Why I Started PromptMarketing

In Q4 2025, I founded PromptMarketing because something fundamental in search had changed.

I've worked in search marketing for my entire professional life. I started my career at Google back in 2006, in the early days of what we now think of as "classic" search. Since then, I've spent nearly two decades deeply involved in search marketing - building strategies, advising brands, and forging close partnerships with many parts of the Google organisation.

At Abovo Maxlead, search marketing was a core pillar of our consultancy offering. Like many in the industry, we evolved alongside Google: from keywords to intent, from links to authority, from mobile-first to experience-first. Search has always been in motion.

But what I saw emerging in 2025 was different. This wasn't another algorithm update. This was a structural shift.

From search results to synthesized answers

In 2025, two things started happening at once. First, Google's SERPs changed dramatically. Not just cosmetically, but conceptually. Answers replaced links. Synthesis replaced ranking. Second - and even more importantly - user behaviour changed at a breathtaking pace. People didn't just experiment with generative AI; they adopted it. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude - these tools became daily interfaces for discovery, comparison, and decision-making.

When AI speaks for your brand, you lose control

In classic SEO, brands competed for visibility. You optimised pages. You ranked links. You fought for clicks. In generative AI experiences, something far more confronting happens. The AI doesn't just surface your brand - it interprets it. It summarises what you do. It compares you to competitors. It benchmarks you. It recommends - or ignores - you.

For CMOs and brand leaders, this creates a genuine nightmare scenario. The brand narrative is no longer fully in your hands. You can't simply "write the message" anymore. The model decides how you are understood. And yet, most organisations are flying blind.

This is the gap PromptMarketing exists to fill.

This is not "just SEO"

A question I hear often is: "Isn't this just SEO, but with a new label?" My honest answer is: no. Generative AI systems are not ranking engines. They are probabilistic reasoning systems. They don't return ten blue links. They synthesize, interpret, and select. That difference matters - enormously.

Building PromptMarketing

I officially started the company in early December. From there, I began assembling the right people. Not generalists. Not hype merchants. But specialists who deeply understand search, semantics, engineering, AI systems, and enterprise consultancy. Today, we're a team of six, working together to shape this new discipline.

Looking ahead

PromptMarketing exists to help serious brands navigate a world where AI systems don't just index content - they make choices. My goal is simple: to help brands be understood, trusted, and selected in the generative era.