The biggest wallet comes out on top in ChatGPT 💰
I’ve written a new column for MarketingTribune. This time about a development I’ve been noticing more and more lately: the shift from SEO to GEO, Generative Engine Optimization.
Where we used to search with short Google queries like “marketing agency Amsterdam”, we now increasingly ask full questions to AI: “What is the best marketing agency in Amsterdam?”
And that’s where something interesting happens.
AI systems like ChatGPT often provide answers in the form of ranked lists. Think of “top agencies”, “best firms” or “top 10 marketing companies”. Logically, these pages directly answer the question people ask.
But there’s an important nuance.
Many of these lists are actually paid rankings. Websites publish them and agencies can pay to appear higher in those lists. Because AI uses these pages as sources, a new dynamic emerges:
the company with the biggest marketing budget can rise to the top in AI-generated answers.
So the question is: are you really seeing the objectively best agency when you ask AI for “the best marketing agency in Amsterdam”? Or are you mainly seeing the companies that paid to be included in the right lists?
An interesting and, in my opinion, concerning development.
In my latest column for MarketingTribune, I dive deeper into this 👇🏼
And more importantly: what we as an industry can do about it.
📸 Angelique Merks
