Publishers have begun offering ad inventory specifically designed to be seen by AI agents. With clients desperate to improve their AI search visibility, some media buyers say it\u2019s worth a shot. Others regard it as magical thinking.<\/p>\n
To recap, Time Inc is inserting ads<\/a> into markdown versions of its webpages, which have been specially designed for AI systems and agents to read. The ads themselves are formatted as FAQs with a brand\u2019s information and messaging, and labeled as sponsored content.<\/p>\n Time claims it\u2019s the first time a publisher has offered such a channel. In the eyes of some media experts, it\u2019s a potential shortcut to solving AI visibility concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you know that the ads you\u2019re buying are actually going to show up in the LLMs, then it\u2019s definitely certainly worth a test,\u201d said Jeff Eisenfeld, director of search at Media by Mother.<\/p>\n More consumers are using AI search tools, like ChatGPT, for product research and discovery. That\u2019s an issue for advertisers because they have so few means of knowing what AI chatbots are saying about their brands, or of influencing them to give a more favorable impression to consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jonah Goodhart, co-founder and CEO of Mobian, the company working with Time to run the special ad inventory, told Digiday that paid ads can influence an LLM<\/a>. \u201cLLMs and AI want trusted information about brands,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s music to the ears of marketers worried about the zero-click future. Most brands have looked to emerging generative engine optimization (GEO) practices, including ramping up branded content production, guided by AI search visibility tools like Scrunch and Profound, to improve their standing in ChatGPT or Gemini. Those are remedies that take time, and their impact isn\u2019t guaranteed.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now there\u2019s a lot of testing based off of building content and hoping that it shows up within the LLMs,\u201d said Eisenfeld. \u201cIs that going to show up in the prompt? Is that going to have enough authority? Is that going to get crawled?\u201d<\/p>\n A shortcut, therefore, is an idea worth weighing up. \u201cThe real opportunity lies in uncovering whether strategic placement alongside high-quality information can meaningfully shape how brands surface in AI-powered search,\u201d said Jaquie Hoyos, chief media officer at Moroch.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something we will test,\u201d said Sam Huston, svp of media at Dept. \u201cThere\u2019s not a client that would say no to testing something like this, depending on the cost, because there\u2019s so much focus on GEO right now. It has been very disruptive to some businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n Businesses with \u201chigh consideration\u201d products that customers take a while to make their mind up over, like a car, are particularly vulnerable to the traffic changes wrought by zero-click search tools, Huston noted. \u201cLLMs are playing a larger role in that purchase process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s plenty of skepticism among other buyers.<\/p>\n Danny Weisman, co-founder of indie agency Obsessed Media, argued that brands hoping to influence LLM responses would be better off investing in brand-building advertising. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t strike me as something I\u2019m gonna pursue today,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels like something that should be added value from these publishers versus like a main campaign.\u201d <\/p>\n