R.I.P Google Ads, welcome GEO subscriptions!
Back in the day, you could simply buy your visibility on Google with Google Ads. If a user wanted to reach the real, high-quality search results, they had to go through the ads first. You bought your spot at the top. But those days are over. That coveted top spot is now definitively reserved for AI summaries. Now that entrepreneurs are massively realizing they’re throwing their marketing budget down a bottomless pit with Ads, the next “experts” are already chomping at the bit. Yesterday’s “Ads specialists” are selling you GEO subscriptions today.
Google Ads is dead.
Everyone agrees that Google Ads is dead. Cost-per-click (CPC) has exploded, while the quality of those clicks is plummeting. People simply don’t trust sponsored results anymore; they know it’s paid noise. The top spot is now the domain of AI summaries, and most users don’t even bother with that summary anymore. Why would they? The answer is already there. Now that entrepreneurs are fleeing Ads en masse, marketing agencies smell blood. They’re now selling you “GEO subscriptions” for sometimes hundreds of euros a month.
What is a GEO subscription?
A GEO subscription (Generative Engine Optimization) is marketed by, please note, marketing agencies as “SEO 2.0.” They promise to get your website listed in Gemini and ChatGPT’s AI summaries by occasionally adding a new landing page or blog post, claiming “the more text, the more likely an AI model is to see us.” They cram the text with specific terms they think AI models will appreciate, but in reality, they’re just cluttering your site with generic text that AI bots won’t fall for. GEO works completely differently.
How do you appear in AI?
AI revolves around the technology of the website itself. AI can’t lure you into a marketing subscription. AI is a machine that wades through your website’s code. If that machine is slowed down by outdated technology, GTM trackers, and junk like Facebook pixels, you simply don’t exist to that bot. To be visible in AI summaries, the foundation must be solid: your PageSpeed, accessibility, the site must not contain bad or outdated code, and Google Tag Manager scripts in particular, are deadly for your PageSpeed. AI won’t even touch your text if this isn’t in order.
5 years? But I paid €10,000.
Your website was a huge investment five years ago, and it still looks great, right? That’s mostly your own fault, and the AI models at Google or OpenAI don’t care what you paid five years ago. They just look at the current code. The days when you could rank at the top with a wad of cash are over. You can’t rent attention like you can with Google Ads, and you can’t bribe AI with a vague GEO subscription. But the days when a €10,000 website had to be good and have extra longevity are also gone. Those thousands you overpaid don’t mean an “extended shelf life.”
What you need.
What you need is a foundation that moves with you. That’s why we build websites that already include everything you need to be relevant. From the hard technology for SEO, GEO and AEO to ongoing maintenance, and ensuring the doors are wide open for AI models. Can our websites really keep you going for 10 years? Probably not, technology is constantly evolving. Who knew five years ago that AI would be decisive today? But in theory, you could get a new website every year for the minimum annual budget you need for a profitable Ads campaign.