A software company asked five hundred marketing leaders what they plan to do about AI search, then published the answers as a selling point. Read the numbers properly and the survey argues against half of them.
AI and content marketing
Half of marketers plan to cut SEO spend, and their own survey says that is wrong
Typeface published its Signal Report on 14 October, surveying more than five hundred marketing leaders in the United States and the United Kingdom at director to vice president level. Forty nine percent plan to deprioritise or stop investing in traditional SEO. Forty four percent plan to spend more on answer engine optimisation over the next year or two.
Then the same people gave the problem away. Sixty two percent said brands sacrifice content quality to win AI citations. Sixty one percent said they sacrifice brand authenticity. Sixty eight percent said they create content for AI that humans will probably never see.
Take the method honestly. Typeface sells AI software to enterprise marketing teams, and the fix it recommends looks a lot like its product. There are no fieldwork dates, no panel provider, no country split and no margin of error. Treat the numbers as a mood reading, not as evidence.
Why this matters for your business: The mood reading still tells you what your competitors are about to do. If half of them pull budget out of the work that earns rankings and spend it writing pages nobody reads, the ground they leave gets cheap to take. Keep your technical foundations, service pages and local listings funded, and write for the person who has to decide.
SEO and search
Google added more links to its AI answers and still will not show you the clicks
Google announced a set of link changes on 15 October, posted by Nick Fox on X alongside a blog post. There are more inline links in AI Mode and AI Overviews, some placed higher in the response. A new top section surfaces one or two links for task and exact answer queries. News carousels reach more regions and languages, and related article links now carry thumbnails.
What Google did not add is click data. A spokesperson told Search Engine Roundtable the company is “continuing to work with website owners to understand what insights will be most helpful” and will “introduce additional metrics over time”.
Why this matters for your business: More links helps only if you can prove the traffic, and right now you cannot. So measure the gap yourself. Pull your Search Console impressions for queries where an AI Overview appears, compare them against actual landings in GA4 over the same window, and track that ratio monthly. You will have a trend line long before Google gives you one.
Paid media
Meta switches product browsing on inside your existing ads on 28 October
Meta is telling advertisers it will turn on product browsing for ads already running on Facebook and Instagram from 28 October. A tap can then open an in app page with product information and suggested items instead of going to your website. It is on by default, with an opt out button in the notice and a toggle per ad in your Advantage Plus Creative and Destination settings.
Meta puts the lift at three percent more conversions on average, from an experiment run between 6 and 21 August across roughly 117,700 advertisers. It did not say which conversion metric, which attribution window, or whether cost or revenue moved. PPC Land found no Help Centre page or newsroom post behind the notice. Media buyer David Herrmann surfaced it on LinkedIn.
Why this matters for your business: This lands four weeks before Black Friday, which is the worst moment to find your traffic held inside Facebook. Open Ads Manager this week and decide deliberately. If the conversion happens on your own site, with your forms and your remarketing tags, take the opt out. If you sell simple catalogue products, leave it on and watch landing page sessions for a fortnight.
Social media
LinkedIn opens pre-roll ads and paid advice sessions to creators
LinkedIn announced a batch of creator changes on 15 October. The headline one is pre-roll advertising on creator and publisher video. Advertisers will be able to run ads against relevant creator content with no existing partnership, and creators who opt in share the revenue. LinkedIn calls it early testing and has not published the split or the eligibility rules.
Advice Sessions matter more. Premium subscribers can offer free or paid one to one consultations from their profile, with payment handled on LinkedIn and verification required, live for United States hosts first. The Creator Marketplace also gains filters for audience and format, and pinned comments are back.
Why this matters for your business: Advice Sessions are the piece to watch if you sell expertise. A paid half hour booked off your profile is a qualified lead with money already attached. Verify your profile now so you are ready the day it reaches South Africa.
One more to note. YouTube began labelling AI generated music on 14 October, so if you use generated audio in your videos, expect that badge to follow you.
Automotive
Carvana has 109 Google listings pointing at places it does not occupy
This is real automotive news and it is a local search story. Car Dealership Guy News published an investigation on 14 October by Julie Walker, built on tracking Chris Wood of LocaliQ Automotive began in May. They found at least 266 Carvana Google Business Profile pages. Only 101 are real facilities. One hundred and nine point at addresses Carvana does not occupy across 36 states, and 51 of those are civic or government buildings.
The pattern gives it away. Cities with real Carvana sites have a median population near 195,000. Cities with phantom addresses sit near 68,000. The real sites carry about 40,700 reviews, two thirds of them positive. The phantom pages carry 630 reviews, two thirds negative. Carvana said the listings help customers find vehicles that can be delivered to their area. Google did not comment.
Why this matters for your dealership: Google requires a physical location for local vehicle advertising, so a profile without one breaks policy. Policy is not enforcement though, and while the listing sits there it feeds organic results and AI Overviews in a town where that retailer has no staff. Run the check yourself. Search your model and suburb terms, note every competitor in the map pack, and report any address that does not belong.
What to do this week
- Decide on Meta product browsing before 28 October. Opt out if your own site does the converting.
- Start a monthly ratio of AI Overview impressions to real landings. Google will not hand you clicks.
- Verify your LinkedIn profile so Advice Sessions open to you on day one.
- Search your suburb and model terms, then reverse check every competitor address in the map pack.
- Leave your technical SEO budget alone. Half the market is about to stop competing for it.
If you want a hand working out which of these actually moves the needle for your business, get in touch.
Sources
- PPC Land, 49% of marketers plan to deprioritize SEO, Typeface survey finds
- Search Engine Roundtable, Google updates links in AI Mode and AI Overviews again
- PPC Land, Meta will turn on product browsing in existing ads on October 28
- Social Media Today, LinkedIn adds new creator monetization options
- Social Media Today, YouTube labels AI generated music
- Car Dealership Guy News, Many Carvana Google Business Profile listings point to government buildings