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Why every marketer should be preparing for sponsored AI results
Jeff Sauer
July 14, 2025
In partnership with
The AI advertising gold rush is coming
I've been thinking about something that keeps coming up in conversations about where the industry is heading.
The inevitable moment when you'll see sponsored links inside AI chat responses.
I listen to a bunch of podcasts, and one about the early years of Google made me realize something obvious in hindsight. When ChatGPT starts allowing sponsored links, we're going to see them release a killer business model that becomes the “Google AdWords of AI.”
Then I saw an eMarketer report predicting sponsored AI links will capture 13% of the search ads market by 2029. That's potentially $26 billion annually.
I think that this number will be comically low in retrospect.
Here's what I think is really happening.
We're watching the same playbook that built both social media and paid search fortunes. Get users hooked with free or inexpensive content, then introduce advertising once you have their attention.
This isn't limited to social platforms either.
Netflix proved this model works. They added ad-supported tiers and became more profitable than ever.
The pattern is clear. I’d predict that OpenAI will follow this proven path to skyrocket revenues, rather than charging enterprise-level subscription fees to everyone.
This creates a fascinating dynamic.
Right now, SEO professionals are scrambling. Everything they learned over 20 years feels obsolete overnight. I'm in some SEO communities where the conversation has shifted entirely to "answer engine optimization."
It's their lifeline. Their glimmer of hope.
But here's what most people miss - this transition period is exactly when the biggest opportunities emerge.
The measurement landscape is shifting, too.
People are asking about AI result monitoring tools. Companies like PromptWatch are emerging to track where your brand appears in AI responses.
I'm skeptical of the accuracy. AI responses aren't predictable like search results. Every query generates different probabilities.
But the advertisers inside our MeasureU mentors group are already preparing. We're just waiting for the self-service platforms to launch.
What I'm watching closely:
When OpenAI introduces sponsored results
How they balance user trust with monetization
Whether quality degrades like it did with Amazon, where most search results are now sponsored
New measurement challenges this creates
The companies that figure this out early will have the same advantage as early Google Ads adopters had.
The question isn't whether this will happen.
It's whether you'll be ready when it does.
Start experimenting with getting organic AI placements now, understand how they work, and learn how to incorporate this into your measurement.
To Your Measured Success!
–Jeff Sauer
Co-Founder of MeasureU.com
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3) Done-For-You Solutions: Let our expert team build custom measurement systems that increase your marketing profit and help you scale without adding overhead.
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