The Search Shake-Up: Ads, AI, and TikTok

How Jennifer Anniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads

For its first CTV campaign, Jennifer Aniston’s DTC haircare brand LolaVie had a few non-negotiables. The campaign had to be simple. It had to demonstrate measurable impact. And it had to be full-funnel.

LolaVie used Roku Ads Manager to test and optimize creatives — reaching millions of potential customers at all stages of their purchase journeys. Roku Ads Manager helped the brand convey LolaVie’s playful voice while helping drive omnichannel sales across both ecommerce and retail touchpoints.

The campaign included an Action Ad overlay that let viewers shop directly from their TVs by clicking OK on their Roku remote. This guided them to the website to buy LolaVie products.

Discover how Roku Ads Manager helped LolaVie drive big sales and customer growth with self-serve TV ads.

The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Anniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.

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Let’s get into it.🔎 Search Isn’t Just Going AI, Apparently It’s Getting Re-Monetized Too

New data shows Google SERPs are shifting fast, not just toward AI, but toward paid clicks.

Where:

U.S. search results across four verticals (headphones, jeans, greeting cards, online games).

When: 

Jan 2025 → Jan 2026 (YoY comparison).

Why it matters: 

Organic traffic is being squeezed by ads.

Everyone blamed AI Overviews for declining organic clicks. But the real plot twist? Text ads are eating search.

Across multiple industries, classic organic clicks dropped sharply while paid placements surged — in some cases doubling their share in just one year.

AI is rising, yes, but Google’s monetization engine is rising faster.

Brands losing organic visibility aren’t waiting around. They’re buying their way back into the SERP and creating a self-reinforcing paid arms race.

Top 5 Stats That Matter

1. Organic click share collapsed

   • Headphones: 73% → 50% (−23%)

   • Jeans: 73% → 56% (−17%)

   • Online games: 95% → 84% (−11%)

2. Paid clicks doubled in product verticals

   • Headphones: 16% → 36% (+20%)

   • Jeans: 18% → 34% (+16%)

3. Text ads are the biggest winner

   • Gains of +7 to +13 percentage points across all verticals.

4. AI Overviews exploded in visibility

   • Headphones: 2% → 33% SERP presence

   • Online games: 0.4% → 30%

5. Zero-click searches remain massive

   • Up to 63% of searches end without a click.

Why This Matters

When clicks do happen, a growing share goes to ads, not organic results.

Translation: SEO alone won’t save you. The SERP is now pay-to-play.

Read the full report.

Search Isn’t Just Google Anymore — But Google Still Dominates

For decades, “search” basically meant Google. But new research from SparkToro analyzing 41 major platforms shows that search behavior now happens across the entire internet, from social networks to e-commerce sites to AI tools.

The headline: Google still dominates. Just not as much as you think.

Here are the key insights from millions of desktop users across the US, EU, and UK in 2025:

1. Google still owns search (by a lot).

Google accounts for 73.7% of all desktop searches across the platforms analyzed. That’s lower than the usual “90% market share” narrative, but it still dwarfs everything else.

2. ChatGPT is smaller than the hype suggests.

Despite the buzz around AI search, Amazon, Bing, and YouTube all receive more searches than ChatGPT.

3. AI search is still tiny overall.

Across all platforms:

• Traditional search engines: ~80%

• E-commerce search (Amazon, etc.): ~10%

• Social platforms: ~5.5%

• AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.): ~3.2%

4. Search is spreading everywhere.

Users increasingly search directly on platforms like Amazon, YouTube, Instagram, and Reddit, not just Google.

5. Google’s share is slowly slipping.

In 2025, Google’s share of search dropped 3.5 percentage points, while Amazon, Bing, and YouTube gained ground.

The big takeaway:

People search wherever information lives: marketplaces, social networks, AI tools, and traditional search engines.

For marketers and SEOs, the future isn’t just ranking in Google.

Welcome to “Search Everywhere Optimization” era.

Read the full report.

Nearly Half of Americans Now Use TikTok as a Search Engine

What happened

TikTok is no longer just an entertainment app. According to a new Adobe study, nearly 50% of U.S. consumers now use TikTok as a search engine. That number has jumped almost 20% in just two years, signaling a major shift in how people discover information online.

Why it matters

TikTok’s short videos, personalized feeds, and creator-led storytelling make it feel more authentic than traditional search results. Instead of reading articles, users are increasingly turning to quick video answers from creators.

This is starting to impact the broader search ecosystem. Even Google has acknowledged that TikTok is eating into search behavior, particularly among younger users.

But context matters: TikTok is growing fast, yet Google, Reddit, and ChatGPT are still considered more trusted sources of information overall.

What people search on TikTok

The platform is becoming a discovery hub for lifestyle decisions, especially:

• Recipes and cooking ideas

• Beauty tips and product reviews

• Restaurant recommendations

• Local experiences and travel ideas

These categories thrive in video format, which explains why TikTok performs so well as a search tool.

What this means for marketers

TikTok search isn’t replacing Google but it’s changing where discovery starts.

For brands, this means optimizing content not just for traditional SEO, but for video-first discovery inside social platforms.

Search is happening inside social feeds.

Read the full report.