The How AI Search Can Drive Sales & Boost Conversions webinar, introduced just lately by Bartosz Góralewicz, touched on one thing that I feel each marketer wants to know about how individuals really make selections immediately.
This isn’t nearly Reddit anymore; we’re speaking about the way forward for how brands actually connect with clients once they’re making actual selections.
Picture from creator, September 2025Bartosz 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 resulted in zero clicks, as LLMs more and more serve solutions straight on the web page, according to Justin Turner, Head of Thought Management at Reddit.
As Bartosz put it, quoting Cloudflare’s CEO: “Individuals belief AI extra they usually’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 review searches as a result of it’s fixing an issue that conventional advertising content material can’t contact. When somebody searches “iPhone 16 vs Samsung S25,” they’ll discover thousands and thousands of YouTube views however virtually no conventional search quantity knowledge.
The dialog is going on, simply not the place we’ve been wanting. 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 thrice greater than Wikipedia.
What Reddit gives, and what Google and OpenAI are paying for, is genuine peer recommendation as a substitute of company advertising messages. Customers wish to really feel understood, not bought to. They need contextual recommendation that seems like somebody really will get their particular drawback.
As Bartosz defined it, when somebody is researching a automobile, they don’t wish to hear from paid bloggers. They wish to discuss to somebody who really drives the factor day by 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 Individuals Take
Throughout our webinar, Bartosz walked by way of 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 2025Bartosz confirmed how this creates a development that the majority entrepreneurs by no means see:
- Stage 1: “Why can’t I exploit Dyson on wool carpet?”
- Stage 2: “Suction solely vacuums for wool carpets”
- Stage 3: “Miele C1 suction solely vacuum protected”
Every reply informs the subsequent query. As Bartosz defined, understanding this development isn’t nearly Reddit; it’s about understanding how individuals really suppose and analysis!
The factor is, generally, 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 useful Miele as the answer. One dialog, huge conversion potential.
However as Bartosz emphasised, you’ll be able to’t manufacture this by guessing. It’s important to hearken to precise conversations and perceive the true issues individuals are attempting to unravel. That is precisely why he created ZipTie.ai, to assist manufacturers determine these crucial moments in buyer conversations the place they will genuinely remedy issues moderately than simply promote merchandise.
And right here’s proof that this strategy really works: Turner’s knowledge exhibits customers referred from ChatGPT view 42% extra pages per session than these referred from Google, displaying extra intent, deeper curiosity, and stronger engagement.
Why This Adjustments The whole lot
I’ve been on the lookout for this shift in advertising for years, ready for it to return 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 yow will discover what individuals really want, truthfully, 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 neglected. 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 path that we miss the conversations taking place 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. Once you give them that validation by way of 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 2025As he put it, right here’s what really issues now:
- Are you the really useful 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 way of precise conversion paths?
As Bartosz stated, “The groups which can be going to win these days are going to be the groups which can be going to unravel essentially the most quantity, the largest quantity of issues that customers have.”
The Authenticity Drawback
To be genuine, you need to speak about positives and negatives. The largest problem I’ve in discovery calls with large 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 want to do!
I at all times inform individuals Reddit success comes down to a few overlapping areas: what Redditors anticipate from you, what you truthfully have to offer, and the place your online business targets align. That overlap is your space of affect.
A TikTok campaign I did years in the past began with 300 messages telling me to mainly get misplaced (wasn’t as form although). However as soon as individuals realized we have been actual people having actual conversations, all the things modified. Individuals began modifying their posts, sending enchancment concepts, giving us awards.
That’s the ability of genuine engagement.
The Psychology Behind It All
Individuals wish to share each choice they make with someone as a result of it’s our nature to wish to share duty. It’s a method of validating that we’re not whole idiots; we at the least explored the dialog. “I talked to my good friend John and he stated it was a superb telephone.”
However there’s extra to it than simply sharing duty. We’re additionally on the lookout for validation that somebody has really skilled the difficulty, product, or service we’re researching and has actual data 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 utterly 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 appropriate drawback once we begin looking. We predict we want “one of the best 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 true drawback really is. That’s why these Reddit threads go so deep: Individuals are working by way of layers of points collectively.
Most significantly, we wish to really feel like we realized sufficient to return 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 data from individuals we belief.2
I’ve been speaking about these ideas quite a bit currently, however this isn’t simply my private concept. This habits is extensively researched throughout psychology, behavioral economics, and choice science. Research persistently present that folks actively search to share choice duty to scale back remorse and reduce the psychological burden of destructive outcomes. Research demonstrates that people usually tend to be part of teams or search validation after experiencing destructive outcomes, and that sharing duty helps protect individuals from the emotional penalties of dangerous selections.
What This Means Going Ahead
This strategy works as a result of it aligns with human psychology. Once you perceive that core aspect, fixing customers’ actual issues, all the things will get higher. Your commercials, web site copy, social media advertisements, customer support. The whole lot improves when what individuals really 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 true issues, be part of genuine conversations, and give attention to fixing points moderately than selling options.
The manufacturers that determine this out first will personal the subsequent section of digital advertising. Those that maintain chasing conventional metrics will maintain questioning why their visitors is declining whereas their opponents appear to effortlessly present up in every single place that issues.
Undoubtedly, 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 really attempting to unravel, and the place they go to get that validation they should make selections.
It’s not difficult, nevertheless it requires you to decelerate and really hearken to your clients as a substitute of speaking at them.
Sources:
- https://academic.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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