occur in one place (e.g., asking ChatGPT for the best lip gloss).
LLM Recommendation Factors
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(00:08:11)
  • Key Takeaway: LLMs are currently influenced by press authority (though only specific, high-impact articles matter), smaller blogs, SEO, and technical back-end optimization, but not social media.
  • Summary: The factors influencing LLM recommendations include a specific kind of press authority, where only a few articles out of many might impact traffic. Smaller blogs and content sites surprisingly influence LLMs because AI seeks a balanced, factual resource by pulling diverse sources. A strong SEO backbone remains crucial, with GEO acting as its ’little sister,’ requiring technical back-end optimization for fast crawling.
Importance of Product Page Specificity
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(00:11:01)
  • Key Takeaway: Updating product pages with specific use-case keywords, like ‘facial cleanser for pore minimizing skin,’ helps LLMs match products directly to user prompts.
  • Summary: AI needs to see the use case of a product to match it effectively to a user’s prompt, such as ‘best facial cleanser for my type of skin.’ Cetaphil updated its product page description to be very specific, making it easier for ChatGPT to find and use that information as an answer.
Reddit’s Growing Influence
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(00:12:14)
  • Key Takeaway: Online community forums, particularly Reddit, are currently huge influencers on LLMs, requiring brands to develop a Reddit strategy to monitor and ensure factual information is present.
  • Summary: Social media does not currently play a role in LLM referencing, but online forums like Reddit are highly influential. Brands need a presence on Reddit to monitor discussions about their products and ensure factual information is being shared, as this community data feeds the models.
Measuring GEO Success and Speed
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(00:17:07)
  • Key Takeaway: GEO results are visible rapidly (as fast as 10 days) by monitoring referral traffic in Google Analytics and using specialized SaaS tools to track visibility scores across multiple LLMs like Perplexity and Gemini.
  • Summary: Referral traffic from LLMs can be tracked in Google Analytics, and specialized technologies like Peak AI help determine the lift from LLMs across platforms like Perplexity and Gemini. Unlike SEO, which takes a minimum of six months for results, GEO implementations showed measurable upward trends in as little as 10 days, requiring weekly monitoring.
Future of Influencer Marketing and Actionable Steps
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(00:20:22)
  • Key Takeaway: The pendulum will likely swing between AI efficiency and human connection, suggesting influencer marketing and customer loyalty programs will increase in impactfulness, especially when affiliate-based rather than overtly advertised.
  • Summary: Human nature craves connection, suggesting that while AI provides efficiency, influencer marketing will increase in popularity. Affiliate-based influencer marketing is favored over direct ads because it feels more authentic. Founders should test prompts in incognito mode to see what sources their business is being referenced by and start exploring Agentic AI capabilities.