INSIGHT
AI, social content and search give brands several ways to enter a shopper’s consideration set. The practical challenge is to help that shopper move from interest to a confident decision.
AI, social content and search give brands several ways to enter a shopper’s consideration set. The practical challenge is to help that shopper move from interest to a confident decision.
Our recent look at New Zealand’s digital advertising market explored where media budgets are moving. A useful next question is what people need after an advertisement catches their attention.
Research published by IAB New Zealand on 6 July 2026 offers some context. The Commerce & Discovery study, conducted with IAB Australia and Pureprofile, covered 877 New Zealand online shoppers. It reports that 55% use AI-powered tools at least occasionally when shopping, 67% use social media for discovery, and 93% use a search engine or online store to discover or research purchases. Meanwhile, 69% rely on online research to feel confident before buying. Read the IAB NZ findings.
These are overlapping behaviours reported by online shoppers, rather than separate shares of the market. They do not establish a fixed sequence or show which channel caused a sale. For brands, our interpretation is that planning should make it easy to continue researching across channels.
A short video can demonstrate a product in use. A creator collaboration can introduce it to a relevant community. Before commissioning either, decide what question the content should answer and where an interested viewer should go next.
For a retailer, that might be a product page with stock and delivery information. For a service business, it could be a relevant case study followed by a clear enquiry route. Sending every visitor to a general homepage can leave them searching again for the information that brought them there.
Audit your pages using the questions a prospective customer would ask: Who is this for? What does it cost? What is included? How does delivery or onboarding work? What happens if something goes wrong?
Answer these in readable page content. Keep important details consistent across your website and public profiles, and update them when your offer changes. Clear information is useful to people and gives search systems material they can interpret; it does not guarantee inclusion in an AI answer.
For more on this topic, see our AI Search in New Zealand guide.
For a brand entering New Zealand, a translated website is a starting point. Customers may also need local currency, realistic delivery expectations, accessible support and evidence relevant to their situation.
For example, a supplier serving New Zealand retailers could explain its lead times and show a local project with permission. A consumer brand could make its returns process easy to find before checkout. Use genuine customer evidence and specific operational details wherever possible.
Start with consistent campaign links so you can identify which content brought visitors to your site. Then examine the landing page, the next action and the quality of the resulting enquiry or order.
A practical review can connect social engagement and referral sessions with product visits, form submissions and confirmed sales. Compare event records with business records to catch duplicate or test submissions. Treat attribution as one view of the journey: a customer may have encountered several pieces of content before arriving.
Choose a priority product or service. Map one route from a relevant piece of content to a useful page and a clear action. Check it on a phone, resolve missing information, and agree on the business outcome you want to measure.
This gives your team a concrete project to improve before expanding into more formats or platforms.
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