How Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned Media Compete for Visibility in AI-powered Search Answers
Key Findings
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https://public.flourish.studio/story/3361916/
Applied Use-case: Finance
Marketers already have the data on queries and intent that types matter to their brands. It should therefore be easy to employ search listening and media scanning to drive brand visibility in AI overviews.
Auditing search engines is a quick, data-driven method for brand marketers and PR specialists to rebalance search-related strategies. Below, this approach is applied to the queries set up within Finance.
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https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/25497953/
Insights:
- Affiliate dominance: Of all the Finance queries tested, 99% of earned media consisted of content on affiliate-leaning publications. Bankrate.com, nerdwallet.com, and money.usnews.com emerged as top publications across multiple queries
- Owned media success: Leading companies (AmEx, Fidelity, Vanguard) effectively position their owned content in AI Overviews
- Shared channels: Building social proof through Reddit and YouTube interactions will enhance visibility in AI Overviews
- Paid channels: Raisin, a third-party deposits marketplace, stands out as a lone example of B2B partnerships that can potentially elevate consumer trust through AI Overviews*
Key takeaway: Success depends on optimizing owned content, leveraging affiliate media, and developing social proof.
Important considerations:
- Traditional media may perform better for Finance news, market analysis, or emerging trends not tested in this sample
- Affiliate sites have invested more heavily in evergreen how-to content that matches common search queries
Marketers therefore should test queries based on meaningful segments to derive actionable strategies.
Data & Methods