DMEXCO: "No stone left unturned"

Google is presenting the new AI functions of its search engine in Hall 6 of the DMEXCO digital advertising trade fair and conference in Cologne - as if it were a completely trivial innovation. However, AI search is likely to have an impact on the business models of many of the other exhibitors.

The AI functions were demonstrated using a product search. The search engine provided detailed information on various products. Will a visitor then call up the pages on which Google has gathered the information? Google never tires of explaining that its AI search does not put publishers at a disadvantage. However, the experience of media professionals paints a different picture. With the increasing spread of AI searches, website operators of all kinds are likely to see a decline in visitors.

Google is not the only operator of AI searches, nor is it the largest. Perplexity, Claude, DeepSeek and many others are also involved, especially ChatGPT with a chatbot market share of over 80 percent.

One strategy of website operators is to play the game: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is being replaced by Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), i.e. trying to get among the few sites that still cite the chatbots in their summaries. A number of presentations and master classes have addressed this topic.

One problem with GEO is that many companies are flying blind. They do not know for which topics and search terms they will be cited in which AI services in the search results and cannot adapt their content accordingly. The industry is currently developing solutions for this, such as the Scout from Yext. This should enable companies to track the visibility of their pages and those of their competitors in real time and receive tips for optimization.

Creative AI

However, AI is not only a threat, but also offers optimization opportunities in many areas. Brainsuite, for example, promises to use its AI-supported platform to improve the effectiveness of advertising assets on the basis of neuroscience-based, asset- and channel-specific success factors. Google also has tools for marketers up its sleeve. For example, it shows how agencies can use the generative AI Gemini to assemble all the content of a campaign - from texts and images to videos.

In the work of agencies, "no stone will be left unturned" thanks to (agency) AI, said Uli Kramer from the Hamburg agency pilot during a live podcast at the trade fair. Together with five other experts from media agencies, he wrote the Trendmonitor 2025- a good overview of many current and upcoming topics that play a role in the digital advertising business.

The six experts agree that the operational business of agencies can largely be automated using AI. Humans are "only" responsible for advising clients and providing briefings. The experts see the highly fragmented landscape of advertising identifiers following the abolition of third-party cookies as a major problem area. However, they also see positive developments: They estimate that digital advertising will grow by a total of five percent in the coming year. Advertising with online retailers and the "paid social" sector will grow particularly strongly.

Last but not least, even the disruptor Google is not immune to disruption. In addition to ChatGPT and other AI search engines, Gen Z in particular is also migrating to TikTok and Reddit. Anyone who wants to find out about these and other trends in this constantly changing industry will have the opportunity to do so on the second day of DMEXCO today.

(jo)