CMOs: Your 2026 SEO Budget Needs A Reality Check

I'm reviewing Q1 budget proposals from marketing leaders right now, and I keep seeing the same pattern: they're still funding SEO like AI discovery isn't fundamentally changing how buyers find information.

Here's what I'm seeing in the data:

• Organic traffic patterns are becoming less predictable for many businesses

• AI Overviews are appearing in search results

• Zero-click searches are increasing

And the traffic drops your team is attributing to seasonality? I think many of those are actually structural shifts in how discovery works.

The Measurement Problem You Can't Ignore

Here's the conundrum every CMO faces right now. You need to measure AI visibility, but the measurement tools aren't fully mature yet.

The good news? There are ways to start tracking your brand's presence in AI-generated answers. They're not perfect, but they're improving rapidly. You can monitor brand mentions in AI Overviews. You can track citation patterns in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI systems. You can measure changes in organic traffic patterns that correlate with AI answer appearances.

Will these tools be better in six months? Absolutely. Should you wait until measurement is "fully cooked" before acting? No. By then, your competitors will have already established authority signals that AI systems recognize.

SEO Is Performance Marketing, Not A Brand Exercise

SEO generates revenue now. Not in some distant future. Now.

It works exactly like paid search with one critical difference - the results are cumulative rather than immediate. Paid search stops generating leads the moment you stop paying. SEO builds month over month, creating compounding returns on your investment.

When I show CMOs the pipeline contribution from organic search, they're consistently surprised. The qualified leads are there. The conversions are there. The revenue is there.

It's performance marketing, just with a different time signature than paid channels.

But here's what's changing rapidly. SEO is evolving from "rank for keywords" to "be visible wherever prospects research solutions." That includes traditional search results, AI-generated answers, voice assistants, and discovery systems we don't even know about yet.

If you're still viewing SEO as a long-term brand play rather than a performance channel that generates measurable pipeline, you're about to get blindsided by how fast this landscape is shifting.

Where CMOs Need To Allocate Budget

Your SEO budget needs to do two things:

1. protect your existing organic pipeline

2. position your brand for emerging discovery systems

Most CMOs I talk to are only funding one.

Foundation Budget: Technical Health Protects Revenue

If your site is slow, your internal linking is problematic, or your information architecture hasn't been reviewed in years, you're building marketing programs on a weak foundation.

I know technical SEO doesn't make compelling board presentations. But as a CMO, you need to fund the unglamorous infrastructure that supports every channel you're responsible for - including the organic pipeline that's probably generating more qualified leads than you realize.

Allocate budget for:

• Site performance that doesn't lose prospects before they engage

• Clean technical architecture that supports all your marketing efforts

• Information architecture that serves both user experience and discoverability

• Content maintenance for your highest-converting pages

This is your baseline protection. Without it, every other marketing investment struggles.

Experimental Budget: Test AI Discovery Now

This is where I recommend CMOs set aside a separate, clearly ring-fenced budget for testing how your brand appears in AI discovery systems.

This isn't about chasing every new AI tool your vendors pitch. It's about systematically testing what makes your content appear when prospects use AI systems to research solutions in your category.

My recommendation; start with content that directly answers the questions your buyers actually ask during their research process. I emphasize "actually" because I consistently see marketing teams creating content around questions they wish buyers were asking, not the ones driving real decisions.

Test entity signals. Review how your brand appears across different discovery platforms. Track what drives visibility and what doesn't - even with imperfect measurement tools.

I typically recommend CMOs allocate 20-30% of Q1 SEO spend here. Less than that, and you're not genuinely testing. More than that, and you're over-investing in tactics that aren't yet proven for your business.

Content Strategy That Justifies Investment

Stop letting your team measure success by content volume. You shouldn't be celebrating "we published 50 blogs this quarter" in your executive meetings.

Measure content by whether it positions your brand as the definitive source when prospects research your category. By whether it creates qualified pipeline you can track to revenue.

In my experience, comprehensive content that demonstrates clear expertise outperforms thin, keyword-focused articles. This has been true throughout my 25 years in marketing, and it's even more critical now when LLMs [machines] are choosing which sources to cite.

Mid-Year Budget Adjustments

By Q2, you'll have performance data showing what's working and what isn't - including better AI measurement tools than what's available today.

Move winning tactics into your standard marketing operations. Kill experiments that aren't producing results. Redirect that budget to proven approaches.

I'm consistently surprised by how many marketing organizations keep funding initiatives that clearly aren't delivering ROI.

Questions CMOs Should Ask Before Sign-Off

• "How are we currently measuring organic search's contribution to pipeline and revenue, and how will we adapt that measurement as AI discovery grows?"

  
  

• "What percentage of this budget protects our existing organic pipeline versus tests emerging discovery systems?"

  
  

• "How are we tracking our brand's presence in AI-generated answers, even with imperfect tools?"

  
  

• "Which content initiatives will expand our visibility when buyers use AI systems to research solutions?"

  
  

• "What's our contingency plan when traditional rankings become less predictive of actual traffic?" (This is already happening in some sectors.)

  
  

• "Are we funding strategy and execution capability, or just accumulating more software licenses?"

  
  

• "How will I defend this budget by showing SEO's performance contribution alongside paid channels?"

  
  

What I Actually Think Folks Need To Understand

AI discovery isn't replacing SEO. It's accelerating SEO's evolution from a technical discipline to a performance marketing channel that must be measured, optimized, and defended like any other revenue-generating activity.

If your content is superficial, AI systems won't cite your brand. If your technical foundation is weak, you won't appear in AI-generated answers. If you haven't established clear authority signals, your competitors will be recommended instead of you.

The CMOs I expect to defend their organic pipeline in 2026 won't be the ones throwing budget at "AI optimization" as a separate initiative. They'll be those who understand that SEO generates revenue now, who strengthen their marketing fundamentals while systematically testing what drives visibility in new discovery environments, and who can show the board exactly how organic search contributes to business performance.

Your budget should fund both protection and experimentation. Not because it's trendy, but because your organic pipeline - which likely generates more qualified leads than you're giving it credit for - increasingly depends on visibility across multiple discovery systems, not just traditional search results.

And you need to be able to prove that investment is working, even as the measurement tools continue to mature.

If you want to talk to me about how this looks for your business, I'm here and available.