When was the last time you Googled something and actually clicked past the first result? Now imagine your customers doing the same, not just on Google, but on TikTok, Reddit, ChatGPT, LinkedIn… and never making it to your website. Welcome to the new world of search and discovery in Financial Services.
In July 2025, we partnered with social media pioneers Immediate Future to host a webinar that shared insights on how AI and social search are fundamentally changing buyer behaviour in the financial services industry.
Whether you’re marketing to institutional investors, HNW individuals, or B2B buyers, your audiences are searching differently, trusting differently, and buying differently.
And that means your marketing strategy needs a reset.
Here’s what we learned, and what you should be doing right now to stay visible in a world where the funnel is broken, clicks are vanishing, and being “found first” is everything.
Forget what you knew about customer journeys. According to Katy Howell, CEO of Immediate Future:
“There isn’t a funnel. It’s about throwing out the net and making sure you’re seen and discoverable in a multitude of places.”
Social platforms have become intent-rich environments, where discovery happens through scrolls, shares, and increasingly, search. And it’s not just younger demographics.
“This isn’t just Gen Z or those side hustle TikToks,” Katy noted. “This is CFOs, investors, decision-makers, already using social media as a research tool.”
We’re seeing a rising trend of intent-based discovery happening in social feeds and AI engines. If you’re only optimising for traditional SEO, you’re ignoring a growing segment of search behaviour that no longer touches a search engine.
While social is changing the where of discovery, AI is changing the how.
As James Gray, VP of Digital Marketing here at Remarkable, explained:
“Even my mum, who’s in her seventies, was mind-blown when I showed her ChatGPT. People aren’t searching three random keywords anymore, they’re having conversations.”
Today’s buyers are using LLMs like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews to ask for financial advice, product recommendations, and brand evaluations in natural, multi-step conversations.
Some numbers to frame the shift:
“We’re seeing the crocodile effect,” James added. “Impressions are steady, but click-through rates are diving. AI is answering the query up front, and brands are missing the opportunity to be part of the answer.”
The implications are profound. Your content isn’t just for readers anymore, it’s for robots too.
Here’s where things get really interesting. AI and social don’t operate in separate lanes – they feed each other.
“AI is already picking up parts of social to inform its responses,” said Katy. “The whole thing is beautifully connected.”
So when someone posts thought leadership on LinkedIn, shares a testimonial on Reddit, or writes a detailed review, that becomes part of the AI training soup. It also feeds your perceived expertise and authority.
“AI tools favour clear, factual, and well-labelled content. They prefer voices with expertise and trust signals,” Katy explained. “That includes named authors, job titles, LinkedIn presence…”
In short: social proof is becoming AI proof.
One extra nugget from Katy: “first-impression signals” travel further than we think.
LinkedIn pulls the first 90 characters of every PDF, TikTok indexes the opening three seconds of captions and even ChatGPT weights the first answer it finds in a thread. Put the plain-English hook right at the top and you’re instantly more findable across every channel (human or machine)”
On the webinar, Katy also provided a link to a ready-made checklist for Social optimisation (file names, alt text, platform quirks and all), which you can find in her blog here.
Here’s what you need to do (now! to stay relevant and discoverable in this new landscape.
1. Refresh Your Social Content with SEO Hygiene
Audit and optimise your top 10 posts across LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok:
“Your copy needs to read like how people search,” said Katy. “Not corporate jargon like ‘building better futures’—but ‘how flexible pension plans work’.”
2. Structure Content for AI Curation
Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini reward structure:
Explore our guide to SEO, AEO and GEO to ensure your structure speaks the language of machines and humans.
3. Optimise Your Site for AI Overviews
Google’s AI Mode is here—and it’s rewriting how people experience search. We break it down in this insight piece, but in short:
4. Use Social as a Trust Engine
Don’t just post. Build authority.
Need inspiration? Our UGC & Advocacy article breaks down how to turn customers into discoverability assets.
5. Think Conversations, Not Keywords
“Users are starting conversations, not just typing keywords,” said James. “You need to structure content that works for AI, traditional crawlers, and real people.”
Content needs to not only answer the current question, but anticipate the next. Think topic clusters, FAQs, and interconnected thought leadership, not isolated landing pages.
We’re moving from a world of search to a world of prompt, scroll, and decide.
Your buyers are:
If you’re not discoverable in these spaces, you’re not in the consideration set at all.
“You’re not just optimising to rank,” James concluded. “You’re optimising for representation, inside the tools your customers are already using.”
Let’s make sure you show up. For deeper insights and conversation, be sure to watch the full webinar (above) and download Immediate Future’s Social & AI Checklist here. Feel free to explore more of our thinking on Search, AI, and Content Strategy and if you need help auditing your digital discoverability, let’s talk.
