How AI and zero-click content is impacting search and social media in 2025

We are discussing how search is changing with AI and exploring the fundamentals that you need to focus on to get the most out of it in 2025 . We're also looking at zero-click content and how it is going to be a massive part of your marketing strategy across SEO , paid and social in 2025 . So get ready . For now , though , let's get on with the podcast .

So our first topic today is looking at the evolution of search in 2025 . And here to talk to me about that , we have Rich Harper , who is our head of digital marketing services here at Brew Digital .

We have Debbie Gakutan-Chardin de Oliveira , who is our senior social media manager , and we also have ChatGPT , who is going to be testing their knowledge alongside our team of experts and adding in that AI expertise as well . So let's start things simple .

Kick things off with looking at the last 12 months how do you think search has changed and what do you expect to happen in 2025 and beyond ? Rich , we start with you , hi .

It's been talked about for a long time . Seo is not dead . I just want to put that and make that clear . Now . Seo is changing . Search is changing . Search is becoming multimodal . I think around 90% of people use multiple devices to complete a single task , so people are using different devices for different tasks .

Within that kind of search process , people are using more than just Google . It's not just . You know . They do dominate the search in terms of search engine market share , but they don't necessarily dominate the total search market share . When you think of things like Amazon , chatgpt , tiktok , youtube .

There's so many channels now that are deemed as search channels that Google YouTube . There's so many channels now that are deemed as search channels that Google . It shouldn't be everyone's only go-to when it comes to optimizations .

Instead of you saying , oh , I just want to Italian restaurant near me , you would now type what is the best Italian restaurant near me , and then it becomes a bit more personalized content that is served to you .

So I think that type of conversational thing has been influenced and it's now almost like a new life for us when we are interacting with search engines .

I would have to say that with my clients who are very b2b , tech heavy , very jargon word , a lot of their content is still not , I would say , conversational or , you know , authentic voice .

They would still lean towards a bit more , you know , thought leadership , a bit more high level type of conversations on their content , and I think that's fine if that is what they feel their audience is and gravitates towards you .

But there are already some works going on of like content that is really being changed to sound more authentic and sound more genuine , not just in text , but also on video , because when we think about search , it's no longer about text nowadays , it's also your video content and your audio content .

So how can you you think about the introduction of ai overviews and people also ask sections on on search engines . People are asking questions and search engines are doing their best to provide that answer up front .

So brands need to be investing in that long-form content and short-form that is asking , answering people's queries , like Debbie said , far more conversational and far more people asking search engines . You know actual questions and that really kind of also not just the AI overviews and people also ask . But think about search from a voice perspective .

People are using their devices , not just the you know , the home devices like your Echoes and stuff like that , but also your phones , your Siri's , and people tend to now ask Siri a question or you know , they ask the Echo , alexa . They ask it a question . You don't just spurt out a keyword .

That's the kind of way you've got to be winning is thinking about those long tail conversational phrases rather than just individual yeah , I think that's really interesting .

Um , and before I let either of you answer , I'm actually going to ask the ai a question now . Ai don't know how to refer to the ai . How has search changed in the last year and what can we expect in 2025 and beyond ?

A while ago I haven't seen this personally because social media is my forte , but I have read up that one of the things that marketers need to start doing right now is focusing on long tail questions instead of keywords , so that instead of , like you know , let's just say , let's put it in our client , what is DevOps ?

Instead of just doing that as a keyword or a brand phrase that you want to do for search , you want to develop it a bit more , and that has been influenced by the conversational nature that has been happening when we do interact with AI .

I think what's interesting on social media profiles right now is that a lot of what you see on your explore page , on what is fed into you on your feet and a big platform that is leading this is actually TikTok that uses heavily uses AI heavily on its explore page is that , even before you search what you want to know , it's already provided to you and that

is the goal of AI on these platforms , like based on your engagement in the past on your industry , what you have been , you know , searching for in the past . That is the point of social , of AI on social , is that the intent .

You don't really need to search or browse these because it's already given to you and I think that's the biggest thing that I've seen how social media is being transformed . A lot of your feed is really curated for you . I think that ads , right now as well on these platforms , have been like a massive impact . I think I read up on Guardian .

They mentioned that Facebook had , I believe , like 19% increase in sales and that is with Facebook just changing the algorithm and really bringing in AI enhancements in both content delivery and ad targeting . So I think like that has really shifted how we interact but also how we search on social Do you think there's a risk of it becoming an echo chamber ?

If the answers in Reddit are incorrect , ai is going to give you incorrect answers , but people will trust the results .

So I think we're in a dangerous space now where people are using tools like ChatGPT to create blogs and to create articles and just publish them as they are , and we know from Google , from their algorithm updates in December , that they are penalizing bad content , duplicated content , ai written content in a position as marketers where we have to stop being lazy and

start really trying to control what goes out , because we are at that kind of forefront of the information that people are going to be digesting .

So if the content we're not putting out is not user-centric , is not personalized to the audience , is not factually correct , we're in that kind of dangerous precedence of just creating a world full of knowledge that is going to be incorrect .

We have seen an increase in voice search through smart assistants and devices . Obviously , we had a massive boom in that space five , six years ago , maybe even further back , I can't remember with Alexa and Google Dot and Google Home things coming out . Do you think people are considering voice search strategies enough at the moment ?

Um , I was actually involved in a business a voice business for the hotel industry about five or six years ago , looking to replace the you know , the telephone in the room down to reception with automated um voice control , so putting Google dots in bedrooms and you speak to an AI assistant for the hotel , which will , you know , replace that kind of front desk on

paper . It was a good concept , um , but the hotels didn't adopt it . There was concerns around the kind of price of the physical hardware as well as things like privacy and bits and bobs , so it didn't really fly at that point .

But that was five , six years ago and people then were talking about voice search being the major trend at that time and it's never really taken off . But I observe my kids they're 12 and 8 , and they use voice search all the time on their phones , mainly because they haven't got to that point where they can spell correctly and stuff like that .

And actually for ease of use , they can just tap the microphone and they can speak directly into it . They use the same when they're writing text messages to grandparents and stuff like that just use the , the voice note to record .

So I think there will be a shift , a generational shift , at some point that is going to happen , where voice search becomes the norm . I don't know if we're there yet , but in the next couple of years , I think it's going to dominate the search markets and it's going to change the search markets .

And it's going to change because we've touched on it a few times but with voice search and with AI overviews and people also ask no one is clicking through to a website , they are discovering the information there and then . So we're going to have to adapt and understand and look at different metrics to measure the success of what we're doing as marketers .

And interestingly , it kind of rolls into my next question as well , which is for you , debbie how do you think the shift towards conversational , the shift towards social media as a search engine , uh , has has changed things for , for marketers I'm gonna give you a real life example .

I was like help me search for restaurants . And then I went on Google and I was like best restaurants in Manila ? And then she went on Instagram and our use of you know it was one class but was executed very differently , and I think that's how you see search engine on social media right now , which is Instagram , is no longer about just sharing your life .

It's about a place for you to get tips , travel tips , product reviews , tutorials and so on . With my niece , who is Gen Alpha and I think there's also a lot of adaptions from Gen Z and millennials on this you now look at not just the restaurant itself .

You also look at the experience of the people who went there and the aesthetics , and it's a much more personalized learning instead of just how much this place costs , and I think that has really changed how we interact . I do think as well that for marketers , this basically means that we need to start thinking about the content that we put out .

There is all about how our users search . It's not about just you putting up the information . You need to now bring that storytelling , storytelling across , make it a bit more conversational . Um . You need to start thinking about how you will be discoverable on these feeds , as ai is also , uh and influencing these feeds .

Um , but also get your basics right , such as your captions , your keywords , your hashtags . I think you know rich and I were discussing whether it is better to embed captions on your video or to use the tools caption feature and some tools . Some social media tools actually index your captions that you use on their tools .

So I think these are things that marketers need to start thinking about . Yeah , that's fascinating . These are things that marketers need to start thinking about .

That's where you see creators , that's where you see , um , real people making these suggestions . Is there something in that kind of trust and authenticity of something coming from a person rather than brand ?

I don't want to be somebody like who sees , like you know , a trending when somebody is looking for , you know , know , really insightful or really helpful tips in order for them to do use our product or services . So I think , like that's how I am and seeing things , um , so yeah , debbie kind of said it there .

I think organic , whether you see that from a search engine or from social or wherever whatever channel you deem as an organic channel , is still a good quality source of traffic and a good quality source of revenue if you get it right . So get the basics right across platform , across channels , and that's where you're where you'll win super .

But I think , like everything else , like the technology development in our society , it's really good if you use it well , and I think that's a good case in point is ai , if you give , if you use it well , you know what it's for , you know what it alleviates you of , then you'll be able to have better answers to your questions .

You'll be able to find more insights than the basic hollow thing that ai which is said right now . Just to wrap things up , because we we're sadly almost out of time and I want to make sure that than the basic hollow thing that AI has said right now .

I think this new wave of change that we have right now is really pushing us to understand our platforms better , and I think what this basically means is not just understanding your audience , but understanding the behaviors of your audience and how they look for content , how they use content and so on . I'm going to give you an example .

So , on TikTok , a video on TikTok or a video that is really curated and beautiful and nice will not fly and perform on TikTok . These beautiful , curated and nice videos can be used on YouTube . We've seen it with YouTube ads , we've seen it with like vlogs and so on but the same type of content would not fly on TikTok .

Just because the platform itself of TikTok really , really gravitates towards that type of content that not fly on on TikTok . Just because the platform itself of TikTok really really gravitates towards that type of content that you know you just have a moment , you want to film yourself .

It's like all the trends , it's like funny short content , it's like it's a bit more authentic than than what what we see on YouTube . But that's not to say that YouTube is also very insightful and it's really a good platform for you to find tips and tricks and all of these things . So I think that knowledge is important , not just to marketers .

I'm going to challenge that even outside of marketing designers , developers and everyone . You need to be able to understand these platforms , because you cannot copy-paste one content from one platform to the other .

. If you , if you don't have that knowledge , um , then you're going to get left behind . And second of all , be a good listener . Start to listen to your audience where they are .

If they are on these platforms like tiktok , like youtube , look at the comments , look at the threads , um , look at the types of content they are engaging with , um , and listen to that audience to help you shape your own content , um , I think we need to move away from being making assumptions that we know what our audience know best and move to a more reactive

discipline where we are listening to our audience actively and then shaping our content accordingly .

If you're a marketer , make sure you're using ai on a daily basis , not necessarily to transform your work , but the more you use it , the more you understand it , the more you can adapt to it , and if you're not there using it , then you know you're . You are falling behind amazing . Thank you so much , debbie and rich , for your research and time there .

I think there's definitely a lot that we can learn from uh , both from ai and from from the experts here at brew . There's so much changing in search , and I , for one , can't wait to see how it grows and how it changes , and also to see how many years it is until Google falls off their perch .

On to our second topic for today's podcast , with me to talk about zero-click content is our social media manager , selfie Noor Hi Selfie , hello . And our paid media manager , salvi Noor Hi Salvi , hello .

And our paid media manager at Nasya Nasera , just to kick things off , because I know it is a term that is potentially self-explanatory , but I want to make sure that we just go kind of straight back to basics . What is zero-click content ? Basically , just to kind of yes to basics .

But to just kind of be more specific , it's essentially now , on the social , the way to go is making sure whatever content message that you want to kind of convey is within the post itself , because traditionally it doesn't matter like organic or paid , especially in our industry which is like b2b .

We always want to have a landing page , always asking people to like , click somewhere to kind of learn more and stuff . But that's just not how it is now with all social media platforms and including some very professional more like linkedin now , because we know now linked LinkedIn have short form videos and stuff .

So essentially it's a combination of all social media platforms want people to stay within their platforms , pretty much do everything you can do on their platforms , the better for them .

And on the other side , you as a company have to kind of capitalize on that because ultimately , if your content are really good , people engage in a lot , the social media platform algorithm will kind of capitalize on that because ultimately , if your content are really good , people engage it a lot , the social media platform algorithm will kind of , in a way , reward

you in terms of the pushing it to more people to kind of see it . So yeah , so that's a very kind of top line , um , what it is on zero click , but some suggestions , for example . Like example , for people who may not be clear about it . Like usually in a b2b situation , people will be like what's about a report ?

And then like , okay , download their report now . But now , if you kind of see more companies now they kind of start doing like linkedin document . People can kind of keep sliding for step one , step two , step three , and only towards the end they say something like if you want to know more , download it , something like that .

So yeah , so that's basically zero click content super thank you selfie .

More and more people like me have short attention spans and people want , like , quick , easy answers fast . So it's definitely great to see that a lot of platforms , especially within the B2B space , are starting to cater to that .

And looking at PPC , we used to be all about driving clicks and landing page traffic , but now it's more about meeting users where they are and keeping them engaged without forcing them to leave the platform or forcing them to click on the website and download an ebook , so it definitely matters in terms of PPC as well super tom , did you just get a little break

in the ?

Is that a result of people like of Gen Z forcing us all to listen to shorter 10 second videos on TikTok , or using Snapchat , or no , ignore Snapchat , that was a thing a while back but pushing us to to listen to shorter form content on things like tiktok , or is this relevant to everyone , regardless of generations ?

Do you think everyone's um habits are changing I'll touch on like the generational side first .

Like nasha said , short attention span , I feel like by the time in high school , like social media and videos , memes , like at that those time vines and stuff , just like short form videos and all it's already kind of happening . So I do feel number one , it's a little bit of the generational side effect of it .

But also number two , it is something that even for the older generation you can't avoid it , because now all millennials are in the workforce . More and more Gen Z are in the workforce . I can't remember what's the youngest Gen Z age now , but most of them now are in the workforce . So that's just how things are in the future .

And then we did discuss a little bit about AI and stuff .

So that's another angle to this story here , because now social media in some ways are a little too a lot of things happening , just too many things happening , so that ultimately people this is where it's not so generational , it's maybe everybody involved just want a little bit more like authenticity , like quality .

So that's where zero click content usually kind of shines , because it's usually really give you the value . Doesn't matter it's a video , infographic , a carousel thing that you can swipe , but usually the best zero click content is usually like people are like oh , I learned something from it . Oh , I do find it entertaining right away .

So I think that's another side of it and it doesn't really come into a generational thing . It's just a matter of the internet has been very crowded , so now people value some things that a little bit more distinguished , because now everybody use ai to write their content and stuff .

So sometimes a certain thing that stands out and really relate to what people are searching , what people want to know , interact with . So that's where zero-click content just kind of starts to take over . And then , of course , social media platform knows if people like this stuff , people stay longer on my platform . We can make more money on people .

So you know , it's just like almost like a domino effect . So it's a multi-angle kind of situation basically .

Obviously we've mentioned people's changing habits and how marketers have to react to that , but actually how would the social media platforms and I'm going to include Google and search in that as well how are they encouraging users to stay on platform ? So how do you think that impacts how marketers are creating content ?

Instead , marketers are focusing on metrics like engagement , and these could be things like video views , post interactions or even form fields right on the platform To adapt . Brands can look into creating snackable , high-impact content , and this could be in the form of a 30-second video or platform native features like polls or even like selfie set just out carousels .

Most importantly , we have to shift from hard sales to more storytelling , which we have covered in our previous episodes . If you haven't checked that out , Build trusts and relationships instead of pushing tons of users to this , to your site .

If people click on your site , that just means you are doing things right with your content and see those clicks as a bonus amazing , thank you .

But I do definitely see they started shifting away from it and I do see that they are trying really well like how they kind of keep it . They really keep it kind of simple . If you ever read any like gartner report and you know how complicated , like you know , they're just super lengthy .

But the way they really just focus sometimes on just like three things and then towards the end they're just gonna tell people like if you want to know more , you can kind of , like you know , check out this , like nasha said , go to the website . It's on the home page or whatever some things like that .

So I would say gardeners definitely on top of my head , but I would say that's more of a simpler approach um to zero click , and I guess another example would be um . This is kind of like our partner here , adaptive is .

Groups like mondaycom I mean they , I would say a little bit more millennial gen z style say they just kind of drop a video and then there's really nothing to it . No click , no , nothing . And even recently they dropped a video with alamas and stuff just to kind of promote .

But it really does a great job of to kind of make it like funny and stuff with like animals and stuff which is like is it really necessary to use animals ? But no , but is it fun ? Yes , and they use rihanna song and stuff to just kind of . But in a way through that simple video they just kind of show already how their kind of interface looks like .

What are some of the key benefits that people use Mondaycom . So I would say that's definitely one good example . Just kind of put it out there and that's not even one link to just kind of like , oh , check out Mondaycom demo or anything . They didn't even put it there .

So , and then just kind of to add a little bit on the previous question , why I kind of would say these two are good examples because at the end of the day , if you're doing marketing , you need to know that not every content serves a certain , the same purpose .

So for example , in the mondaycom example , that video with all funny llamas and stuff , do they really want to lead through the video . I can confidently say no , but I would definitely say it's a very awareness kind of content that they're trying to do .

So some of the things that they probably like measure to it is how many people repost it , how many people kind of watch and also , like you know , the average watch duration and stuff . So yeah , so I think that's something to consider when you're doing zero click content . What successful is will really depend on what that content is for .

So don't just kind of assume , oh , this one has a lot more people reports , but this one doesn't report , so it's not successful . No , so you have to really be focused what is that zero click content is for and then set certain metrics and then that's how you know which one is successful and which ones are not super .

That is something that for most people , or most brands , you have to go away . That's an idea . You turn that into a video , but actually all they've done is write that script in just text and and that shows that that sometimes you don't have to go out and create video or create a static image and use graphic design time or anything like that .

You can just be creative , stand out . I'm going to roll this over to to nasha now to see if there are any examples of paid advertising campaigns that are really using zero click content . Well , I .

And one cool example is for zero-click content is LinkedIn document ads , where brands can share case studies , guides or ebooks basically any valuable long form content that users can just flip through their feed . It's super engaging and keeps users on the platform .

But before you do launch your document ads , be sure to do tons of research on your audience targeting , because the CPC does get really high from my experience , but that's the only downside of it . Another example , which is my favorite , is Carousel ads , so you can use Carousel ads to tell a story or walk users through a step-by-step process .

These are great for showcasing any key data points that you have or highlights without needing a click . And also , let's not forget about poll-based content on LinkedIn . That gets a lot of tons of engagement and who doesn't like giving their opinions on LinkedIn ? I personally like polls as well .

They basically ran a collection of ads of people resigning from marketing because they couldn't believe how easy it was to manipulate their data using the tool , and I just thought that was a fun , entertaining way of engaging people who didn't necessarily know the product but knew the problem of manipulating data .

So , yeah , thank you both for sharing that of manipulating data . So , yeah , thank you both for sharing that .

And I'm going to wrap things up initially by asking how marketers can balance their zero-click content with their lead gen content and driving inbound leads , and then we'll finish up with one tip for a listener who wants to go and start implementing zero-click content into their marketing strategies . So , to kick things off , how can marketers get that balance ?

Nasha , we'll start with you and then we'll jump over to Selfie .

But for additional content , share a few key stats and invite users to download the full report if you see that they are engaged enough . You could also use strong ctas to create some sense of urgency . Even subtle ones like follow us or more tips like this can do a lot of wonders .

My most important tip is don't forget to build your retargeting audience , even if someone doesn't click . Forget to build your retargeting audience Even if someone doesn't click . Their engagement can fuel retargeting campaigns , but essentially the trick is making them feel satisfied but curious enough to continue the journey with your brand .

Make sure you write that down for a for us now heading over to you selfie um , how can marketers balance that ? And then , if you can wrap up with your your top tip as well , that'd be amazing .

So I think having like a clear objective from why you are doing zero click content is the number one thing I would say in terms of balancing like how , how do you , you know , making sure you give value to your customers but also you gain something out of it In terms of tips .

I would say number one is kind of like I guess let's use a relationship Example now , since Nasha spotted it .

So number one , let's say , if you're dating someone , so in this case , of course , if your business is your customer , so it's the first seat your customer , but if you're dating is whoever you're interested in , you need to kind of learn about that person .

So you can't just assume if you're on a date you can't just assume , oh , this person like burger , like what if that person just wants some chicken wings , like you know . So you have to kind of really know them first . What do they need ? You know . So you have to kind of really know them first , what do they need .

And then number two I would say it's kind of like creativity , and this kind of applies in both companies and dating . So for your companies , in order to stand out , you can just kind of keep repeating the same message , like we discussed , like I mentioned before , like just give a little something , you need the right hook and stuff .

So , just like , when you're dating someone , yeah , you kind of need some pickup lines , a little something , you need a right hook and stuff . So , just like when you're dating someone , um , yeah , you kind of need some pickup lines a little bit here and there , not too much .

Um , you need to really really kind of be creative , like you know , like come on , like there's nothing wrong with going on a date for like a dinner , but sometimes maybe you could play go-kart , play bowling , movie day , you know , be creative .

And then , last but not least , is um not just for relationship but anything in life is consistency because , like in dating , you have to be consistent to make it work . But also with zero click content you have to be consistent .

And consistent here means you can't expect you post one tips and suddenly everybody look at your brand as reliable , like no , you most of content . We see now businesses have done this really well . It becomes almost a series that they just kind of like tailor it down . So people know , oh , they always post tips on this kind of thing .

So you have to be consistent with that . But also , another aspect of consistent is in terms of experimenting . So sometimes maybe your short video doesn't work , okay , maybe you change the way you start the video . You know you have to be consistent with experimenting as well , because social media kind of changes . So , yeah , I would say those are my three tips .

It's just your customer you have to put down first be creative and then be consistent .

long time now , attribution is obviously important and people are always looking to attribute their marketing to to results . Do you think it's possible to attribute social media to leads and revenue , or do you think it's a holistic kind of way of building a relationship with your customers ? And how does someone sell that to their senior management ?

Well , in b2c , you know it's quite easy to kind of track the roi and stuff as well , because that's just how b2c is , you know like . But if we switch on the b2b side , yes , it will get um challenging . I would say to kind of justify doing this and even within like the stakeholders I'm working right now we don't really do it all at once .

We try first , we have experimented , like , for example , if you're doing five social posts a week , try to zero click first and then see how it will speak it out , and then after that you just kind of keep tweaking and tweaking to just kind of like make sure you get it right , because in order to convince , of course , the C-levels and stuff , you have to kind

of have a solid numbers of it . So even if you want to say on the b2b oh , this is to like foster relationship . But you have to quantify the relationship you know , like . Is the relationship based on how strong the company's social profile grow or how strong the number of followers grow , you know .

So those are the things that will definitely wouldn't bring money . You know , like how many followers , how many engagement . But if you can really show oh so , for example , from April to June we really explore zero click content , only Our social media followers jump by , I don't know 80% , our engagement 90% .

So that becomes a number to kind of quantify like okay , see , yes , all these people don't necessarily buy it , but in a b2b you need audience , you need to kind of foster them . They're not going to buy right away , you know , but at least they know now you exist and stuff .

So I think it's just a matter of translating the non-tangible side of things to make it like tangible . But of course the tangible numbers kind of differ by certain business , and new businesses may care about followers , but a more established business probably care more , for example , the sentiment that's . That means like people like our brand more , you know .

So there's always a different things that business want . But I would say for social media managers , you just kind of have to understand what the business want and how do you translate into numbers , because , at the end of the day , social media is creative and fine , but if you don't have the numbers , people not gonna understand why you do certain things .

So , yeah , just really really be smart . What numbers matter and how do you translate it ?

We love that you've made it this far through the listen . We love making this content and would really love it if you could share this content with colleagues , enemies , friends , whoever . Thank you also to the Brew Digital team for their research and input into today's sessions . Make sure to check out our past episodes .

Subscribe on whatever platform you use to listen to your podcasts , and we'll see you on the next one . I've been Hayden and are the martyrs of the universe .