The Evolution of Paid and Adapting to an AI-Powered World

The first online banner ad appeared in 1994 – a simple rectangle from AT&T that asked, “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will.” At the time, campaigns and advocacy groups still relied almost entirely on TV, phones, mail, and earned media. Advertising online was experimental – a curiosity, not a strategic imperative.

That changed in the early 2000s, as platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter took off.
 

The 2008 Obama campaign showed what was possible when data, message, and audience came together online.

Advocacy groups and public affairs shops began building in-house digital capabilities, using social ads to reach supporters, lawmakers, and stakeholders with precision – especially once it became well-understood that it wasn’t just Millennials posting their days away. Underpinning it all was Google, the world’s most powerful search engine that achieved a near-monopoly helping people navigate the internet and placing advertisers atop Page 1 – for all intents and purposes, the only page.

By the mid-2010s, the rise of programmatic demand-side platforms (DSPs) and more easily accessible third-party data shifted digital advertising from art to algorithm. Advertisers could now reach specific voter segments across thousands of sites – not just through the famous walled-garden platforms. Retargeting, lookalike audiences, CRM integrations, and cross-device tracking allowed public affairs campaigns to influence not just awareness but behavior.
 

Paid media was no longer about blasting messages – it became a tool for conversion, persuasion, and narrative reinforcement.

At the same time, the explosion of streaming video platforms like Hulu, YouTube TV, and Roku opened up a new frontier for advocacy campaigns. These channels combined the visual impact of traditional TV with the targeting power of digital, allowing advertisers to serve custom ads to voters in specific ZIP codes, legislative districts, or demographic profiles. Instead of hoping the right person caught a 30-second ad on cable, campaigns could now ensure delivery to only the audiences that mattered most. Streaming video became a premium channel for public affairs – especially when paired with complementary tactics in search, display, and on mobile.

But the ground is shifting once more.

Since 2020, platform restrictions on targeting, identity resolution, and especially political/issue content have forced a recalibration. At the same time, AI is rewriting the rules of influence.
 

"Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Claude are not just tools – they are new information environments."

Increasingly, voters, reporters, and staffers are asking questions to machines, not search engines. That has implications for advocacy visibility and credibility.

This is where Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) comes into play. Instead of optimizing for search rankings, campaigns now need to optimize for how they appear in the AI-generated answers their audiences are prompting. The new imperative is ensuring your organization’s name, position, and message are reflected in the sources LLMs ingest and cite. This means Wikipedia entries, high-authority media placements, trusted discussion forums, and structured owned content – all of which feed a modified paid approach involving sponsored content, promoted discussion topics, and “search engine maintenance” advertising on the legacy engines. 

The Adfero POV

AI tools are streamlining the entire campaign ecosystem, from content creation to stakeholder mapping to rapid-response testing. The ability to simulate, personalize, and iterate messaging across audiences at scale is already changing how Adfero’s advocacy strategies are built and deployed.

Still, no tool replaces strategy. AI is a force multiplier – but it can’t choose your message, defend your reputation, or understand political context. That’s still the work of smart, experienced communicators.

Communicators that succeed in this next chapter will be those that integrate traditional persuasion tactics with AI-native thinking – not chasing trends, but using technology to execute better, faster, and more precisely in the moments that matter most.