AI Is Dominating Search: How Social Media Marketing Can Boost Visibility

AI-powered search engines, social media, and online forums are expanding the world of search. To capture attention and earn meaningful visibility, digital marketers need to think beyond the search bar.

Ready to learn how to harness social media marketing to increase your brand’s visibility?

In this guide, we’ll:

Google still dominates the search market, accounting for roughly 90% of all queries. However, the modern search experience goes beyond typing keywords into a search bar; search is now an omnichannel discovery process unique to each user.

Here’s how social media and AI models are reshaping search.

Social media platforms aren’t just for scrolling anymore. Rather than passively consuming content, people are using social media to actively find information. These platforms are quickly becoming a preferred search tool, especially among Gen Z and Millennials.

To harness the power of these growing search tools, SEO social media strategies should be on every digital marketer’s radar.

Here’s what people are searching for on a few popular social media platforms:

Cutting-edge AI models are making search a more interactive, useful experience.

For users, these advancements offer a more valuable search experience.

For digital marketers, these AI models signal a new era of search and an entirely new playbook for earning visibility.

Social media and generative engines are doing more than changing the way people search: These tools are redefining visibility by expanding the number of places your brand can be found.

In addition to ranking high on SERPs, visibility now looks like using social SEO to help posts appear in an Instagram feed, get referenced on a Reddit thread, or be cited in an AI Overview.

In July 2025, Meta announced an update that allows search engines to crawl and index Instagram and Facebook posts. This update revolutionized social media marketing by opening an entirely new avenue for visibility.

Now, when someone searches for the best matcha latte in their city, a local coffee shop’s Facebook post might appear in an AI Overview. When someone searches, “How to train for a marathon,” a shoe store’s Instagram reel might show up.

For digital marketers, this means that optimizing their social media pages is now an essential part of their social media marketing strategy.

Understanding how to choose keywords for social media captions, leveraging paid ads, and determining what type of content to post can be the difference between showing up on SERPs and getting lost in the shuffle.

Viral social media posts are only valuable if they garner lasting engagement, and high web traffic is only impactful if it leads to high conversions.

Impactful visibility is about more than being seen; it’s about being seen by the right people.

Visibility can be both a vanity metric and an indicator of valuable growth, so marketers need to understand what valuable visibility means for their brand.

As Organic Search rapidly expands, it’s more essential than ever for marketing teams to fine-tune these three visibility goals.

When a brand shows up in multiple channels, it’s easier for future customers to view it as a reliable, authoritative voice. When brands are mentioned in AI Overviews responding to informational queries or in user-generated content (UGC) on social media, it’s easier for buyers to remember and trust them.

Here’s why brand recognition is important for B2C and B2B companies.

Successful brands know how to cut through the noise and connect with their audience. To achieve this, they have to boost their visibility. In highly saturated markets, visibility can be the difference between treading water and exceeding your goals.

When someone searches for an informational query, they may not be immediately motivated to make a purchase. However, these searches remain a significant part of a buyer's journey. By attracting and engaging top-of-funnel searchers, your brand can connect with new audiences and increase your visibility across platforms.

Social media marketing helps brands boost visibility by connecting with consumers at various stages of their search journey. However, a strategic approach is key.

Rather than posting as much as possible or running paid ads occasionally, marketing teams should merge organic and paid social media marketing strategies, leveraging the strengths of each to complement the other.

Organic Social Media Marketing

Engaging with creators and customers, creating a memorable brand, and creating useful content are just a few pillars of organic social media marketing.

Creating shareable, captivating content can help your brand connect with your ideal customers and boost brand recognition.

However, organic social media marketing has a limited reach. Since organic posts aren’t always guaranteed to reach the right people at the right time, successful brands opt to leverage paid ads for instant visibility gains, targeting high-intent audiences.

Paid Social Media Ads

When implemented strategically, paid social media ads can turn casual scrollers into loyal customers.

Paid social media ads guarantee visibility, help brands reach target audiences, and deliver measurable results.

Although these posts don’t appear on SERPs organically, the benefits of a paid social media campaign complement an organic social media strategy.

This is a strategy we deploy for many clients. The paid social marketing team at VELOX helps brands refine their social ads and transform their Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, and LinkedIn content into meaningful growth drivers.

Here’s how combining your organic social media strategy with paid social media services can boost meaningful visibility.

When someone opens Pinterest, they’re looking for inspiration. When someone scrolls on TikTok, they’re looking for entertainment and relatable content. Different forms of social media are tailored to deliver distinct experiences, so the content a brand posts on these platforms should match users’ expectations.

Launching high-quality ads and content on various social media platforms helps your brand connect with unique target audiences at various stages of their purchase journey.

Hypertargeted ad campaigns and full-funnel strategies can turn social media into a valuable growth engine. Brands that strategically leverage their social pages to promote their products and services can turn casual scrollers into loyal customers.

As social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram integrate e-commerce features directly into their platforms, it’s becoming increasingly essential for marketers to leverage their social media pages to drive conversions.

Social media provides a hyper-organic search experience that enables customers to connect with brands. By implementing on-brand, compelling ads with a data-driven strategy, your team can boost engagement and customer loyalty.

Just like a consistently updated blog can boost your website’s E-E-A-T, a well-maintained social media page signals to scrollers your brand is unique, reliable, and authoritative. When your brand feels authentic and trustworthy, it’s easier for users to stick around.

The way people search online is expanding, so capturing visibility is both more important and more challenging than ever. So, how do businesses optimize their digital and social media marketing strategies for AI-powered search engines? The following are two strategies we deploy for clients that have helped them thrive in this evolving space.

Optimizing for generative engines, answer engines, and traditional search engines go hand in hand. VELOX’s data-driven GEO strategies and Organic Search strategies deliver lasting results by boosting backlink profiles, creating keyword-rich content, and optimizing landing pages to align with strategic keyword strategies. All of these strategies help boost your brand’s authority and build user trust, which are key to appearing in AI search and beyond.

An omnichannel paid social media campaign expands your brand's digital footprint while boosting return on ad spend. From choosing high-impact keywords for social media ads to targeting high-intent audiences, our paid social marketing team can transform your social marketing strategy, delivering tangible revenue results.

To learn more about our winning approach to Organic Search and paid ads, explore this Anatomie case study, a luxury travel and athleisure apparel brand, to learn how VELOX helped them achieve a 146% revenue lift.

Want to achieve similar results for your brand? Contact us today.