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Key Takeaways AI is driving up customer acquisition costs by intercepting search traffic through AI Overviews, meaning fewer people reach your website even after seeing your ads.
To fight back, always include links and QR codes in ads, optimize for AI citations alongside traditional SEO, and explore OTT/streaming ad formats.
the rising costs of acquiring new leads can also be offset by focusing on referrals. A referral can turn one lead into two — or more — with no extra cost on your end.
You’re not imagining things. Lead acquisition costs more than it used to. And AI is both part of the problem and part of the solution.
Yes, it can make targeting more efficient so that your ads and content are getting in front of the right potential customers. But it’s also changing the way people engage with brands online. That has an increasingly clear impact on the number of those potential customers who actually follow through after each impression.
To fix that, you have to add another strategic layer to your digital marketing efforts. You also have to supplement them by leaning harder into channels that are less affected by this change.
My company, Roof Maxx, is a good example of how you can do both. As one of the nation’s largest roof maintenance and longevity experts, digital marketing is a cornerstone of our growth strategy. But our flagship product is a tangible solution for restoring asphalt shingle roofs, which means we’re ultimately in the business of providing real-world services for human beings.
Here’s the paradigm shift we’ve applied to our marketing mix to insulate ourselves from rising CACs, and why you might want to follow in our footsteps.
What’s making lead prices so expensive?
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