Timestamp:
00:00 - Introduction: The decline of Google Search and rise of AI platforms
00:27 - The end of cold outreach and digital Main Street moving
01:13 - Ads and snippets taking over search results
01:35 - The decline of the blue link economy
02:20 - The rise of YouTube as a search engine
03:53 - Why ChatGPT is more valuable as a search engine
04:15 - ChatGPT’s detailed responses vs. Google
04:39 - The shift from Google Main Street to ChatGPT
04:57 - The increase in cold outreach and spam
05:18 - Coping with spam and the paradox of more outreach
05:56 - The new Main Streets: YouTube and ChatGPT
06:41 - Substack as a new creator platform
06:58 - YouTube’s power for engagement and sales
07:15 - The difference between cold outreach and new platforms
07:34 - Advice: Build on new Main Streets, not old tactics
07:56 - Be present when your audience is searching
08:19 - Focus on value, not interruption
08:39 - Consistency builds assets and trust
Ash Roy's Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Ash Roy:
The Google search we once knew is now in decline. Our digital Main Street has moved to chatGPT and other AI platforms, the crowds you were marketing to, they're not where they used to be. In this video, we are gonna talk about the decline of Google search and the rise of chatGPT and other AI platforms, and how you can appear on search results in today's new search environment.
Do you remember the last time you replied to a cold email? Yeah, me neither. We've created a world where everyone is trying to interrupt everyone else, but nobody wants to be interrupted. I believe cold outreach is dying, and that's not just because we are all tired of spam. It's because the digital Main Street, AKA Google search has moved to chatGPT, and from what I can tell, most people haven't noticed.
So let's talk about the collapse of Google's search. If you haven't met before, my name is Ash Roy. I'm a CPA and MBA turned digital marketer, and my passion is to help small business owners to grow their business using digital marketing strategies that actually work.
Several years ago, I noticed that Google was sabotaging its own search engine.
I noticed that the SERPs or search engine result pages started to have these ads appear at the top above the organic search results. Google was trying to sell their ads and increase ad revenue on their assets IE their search engine result pages above the organic search results, and you'd see these ads appear on the right hand side as well.
Fast forward a few years later and you'd see these snippets appear above those ads, and the snippets were basically summ. Of the top ranking websites for that query, and Google was trying to respond and fulfill the queries on their own assets. AKA, their search engine result pages via the snippets. So now you had snippets, then you had ads, and then you had organic search results.
And so now you barely had, in some cases, three or four organic search results on page one. And as you've probably heard, the best place to hide a dead body is on page two of Google. So what happened was Google was sending less and less traffic to the original content creators who was creating that content, and that was the beginning of the end of what is called a blue link economy.
That's those blue links that you would click on that would take you to the website that created the best content, and the website then earned the right to offer you whatever they wanted to offer you on their website, usually their services or their products or whatever they were running on their website.
So now you had a situation, the search experience was starting to deteriorate. Meanwhile, YouTube was continuing to grow as a search engine, and at that point was the second biggest search engine in the world. After Google, which happened to also be owned by Google, YouTube is a Google asset. Now, at that time, I had predicted that YouTube might overtake Google in the future, and people who were going to YouTube, including myself, had a much more clear intention to buy, and they were really looking to make a decision.
They were closer to the decision point in the buyer's journey. If you'd like to learn more about the buyer's journey, click on the link in the description below, and we've got a blog post about that. Now, what I did not predict was the rise of Chatt PT, which happened around, I think, 20, 21, 22. Now, when Chatt PT came along, most people, including me thought that Google was gonna come back with a much stronger response than it did.
Google first came back with Bard, and Bard was. Unimpressive and then they came up with Gemini, which I think was a rebranding of Bard and Gemini was pretty good. But as of yesterday, chat, GPT had about 700 million users per week. I'm recording this episode on the 6th of August, 2025. Just to give you some perspective in terms of time, why has chat GPT become so much more valuable a search engine?
As compared to Google, because when you go into chat GPT, you can type questions in like list the top five running shoes available. Create a table showing me the prices of each of those running shoes, where I can buy them, and why they are such good running shoes. That's a very deep detailed. Search request, which until recently you couldn't really fulfill on Google.
Now chat, DPT was supposed to market with this detailed and comprehensive response engine, and maybe Google produces that, but I wouldn't know because I haven't been to Google search lately and I haven't used Gemini. In a long time because chat GPT is doing such a good job of satisfying my search, particularly when it provides me all the information in a tabular format and breaks everything down and explains everything in detail to me.
So if you think of the previous digital Main Street where everybody was walking around and you could potentially sell your offers on Google Main Street, well that Main Street has now shifted to chat GPT now because people are getting all their questions answered via chat, GPT and very few people.
Going to Google search as compared to before. We are seeing things like Google ads and organic search, which was previously driving traffic to all these websites that's now dying. And so what that has caused is a whole lot more cold outreach. I'm getting a ton more cold emails. A ton more SMS messages, even more spam than I was getting before.
So my response, like most people's response is, I've just put my phone on do not disturb, and if I don't recognize an email just by reading the subject line, I delete it. So we've basically engineered a world where almost everything by default is spam and paradoxically enough that's causing more spam, and that's creating a greater aversion to cold outreach.
So what's the solution? The Great Ice Hockey Player, Wayne Gretzky said. I skate to where the puck is going, not to where it's been, but from what I can see, most marketers seem to still be skating to where the puck has been. They're still trying traditional search. They're still trying to rank on Google.
They're still trying to run Google ads. But the entire Main Street has moved to chat GBT. Now, sure, cold emails might still work. Cold calling could still work, but it's going to be less effective today than it was even six months ago. I would argue that YouTube and chat GBT are the new main streets. And if you'd like to learn how to rank on YouTube or chat GPT, let me know in the comments below and I can create another episode around that.
But my point is this, if you're not showing up on chat, GPT recommendations or on YouTube. Then you are going to become increasingly invisible. There are some new main streets that are developing. Substack is a new home. It seems a lot of creators are moving there. And the interesting thing about Substack is you can upload podcasts and video and all sorts of content.
YouTube has been a main street for a long time, and you can solve problems on YouTube like I'm trying to do right now in this video. You have stronger search intent when people go to YouTube and they're more likely to buy your services after they've seen you and heard you speak because it's engaging two senses.
The difference between cold emails and substack in YouTube and all these new main streets is people choose to be there. They're not being interrupted. They're being engaged on a platform where they have chosen to be, and often where they have chosen to solve a specific problem to which you happen to be the exact answer.
So my advice, stop door knocking and start building your business on these new main streets. Instead of sending a hundred cold emails, create one high value video that attracts your ideal clients. Instead of buying LinkedIn automation tools, join one community and start a genuine conversation. Instead of interrupting someone's day with, Hey, look at my new product.
Be there when they are already looking for a solution to a problem that your video or your free content happens to solve in a powerful way, which will then lead them to ask you about your new product. Here's the other thing, cold outreach doesn't compound, but trust does audit your current outreach. How much is it interruption versus attraction?
Pick one new main street and focus on that. Don't scatter your focus. Lead with value. Don't make an ask until you've delivered something useful to your audience. Earn the right to make a pitch before you make the pitch. Be patient with the results, but be impatient with action. This compounds cold outreach doesn't.
If you show up in the right way and you do it consistently, you're building an asset. Now, if this resonates with you, then hit the subscribe button because I'd love to offer you more content just like this. And please do share this video with someone else who you think might benefit on this YouTube channel.
I want to show you where the puck is going, not where it has been, and I really want to hear back from you. So let me know in the comments below, what is one thing you're gonna start doing in terms of building your brand and delivering consistent value, and which new Main Street are you gonna work on?
And I know this is a contentious topic, so let me know the comments. What do you think? Is cold outreach dead? I'm sure a lot of you would disagree with me, and I'd love to hear it from you if you do. Do you think cold outreach is dead or are we just doing it wrong? And if you found this video useful and you'd like to learn how to build a trust-based asset, check out this conversation I had with Seth Godin where he actually delivered what I consider a masterclass.
On how you can build a strong brand. You might also wanna check out the playlist that I'll linked to in the description below, which will give you a lot more content just like this. Thanks for watching CIA now, and I'll see you in the next one.