Rob Georgeson, head of performance media at Publicis' Performics, examines how AI has been changing the game. He explores publishers' dwindling traffic, a shrinking inventory volume of open web ads, and the creator economy.

For the better part of two decades, the digital marketing ecosystem has operated on a simple, unspoken contract: content creators make the web interesting, and search engines send them traffic. In exchange, publishers run ads, brands get reach, and users are rewarded with access to "free" content. This intricate dance, orchestrated by Google and Meta’s algorithms and monetised through clicks and impressions, has defined countless marketing playbooks. But the mood music is changing faster than ever.

The rapid ascent of AI-powered answer engines like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity is fundamentally rewriting the rules of information discovery. These platforms do more than just point to answers; they synthesise them, delivering concise, direct responses that often negate the user's need to click through to a source website. This shift from search engine to answer engine represents a marked disruption to the ad-funded open web and a critical inflection point for every digital marketer.

Traffic is thinning out

The core of the issue is the abstraction of the user from the publisher. When a user asks Gemini for "the best marketing strategies for e-commerce in 2025", it crawls the web, digests information from dozens of expert articles, and presents a neat, bulleted list. The user gets their answer instantly. The publishers who created that original content, however, get nothing- no page view, no ad impression, no chance to capture a lead.

This isn’t a theoretical problem. Data already points to a significant erosion of the traditional search model. Recent industry analysis revealed that 58% of all informational queries via Google now end without a click to a non-Google property, a phenomenon often referred to as "zero-click searches". While this trend began before the rise of generative AI, sophisticated AI summaries in Search Generative Experience (SGE) and other tools are poised to accelerate it dramatically. For publishers, this means the primary funnel for audience acquisition is narrowing at an unsettling rate.

Some publishers are exploring new revenue models to counteract this, floating ideas like a “cost per link” or “cost per citation” model, where AI companies would pay a micro-fee for every piece of content used in a generated answer. While intriguing, such solutions are complex and likely years away from widespread adoption. In the meantime, the pool of traditional ad inventory, the banner ads and sponsored content that populate publisher websites, is at risk of shrinking. For advertisers, this poses a daunting question: if the inventory we rely on for reach and scale begins to disappear, where do we go?

Scarcity and opportunity

A shrinking inventory volume of open web ads will inevitably lead to two outcomes: increased competition and higher costs for the premium placements that remain. The long-tail remnant inventory, already a race to the bottom on CPMs, will become even less relevant. Brands that have built their entire acquisition strategy on high-volume, low-cost display, search and affiliate campaigns will need a shift in their media approach to avoid facing a painful reckoning.

However, this disruption should be viewed as a crossroads, as a long overdue catalyst for innovation. For years, digital marketing has been plagued by a reliance on vanity metrics, brand safety concerns, and the often-ineffective spray-and-pray approach associated with programmatic remnant inventory. The upheaval caused by AI forces a flight to quality, pushing advertisers to seek out new, more engaged environments for their messages. This is where the opportunity lies.

The future of digital advertising will be defined by diversification and a renewed focus on high-quality, context-rich environments. Smart marketers are already looking beyond the established status quo and exploring emerging ecosystems that offer something legacy display advertising has struggled to provide: a direct, trusted relationship with a precise audience.

At Publicis, we’re guiding clients through this transition with our Connected Identity approach. This combines data, enriched with known customer attributes, with direct access to the fastest-growing media channels. We can predict where growth is going to come from for brands and then optimise to outcomes across all media environments.

Ditching the long-tail

A prime example is the creator economy, not just within social platforms but within the newsletter boom. Platforms like Substack, which is primed to pivot towards advertising options, represent a new frontier for brands. Substack favours a long-form content-driven environment, giving brands a captive reader with the ability to match a creative to the specific audience.

Despite raising $100m+ (£74m+) in recent funding, Substack’s exploration of an ad-supported model reflects a broader trend, namely around established retail media properties. In Q1 2025, Uber’s advertising business reached an annual run rate of $1.5bn (£1.1bn) in revenue, representing 60% growth on 2024. Similar to Substack, ads delivered in Uber’s ecosystem are reaching consumers in moments where they are expected to be receptive to brand messages.

Brands must leverage the combination of contextual signals and rich identity data within these platforms to match the otherwise unrivalled efficiency of big tech’s walled gardens. Whilst also happily avoiding the doom scroll of feed-based content.

Both Google’s AI-mode, which has launched in some markets and Microsoft’s Copilot have begun rolling out ads within their answers. Advertisers will rush re-distribute their search marketing budgets to ensure their messaging is dynamically inserted into all relevant prompts and queries – but they must not forget the alternative approaches for reaching new customers.

Further disruption and diversification will surface new players in the next era of online publishing. Importantly, this will be an opportunity to shirk the long-tail properties that promise efficiency but are often ineffective in shifting true business outcomes. These new players will play a crucial role in stimulating brand discovery ahead of LLM prompts and generate fresh demand for advertisers.