In this panel excerpt, the speakers address the common challenge that many leaders see poor returns on AI spending. They argue that the most effective way to integrate AI is to apply it to already successful marketing channels—particularly traditional SEO—using AI tools such as Ahrefs' Market Content Planner (MCP) to discover new content pillars, consolidate existing assets, and eliminate cannibalization. They stress the importance of tying AI initiatives to clear KPIs that directly impact revenue growth or cost savings. To manage risk, they recommend allocating only a small, single‑digit percentage of the overall marketing budget to experimental AI projects, testing a variety of ideas, and keeping the bulk of spend on proven tactics. Over time, successful experiments can be scaled while underperforming ones are dropped, ensuring AI spend drives measurable ROI.
You're clearly playing around with this stuff, getting deeper on it. We've also heard in this conference in multiple sessions about how leaders and companies are not seeing good return from AI spend, AI investment, both in time and in resources and cost. I'm curious how you balance these things because, Neil, you're also talking about not missing the mark and focusing also on traditional marketing things that are working. How do you balance that difference there?
Yeah, so for me, and then we talked about it this morning too, I want to hear Neil's answer, but I do focus on what's already working. So what's working for us is still very much on the traditional SEO side. So how do we use AI to enhance that, whether it's on programmatic or, you know, other, like using the Ahrefs MCP, I can come up with new pillars or content we should be consolidating, deleting, what's cannibalizing. So that's what I'll use those MCPs for. So I use it on what's already working and what's already driving ROI. So for me personally, It's driving ROI. I don't try it on VO3 or Google Nano Banana. Those are fun to play with and I play with those things, but Neil actually made a good point this morning because you actually asked the question yesterday to the crowd on who's driving ROI from AI.
Yeah, and almost no one raised their hand. So the way we look at it is most people don't focus on KPIs internally. So what are you— everyone has a job. In your job, what do you do that actually makes the company more money or saves them money? That's, it's really simple. Then you look at AI and how can you actually use AI to do those things better? And you should see more revenue growth or savings. And what we like is a lot of this is experimentation because it's so new. Take a portion of your budget, very small tiny percentage, it's in the single-digit percentiles as a business, and you just try a lot of new random stuff. Some of it will work, some of it won't, and you keep the majority for traditional stuff that is producing ROI. And then you adjust over time.
