Rise Marketing Group, a Boston-area marketing agency, has begun offering ChatGPT advertising management as businesses explore paid placements in conversational AI. Announced on October 13, 2026, the service is intended to help brands plan and manage campaigns on OpenAI's advertising platform. The launch reflects a growing opportunity for agencies to extend media strategies beyond traditional search and social networks, although competition levels and returns will depend on campaign demand, audience relevance and execution.

Agencies Move Into Conversational AI Advertising

Rise Marketing Group's new service gives clients a route into ChatGPT advertising, a channel where paid placements can appear alongside conversational answers as users research options and compare products or services. CEO Ben Lund described the opportunity as a “greenfield” for advertisers, arguing that early entrants could gain visibility before more competitors adopt the channel.

That early-mover argument is the agency's positioning, rather than an independently verified assessment of competition. OpenAI has already expanded ChatGPT Ads beyond its initial pilot, introduced Ads Manager and added advertising partners. In an August 2026 update, the company said the platform had reached tens of thousands of advertisers and was expanding into additional markets. The opportunity is therefore emerging, but it is not an entirely unoccupied advertising space.

How ChatGPT Ads Differ From Search Advertising

Traditional search ads commonly respond to explicit keyword queries, while ChatGPT advertising can use the context of a conversation to determine whether an ad is relevant. OpenAI says its system considers factors including the current conversation, the ad's landing page and copy, advertiser-provided context hints, and selected personalization signals when users have that feature enabled. Context hints guide matching but do not guarantee placement in a particular conversation.

Ads appear below ChatGPT responses and are labeled separately from the answers. OpenAI says advertising does not influence the responses ChatGPT generates, and advertisers do not receive access to users' private conversations. Available reporting includes impressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate and conversion metrics, with tracking options to connect campaigns to website activity.

For marketers, the strategic distinction is that a conversational environment may expose a brand while a user is exploring a problem, evaluating alternatives or considering a purchase. That could complement search and social campaigns, but it does not guarantee a higher-intent audience or lower acquisition costs. Advertisers will need to test messaging, landing pages and conversion performance against their existing channels.

What Brands Should Evaluate Before Investing

Rise Marketing Group describes itself as a full-service agency offering paid advertising, SEO, AI optimization and website development. Its new ChatGPT Ads Management service adds campaign support in a channel where businesses may need help with account setup, creative, targeting, measurement and budget allocation.

The practical question for brands is whether ChatGPT advertising reaches incremental customers at an acceptable cost. Early testing should establish clear objectives, conversion tracking and a defined budget, then compare results with other acquisition channels. Teams should also account for market availability, campaign eligibility and evolving platform features.

Rise Marketing Group's announcement highlights the potential value of entering a developing channel early. Its commercial value, however, will be demonstrated through measurable outcomes—not simply presence on the platform.

Market Landscape

Conversational AI advertising is developing into another option within the digital media mix. OpenAI's Ads Manager supports campaign creation and reporting, while its advertising system uses conversational context to help match placements with user interests. The company has also introduced click-based bidding and expanded measurement capabilities, bringing the platform closer to the campaign-management models familiar to performance marketers.

For agencies, this creates demand for expertise in campaign setup, creative testing, conversion measurement and cross-channel attribution. However, advertisers should not assume ChatGPT ads are automatically cheaper or less competitive than established channels. Performance will vary by industry, budget, campaign objective and the relevance of the ad to the conversation.

Strategic Outlook

Rise Marketing Group's announcement illustrates how agencies are adapting their service portfolios as advertising expands into AI-powered interfaces. For brands, the sensible next step is controlled experimentation: define an objective, set up measurement, test a limited budget and compare incremental results with existing paid-search and social campaigns.

As the platform evolves, agency value will depend less on simply offering access and more on its ability to interpret performance data, refine campaigns and integrate the channel into a broader acquisition strategy.

Top Insights

• New service offering: Rise Marketing Group has added ChatGPT Ads Management, giving clients agency support as they explore paid advertising in conversational AI.

• Early-entry positioning: The agency argues that advertisers can benefit from entering early, but its claims about low competition and reach are not independently verified.

• Context-driven advertising: ChatGPT ads use conversation context and advertiser-provided signals to support relevance, creating a different discovery environment from conventional keyword-led search.

• Measurement matters: Advertisers should evaluate impressions, clicks, conversion activity and acquisition costs before deciding whether the channel deserves greater budget allocation.

• Agency competition is growing: As ChatGPT advertising tools expand, agencies may differentiate through campaign expertise, reporting quality and integration with clients' wider marketing programs.

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Gutter Supply has replaced a two-decade-old custom ecommerce platform with BigCommerce and Feedonomics, modernizing its digital storefront for both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) customers. The water-management products distributor says the change reduces its dependence on custom development, expands self-service purchasing options for contractors and improves product-feed management for Google Merchant Center. The implementation illustrates a broader challenge for distributors: moving away from legacy systems without losing the specialized pricing, product configuration and ordering workflows that distinguish their businesses.

A 20-Year-Old Platform Became a Barrier to Growth

Gutter Supply launched its first ecommerce website in 2004. As the business and its digital requirements expanded, the company found that its custom-built platform had become difficult to maintain and update.

According to the company, feature implementations that should have taken days or weeks sometimes stretched beyond a year. Even a shopping-cart upgrade reportedly took nine months to a year, slowing marketing initiatives and delaying new customer experiences.

The new BigCommerce storefront is intended to give the business more flexibility while reducing its dependence on a single developer. Gutter Supply says its marketing team can now launch campaigns and update landing pages more directly, while developers can concentrate on capabilities that differentiate the business rather than maintaining basic ecommerce functions.

The transition is significant because distributor ecommerce involves more than publishing a product catalog. Contractors may require negotiated pricing, account-specific terms, bulk orders and compatibility between components purchased for a single job. A platform that cannot accommodate these needs without extensive customization can become a constraint on both operations and customer experience.

Native B2B Capabilities Support Contractor Purchasing

Gutter Supply selected BigCommerce for its built-in B2B capabilities, including tiered and bulk pricing, contractor-specific experiences, invoicing, net payment terms and account management. The company says these capabilities reduce the need to recreate standard commerce functions through custom code.

It has also retained specialized workflows through features designed around how contractors buy materials.

Its QuickShop interface guides customers through selections such as gutter size, material, color and style, then presents compatible components together. Rather than navigating thousands of individual stock-keeping units (SKUs), contractors can assemble a more complete order from a guided selection process.

Shopping lists allow customers to save frequently used configurations and reorder materials for recurring jobs. The company has also brought its Custom Cutting process online, allowing contractors to specify required gutter lengths while the system checks those cuts against the total quantity ordered.

These capabilities target practical purchasing problems: missing components, manual ordering errors and repeated communication with sales teams. Their value will ultimately depend on whether contractors adopt the workflows and whether they reduce order errors, support costs and time spent placing repeat orders.

Feedonomics Improves Product-Feed Management

Alongside the platform migration, Gutter Supply is using Feedonomics to manage the product feed sent from BigCommerce to Google Merchant Center.

The company says the system allows it to adjust product attributes and values for Google's requirements without changing the underlying product records in BigCommerce. It has also used the feed-management platform to address shipping-data issues, remove discontinued products and resolve Merchant Center disapprovals. Gutter Supply reports a significant improvement in product approval rates since launch, although it has not disclosed a percentage or baseline.

The separation between core product data and channel-specific feed transformations is important for distributors selling through multiple digital channels. It allows teams to tailor product information for a destination without necessarily changing the source catalog that supports other storefronts or integrations.

Google's documentation reinforces why these details matter: missing, inaccurate or incorrectly formatted product attributes can lead to disapprovals, restricted eligibility or incorrect product displays across Shopping ads and free listings.

For Gutter Supply, feed optimization complements the storefront migration. A modern commerce platform can improve the buying experience, but product data still needs to meet the requirements of the channels where customers discover merchandise.

Market Landscape

The implementation reflects two related priorities in B2B digital commerce: replacing costly legacy infrastructure and making product information more manageable across sales channels.

BigCommerce's B2B capabilities include company accounts, buyer permissions, bulk-ordering tools, shopping lists and invoice management. These features support self-service purchasing for business customers while allowing sellers to manage account-specific workflows.

Feedonomics addresses a different part of the commerce stack. Rather than managing the customer-facing buying experience, it helps retailers and distributors prepare and maintain product data for external commerce and advertising destinations.

The Gutter Supply example shows how these functions can work together: the commerce platform supports complex purchasing, while feed management helps keep product information aligned with external channel requirements.

Strategic Outlook

Gutter Supply says its next phase will focus on contractor retention and repeat orders. Plans for 2027 include a free-shipping program for contractor accounts based on order value and shipping zone, along with stronger carrier partnerships and further testing of promotions and loyalty initiatives.

These plans extend the replatforming project beyond replacing legacy technology. They point toward using digital commerce to strengthen customer relationships and make recurring purchasing easier.

The results will depend on execution. Relevant measures include contractor-account adoption, repeat-order frequency, order completion, time spent building a purchase, product approval rates and the cost of maintaining integrations. The company has described operational improvements but has not published quantified revenue growth or conversion results from the new storefront.

For other distributors considering a similar move, the lesson is to identify which workflows should become standard platform capabilities and which genuinely require custom development. Modernization creates value when it reduces maintenance overhead while preserving the specialized experiences customers depend on.

Top Insights

• Legacy infrastructure was slowing change: Gutter Supply says some feature implementations took more than a year, prompting its move to BigCommerce.

• B2B capabilities support contractor workflows: Account-specific pricing, invoicing, net terms, shopping lists and guided buying are designed around recurring business purchases.

• Custom features remain important: QuickShop and Custom Cutting address product compatibility and material-length requirements that generic storefronts may not handle well.

• Feed management supports product discovery: Feedonomics lets the company adjust channel-specific data and troubleshoot Merchant Center issues without altering the underlying product catalog.

• Retention is the next focus: Planned shipping incentives and loyalty initiatives are intended to encourage repeat contractor orders, though their commercial impact has not yet been reported.

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ZoomRx has launched Marketing Asset Testing (MAT), an AI-powered application on its Sagan Agents platform designed to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology marketing teams test and refine campaign assets continuously rather than rely on periodic messaging studies. The application supports testing messages, claims, visual aids, emails, banners and advertisements, combining synthetic healthcare professional (HCP) audiences with validation among real respondents. ZoomRx says studies can be set up in one to two days, fielded in five to seven days and delivered the day after fieldwork closes. The launch targets a familiar challenge for pharma marketers: evaluating more creative variations across more channels while working within tight campaign and medical, legal and regulatory (MLR) review timelines.

ZoomRx Recasts Pharma Message Testing as an Ongoing Process

Traditional pharmaceutical messaging research can take weeks to complete, making it difficult for brand teams to validate every asset and channel adaptation before launch. According to ZoomRx, conventional studies typically take eight to 12 weeks and often deliver a ranked list of messages without resolving how each should perform in a specific format, audience segment or sequence.

MAT is designed to replace that model with smaller, iterative studies. Rather than testing a message once and treating the results as final, teams can evaluate a focused question, use the findings to refine creative and then test the next version.

The application supports a range of marketing materials, including claims, concepts, visual aids, emails, banners and advertisements. It can also help teams adapt stronger messages for different channels and audience segments, with assets tested in their intended final form.

The approach could be useful as generative AI increases the number of creative variations marketing teams can produce. More variants, however, also create a testing challenge: teams need to identify which messages resonate, which formats work and which claims or creative elements need further review.

ZoomRx Co-CEO and Co-Founder Sriram Subramanian describes the shift as a move from one-time testing toward continuous guidance on what brands communicate and how they communicate it. The practical value will depend on whether teams can turn faster research cycles into better-performing, appropriately reviewed assets.

Human Review and Real-World Validation Remain Part of the Workflow

MAT combines three Sagan Agents components: Data Archive Intelligence, Agentic Market Research and Strategic Insights Agents. ZoomRx says prior studies and test results are stored in a Data Archive so future research can build on existing brand knowledge rather than start from scratch.

The workflow uses synthetic HCP audiences to explore and refine asset variations, then validates selected options with real healthcare professionals from ZoomRx's panel. Agents assist with study design, survey creation, quality checks, fieldwork and analysis. ZoomRx research experts review study designs at approval gates, and brand teams approve assets before they are tested with real respondents.

This distinction is important in pharmaceutical research. Synthetic audiences can help teams screen ideas and iterate quickly, but their responses are not equivalent to feedback from real clinicians. ZoomRx's own guidance recommends matching the research method to the decision's stakes and validating synthetic findings with real HCPs when greater confidence is needed.

Availability and Commercial Model

ZoomRx says MAT is available to U.S. pharmaceutical and biotechnology brand teams through a 12-month subscription covering one brand and indication. The package includes platform access, fieldwork credits for studies with real respondents and unlimited synthetic HCP testing during the subscription period.

The company estimates that studies take one to two days to set up and five to seven days to field, with results delivered the day after fieldwork closes. Deliverables are available within the application and as downloadable presentation and Excel files. These are typical estimates, and actual timelines may vary with study scope and fieldwork requirements.

ZoomRx is also offering a free Sagan Agents pilot through December 31, 2026. Teams can review the Marketing Asset Testing product page or visit the Sagan Agents pilot page to request further information.

Market Landscape

MAT enters a market where AI is expanding the volume of creative that marketing teams can generate, while research and compliance processes still impose time and resource constraints. Its positioning differs from tools that focus only on generating copy or scoring advertisements: ZoomRx is combining asset iteration, research archives, synthetic audiences and real HCP fieldwork within one workflow.

The differentiator will be whether teams can repeatedly test the final creative in its intended channel and use the findings to improve decisions without compromising research quality. The company's stated timelines and capabilities are vendor claims; independent comparative performance data has not been supplied with the announcement.

Strategic Outlook

For pharma marketers, continuous asset testing could help move research closer to campaign execution, particularly when brands need to adapt messages for different channels, segments and launch stages. The model may also help teams make better use of previously commissioned research.

However, faster research does not remove the need for scientific accuracy, medical-legal-regulatory review or sound study design. Brand teams will need to assess how representative synthetic audiences are, how consistently findings agree with real HCP responses, and whether improvements in research speed translate into stronger engagement or commercial outcomes.

MAT's long-term value will depend on that combination: quicker iteration, traceable evidence and human oversight, rather than speed alone.

Top Insights

• Continuous testing replaces one-off studies: MAT is designed to let pharma brand teams evaluate and refine individual assets across channels and audience segments.

• Research cycles are designed to shorten: ZoomRx estimates one to two days for setup and five to seven days for fieldwork, with results delivered the following day.

• Synthetic and real HCPs have different roles: Synthetic audiences support iteration, while selected assets are validated with real healthcare professionals.

• Existing research feeds new decisions: The Data Archive is intended to carry forward previous studies and findings, reducing duplicated effort.

• Human approval remains in the workflow: ZoomRx research experts and brand teams review study designs and assets before real-respondent testing.

A new report from Wunderkind and Cordial highlights a gap between what consumers value in digital shopping experiences and where marketers are concentrating their efforts. Based on surveys of 1,000 U.S. consumers and 150 U.S.-based senior marketing professionals, The Customer Marketing Gap finds that shoppers prioritize low prices, discounts and convenient checkout experiences, while marketers place greater emphasis on social media, personalized recommendations and AI. The findings suggest that customer marketing strategies may need to put practical value and reduced friction ahead of technology adoption alone.

Price, Discounts and Direct Channels Matter to Consumers

Price is one of the clearest differences between consumer priorities and marketers' assumptions. In the survey, 56% of consumers identified the lowest price as a leading consideration when deciding where to shop online, compared with just 25% of marketers who believed price was a top consideration.

Discounts also influence whether brand communications receive attention. Half of consumers said discounts were among the strongest factors affecting their engagement with brand messages, while only 26% of marketers identified them as important in this context.

The channel findings reveal another disconnect. Email was preferred by 82% of consumers and SMS by 64%. Marketers, meanwhile, placed greater emphasis on social media, with 74% highlighting it compared with 39% of consumers.

The results do not mean brands should abandon social platforms or rely exclusively on promotions. Rather, they suggest marketers should validate channel and incentive strategies against customer preferences instead of assuming that investment priorities match audience behavior.

Convenience May Outweigh More Sophisticated Recommendations

The report also identifies a gap between marketers' confidence in personalization and consumers' experience of its benefits.

While 61% of marketers said relevant product recommendations have a major impact on conversion, only 32% of consumers said recommendations make shopping easier. Consumers gave more weight to practical conveniences: 48% valued saved carts and an equal share valued faster checkout.

That distinction is important for marketing and commerce teams. Personalization can help shoppers discover relevant products, but it may have limited value if the purchasing process remains slow or requires customers to repeat information.

The findings support evaluating personalization alongside usability and conversion performance. Saved carts, simpler checkout flows and relevant messaging can be measured against outcomes such as completed purchases and abandoned transactions, rather than judged by the sophistication of the underlying technology.

AI Adoption Faces a Consumer Trust Test

AI is another area where marketer expectations run ahead of reported consumer sentiment. According to the survey, 59% of marketers expect AI-powered personalization to have the greatest impact on customer marketing over the next three years. Yet just 16% of consumers said AI currently improves their shopping experience, and 27% said they do not trust AI to personalize experiences.

The figures indicate a challenge for brands seeking to scale AI-driven customer engagement: deploying more automation does not necessarily make the experience more useful or trustworthy.

The research also points to data quality as a constraint. Forty-two percent of marketers said more accurate customer data would have the greatest impact on customer marketing performance, ahead of improved personalization at 37%. Limited customer data and fragmented systems were tied as the leading barriers to personalization, at 19% each.

Consumers identified specific conditions that could build confidence. Forty-six percent said clearer explanations of data use would increase trust in personalization, while 41% valued control over their preferences and the same proportion wanted brands to use only information they had shared directly.

The results reinforce the importance of making data practices understandable and giving customers meaningful choices. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission likewise advises businesses to communicate clearly about how personal information is collected and used.

Lifecycle Marketing Needs to Connect Technology With Value

The report's findings point toward a more integrated approach to lifecycle marketing, where customer data, channel selection, offers and purchasing journeys work together.

Wunderkind and Cordial say their research follows their partnership, which combines Wunderkind's behavioral intent signals and AI decisioning with Cordial's cross-channel messaging platform and customer data platform. The integration is intended to help brands recognize more shoppers and deliver relevant experiences across channels.

The survey reports that marketers most commonly use or plan to use AI for customer service and chatbots (54%), predictive analytics (49%) and product recommendations (43%). This suggests AI is being considered for a wider range of marketing and service functions, rather than content generation alone.

However, the report is based on surveys commissioned or released by vendors with commercial interests in marketing technology. The supplied announcement does not detail the complete survey methodology, question wording or margins of error. Its percentages should therefore be treated as reported survey findings, not as proof that all consumers behave alike or that one strategy will outperform another across every business.

Market Landscape

Marketing teams increasingly have tools to combine customer data, predict intent and automate communications. But the report raises a practical question for marketing leaders: are these capabilities solving customer problems, or primarily reflecting internal priorities?

The findings suggest that marketers should assess channel investments against customer preferences, examine whether offers provide meaningful value and measure whether personalization reduces friction. They also highlight the importance of data quality and transparent data practices when deploying AI-powered experiences.

Strategic Outlook

The report's central implication is that personalization should be judged by customer benefit, not by the volume of data used or the sophistication of the model.

For marketing leaders, a practical response is to test AI-powered recommendations against simpler improvements such as faster checkout, saved carts, relevant discounts and better-timed email or SMS messages. Teams should measure conversion, customer satisfaction and repeat purchase behavior, while tracking opt-outs and complaints as signals of whether communication is becoming excessive.

The competitive advantage may come less from adopting every new AI capability and more from matching the right experience to the customer's needs. Brands that connect accurate data with useful offers, convenient journeys and clear privacy choices will be better positioned to make personalization meaningful.

Top Insights

• Price remains a major purchase factor: 56% of surveyed consumers cited the lowest price as a leading online buying consideration, compared with 25% of marketers who identified it as a top consideration.

• Email and SMS remain important channels: Consumer preference for email and SMS contrasts with marketers' stronger emphasis on social media, highlighting the need to validate channel strategies.

• Convenience competes with personalization: Saved carts and faster checkout each mattered to 48% of consumers, while 32% said product recommendations made shopping easier.

• AI expectations exceed current consumer confidence: Although 59% of marketers expect AI personalization to have the greatest impact over three years, just 16% said AI currently improves shopping.

• Trust depends on data transparency: Consumers cited clear explanations of data use, preference controls and reliance on information they directly shared as ways to build trust.

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Atlanta-based B. McGuire Marketing has introduced a Small Business Growth System and a free Small Business Marketing Checkup guide designed to help business owners identify marketing weaknesses before investing in additional activity. The framework links five stages—Stand Out, Get Found, Build Trust, Win Customers and Create Momentum—to connect brand positioning, discovery, credibility, conversion and customer retention. The launch reflects a practical approach to marketing planning: diagnose where prospective customers encounter friction, prioritize the most consequential gaps and evaluate whether targeted changes improve results.

A Five-Stage Framework for Small Business Marketing

Small businesses often manage marketing across disconnected activities, including search visibility, website content, reviews, lead generation and follow-up. B. McGuire Marketing's new framework organizes those activities into a connected customer journey, giving owners a structure for identifying where potential customers may lose interest or confidence.

The system begins with Stand Out, which focuses on clarifying a company's audience, value proposition and reasons to choose it. Get Found covers discovery through search engines, maps, business listings, referrals and other channels. Build Trust emphasizes reviews, consistent business information, relevant experience and evidence of past work.

The final stages address conversion and longer-term growth. Win Customers focuses on making it easier to inquire, book or buy, with clear next steps and dependable follow-up. Create Momentum considers how positive customer experiences can generate repeat business, referrals, reviews and insights that strengthen earlier stages.

According to the company, the framework operates as a flywheel rather than a linear checklist. Customer experiences can feed back into discovery and credibility, while recurring customer questions can reveal opportunities to improve website content and service explanations.

The distinction matters for how the system is used. Create Momentum is not a separate service or an independently scored category in the checkup. Instead, owners look for evidence of momentum through other stages, such as reviews under Build Trust and referral inquiries under Get Found.

Practical Checkups Focus on Diagnosing the Problem First

The companion guide uses questions and diagnostic checks to help owners assess their messaging, online presence, credibility and inquiry process. A comparison table links symptoms—including limited discovery, website traffic without inquiries and inquiries that fail to become bookings—to areas worth investigating.

The company also offers a free, no-obligation “See where you stand” snapshot. According to the announcement, founder Brian McGuire reviews the report before delivery. It examines online visibility, trust signals and the path from discovery to becoming a customer. The guide and framework are available through the Small Business Marketing Checkup resource page.

The approach is particularly relevant to businesses with limited marketing budgets. Instead of treating every weak result as a reason to increase spending, owners can investigate where the customer journey breaks down and test a focused improvement.

For example, weak discovery may warrant a review of local listings and search visibility. Website visits without inquiries may point to unclear messaging, insufficient evidence or confusing calls to action. Inquiries that do not convert may require a closer look at response times, booking steps or follow-up. These are diagnostic possibilities, not guaranteed explanations; businesses need to check their own data before choosing a fix.

Market Landscape

The framework aligns with established digital marketing principles, although the five-stage system itself is B. McGuire Marketing's offering rather than an independently validated methodology.

Google's guidance for local businesses emphasizes accurate Business Profile information and identifies relevance, distance and prominence as key considerations in local search results. It also recommends maintaining business information and responding to reviews.

That makes the framework's focus on discovery and trust relevant to local businesses, but it does not mean that following the system will guarantee better rankings or more sales. The announcement provides no independent performance data, customer case studies or quantified results demonstrating the framework's effectiveness.

Its principal value is organizational: it gives owners a way to connect marketing activities to customer behavior and decide what to investigate first.

Strategic Outlook

Small businesses frequently have to balance marketing ambitions against limited time, staff and budgets. A structured checkup can help prioritize work, particularly when owners distinguish observable symptoms from assumptions about their causes.

The next step is measurement. Businesses should record a baseline before changing a page, listing, inquiry form or follow-up process, then track relevant outcomes after the change. Depending on the issue, useful measures may include qualified website inquiries, calls, bookings, conversion rates, repeat purchases and referral leads.

B. McGuire Marketing's launch introduces a practical diagnostic resource, but its impact will depend on how effectively owners translate the framework into measurable improvements. The important question is not simply whether a business completes the checkup, but whether the resulting priorities lead to better customer experiences and stronger commercial outcomes.

Top Insights

• Five connected stages: The system links positioning, discovery, trust, conversion and customer momentum to help owners assess the broader customer journey.

• Diagnosis before spending: The free guide encourages owners to identify likely marketing gaps before committing to additional campaigns or services.

• Customer experience feeds growth: Reviews, referrals and repeat business can reinforce earlier stages, although these outcomes are not guaranteed.

• A business-specific option: The company also offers a free snapshot reviewed by founder Brian McGuire, focusing on visibility, trust and conversion.

• Effectiveness remains unproven: The announcement does not include independent testing or quantified results showing how much the framework improves marketing performance.

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Dental practices have traditionally measured digital marketing success through Google rankings, website traffic, phone calls and appointment inquiries. But as patients increasingly have new ways to research healthcare providers, marketers face a broader measurement challenge: understanding whether their businesses appear in AI-generated recommendations as well as conventional search results. Dental marketing company Gargle is expanding its visibility measurement approach to address that shift, combining traditional search engine optimization (SEO) insights with analysis of how practices are represented across AI-powered search experiences.

Gargle Broadens Dental SEO Measurement to Include AI Search

Gargle, Inc. is expanding its dental marketing analytics approach to help dental practices evaluate their visibility across Google Search, Google Maps and AI-powered platforms, including ChatGPT and Google Gemini. The company says its approach combines established SEO performance indicators with emerging AI search visibility analysis.

The announcement reflects a developing challenge for healthcare marketers: traditional search metrics remain important, but they may not capture every way prospective patients discover providers. AI-generated answers can introduce another layer to the discovery process, prompting marketing teams to consider whether their practice appears in relevant responses and how its online presence is represented.

Gargle President Jeff Richins said the company's strategy is to extend existing search marketing practices rather than replace them with a separate AI optimization program.

That distinction matters. AI search visibility is not a substitute for measurable business outcomes, and an appearance in an AI-generated answer does not automatically translate into a phone call or appointment. Dental practices still need to connect visibility metrics to patient acquisition and revenue.

Combining Traditional SEO With AI Search Visibility

According to Gargle, its expanded approach evaluates several elements of a practice's digital presence: organic search rankings, website traffic, local search performance, online reputation, AI-generated representations and patient acquisition indicators such as calls and appointment inquiries.

The company also offers an AI Search & Marketing Visibility Report alongside ongoing search optimization services. The announcement does not specify the report's underlying methodology, the AI platforms it monitors beyond those discussed, or whether it provides standardized visibility scores and competitor benchmarks.

Those details will matter to practices assessing how the offering compares with other SEO and marketing analytics tools.

Gargle is positioning Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) as extensions of conventional SEO. AEO focuses on structuring information to answer questions directly, while GEO aims to improve how brands and their information are surfaced or represented in generative AI responses. Neither guarantees inclusion in an AI-generated recommendation.

For dental practices, the practical work can include maintaining accurate business listings, publishing useful information about treatments, improving website structure and building a credible online reputation. These activities support conventional search performance while helping digital systems interpret a practice's services and location.

Why the Shift Matters for Dental Marketing Teams

The broader industry is moving toward a more fragmented search environment in which discovery can occur through traditional search engines, maps, conversational assistants and AI-generated summaries. Marketing teams therefore need to distinguish between visibility, engagement and actual patient conversion rather than treating them as interchangeable measures.

Gargle's announcement addresses that measurement problem within a specialized vertical. Dental marketing has distinct local-search requirements: prospective patients often seek providers near their homes or workplaces, compare reviews and investigate specific procedures before contacting a practice.

A reporting approach that brings these signals together could help practices identify gaps between online presence and patient acquisition. Its value, however, will depend on the accuracy of its AI monitoring, the consistency of its measurements and its ability to connect visibility changes to business results.

Market Landscape

The shift toward AI-assisted discovery is creating pressure on marketers to rethink how they measure search performance. Traditional rankings and website visits remain useful, but they may provide an incomplete picture when search engines answer questions directly or conversational AI tools recommend businesses.

A July 2025 analysis by Pew Research Center illustrates the measurement challenge. Across 68,879 Google searches examined in March 2025, users clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% when no AI summary was present. Only 1% of visits to pages featuring AI summaries resulted in a click on a link within the summary. These findings cover a US adult browsing sample, not dental searches specifically, but they highlight why healthcare marketers should track more than website traffic alone.

Google's own guidance also emphasizes that established SEO fundamentals remain relevant to its AI search features. Websites still need to be crawlable, indexed and supported by useful, reliable content; Google does not require special optimization techniques to qualify for AI Overviews or AI Mode.

This puts Gargle in a growing market for specialized search visibility and marketing analytics. Its dental focus differentiates the offering from broader SEO platforms such as Semrush and BrightLocal and from enterprise marketing ecosystems such as Adobe and Salesforce. Those vendors operate across broader use cases, while Gargle is targeting the specific needs of dental practices. However, the announcement does not provide a feature-by-feature comparison or independent performance data establishing a competitive advantage.

Strategic Outlook

The next challenge for AI search measurement will be proving that visibility translates into business value. Dental practices will need reporting that distinguishes AI mentions from meaningful recommendations, tracks changes across platforms and connects discovery to calls, bookings and new patients.

Gargle's approach could help consolidate those signals into a more useful view of digital marketing performance. Its long-term value will depend on transparent reporting methods, reliable competitive comparisons and evidence that the insights improve marketing decisions.

For practice owners, the practical takeaway is straightforward: continue investing in strong local SEO and accurate business information, while evaluating whether emerging AI search channels contribute to patient discovery. AI visibility should complement established performance metrics, not replace them.

Top Insights

• Unified search measurement: Gargle combines traditional SEO, local search and AI visibility analysis, helping dental practices evaluate their digital presence across multiple patient discovery channels.

• AI search adoption: Pew Research Center found that 58% of surveyed US adults encountered at least one Google search with an AI-generated summary in March 2025, reinforcing the need to monitor evolving discovery experiences.

   

• SEO remains foundational: Google's guidance confirms that established SEO practices still support eligibility for AI search features, making website quality and accurate business information essential for dental marketers.

   

• Conversion measurement matters: AI-generated mentions do not guarantee appointments, so practices should connect visibility reporting with calls, inquiries and new-patient acquisition.

• Vertical specialization creates differentiation: Gargle's dental-focused reporting targets local discovery and patient acquisition needs that broad marketing analytics platforms may not address in the same specialized workflow.

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BRD Media says a review of 363 tracked search terms across three websites found notable ranking gains during the period surrounding Google's September 2026 spam update. Comparing Semrush Position Tracking data from September 23 with October 12, the agency recorded improvements for dental, medical, law firm marketing and med spa-related queries. The review offers a snapshot of individual sites before and after the rollout, but it does not establish that Google's update caused the gains or identify which of the agency's preceding SEO changes contributed to them.

BRD Media Reports Ranking Gains Across Three Websites

Google began rolling out its September 2026 spam update on September 24 and marked it complete on October 8, according to the company's Search Status Dashboard. BRD Media's analysis compares keyword positions the day before the rollout began with rankings four days after it ended.

The sample includes My Bloomingdale Dentist in Bloomingdale, Illinois, a Chicago men's health clinic and BRD Media's own website. The two practice sites were tracked locally, while the agency's website was tracked nationally across the United States.

According to the agency, My Bloomingdale Dentist improved from position 32 to position eight for "family dentist bloomingdale il," and from position 16 to position three for "dental implants bloomingdale il." The term "implant supported dentures bloomingdale" moved from position four to the top position.

The Chicago men's health clinic also recorded gains for selected service queries. "Acupuncture for men chicago" rose from position 35 to position one, while "chiropractic care for men chicago" improved from position 23 to position seven.

These results suggest that the tracked service pages gained visibility for specific local searches during the measurement window. However, rankings can fluctuate for multiple reasons, including competition, content changes, location, device and ordinary search-system adjustments. The sample does not demonstrate a general trend across dental or healthcare websites.

BRD Media's Own Rankings Also Improved

The agency reported gains for its own commercial search terms during the same period. "Dental SEO," which it estimates receives approximately 6,600 monthly US searches, moved from outside the top 100 to position six. "Dental SEO services," estimated at 2,900 monthly searches, rose from outside the top 100 to position 13.

Selected law firm marketing terms improved as well. "Law firm marketing chicago" moved from position 37 to 10, "Chicago law firm marketing agency" from 30 to nine, and "attorney marketing chicago" from 10 to eight.

BRD Media also says three med spa marketing articles published on October 8 had reached positions one, two and four for their respective target queries by October 12.

The agency describes several SEO activities that preceded these changes, including updating older pages, adding organization and founder structured data, grouping short articles around service pages and submitting disavow files for low-quality backlinks. It also points to press coverage that generated links to its website.

These actions provide context for the ranking changes, but the timing alone cannot establish causation. The review does not isolate the effect of each change, compare results against a control group or show whether the gains persisted beyond October 12.

What the Findings Mean for Local SEO

The most useful takeaway is not that a particular tactic guarantees recovery or ranking gains after a spam update. It is that service-specific pages and clear information about a business can help search engines and prospective customers understand what a site offers.

Google's official guidance on spam updates recommends reviewing its spam policies when a site experiences changes in search visibility. Google also notes that its automated systems operate continuously, so a change in rankings around a named update does not automatically establish that the update caused it.

For dental practices and other local service providers, a practical review can include checking whether each important service has a useful, accurate page; whether location information is clear; whether the business and its ownership are represented accurately; and whether analytics connect organic visibility to calls, appointments and new customers.

Link disavowal, structured data and content restructuring should not be treated as universal fixes. Each should be considered in light of the site's specific issues and Google's published guidance.

Strategic Outlook

BRD Media's review provides a timely case study of ranking movements around Google's September spam update, but its small sample limits the conclusions that can be drawn. The three sites cover different industries and tracking scopes, and the analysis reports selected gains rather than the full distribution of changes across all 363 terms.

For marketing teams, the next step is to extend the measurement window. Rankings observed four days after a rollout ends may not reflect lasting performance, and changes should be evaluated alongside organic traffic, qualified leads and conversions.

The wider lesson for local SEO is to build a site around clear service information, trustworthy business details and useful answers to customers' questions. These fundamentals are more defensible than assuming that any single tactic—whether structured data, content clustering or backlink disavowal—will produce a predictable ranking outcome.

Top Insights

• 363 search terms tracked: BRD Media compared Semrush positions from September 23 and October 12 across a dentist, a men's health clinic and its own agency website.

• Local service terms gained visibility: Selected dental and medical queries improved substantially, including one dental term moving from position four to first and a clinic query moving from 35 to first.

• Agency keywords also advanced: The agency reported moving from outside the top 100 to position six for “dental SEO,” with gains across selected law firm marketing terms.

• Several SEO activities preceded the changes: BRD Media cited page refreshes, structured data, content grouping and backlink disavow files, but did not isolate their individual effects.

• The evidence is preliminary: Three websites and two ranking snapshots cannot establish causation or prove that the reported changes represent the wider search market.

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Brick Marketing has announced a free webinar to help businesses plan their 2027 digital marketing budgets as AI-powered search changes how prospective customers discover and evaluate companies. Scheduled for December 9, 2026, the 60-minute session will cover search engine optimization (SEO), AI search, paid advertising, content marketing and channel performance measurement. The webinar, presented by Brick Marketing President Nick Stamoulis, will focus on connecting spending decisions to business objectives, qualified leads and measurable sales and brand value. Registrants who cannot attend live will receive a replay.

Webinar Focuses on Marketing Investment Decisions for 2027

The webinar, titled 2027 Marketing Budget Planning in the AI Search Era, is scheduled for Wednesday, December 9, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Registration is available through Brick Marketing's webinar page.

Rather than promoting a fixed allocation across marketing channels, the session will examine how businesses can assess existing programs, identify ineffective spending and decide where additional investment may be justified. The agenda includes traditional SEO, AI search optimization approaches such as generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO), pay-per-click advertising and content marketing.

The central premise is that budgets should reflect business priorities and evidence of performance, rather than simply carry forward last year's spending. That means evaluating whether campaigns attract the right prospects, support sales activity and contribute to longer-term brand value.

For businesses preparing annual plans, this approach can help frame a more useful discussion between marketing, sales and leadership: not just how much to spend, but what each investment is expected to accomplish.

AI Search Adds Another Dimension to Budget Planning

The session will examine how platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Claude fit alongside conventional search engines and paid media in the buyer journey.

AI-generated answers can change how people research topics, compare providers and discover information. However, visibility within an AI response is not the same as generating a qualified inquiry or closing a sale. Marketing teams need to distinguish discovery signals from outcomes that directly support business goals.

Google's own guidance offers an important qualification for companies allocating money to AI search. Its documentation says established SEO fundamentals remain relevant to AI Overviews and AI Mode, with no separate optimization requirements needed to appear in those features. Technical accessibility, useful content and reliable information remain important.

For budget owners, this suggests that AI search should be evaluated as part of the broader discovery strategy, rather than automatically treated as a separate expense category. Businesses can test changes, establish a baseline and review whether the work improves relevant visibility, qualified traffic or sales opportunities before increasing investment.

Channel Performance and Lead Quality Take Center Stage

Another focus is how companies evaluate the contribution of individual marketing channels. Traffic, clicks and form submissions can help explain campaign activity, but they do not necessarily establish whether an investment is producing commercially valuable results.

For example, a paid campaign might generate a large volume of inquiries but attract prospects who are unlikely to become customers. A smaller campaign may produce fewer leads that better match the company's services and sales priorities. Without examining lead quality and downstream outcomes, a budget review could favor volume over value.

Brick Marketing also highlights the need to consider what happens after an advertisement or content interaction. Landing-page relevance, follow-up processes, sales feedback and the length of the buying cycle all influence how marketing performance should be interpreted.

These considerations apply to content and brand-building activities as well. Businesses need to understand the purpose of each program, identify appropriate indicators of progress and review whether the work remains aligned with commercial objectives. A disappointing result may call for changes to targeting, messaging or execution rather than an immediate budget cut.

The webinar is therefore positioned as a planning session for businesses seeking to make more deliberate investment decisions, whether they are preparing a new budget or reviewing one already approved.

Strategic Outlook

Brick Marketing's webinar addresses a practical challenge for marketing leaders: allocating budgets across established channels and emerging AI-driven discovery methods without losing sight of sales performance.

Its most useful premise is that budget decisions should follow business objectives, lead quality and evidence of contribution. AI search may deserve greater attention for some organizations, but its priority should depend on customer behavior, existing performance and the business outcomes being pursued.

The session's value will ultimately depend on the practical frameworks and measurement guidance it delivers. For organizations planning 2027 spending, the broader lesson is to evaluate channels as parts of a connected buyer journey rather than isolated line items.

Top Insights

• 2027 budget planning: Brick Marketing's free webinar will help businesses review digital marketing investments across SEO, AI search, paid media and content.

• AI search enters the budget discussion: The session will examine how AI assistants and traditional search influence discovery and how companies can assess their relevance.

• Lead quality matters: Evaluating whether prospects fit a company's target market can provide a more meaningful performance signal than inquiry volume alone.

• Measurement should reflect business goals: Channel reviews should consider sales contribution, brand value, conversion processes and the time required to close deals.

• Spending decisions need evidence: Businesses are encouraged to assess current performance before expanding, changing or discontinuing marketing programs.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.