JB’s Digital Update 24th September 2025

AI hype hasn’t killed SEO, Google’s giving Smart Bidding more freedom, service packaging is the new profit engine, Reddit’s become AI’s favourite answer source, and Amazon Ads just handed us an AI creative assistant. This week’s theme? Shiny toys vs solid fundamentals — knowing where to experiment, and where to stick with what works.

There’s been a lot of noise about AI search replacing SEO, but the hard numbers just don’t back it up. Traffic from AI-driven referrals is still a tiny fraction of overall site visits. Organic search continues to deliver the majority of leads and revenue. Yes, Google’s AI Overviews are trimming some click-throughs, but they’re not knocking SEO off its perch just yet.

This is one of those moments where the hype runs well ahead of the data. If you’re shifting budgets heavily into “AI optimisation” right now, you’re probably pulling money away from what’s actually working. SEO fundamentals — content quality, site architecture, technical performance, and links — remain the real drivers of traffic and conversions. AI is interesting, but it’s garnish, not the main course.

That said, keep an eye on how your brand shows up in AI snippets and summaries. Run tests, track referrals, and learn. But don’t let it become a distraction. Until AI traffic is contributing meaningfully to revenue, your energy is better spent on reinforcing the tried and tested strategies that deliver predictable results.

SEO has been the foundation of my work for decades, and it’s still the channel that keeps businesses growing. Talk to me about SEO if you want strategies that deliver leads and revenue — without being swayed by the hype.

Google’s Performance Max campaigns now come with a new option called Smart Bidding Exploration. It allows Google to relax strict ROAS targets in order to chase more converting queries. Early results suggest you can pick up nearly 20% more conversions this way. The trade-off? Efficiency may drop, and not all of those conversions will be high quality.

This is the eternal balance between growth and efficiency. If you’re in a market where volume is the priority, letting the algorithm cast a wider net could make sense. But if you’re tightly managing cost per conversion or margins, handing more freedom to Google’s system could get expensive quickly. It’s the classic “more clicks, but are they the right clicks?” problem.

The smart move here is testing. Switch it on in a low-risk campaign, track results all the way down the funnel, and measure whether those extra conversions turn into paying customers. Numbers on a dashboard don’t mean much if sales and margins don’t follow through.

I’ve run paid campaigns through every version of Google’s automation promises. Let’s talk about PPC if you want to take advantage of these features while keeping the numbers working in your favour.

One of the smartest ways to make your services more profitable is to package them up as clear, named products. Instead of vague “strategy + execution” promises, you create a package with a clear focus, defined milestones, and a clear outcome. This makes it easier to sell, easier to deliver, and easier for clients to understand.

When services are too open-ended, you get scope creep, confusion, and disappointed clients. Productising fixes that. Clients know exactly what they’re buying and when they’ll see results. Your team knows exactly what’s in scope. And from a sales perspective, it’s far simpler to pitch a “Product X package” than it is to sell an ambiguous bundle of tasks.

Of course, you don’t want to be rigid. Some clients need tweaks, and flexibility is still valuable. But clearer packaging reduces friction, improves profitability, and helps you focus on the clients who are the best fit. It’s about aligning services with profitability as much as with delivery.

This is part of the work I do around Digital Marketing Strategy. If your service offerings feel messy, let’s talk about packaging them into products that drive profit and attract the right clients.

Reddit has quietly become one of the main sources feeding AI search results. Traffic is spiking as AI tools and Google pull more and more answers from its forums. If you’ve dismissed Reddit as niche or irrelevant, it’s time to reconsider. What happens there increasingly shapes what shows up in search and AI-generated summaries.

That means your brand reputation could be influenced by conversations you don’t even know are happening. People trust Reddit threads because they feel authentic, and those discussions are now being surfaced in places where potential customers are making decisions. It’s a shift in where authority comes from: traditional websites still matter, but so do real conversations.

The risk is obvious — you can’t fake authenticity on Reddit. Hard-sell posts get buried, and the community can turn on brands quickly. The smarter play is monitoring, contributing where it makes sense, and learning how customers talk about their problems. Over time, that insight can help shape your own content, SEO, and messaging.

This sits right in the zone of Content Strategy & Creation. If you want to build strategies that reflect what your customers are really saying — not just what you hope they’re saying — let’s chat.

Amazon Ads has launched a new AI tool that generates creative assets — from storyboards and voiceovers to display ads and videos. It plugs straight into Amazon’s ad formats, making it easy to produce campaigns at speed. For smaller advertisers, this lowers the creative barrier. You can now generate decent ad assets without a big design budget or long production cycles.

The upside is speed and efficiency. You can iterate faster, test more, and get campaigns out the door quickly. The downside is sameness — if everyone uses the same tool, creative risks becoming generic. That’s fine if you’re selling commodity products, but less helpful if your brand depends on distinctiveness and quality.

The opportunity here is to use AI for ideas and variations while keeping a human hand on storytelling. Let AI generate options, then refine with brand voice and positioning. The winners won’t be those who pump out the most AI ads, but those who combine automation with strategy.

This connects directly to PPC & Paid Social Advertising. If you want to explore how these tools can speed up production without losing brand distinctiveness, let’s talk about building campaigns that stand out.

That’s this week wrapped. The common theme? AI is showing up everywhere, but the smart money is still on fundamentals — experiment where it makes sense, but don’t forget the channels and tactics that consistently deliver results.

You may have missed these articles and be champing at the bit to read them :-)

• Managing Negative Sentiment in Social Media for an Insurance Comparison Site
• Website Migration Strategy for a Large Corporate Client
• How to Use Predictive Analytics to Improve Campaign ROI