Google rewrote your brand search
🔎 AI Overviews now show up on searches for big brand names, so the last step before purchase has a new narrator, and more!
Hello! You've arrived at What Actually Works 🤓
We break down the real strategies, decisions, and plays that actually move the needle in your marketing, and here it for today.
🔎 Someone googled your brand. an ai answered first
Branded search used to be the safe part of the funnel: a shopper typed your name and landed on your site.
That's changing fast. AI Overviews on branded queries tripled in September, according to industry tracking, and one widely shared test found them on about 93% of the major brand names checked.
The last thing a shopper reads before buying may now be the web's summary of you.
Audit what the answer says about you
Build a list of 20 branded searches people actually run:
- your brand name alone
- brand plus "reviews," "worth it" and "discount code"
- brand plus "vs" and each main competitor
- brand plus your top product
Search each weekly from a logged-out browser, save the AI answer and score it on four questions:
- Is every fact correct, including price, shipping and returns?
- Does it recommend you, or only mention you?
- Does it raise an objection, such as sizing complaints or slow delivery?
- Which sources does it cite?
Question 2 carries the most weight. A shopper who reads "a popular option" weighs you differently from one who reads "best for sensitive skin."
Making that case to leadership gets its own session on October 15, when AirOps COO Matt Hammel and Bain & Company's Zak Prauer cover why a recommendation outweighs a citation, and what evidence to demand that AI search spend creates real growth. Registrants who miss it get the recording within 24 hours. You can secure your free spot here.
Fix the pages that feed the answer
Sort every cited source into one of two piles.
Owned pages: if the AI repeats an old return policy or price, the page it cites is stale. Update it with plain-text facts near the top.
Third-party pages: if a two-year-old forum thread drives a sizing objection, don't argue there. Publish a sizing page on your site that answers it directly, with measurements, model sizes and fit notes.
A mattress brand seeing "too firm for side sleepers" would publish a side-sleeper guide with firmness data and link it from the product page.
Track the effect without waiting on perfect data
Pick three signals you already have and log them weekly next to your audit scores:
- clicks from branded searches to your site
- conversion rate of branded visitors
- the share of new customers who say they "searched you" in a post-purchase question
If answer scores rise and those signals follow over four to six weeks, you have a case. That window is my working judgment.
Run your first branded audit Monday morning.
Partnership with Tatari
Bring Your Toughest Growth Question to Forward
Bring the acquisition question your team has been circling for months.
On October 29, Forward by Tatari gives you direct access to leaders making growth decisions at scale.
Inside The Glasshouse in NYC, you can:
- Ask Reddit CEO Steve Huffman how discovery is changing across a platform reaching 127 million people daily.
- Hear how Cody Plofker helped scale Jones Road Beauty to nine figures and what he would prioritize now.
- Learn how Liquid I.V., MANSCAPED, Thorne, and Avocado Green Brands make TV accountable to revenue.
This is a working afternoon for marketers deciding where to put their next dollar.
You’ll see how brands plan major TV moments, connect reach to sales, and broaden acquisition without leaving Meta.
Forward is free to attend, but seats inside The Glasshouse are limited.
Secure your spot and bring back a growth plan your team can use.
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Thanks for being part of the WAW team 💃 We’d love to know if this was helpful so we can continue playing it smart with the right strategies.