LLMs & CHATBOTS
Jargon-busting
Promising to cut through the jargon for today’s AI monetization strategies, Digiday reporters find plenty of opportunity. RAG agent, Google Zero and Crawl‑to‑referral are just the start. Read more. (July 21)
For more on RAG agents – beyond the Digiday article – try this op-ed: “The Role of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) in Content Marketing: Revolutionizing Personalized Content Creation” – LinkedIn (October 2024).
Or you can use this RAG definition from Google’s AI Mode: “…A technique used to improve the quality and relevance of AI-generated ad content by connecting large language models (LLMs) to up-to-date and specific external knowledge sources.”
LLMs & CHATBOTS
ChatGPT reach
Axios’ Mike Allen reported new OpenAI data which says its chatbot continues to show massive reach.
According to Mr. Allen:
OpenAI says ChatGPT users send more than 2.5 billion prompts each day globally. More than 330 million of those daily prompts are in the U.S.
The free version of ChatGPT is used by the vast majority of the platform’s more than 500 million weekly active users, OpenAI says.
Allen also reported that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will be in Washington, D.C. this week to emphasize AI’s economic benefits. Read about it.
LLMs & CHATBOTS
OpenAI’s sales, marketing solutions
Have you seen OpenAI’s pitch on sales and marketing solutions? Advertising seems likely to follow.
For now, solutions include:
- “Collaborate with ChatGPT on writing, editing, and campaign analysis”
- “Quickly summarize market research and competitor insight”
- “Connect to your company’s Google Drive for more tailored responses”
See more from OpenAI’s business solutions.
Related: OpenAI’s New CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, Strikes Hyper-Optimistic Tone in First Memo to Staff (July 21) – Wired
From tipsheet: Ms. Simo officially arrives at OpenAI on August 18. She helped spearhead the launch of ads in the Facebook feed while at Meta and will likely be doing the same for OpenAI.
BRANDS
Targeting consumers in AI-land
The makers of skincare product Cetaphil are targeting Gen Z consumers who use AI according to Ad Age yesterday. The premise is that Gen Z-ers are turning to AI-enabled search tools (like chatbots) rather than traditional search or browsing directly on shopping websites for skincare products
Given that most chatbots currently do not offer advertising, Google is the landing spot for this campaign and, specifically, its AI Mode/Overviews landing pages. Social and video are still in Cetaphil’s mix, too. Read more in Ad Age.
In February, Cetaphil was using a combination of a Super Bowl ad, social media and search (when there was no AI mode) to target younger consumers.
BRANDS
Travel marketers navigating AI evolution of search
On Phocuswire, a trade publication focused on the travel and hospitality services industry, Michael Goldrich, president of trade org HSMAI NYC, said the new job of marketers in the age of AI will be as “an agent boss.”
“You’re going to have a lot of agents that can do the social, the writing and the newsletters, all this (…). And the person’s job is ultimately going to be managing these series of agents. … You’re not going to be a revenue manager anymore, or a marketer, you’re going to be managing workflows.”
Read more on Phocuswire. (July 21)
Also: Video – “GenAI’s Impact on Travel Marketing: Phocuswright’s The New Age(nts) Trend Series Part 4” (July 18) – Phocuswright on YouTube
BRANDS
The state of Meta Advertising 2025
Yesterday, performance marketer James McKinney built on a popular thread on X regarding the state of Meta advertising in 2025:
“People are testing their ads and are choosing a winner based on whatever has the lowest CPA, NOT what is most scalable for cold customer acquisition.
The result?
Once their budget is too high for the number of people in their warm audiences (existing customers and engaged audience in the segment tool), the performance falls off a cliff.
The 3rd part attribution tools screwed up everyone’s mindset on how to properly test and scale ads to cold audiences.”
The thread has implications for the AI-enablement of its advertising product.
AGENCIES
Digital Agency-Of-Record
Marketing Dive covered Volkswagen’s digitally-focused decision to work with agency CI&T as its “Digital Agency of Record.” The agency “was praised for its capabilities in generative AI and a product-first approach, which has aided in recent vehicle launches like the ID.”
Marketing Dive added:
“Volkswagen is partnering with a consultant known for tech-driven transformation to tune up its digital marketing strategy and customer-facing assets like the MyVW mobile app. CI&T’s know-how in generative AI was listed among the reasons the automaker picked the firm as AOR, speaking to how AI continues to influence high-level marketing decisions.”
From tipsheet: Is AI agency of record next in advertising?
More: Volkswagen of America Selects CI&T as Digital Agency of Record (July 21) – press release
AGENCIES
“Zero click” future is a good thing
In an article featuring the new SEO role for the AI era – Answer Engine Optimizer – Forbes covered how businesses are busy trying to get their sites and content listed in the answer engines of Google, Perplexity and ChatGPT with the goal of helping them stand out.
James Cadwallader, CEO of Profound, which helps companies like U.S. Bank, Docusign with their answer engine optimization (AEO), said:
“This is a true Game of Thrones power shift that is upon us here (for SEO to AEO). (…) We’re entering this inflection point where humans no longer need to visit websites on the internet….These systems are hijacking that relationship with the end user entirely.”
At the end of the article, Cadwallader stated his agency’s position on the AI and the future for clients:
“Eventually we believe in the zero click future where consumers will only interact with the answer engine and agents will be the primary visitor of websites and it’ll be a good thing.”
Read more on Forbes. (July 19)
Related: Big Tech’s AI push is going to devour ad agencies. Or is it? (July 18) – Sherwood News
SELL-SIDE
Publishers’ AI answer: Make communities
Warning to publishers: “Transformative” use of their content by Large Language Models is being approved by the U.S. court system. Furthermore, content delivery networks like Cloudflare may create pay-per-crawl marketplace solutions for publishers, but that’s only going to work for those creating for the LLMs.
So says Stratechery’s Ben Thompson who observed yesterday that the future remains bleak for publishers, but…:
“…the answer for publishers in the age of AI is no different than it was in the age of Aggregators: build a direct connection with readers. This, by extension, means business models that maximize revenue per user, which is to say subscriptions (the business model that undergirds this (Stratechery’s) site, and an increasing number of others).
What I think is intriguing, however, is the possibility to go back to the future. Once upon a time publishing made countries; the new opportunity for publishing is to make communities. This is something that AI, particularly as it manifests today, is fundamentally unsuited to: all of that content generated by LLMs is individualized; what you ask, and what the AI answers, is distinct from what I ask, and what answers I receive. This is great for getting things done, but it’s useless for creating common ground.
Read more on Stratechery. (July 21 – subscription)
SELL-SIDE
Op-Ed: Don’t let AI judge media quality
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Opinion: Commoditization 2.0: How Agentic AI Could Undermine The Open Web’s Best Publishers (July 21) – Alessandro De Zanche of “not just Adz” on AdExchanger
TECH
DoubleVerify and AI
“Our [DoubleVerify] CEO Mark Zagorski joined CNBC’s ‘Closing Bell’ to talk about our ad partner Netflix’s recent earnings call and the impact AI will continue to have on the future of advertising.” (July 17) – Watch on CNBC
TECH
Earnings tomorrow: Google
In anticipation of Wednesday’s Q2 2025 earnings announcement by Google, Benzinga analyst Johnny Zhang shared his expectations yesterday:
“GOOGL has clearly made clear progress in AI development over the past three years, but the stock continues to trade at a similar level of valuation. The market favors AI-focused companies that show strong growth acceleration, better AI monetization, and the ability to scale AI in ways that boost margins and earnings while continuing to invest heavily in future AI capacity. This combination has helped re-rate names like META and MSFT. However, GOOGL seems a little behind compared to these hyperscalers. But with a 19x non-GAAP P/E fwd, the stock looks undervalued in today’s high-flying market.”
Read more on Benzinga. (July 21)
In advance of tomorrow’s results, New Street Research’s Dan Salmon shared his expectations for Google’s ROIC (Return On Invested Capital) in AI overall:
“GOOGL: Negative today (-7.7% in 2024) driven by Google DeepMind and training costs greater than AI profits. But AI Overviews/AI Mode ads and gen AI ad creative tools ramp through the decade — alongside GCP’s AI profit growth — and GOOGL has the most ROIC upside by the end of the decade (+20.6% in 2030).”
Alphabet Investor Relations: Earnings call on July 23 at 1:30p PT.
TECH
Do AI and DSPs mix?
In his Marketecture newsletter yesterday, publisher/technologist Ari Paparo made the case for AI potentially “kill”-ing demand-side platforms (DSPs), a favorite tool for programmatic media buying.
“AI, and especially ‘Agentic AI’ (which is just AI that actually does something), is a shot across the bow from DSPs. Because the promise is that Agentic AI agents (is that redundant?), do the targeting and optimization for the client, and more so, do so within any touch point the client desires.”
Read more on Marketecture. (July 21)
PROMPT
What’s your favorite AI monetization word or phrase?
- Meta[dot]ai response: “Scalability”
- Mistral’s Le Chat response: “I don’t have personal preferences or favorites.”
- Anthropic’s Claude response: “API credits”
- xAI’s Grok response: “Freemium”
- Perplexity AI’s response: “AI as a Service” (AIaaS)
- Google’s Gemini response: “Value creation”
- Google’s AI Overview response: “Value-Based Pricing”
Read more details on tipsheet.ai.
MORE
- Proposed OpenAI Ads + Apps Interface (July 21) – by Amro Naddy, VP of Product, US News and World Report on LinkedIn
- Pinterest, Meta’s Smaller Rival, Is Making AI Moves Of Its Own (July 21) – Investor’s Business Daily
- AI is killing the web. Can anything save it? (July 14) – The Economist
- Podcast: Inside MediaOcean’s Vision for AI and Ad Tech (July 20) – Tech Talks Daily
- Live Webinar: “The Evolution of the CFO Suite in the Age of AI” on August 21 – Niural