Ami AI ads

Every retail and travel marketer I speak to says their cost per customer is climbing. So I investigated. It's worse than I thought. I started with the obvious question: are clicks actually more expensive, or does it just feel that way? WordStream publishes the same benchmark every year across ~13,000 search campaigns, so I went back through it. In 2024 the average click was $4.66. This year it's $5.42. That's 16% in two years. And in 2016 the same click was $2.32, so over ten years the price has more than doubled for the same visitor. Nobody I spoke to had changed anything dramatic. What's changed is customer behaviour, and specifically how people start their journey to buy. My own behaviour has changed. Nine times out of ten I start with AI, then move to Google, then to a website. If it's something more inspirational I'll click through from social media to a site, go back to AI to evaluate, and end up buying a different product, or the same one from a different website. The more I watch myself, the clearer it is that we're all doing some version of this. And it's pushing up cost per acquisition in both travel and retail. Long-tail searches are now answered by AI on the results page. So the click you pay for is the one AI couldn't close, from someone who still has a specific question in their head. That visitor is more expensive, and further down the buying process when they arrive. Adobe's latest AI Traffic Trends report, published in August and based on over a trillion visits, puts numbers on it for July 2026: 1️⃣ Travel led AI-driven visit share growth at +119% year on year, ahead of retail at +62% 2️⃣ AI retail visitors now convert at a 60% higher rate than non-AI traffic, and in travel the gap has narrowed to just 1% 3️⃣ AI-referred shoppers generate 53% more revenue per visit than non-AI traffic Here's the catch. Those visitors convert better because they arrive with a specific question already in their head. If your page answers it, they buy. If it doesn't, they leave, and you've paid a premium click for a customer who was ready. That's what's worse than I thought. It's not just that clicks cost more. It's that the visitors those clicks bring are less forgiving. So where does that leave you? The one surface you fully control is your website. Specifically the category, offers, product and search results pages, because that's where a pre-informed visitor lands and decides, whatever channel they came from. The service and engagement you offer on those pages is now the biggest lever you have on cost per customer. And the data that matters isn't just what your converting visitors did. It's what the ones who left were doing before they went. Why they got stuck, and why they gave up. The why is the key, not just the where. If you want to know how many of your visitors leave without interacting, and why, I'll run your site through our free conversion audit. It takes 60 seconds. The link's in the comments.

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Around 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned. Most of that is not indecision. Research from the Baymard Institute consistently shows that checkout abandonment happens because the process becomes unexpectedly difficult. Not because people changed their mind. At the point of checkout, buyers are not evaluating the value of what they are buying. They are evaluating the risk and effort of completing the transaction. A few small changes can shift that significantly: Showing reviews near the purchase button, not buried elsewhere. A clear satisfaction guarantee in plain language. Removing unnecessary steps and cognitive load. Making the process feel guided rather than bureaucratic. These changes rarely persuade consciously. They reassure subconsciously. And reassurance at the right moment drives action. The biggest gains in conversion often come from the smallest changes to the moments that matter most. What is the last step on your purchase journey, and when did you last walk through it as a new customer? Book time in my calendar to discuss your site: https://lnkd.in/eJJa9Nfn

Around 18% of users abandon purchases over payment security concerns. Research from the Baymard Institute consistently found that the product is not the issue. At the point of conversion, buyers are not evaluating the value of what they are buying. They are evaluating the risk of committing. And that risk does not get communicated by product descriptions or benefit bullets. It gets communicated by the signals around the purchase moment: ➡️ Reviews placed near the buy button, not buried in tabs. ➡️ A clear returns or satisfaction guarantee in plain language. ➡️ The feeling that this transaction is safe. These signals rarely persuade consciously. They reassure subconsciously. And reassurance at the right moment drives action. The brands ignoring this are not losing buyers to competitors. They are losing them to doubt. What trust signals does your checkout page currently show, and where exactly do they appear? Book time in my calendar to discuss your site: https://lnkd.in/eJJa9Nfn