BMG360

At Google’s Brandformance event last week, marketers were challenged to rethink the funnel and embrace the reality of a fragmented, multi-platform journey. Today’s consumer journey is chaotic: scrolls, streams, searches, and shopping across platforms. To win, marketers need agility, flywheels, and outcome-driven metrics that speak to the C-suite. Google itself is shifting from ad seller to strategic growth partner, and challenging brands (and agencies) to evolve, too. Here’s Eugene Byun, VP of Paid Search at BMG360's recap of the event and three principles every marketer needs to know.

The SEO world is panicking about AI. We’re not. Here’s why: AI models still learn from and cite the same high-quality, well-structured content that ranks today. So all the brands obsessing over “AI-proofing” are missing the point. Future visibility will come from mastering the fundamentals that make your site machine-understandable and AI-discoverable. In our latest article, Mark Aspillera digs into exactly what that means in practice: --> How Google’s AI Overviews and chat platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini are reworking discovery --> Why GEO isn’t a fresh silver bullet (it’s SEO with AI context) --> The Shared Core: the overlap between SEO, structured data, technical health, and AI-ready content --> Tactical steps you can take now: schema tagging, direct-answer sections, Core Web Vitals, mobile-first, and more

Last week in New York City, Google hosted its Think Leads 2025 event, and the clear theme was that AI is becoming the backbone of how ads are delivered, measured, and optimized. Our Head of Paid Search, Eugene Byun, attended the event and came back with insights that every growth marketer should be paying attention to. From AI-powered Search ads to smarter lead funnels, here’s what Google’s latest event signals for the future of paid media.

Last week, our Director of Client Strategy and paid social expert, Brian Gallo, attended the Meta Agency Summit. The event underscored an important reality for brands: growth in the AI era requires rethinking both media strategy and agency partnerships. Here are the biggest lessons businesses should take away.

Shopping without shopping? That’s the promise of agentic AI checkout...instead of clicking “add to cart,” shoppers will soon rely on AI agents to research, compare, and buy for them, with no manual checkout required. This shift creates massive opportunities (and risks) for e-commerce brands. Stores that prepare early will capture visibility and sales, and those that don’t may find themselves invisible to the next wave of automated buyers. Here's what to know, from SEO/GEO expert Erik Bergstrom (more detail in the latest issue of our newsletter, Growth Decoded): 1. AI checkout agents are here. They research, compare, and buy on behalf of shoppers. 2. Best fit: Low-cost, repeat-purchase products (consumables, supplements, apparel basics). 3. Challenges remain: CAPTCHAs, bot defenses, and platform restrictions (e.g., Shopify). 4. To prepare, optimize structured data, review JavaScript, sync Google Merchant Center, and start tracking AI-driven traffic. 5. Future outlook: Expect agent-driven try-ons, CRO experiments, Google Pay integration, and Amazon dominance in shipping speed.

No doubt you’ve seen it: more and more answers coming straight from AI tools like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Bing Copilot, and Perplexity. So how do you get your brand there? That’s where Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) comes in. In this post, Brian Lich shares a Q&A guide on what GEO is, why it matters now, and how it works alongside SEO and AI Optimization (AIO) to create a complete search strategy.