GEO is emerging as a new layer of search investment
The most revealing shift in search marketing is not a retreat from spend, but a redistribution of priorities. As generative AI reshapes how consumers search, shop and discover brands, marketers are beginning to direct larger portions of search budgets toward generative engine optimization, or GEO, rather than relying solely on conventional SEO playbooks. The change is not yet a wholesale replacement of search strategy, but a recognition that visibility inside AI-generated responses is becoming a competitive channel in its own right.
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That shift reflects a broader change in how brand presence is built. In a world where large language model crawlers pull from press releases, editorial coverage, forum discussions and social content, optimization is no longer confined to website rankings alone. According to VML global chief innovation officer Brian Yamada, clients are increasing testing and experimentation within existing search budgets, specifically around GEO, while also investing to understand how agentic AI may fit into future workflows. The implication is clear: search is becoming less linear, less attributable and far more dependent on how brands appear across the wider information ecosystem.
SEO budgets are being reallocated, not abandoned
The budget data cited in the Digiday report suggests that this movement is already taking shape in material ways. Research from Scribewise, based on a survey of 205 U.S.-based executive leaders and marketing managers, found that 55% of marketers say they now have budget allocated to GEO, while 70% said GEO accounts for 11% to 20% of that budget. Those figures point to a market that is no longer simply discussing AI visibility in theory, but beginning to formalize it financially.
Agency leaders describe the same trend in more practical terms. At Noise Media Group, clients that once prioritized SEO are now diverting part of those funds toward GEO, according to co-founder and CEO Joe Levi. PMG is reportedly recommending a GEO pilot budget worth 1.5 to two times a brand’s current search budget, while Pawco increased spending by 10% in the first quarter of 2026 to test large language model discovery optimization. For its new brand, Genius Dog, Pawco also set aside an estimated 30% to 35% of budget for experimentation, underscoring how AI discovery is increasingly being treated as a strategic testing ground rather than a side project.
The definition of search visibility is widening
What makes this transition especially significant is that it is changing not just how much brands spend, but what those budgets are expected to do. Levi argues that marketers are not slashing SEO budgets so much as dividing them differently. In practice, that means budget lines once devoted to SEO content production or specialist support are now expanding to cover AI visibility, answer engine optimization and platform partnerships designed to influence how brands surface in generative responses.
This reallocation is also beginning to reshape media strategy further up the funnel. Noble People’s Nitin Sinha says some marketers are shifting dollars that had been intended for performance channels into experimental activations and out-of-home campaigns, partly to generate the kind of cultural and conversational signals that large language models may later absorb. That marks a deeper strategic change: search optimization is no longer just about capturing demand efficiently, but about creating enough brand presence and relevance to be recognized by systems that synthesize information before a click ever occurs.
Marketers are accepting ambiguity in exchange for relevance
The tension at the center of GEO is that it is attracting more investment even as its outputs remain difficult to measure. AI-powered search is moving faster than marketers’ ability to define consistent attribution models, and the familiar logic of clicks and conversion paths is giving way to softer indicators such as salience, visibility and brand mention frequency. As Jellyfish vp of strategy John Dawson notes in the report, the measurement framework is shifting away from click-based certainty toward more ambiguous signals of presence.
That uncertainty has not stopped marketers from moving money. Instead, it appears to be producing a period of unusually high tolerance for experimentation. PMG’s Matt Allfrey acknowledges that large language model environments still lack a clear ROI framework, yet that very uncertainty is driving businesses to invest, test and learn. The emerging reality is that GEO is being funded not because it is already fully understood, but because marketers increasingly believe they cannot afford to be absent from the spaces where AI systems now shape discovery.
Author:
Jan Bielik
CEO & Founder of Webiano Digital & Marketing Agency
Source: Marketers shift growing shares of search spending to GEO
