The invisible battle for brand visibility: Why companies invest millions in tools no one sees

The new paradigm of digital visibility

The rules of digital capitalism are being rewritten, and most companies don't even notice. While marketing departments continue to focus on traditional search engine optimization, a parallel tectonic shift is shaking the foundations of digital business models. The question is no longer whether a website appears on Google's first page, but whether a brand even appears in the answers provided by the artificial intelligence that increasingly determines what millions of people see, know, and buy.

Adobe has launched LLM Optimizer, a tool that addresses precisely this new reality. Generally available since October 2025, the tool promises companies transparency and control over how their brand is represented in AI-generated answers. But behind this technical innovation lies a broader economic transformation that is putting pressure on publishers, platforms, and brands alike.

The numbers are both clear and alarming. Between July 2024 and May 2025, US retail sites saw a 3,500 percent increase in AI traffic, while travel sites experienced a 3,200 percent increase. In September 2025, AI-mediated traffic to US retail websites increased by 1,100 percent year-over-year. These users not only display a 12 percent higher dwell time than visitors from traditional sources, but also purchase five percent more often. What appears to be a success story at first glance turns out to be a double-edged sword upon closer inspection.

While some websites benefit from this new traffic, others experience dramatic losses. CNN recorded a traffic decline of approximately 30 percent year-on-year, while Business Insider and HuffPost reported declines of around 40 percent. The Mail Online even reported that click-through rates plummeted by as much as 89 percent when Google's AI Overviews appeared over their content. This discrepancy reveals a fundamental truth of the new era: visibility in AI systems is becoming a decisive competitive advantage, while invisibility is becoming an existential threat.

Anatomy of a new market standard

Adobe LLM Optimizer positions itself as a holistic analysis and optimization solution for generative AI search. The tool combines multiple layers of functionality that together paint a complete picture of a brand's AI visibility. At its core, it analyzes which content is used by large language models such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Perplexity to generate answers to user queries.

Its functionality is based on a three-stage framework: automatic detection, automatic suggestions, and automatic optimization. The system continuously analyzes LLM activities and identifies opportunities to improve brand presence. It uses specially trained models to suggest technical optimizations and enables the implementation of these solutions with just one click after user approval. Licensing is based on a model based on prompts per year, with each prompt representing a text input that generates outputs, insights, or recommendations.

Particularly noteworthy are the AI ​​traffic analysis functions, which detect and evaluate so-called agentic traffic, i.e., access originating from LLMs and AI agents. Benchmarking enables a directive comparison of one's own visibility with competitors, both thematically and by product focus. The technical analysis identifies classic SEO problems such as incorrect metadata, non-visible pages, or structural issues that are specifically relevant to AI systems.

Another key element is the content recommendation function. This suggests relevant topics, questions, and semantic keywords that AI systems preferentially process. Contextual visibility analysis evaluates how AI systems prioritize content based on external references such as Wikipedia or forums and shows how this prioritization can be influenced.

Adobe has also released a free Chrome extension called "Is Your Webpage Citable?" This instantly shows which website content is visible to LLMs and which isn't. In a practical test with OnlineMarketing.de, the citation readability was 98 percent, meaning that almost all content can be correctly read and integrated into AI responses.

The attribution feature directly links AI visibility to user behavior and business results, allowing the concrete impact of GEO measures to be documented and communicated internally. Out-of-the-box reports enable teams to quickly share insights across the organization and communicate the business impact.

Adobe's own marketing team used LLM Optimizer to boost the visibility of Adobe Acrobat. Citations for Firefly increased fivefold within a week. Acrobat's visibility increased by 200 percent compared to competitors, while AI-mediated traffic to Adobe.com increased by 41 percent. This success story illustrates the potential but also raises questions about scalability and transferability to smaller companies.

The ecosystem of competition

Adobe is by no means the only provider in the emerging market of generative engine optimization tools. An entire ecosystem of specialized providers has emerged, each with its own focus and pricing models. The competitive landscape ranges from affordable entry-level solutions to enterprise platforms with comprehensive features.

Peec AI, a Berlin-based startup, has established itself as one of the leading providers. The tool monitors brand mentions and citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity and delivers real-time analytics. The pricing structure is clearly tiered: The Starter plan starts at €89 per month for 25 prompts, the Pro plan costs €199 for 100 prompts, and the Enterprise plan starts at €499 for over 300 prompts. All plans offer unlimited countries and unlimited user seats. The company was founded in 2025 and has received a five-out-of-five-star rating.

Profound positions itself as a premium enterprise solution with the most comprehensive feature set. The Lite plan starts at $499 per month, while Enterprise plans are priced individually. The tool monitors over 300,000 unique websites with a catalog of three million responses and offers real-time visibility tracking. Profound works with a dedicated AI Search Strategist to assist teams with optimization. Clients include Ramp, IBM, Walmart, Target, MongoDB, and Chipotle. Ramp increased its AI visibility from 3.2 to 22.2 percent and rose from 19th to 8th place in the Accounts Payable category.

AthenaHQ was founded by former Google Search and DeepMind experts Andrew Yan and Alan Yao and received $2.2 million in funding from Y Combinator. The Lite plan starts at approximately $270 to $295 per month, the Growth plan costs $545 to $900, and Enterprise plans start at $2,000. The tool offers comprehensive brand intelligence, source intelligence, and sentiment analysis. The platform takes a holistic approach and describes itself as a one-stop shop for everything related to AI search.

Other key players include Goodie AI, which specializes in quick insights; Rankscale, which offers real-time ranking tracking in GPT and other platforms; and Otterly, which stands out for its beginner-friendliness. BrightEdge Prism builds on BrightEdge's established SEO suite, but suffers from a 48-hour delay in AI data. Semrush and Ahrefs have also integrated AI visibility features into their existing platforms.

The price differences reflect not only different feature sets but also different business philosophies. While lower-cost tools like Peec AI and Otterly focus on scaling and broad adoption, Profound and AthenaHQ target enterprise customers willing to pay for comprehensive strategy support. Adobe, with its established enterprise cloud infrastructure, positions itself somewhere in between, benefiting from seamless integration with Adobe Experience Manager Sites.

The economic dimension of a silent revolution

The Generative Engine Optimization market represents more than just a new product category; it symbolizes a fundamental shift in the digital economy. The global GEO services industry was valued at $886 million in 2024 and is expected to grow to $7.318 billion by 2031, representing a compound annual growth rate of 34 percent. Other estimates predict $848 million in 2025, with growth to $33.68 billion by 2034 at a CAGR of 50.5 percent.

This explosive expansion comes within the context of an already robust SEO market. The global SEO market was valued at $65.87 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $176.16 billion by 2033, representing a CAGR of 11.55 percent. Other sources predict $82.3 billion in 2023, with growth to $143.9 billion by 2030. IDC predicts that by 2029, companies will spend up to five times more on LLM optimization than on traditional SEO.

The driving forces behind this growth are diverse. First, AI platforms are experiencing astronomical growth rates. ChatGPT reached 5.14 billion visits in April 2025, representing a 182 percent year-on-year increase and surpassing Wikipedia in monthly website visits. Second, user behavior is fundamentally changing. Over 45 percent of people use generative AI weekly, often for personal research and recommendations. Gartner predicts that by 2026, one in four searches will be powered by generative AI.

The economic consequences for publishers are dramatic. Zero-click searches now account for 69 percent of all queries. Between April 2022 and April 2025, search traffic to websites fell by 55 percent. The Washington Post saw its organic search traffic drop by nearly half, while the share of organic search traffic for The New York Times fell to 36.5 percent in April 2025.

Studies show that 57 to 65 percent of search queries now result in zero-click results, where the answer is provided directly by AI without requiring a click on a website. Some industrial clients have reported traffic declines of up to 20 percent in Germany and 18 percent worldwide.

The content economy itself faces a paradox. AI systems rely on human-generated content, but by keeping users in their ecosystem, they deprive creators of those very users. An ARD podcast episode discussed how about half of all content online is now generated by AI, much of it of low quality. This leads to a self-reinforcing downward spiral in content quality.

The legal disputes highlight the conflict between platforms and publishers. The Encyclopaedia Britannica Group and Merriam-Webster sued Perplexity AI for systematic copying of content, traffic diversion, and copyright infringement. Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun also filed similar lawsuits. Reddit sued Perplexity in October 2025, accusing the startup of building a $20 billion company based on stolen data. Dow Jones and the New York Post accused Perplexity of damaging their businesses by diverting customers and revenue from news publishers.

The platforms' reactions have varied. Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement to settle claims over the use of millions of pirated books to train its Claude chatbot. Perplexity launched Comet Plus, a $42.5 million subscription model to pay publishers. OpenAI reached an agreement with News Corp for licensing payments of over a quarter of a million dollars over five years.

Cloudflare introduced the Content Signals Policy, which allows websites to prevent their content from being used for AI Overviews through specific directives, such as those found in robots.txt. However, this requires that platforms respect these guidelines, which is not a guarantee.

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The transformation of marketing disciplines

The shift from SEO to GEO doesn't just mean new tools, but a fundamental redefinition of what digital visibility means. While traditional SEO focused on rankings in search results, GEO focuses on ensuring content is cited and referenced in AI-generated answers. The fundamental difference is that companies are no longer optimizing for algorithms that rank pages, but for AI systems that synthesize information from multiple sources.

The measurement of success is changing accordingly. Instead of keyword rankings, ChatGPT visibility measurement focuses on specific prompts posed by the target audience. More important than the frequency of mention is the context: Is the brand enthusiastically recommended or merely mentioned in passing? Positioned as a leader or niche provider? Is it described precisely or with misunderstanding?

Studies show that brands that adopt GEO practices can achieve up to 40 percent more visibility in AI-generated answers. Only 50 percent of AI citations overlap with Google's top results, meaning companies need to expand their content presence beyond their website. Highly authoritative platforms like Reddit, Quora, and industry-specific publications, where AI platforms often source information, are becoming increasingly important.

The structure and presentation of content must adapt. AI systems prefer clear hierarchical headings, concise answers, and semantic clarity. FAQ pages are identified as particularly AI-friendly. Structured data such as schema markup for ImageObject, FAQ, VideoObject, and AudioObject are becoming increasingly relevant for multimodal optimization.

Personalization is reaching new levels. 72 percent of marketers using AI and automation are personalizing customer experiences. Customers are increasingly formulating requests based on values ​​and preferences, such as sustainable brands, locally sourced products, or companies with strong ESG credentials.

The productivity gains are significant. 93 percent of marketers use AI to generate content faster, 81 percent use it to gain insights faster, and 90 percent use it for faster decision-making. Marketers save an average of three hours per piece of content and 2.5 hours per day with AI tools. 84.86 percent confirm that AI has improved the speed of delivering high-quality content.

At the same time, the challenges are growing. 60 percent of marketers using generative AI for content are concerned that it could damage brand reputation through bias, plagiarism, or value misalignment. The volatility of AI Overview rankings is higher than that of organic rankings: Over a period of two to three months, approximately 70 percent of the pages cited in AI Overviews changed, and these changes were not linked to traditional organic rankings.

The role of platforms in the new power structure

The major tech companies are positioning themselves differently in this new landscape. Google, which continues to hold a dominant position, has introduced AI Mode as part of its search strategy. Despite predictions that AI would diminish Google's dominance, Google recorded an astonishing 21.64 percent growth in searches from 2023 to 2024, with over 14 billion daily searches. Ninety-nine percent of AI users continue to use search engines.

Nevertheless, Google faces considerable criticism. In Italy, the publishers' association FIEG filed a complaint against AI Overviews, alleging that generative answers directly in search results discourage users from clicking on original pages, with significant consequences for reach and advertising revenue. The EU competition authority was contacted by the Independent Publishers Alliance, which accuses Google of abusing its dominant market position to place its own AI summaries at the top of search results and disadvantaging original content providers.

Google claims that AI Overviews are well-received by users and lead to higher-quality clicks. The reality is different: A Pew Research Center analysis showed that users who encounter an AI summary are less likely to click on links to other websites than users without one. It is estimated that AI-generated snippets currently appear at the top of the results page for approximately 20 percent of Google searches.

ChatGPT has captured the generative AI market with a 61.3 percent share, but remains far behind Google with 37.5 million searches per day. However, the platform has a massive user base and exerts significant influence on brand recognition and purchasing decisions.

Microsoft, with its Copilot, and other players like Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini are further expanding the ecosystem. Each platform has its own preferences and algorithms, increasing the complexity for brands seeking visibility across multiple platforms.

Structural challenges and future prospects

The GEO landscape faces several structural challenges. The determinism issue is significant: ChatGPT responses can change as models sample, meaning results are inconsistent. This probabilistic nature of GEO is fundamentally different from the more deterministic nature of traditional SEO.

Measurability remains complex. Without separate tabs or simple filters in Google Search Console that capture AI-driven clicks, impressions, and positions but mix them with regular traffic, companies that don't intentionally track are flying blind. Attributing AI-driven traffic to actual business results requires sophisticated analytics setups with custom UTM parameters.

Cost efficiency is evolving. The shift to smaller models like TinyLlama reduces inference costs by a factor of ten while maintaining response quality, enabling more frequent visibility tracking and larger query sets. This cost reduction democratizes AI monitoring for mid-sized companies that were previously priced out of comprehensive programs.

The geographical dimension is playing an increasingly important role. Asia-Pacific is considered the region with the strongest growth in the GEO market, driven by rising internet usage, growing mobile-first populations, and strong interest in digital transformation. The region's diverse languages ​​and large user base create demand for localized and structured content that fits with generative search tools.

The development of vertical LLMs for specialized areas, such as healthcare with Med-PaLM and finance-focused LLMs, creates separate visibility ecosystems that require dedicated tracking strategies. The integration of real-time fact-checking into Microsoft Copilot and other platforms raises accuracy standards for AI-cited content.

The long-term effects on the open internet are the subject of intense debate. If AI systems discourage users from visiting original sites, they deprive content creators of their economic basis. This could lead to content drought, which ultimately starves the AI ​​systems themselves, as they rely on human-generated content. Marie Kilka from the ARD podcast noted that the internet is no longer properly represented as something that connects different sites.

Publishers are responding with a variety of strategies. Some are strengthening their core values ​​through strong editorial identities and clear brand voices that keep readers coming back. Loyalty programs deepen bonds through exclusive access, community recognition, or tangible benefits. Others are diversifying revenue streams across subscriptions, events, consulting, and niche products.

The next five years will determine which media companies can maintain authority and revenue. Those that cultivate direct relationships, amplify unique editorial strengths, and create richer on-site experiences will survive the volatility of platform-driven traffic.

Implications for strategies and investments

The strategic implications of this transformation are far-reaching. Companies must fundamentally rethink their digital marketing budgets. Allocation is shifting from traditional SEO and paid advertising to GEO, content syndication on high-authority platforms, and direct audience building.

Building an AI Visibility Center of Excellence requires executive sponsorship with clear ROI metrics, the allocation of cross-functional teams including SEO, data science, and brand teams, the standardization of KPIs and dashboard reporting across business units, and partnerships with experienced platforms like Profound for ongoing support.

Content strategy must evolve. Structured, fact-rich content, which AI platforms prefer to cite, is becoming the norm. The use of clear hierarchical headings, concise answers, and semantic clarity increases the likelihood of citation. Diversifying source presence beyond one's own website is becoming essential.

Technology stack decisions are becoming more complex. Companies must evaluate whether to rely on integrated solutions like Adobe LLM Optimizer, which work seamlessly with existing systems, or on specialized best-of-breed tools like Profound or Peec AI, which may offer deeper functionality.

Measuring success requires new frameworks. Traditional metrics like keyword rankings and click-through rates are losing relevance. Instead, metrics like mention frequency, share of voice in AI responses, sentiment scores, citation quality, and attribution to downstream business outcomes are becoming central.

Organizational transformation is just as important as technological transformation. 75 percent of marketers' work is shifting toward strategy, while AI is taking over routine tasks. This requires retraining programs, new roles like AI Search Strategists, and the integration of AI literacy into all marketing positions.

Final reflections on an unfinished transformation

The Adobe LLM Optimizer and its competitors represent more than just a new product category in the crowded martech ecosystem. They are symptoms and catalysts of a fundamental paradigm shift in the digital economy. Whether a brand appears in ChatGPT responses is no longer a technical curiosity, but a strategic priority at the C-level.

The economic dimensions are considerable. A market growing from less than a billion dollars to potentially over 30 billion dollars within a decade signals not only investment opportunities, but a tectonic shift in values. The traditional SEO business, already worth over 100 billion dollars, will not disappear, but it will increasingly merge with and through GEO.

The challenges are complex. Publishers are fighting for their economic survival, while platforms are waging legal battles over copyright and fair compensation. Brands are navigating a probabilistic visibility ecosystem where control is an illusion and continuous adaptation is the norm. The content economy itself is facing a paradox that can only be resolved through new business models and regulatory frameworks.

What remains is the realization that visibility in the AI ​​age is neither guaranteed nor passively achievable. It requires active investment, continuous measurement, and strategic adaptation. Tools like Adobe LLM Optimizer are not solutions to a problem, but rather navigational instruments for a new, constantly shifting terrain. Companies that understand this and act accordingly will not only survive the invisible battle for brand visibility, but will define it.

The coming years will show whether the optimistic growth forecasts will become reality or whether the pendulum will swing back. One thing is certain, however: the way billions of people discover, evaluate, and make decisions based on information has changed irrevocably. And in this new world, success or failure is no longer determined solely by algorithms, but by artificial intelligence that synthesizes, interprets, and recommends. Anyone who wants to be visible in this world must speak the language of these new gatekeepers and master the tools that make this visibility measurable and manageable.

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