The How AI Search Can Drive Gross sales & Increase Conversions webinar, offered just lately by Bartosz Góralewicz, touched on one thing that I believe each marketer wants to know about how individuals truly make selections as we speak.
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 information 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. In the present day, 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 accordance with 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 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 virtually no conventional search quantity information.
The dialog is occurring, 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 3 times greater than Wikipedia.
What Reddit offers, and what Google and OpenAI are paying for, is genuine peer recommendation as a substitute of company advertising and marketing messages. Customers need to really feel understood, not offered to. They need contextual recommendation that seems like somebody truly will get their particular downside.
As Bartosz defined it, when somebody is researching a automobile, they don’t need to hear from paid bloggers. They need to speak to somebody who truly drives the factor day by day and may inform them the radio breaks 11 occasions within the first 12 months. That’s the stuff you gained’t discover on the corporate web site.
The Actual Journey Individuals Take
Throughout our webinar, Bartosz walked by way of this excellent 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 exploit Dyson on wool carpet?”
- Stage 2: “Suction solely vacuums for wool carpets”
- Stage 3: “Miele C1 suction solely vacuum secure”
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 complete buyer journey condenses into one excellent 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 may’t manufacture this by guessing. It’s important to take heed to precise conversations and perceive the true issues persons are making an attempt to resolve. That is precisely why he created ZipTie.ai, to assist manufacturers establish these important moments in buyer conversations the place they’ll genuinely remedy issues fairly than simply promote merchandise.
And right here’s proof that this method truly works: Turner’s information 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 All the things
I’ve been in search of this shift in advertising and marketing for years, ready for it to return again to the precise science behind why individuals make selections. The funnel is longer now, persons are utilizing extra locations alongside the way in which, 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 missed. You wouldn’t see this in your common web site information 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 taking place proper in entrance of us.
We began seeing it extra clearly when individuals started giving us indicators by writing on Reddit. Why are they doing that? As a result of they need validation. If 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 outdated 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 useful answer all through the shopper journey?
- Do you present contextual relevance that makes customers really feel understood?
- Are you able to monitor your affect by way of precise conversion paths?
As Bartosz stated, “The groups which might be going to win these days are going to be the groups which might be going to resolve essentially the most quantity, the largest quantity of issues that customers have.”
The Authenticity Drawback
To be genuine, it’s important to discuss 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 have 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 provide, and the place your small business targets 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 principally get misplaced (wasn’t as sort although). However as soon as individuals realized we have been actual people having actual conversations, all the things modified. Individuals began enhancing their posts, sending enchancment concepts, giving us awards.
That’s the ability of genuine engagement.
The Psychology Behind It All
Individuals need to share each determination they make with any individual as a result of it’s our nature to need to share duty. It’s a manner of validating that we’re not complete idiots; we not less than explored the dialog. “I talked to my buddy John and he stated it was a superb telephone.”
However there’s extra to it than simply sharing duty. We’re additionally in search of validation that somebody has truly skilled the difficulty, product, or service we’re researching and has actual info to share about it.1 We need 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 fitting downside once we begin looking. We expect we want “the most effective vacuum” when what we actually want is “a vacuum that gained’t destroy my wool carpet.” It takes dialog and depth to uncover what the true downside truly is. That’s why these Reddit threads go so deep: Individuals are working by way of layers of points collectively.
Most significantly, we need to really feel like we discovered sufficient to return to our personal determination. We don’t need somebody to inform us what to purchase; we need to really feel sensible about figuring it out ourselves with good info from individuals we belief.2
I’ve been speaking about these ideas loads currently, however this isn’t simply my private concept. This habits is extensively researched throughout psychology, behavioral economics, and determination science. Research persistently present that folks actively search to share determination duty to scale back remorse and reduce the psychological burden of detrimental outcomes. Analysis demonstrates that people usually tend to be part of teams or search validation after experiencing detrimental outcomes, and that sharing duty 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. If you perceive that core ingredient, fixing customers’ actual issues, all the things will get higher. Your commercials, web site copy, social media advertisements, customer support. All the things 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 all places: Perceive the true issues, be part of genuine conversations, and give attention to fixing points fairly than selling options.
The manufacturers that determine this out first will personal the following section of digital advertising and marketing. Those that hold chasing conventional metrics will hold questioning why their site visitors is declining whereas their rivals appear to effortlessly present up in all places that issues.
Undoubtedly, undoubtedly 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 sophisticated, nevertheless it requires you to decelerate and truly take heed to your clients as a substitute of speaking at them.
Sources:
- https://educational.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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