ROI Revolution, Inc.

Summer at ROI looked a little different for everyone, but one thing stayed the same: we made the most of it! From traveling the world and exploring new places to spending time with family and friends, our team made plenty of memories this summer, and we loved seeing all the adventures along the way. ✈️🌎 At ROI, all of our team members start out with 4 weeks of PTO, because we believe time away from work matters. We’ve built a culture where we celebrate and encourage our team to take the time they need to recharge, explore, spend time with the people they love, and make memories. Here’s a look back at how our team spent their summer! 🌴☀️

Everyone's worried about AI search stealing their organic traffic. The real number is smaller than you'd think, and also more important than you'd think. For our ecommerce clients, LLM referral traffic is still just 0.5% to 4.9% of total organic traffic. Tiny slice. But being cited in an AI response correlates with better traditional CTR too: about 2.1% when you're cited in an AI Overview vs. under 0.9% when you're not. So the volume argument undersells it. Showing up in AI search isn't really a new traffic channel yet, it's a trust signal that pays off in the channel you already have. Full breakdown (with the CTR data and how to track it) linked in comments. ⬇️

Have you tried using AI to generate lifestyle images of your products, and they came out...not quite ready for the product page or catalog? Senior paid search analyst Angel Pridgen shares a 4-part framework for creating images so that more actually does equal better.

Curious about AI advertising but not sure where to start? Here's our take on testing it the right way: 1️⃣ Get your SEO and GEO in order first. Most chatbots run on underlying search, so how you show up there shapes how you show up in AI responses. 2️⃣ Budget conservatively; we suggest starting around 1-3% of your current paid media spend. 3️⃣ Rethink what a click is worth here. Measurement is still limited, so the value looks different than it does in traditional search. 4️⃣ Set up micro-conversion tracking wherever you can to get some signals, even without full funnel visibility. We're on a new frontier. That means testing with realistic expectations, not a full budget reallocation. Link to full article in comments. 👇

62% of shoppers who see an AI answer still go check Google to verify it. That's the part of the AI search story that gets missed. Adoption is exploding (50% of US adults now use AI regularly, up from 30% a year ago), but trust is still conditional. Shoppers are using ChatGPT to compare brands and build gift lists, then double-checking everything on your actual website. Which means your site still has to do the convincing. AI might get you into the conversation, but your product pages and reviews are what close the loop. We broke down a year of data on this shift, plus what it means for your organic traffic heading into Q4. ⬇️ Link in comments.

Want to know how to target AI ads well? Start by understanding how people actually phrase queries to chatbots. It's not like typing into a search bar. Google's own data shows the most common opening words in AI Mode are conversational: "What," "How," "Can," "Is," and "I." A common pattern is "How can I..." followed by things like repairing a car, finding product manuals, or planning a vacation. Common follow ups include "near me," "replacement part," and "in stock." That's a meaningfully different shape than a typical search query. Your product and content data need to be built to answer conversational, multi-step questions, not just keywords. Link to full article in comments. 👇

We’ve been testing AI ads with clients across sporting goods, building supplies, and more. Here's what we're seeing: ➡️12% increase in average revenue per AI session across our client base ➡️ 274% year-over-year growth in traffic from AI platforms ➡️ 90% of that AI traffic comes from ChatGPT alone And the market is about to get a lot bigger. EMARKETER projects AI ad spend will more than double by 2030, going from roughly $32 billion in 2026 to $68.3 billion. The real question for your team isn't whether this channel exists. It's what it means for how you're allocating your ad budget right now. Link to full article in comments. 👇

If you've had a conversation with ChatGPT lately, there's a good chance you scrolled past a sponsored product without even clocking it as an ad. Ads are already live inside LLM conversations and they're expanding fast across Google's AI surfaces too. The consumer behavior backing this is real: nearly half of people say they're likely to try a new brand an AI recommends, and 83% say they'll keep using free AI tiers even with ads present. This isn't hypothetical anymore. It's a real channel, and the spend behind it is about to grow fast. Link to full article in comments. 👇

Our ROI Revolution Summit last week focused on how quickly AI is reshaping marketing and commerce, and what that shift means in practice. The big takeaway: AI alone isn't what sets brands apart anymore. The advantage now comes down to solid first-party data, sharp brand positioning, high-quality inputs, and consistent execution.

Jess summed up our 2026 ROI Revolution Summit best: 2 days packed with opportunities for our clients and our own ROI team to share insights, make new connections, and have meaningful conversations. Everyone left inspired to drive next-level growth: our clients equipped to lead their brands forward, and our team ready to continue fueling that success with our pioneering AI strategies.