Why We Bought a Digital Marketing Agency
Every new market shift, from .com and Cloud to Mobile and Social, follows a similar evolutionary arc.
In the early days, complexity is high and internal expertise is still being built. To realize value quickly, brands often move "Outside," leaning on service providers like agencies, consultants, software, and system integrators to bridge the gap. This is exactly where we are today with GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), but software alone is not yet enough to make marketers successful.
This is why, with one of our first real investments at Parsnipp, we decided to acquire a boutique digital marketing and AI Visibility agency.
Beyond the Tool: Why AI Demands Expertise
Every time a new category emerges, software providers arrive selling a "complete solution and complete expertise" while the discipline and channel are still in their infancy. With the rise of AI and GEO, we are seeing this same rush, but we believe selling a "fully baked" tool right now is a mistake. There is still so much functionality to be released by labs that will impact GEO and testing to be done alongside our brands.
In a brand-new category, software must be accompanied by deep domain expertise to ensure brands aren't just "buying another tool" without a clear way to actually succeed with it. At this stage, making sure brands are successful is far more important than maximizing short-term revenue. We are focused on validating this space and creating long-term partnerships built on trust, rather than selling into AI FOMO and exploratory budgets.
Delivering a Business Case, Not Just Features
To ensure Parsnipp sits within the modern marketing stack for the long haul, we have to deliver a complete business case, not just a list of features. Sitting an AI Visibility agency directly alongside our software platform allows us to:
- Partner in Success: We work in the trenches with marketers to ensure they see measurable ROI, not just a new dashboard.
- Stay Nimble: We evolve the category together without "over-prescribing" solutions while we are all still learning.
- Build a System of Record: We are building the practitioner’s hub to manage the channel of consumers interacting with AI. We are designing this system based on real-world workflows we use every day in the agency, ensuring it captures the true complexity of the channel.
The Rise of Agentic Commerce
We believe AI is evolving into a true acquisition channel, not just for discovery but for the entire customer journey. As Agentic Commerce takes shape, shoppers will move from initial discovery to consideration and ultimately to purchase, all within an AI interface.
This is a nuanced shift that requires an entirely new marketing playbook. While we have the data and early testing to form strong opinions, we are transparent: neither we nor the market have it all figured out yet.
By combining high-touch services an a specialized AI Visibility Agency alongside our software platform, we are giving our customers a tactical, measured approach to testing and prioritizing what will arguably become the most important channel for brands marketing and selling online.
