Gartner predicts brands will double their earned-media budgets by 2027. Publicity For Good founder Heather Holmes says the businesses that win won’t be the ones who spend the most. They’ll be the ones the media already trusts.
A few years ago, getting your business into the news was about awareness. You wanted people to see your name, remember your face, and think of you when they needed what you sell.
That world is gone.
Today, people ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to make the decision for them. They ask which product to buy, which company to trust, and which expert to call. If your business is not part of the answer these tools give, you do not exist to that customer. It does not matter how good your product is or how hard you have worked. If the machines cannot find proof that you are trustworthy, they will recommend someone else.
Heather Holmes, founder of Publicity For Good, has spent years helping businesses get noticed by real journalists and real readers. Now she is watching that same skill become the backbone of something bigger: AI search visibility. In a recent conversation, Holmes explained why earned media is no longer just a nice-to-have for brand awareness. It is quickly becoming infrastructure, the foundation AI systems use to decide who is real, who is credible, and who gets recommended.
But she was clear about one thing. Getting more press coverage will not fix this problem by itself. More coverage does not automatically mean more visibility. What matters is something deeper.
Why AI Search Is Changing What Earned Media Is Worth
Search used to mean typing a few words into Google and scrolling through blue links. Now, more people are letting AI tools do the searching and the deciding for them.
“More than ever, people are making choices based on what is coming up on Gemini or Claude or ChatGPT,” Holmes says. “It’s saving us time. I want to have a certain kind of playroom. What are the best products to buy? I’m an entrepreneur. I want to scale my business.”
This shift has a name: answer engine optimization, or AEO, sometimes paired with GEO, generative engine optimization. Think of it as the next chapter after SEO. Just like search engines once decided which websites showed up on page one, AI tools now decide which businesses get mentioned in an answer at all.
Holmes says the businesses that show up share one thing in common. They have been written about, linked to, and validated by outlets that AI tools already trust.
“Brands that get in the media and get backlinks are validated by third-party media outlets and trusted domains,” she says. “That’s part of the strategy for you to show up when someone is searching for you. If you’re not in the media, you’re essentially invisible.”
That single idea is reshaping how business owners should think about public relations. Getting featured somewhere is no longer just about ego or bragging rights. It is a real signal that tells AI systems your business is safe to recommend.
What The Coming PR Budget Shift Means for Your Business
Gartner’s prediction that brands will double their earned-media budgets by 2027 might sound like a number for big corporations to worry about. It is not. It is a warning for every small and mid-sized business owner who has treated PR as optional.
If bigger companies are about to spend twice as much building third-party credibility, the gap between businesses that are visible to AI and businesses that are not will grow wider, faster. Waiting on this shift is not a safe option.
The good news is that Holmes does not believe visibility requires a massive budget. It requires the right order of operations.
“It really focuses on high domain ranking websites, joining associations, getting awards,” Holmes said. “I would focus on local media as long as there is a local website. If you do podcasts, you want to make sure it’s transcribed as well, because we want to have that transcription to show up with AEO and GEO.”
Her advice for a business with a limited budget is simple. Start local. Get featured on your local news outlets. Show up on podcasts, and always turn the audio into a written article, since AI tools read text, not sound. Join industry associations that will list your business on their own trusted websites. Each of these steps builds a layer of proof that a bigger, more powerful outlet can later stand on.
Why It’s Time To Rethink How You Measure PR ROI
For years, business owners have judged PR success by counting clicks, impressions, and website visits. Holmes said that scoreboard is already out of date.
“You can see your citations increase over time through AI citations,” she says. “That’s the first thing. The second thing is when you start leaning into AEO and GEO over time, you should see more inbound leads.”
Notice the phrase “over time.” Holmes was honest that this is not an overnight strategy. AI visibility builds slowly, the same way trust does. But she says businesses that commit to doing it correctly will eventually see inbound leads arrive because AI tools are recommending them, not because a single article went viral.
Doing it the right way, according to Holmes, includes a few concrete steps. Start by finding out what already shows up when someone searches your industry or your main keyword. Study that result, then work backward from it. Keep sending real news releases, since being on the wire still helps over time. And do not neglect your Google Business Profile. Holmes calls it a signal that helps a business rank in what she called “the LOM,” her shorthand for how large language models decide what to surface.
“Keeping it updated,” she adds, is the part most business owners skip. Many create a Google Business Profile once and forget it exists. That neglected profile becomes a missed opportunity every single day it sits untouched.
How Earned Authority Builds AI Discoverability
Business owners often ask Holmes if they can shortcut their way into AI recommendations by paying for a placement in a major outlet. Her answer is no, and she explained why with a simple idea: authority builds in layers.
“Before you typically get that Forbes feature, you need local media and other media to show your validation,” Holmes says. “Media members see who else in their industry or journalists are covering, and then it’s a snowball effect. I don’t believe in paying for articles. There needs to be a story here.”
Local coverage feeds industry coverage. Industry coverage feeds national coverage. Skipping steps rarely works, unless a business has an extraordinary story that breaks the normal rules, like a founder who built a million-dollar company in one year while changing lives along the way. Even then, Holmes warns business owners to make sure their message is exactly right before stepping onto a bigger stage like the Today Show or Good Morning America. Those appearances are rare, and a business will not get invited back next month. The story has to be ready.
Why More Coverage Alone Won’t Make You Visible
This is the misconception Holmes sees most often, and it is the heart of why more coverage does not automatically create more visibility. Business owners believe that publishing content on their own website is enough. It is not.
“If you’re just posting content on your website, you will not be successful,” Holmes says. “You need content on your website, you need FAQs and long-form content, but you absolutely need to have validation from third-party websites.”
That validation includes being featured in media outside your own site, posting consistently on platforms like Medium and LinkedIn, and keeping your Google Business Profile active. Each of those signals tells AI tools that other, independent sources agree you are legitimate. Your own website alone can never prove that. Only the outside world can.
Getting Started Without Feeling Overwhelmed
Holmes acknowledges that this can feel like a long list for a small team to tackle. Her advice is to treat it as a consistent, long-term practice rather than a one-time project.
“I have seen inbound leads that we have gotten from doing the same method for over ten years,” she says. “It’s a consistency game. When people go to ChatGPT or Gemini and they’re searching for the best purpose-driven communications firm, Publicity For Good is showing up.”
Business owners who want help building this kind of visibility can find Holmes and her team at Publicity For Good. Her company also built a tool called AIsearchscan.com, which helps businesses understand how visible they already are inside AI search results. Holmes also wrote a book focused entirely on this exact strategy, called “Seen by AI, Found by Customers: The Purpose-Driven Brand’s Guide to Dominating the New Era of PR,” available at various booksellers.
The takeaway for every business owner reading this is simple, even if the work is not. AI search is not waiting for permission. It is already deciding who gets recommended and who gets left out. The businesses that show up will be the ones that built real, layered credibility long before anyone asked the machine for an answer.
