After 20 years in digital marketing, we have a deep feeling: it's not that traffic has decreased, but that traffic has moved. In the past, customers looking for products would open Baidu and search for keywords; now they might first ask Doubao, ask DeepSeek, then scroll through a few Douyin videos, and finally decide whether to leave a phone number. When the entry point changes, the customer acquisition method must change accordingly. This article doesn't talk in vague terms; based on our frontline experience serving customers nationwide at Yunxuan Network Technology, we discuss the three most noteworthy changes for enterprise customer acquisition in 2025—AI customer service, Douyin promotion, and generative engine optimization—and how to implement them.
1. Migration of Traffic Entry Points: From Search Box to Dialog Box, Then to Short Videos
First, look at a phenomenon we observed while serving customers. Over the past two years, we have helped manufacturing factories, engineering companies, and commercial stores with full-network promotion. In the backend data, there is an obvious trend: the proportion of inquiries from traditional search engines is declining, but leads from AI Q&A platforms and short video platforms are rising. This is not to say Baidu promotion is useless, but that the channel structure for enterprise customer acquisition has changed from unipolar to multipolar.
The first change is the migration of search behavior. Previously, when users searched for 'which engineering company in Zhanjiang is good', they would see a bunch of web links and click through to compare one by one. Now many users directly ask AI assistants: 'Recommend a few reliable engineering companies for me', and the AI will directly generate an answer. If your enterprise information has not been captured, understood, and cited by AI, then you are absent from this round of recommendations. This is the problem that our key focus, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), aims to solve.
The second change is the shortening of the decision-making chain. The rise of Douyin promotion has turned many decisions that originally required multiple searches into a direct private message after watching one video. Users scroll to a factory live-action video, find it reliable, and directly click to inquire. This process may take only a few dozen seconds. If the enterprise is not prepared to handle such instant inquiries, even if traffic comes, it cannot be captured. This is where the value of AI customer service lies.
The third change is the integration of content forms. Previously, SEO dealt with text, and Douyin promotion dealt with videos. Now AI search will use text, videos, and Q&A as materials to understand the enterprise. In other words, your official website, your short videos, and your Q&A content are being comprehensively evaluated by the same AI system. This requires that the enterprise's online content no longer fight separately but form a content system that can be understood by machines and trusted by users.
2. Generative Engine Optimization: Make AI Willing to Recommend You, Not Ignore You
Generative Engine Optimization, abbreviated as GEO, is a service direction that Yunxuan Network Technology has focused on in the past year. Many customers ask when they first hear this concept: What is the difference from SEO? Simply put, SEO is about making web pages rank high in search results, while GEO is about making AI cite your information when answering questions. One faces a list of links, the other faces generated answers.
Why is GEO so important now? Because AI platforms like Doubao, Qianwen, and DeepSeek are becoming new information entry points. When users ask 'how can small and medium-sized enterprises do online promotion', AI will integrate online content to generate an answer. If your enterprise has never been included by these platforms, or the included information is scattered, outdated, and incomplete, then AI will not mention you when answering. Conversely, if your content is clearly structured, accurate, and cross-verified by multiple sources, AI is more likely to recommend you.
When doing GEO optimization, we mainly start from three levels. The first level is the basic information level, ensuring that the enterprise's name, business, service scope, and contact information remain consistent across multiple trusted channels. Many enterprises' official website information has not been updated for years, and what AI captures is still old content, which leads to recommendation bias. The second level is the content structure level, organizing the enterprise's service capabilities, cases, and advantages in Q&A, list, and comparison formats to facilitate AI understanding and extraction. The third level is the authority signal level, establishing cross-verification of information through industry media, enterprise encyclopedias, Q&A platforms, and other channels, so that AI can judge that this enterprise is real, professional, and trustworthy.
One special reminder here: GEO is not metaphysics, nor is it a one-time deal. AI models update frequently, and content included today may have changed weight next month. Therefore, when we provide generative engine optimization for customers, we usually do monthly content iteration and effect tracking, rather than leaving it alone after one submission. This is also where we differ from many service providers that only do one-time submissions.
From the cases we have served, GEO optimization has the most obvious effect on two types of enterprises. One is B2B enterprises, such as engineering companies and manufacturing factories, where customers have long decision cycles and will repeatedly query and compare on AI; the other is local service enterprises, such as decoration and commerce, where users will ask AI 'which one nearby is good'. If these two types of enterprises can solidly do GEO in advance and occupy a position in AI recommendations, the customer acquisition cost will be much lower than pure bidding.
3. Douyin Promotion: It's Not About Posting Videos and Getting Customers; The Key Is Content Structure and Reception Capability
We have been doing Douyin promotion for many years and have served many physical stores and factories. Customers often ask: Why do I post so many videos but get no inquiries? Our answer is usually: Douyin promotion is not about who posts more, but about whose content can be recommended by the algorithm, trusted by users, and received as inquiries.
First, content. Douyin's recommendation logic looks at interaction data: completion rate, likes, comments, and shares. But many enterprises post videos that are pure product displays, and users swipe past and forget. When we help customers with Douyin promotion, we first sort out what target customers care about. For example, for engineering enterprises, customers care about construction quality,工期, and price transparency; for commercial stores, customers care about price, style, and whether there is stock. Turning these concerns into video scripts and presenting them in live-action, comparison, and Q&A formats will improve interaction data.
Then, reception. Inquiries from Douyin have a characteristic: strong immediacy. Users scroll to a video, are interested, and immediately send a private message or call. If no one responds at that time, the user may swipe away. Many enterprises are busy with business during the day and only have time to look at their phones at night, resulting in all nighttime inquiries being missed. This is why we suggest that enterprises doing Douyin promotion must be equipped with AI customer service. AI customer service can respond 24/7, first receive the inquiry, record customer needs and contact information, and then follow up manually the next day. If this link is done well, the lead retention rate of Douyin promotion can be improved considerably.
Another point is the account matrix. The traffic ceiling of a single account is limited. We usually suggest customers create one main account plus several sub-accounts, with the main account for branding and sub-accounts for segmented scenarios or regional coverage. This can both expand exposure and test the effects of different content directions. Of course, with more accounts, the pressure of inquiry reception also increases, and the role of AI customer service becomes more obvious here.
4. AI Customer Service: Catch Nighttime Inquiries and Repetitive Questions, Don't Let Traffic Go to Waste
AI customer service is a core module in Yunxuan Network Technology's AI agent services. When many business owners hear 'AI customer service', their first reaction is 'isn't it just automatic replies?' Actually, it's not. The AI customer service we build is trained based on the enterprise's own business knowledge. It can answer specific questions, guide lead retention, distinguish intention levels, and organize conversation records for sales follow-up.
Why has AI customer service become important now? Because there are more customer acquisition channels and more inquiry entry points. Official websites, Douyin, Baidu, and information flow ads all generate inquiries. If relying entirely on manual labor, either it's too busy or responses are not timely. The value of AI customer service is to do the first round of filtering and reception: automatically answer common questions, transfer complex questions to humans, retain leads for nighttime inquiries first, and prevent repetitive questions from taking up sales time.
After we launched AI customer service for a manufacturing factory, the most obvious change was the increase in nighttime lead retention. Previously, inquiries after 10 p.m. were basically unanswered; now AI customer service can receive them first and record customer needs and contact information. The next day when sales come to work, they directly follow up on interested leads, which is much more efficient. Another change is that sales time allocation is more reasonable. Previously, a lot of time was spent answering basic questions like 'where are you' and 'business hours'; now these are handed to AI customer service, and sales can focus on following up with customers who truly have needs.
AI customer service can also cooperate with GEO and Douyin promotion. For example, if a user sees your enterprise information on an AI platform and comes to the official website to inquire, AI customer service can respond immediately; if a user sends a private message on Douyin, AI customer service can also automatically receive it. In this way, the entire customer acquisition chain is connected, and traffic will not be lost because no one receives it.
5. How the Three Variables Work Together: What a Complete Customer Acquisition Closed Loop Looks Like
Individually, generative engine optimization solves the problem of 'being found', Douyin promotion solves the problem of 'being seen', and AI customer service solves the problem of 'being received'. But truly effective customer acquisition is when these three links are connected to form a closed loop.
Let's take a typical B2B customer as an example. Suppose it is an enterprise making engineering equipment and wants to acquire customers nationwide. Step one, we help it build its official website and do GEO optimization, organizing enterprise qualifications, product parameters, and service cases into content that AI can understand, so that it is recommended on Doubao and DeepSeek. Step two, do Douyin promotion, using factory live-action, equipment demonstrations, and customer Q&A videos to build trust on short video platforms and attract proactive inquiries. Step three, launch AI customer service to uniformly receive inquiries from the official website, Douyin, and search ads, automatically reply to common questions, and guide users to leave contact information. Step four, sales follow-up, grading leads organized by AI customer service by intention and prioritizing high-intention customers.
In this closed loop, each link has data feedback. We regularly review GEO content performance, Douyin interaction data, and AI customer service lead retention rate, and if we find a link with low conversion, we optimize it accordingly. For example, if Douyin has high views but few inquiries, it may be that the video ending lacks a call to action; if the AI customer service lead retention rate is low, the script may need adjustment. This rhythm of continuous optimization is more effective than one-time投放.
For local physical stores, the logic of the closed loop is similar, but the focus is different. Local customer acquisition relies more on regional exposure and instant response. We help stores optimize local life platforms, cooperate with Douyin promotion for same-city content, and then use AI customer service to receive inquiries. Store owners care most about foot traffic, so we strengthen information such as address, business hours, and in-store benefits in the content, so that users can come after watching.
6. National Promotion Perspective: Different Regions, Different Industries, Tactics Cannot Be One-Size-Fits-All
Yunxuan Network Technology serves customers nationwide, not just in one region. We have an office team in Zhanjiang, but our customers are distributed across the country. This brings an advantage: we have seen customer acquisition tactics in different regions and industries and know which methods are more effective in which scenarios.
For example, in regions with dense manufacturing, there are many B2B enterprises, and the combination of GEO optimization and Baidu promotion is more obvious; in cities with active consumption, Douyin promotion and local life platforms bring traffic faster. For another example, factories doing foreign trade need to consider the search habits of overseas buyers in addition to domestic promotion; stores doing local services focus on making same-city traffic thorough. We take these differences into account when making plans for customers, rather than applying one template to all customers.
Another advantage of national promotion is resource integration. We have investment experience and content accumulation on multiple channels, which can help customers avoid detours. For example, in Douyin promotion, which content forms are easily recommended and which scripts easily trigger inquiries—these experiences can be directly reused. The same goes for GEO optimization: we continuously track AI platforms' inclusion preferences and content structure requirements, helping customers see results faster.
7. What Enterprises Should Do Now: Three Actionable Steps
If you are the head of a small or medium-sized enterprise, after reading this article, you may think: I agree with these trends, but where should I start specifically? We suggest starting with three actions.
The first action: check whether your online information is complete, accurate, and consistent. Has the official website been updated? Is the business description clear? Is the contact information unified across platforms? This is the foundation of GEO optimization and the basis for AI to judge your enterprise's credibility. Many enterprises fail to do this step well, and no matter how much promotion they do later, the effect will be discounted.
The second action: choose one main channel and get it running first. Don't spread across all channels at once; first choose the channel that best suits your customers. B2B enterprises can start with search promotion plus GEO; local stores can start with Douyin promotion plus AI customer service. Once the customer acquisition closed loop of one channel is running, replicate it to other channels.
The third action: complete the inquiry reception capability. No matter which channel you do, when traffic comes, someone must receive it. If manpower is insufficient, use AI customer service to first catch nighttime inquiries and repetitive questions. This step requires little investment but significantly improves the lead retention rate.
Yunxuan Network Technology has been doing digital marketing for 20 years and has served various customers such as engineering enterprises, manufacturing factories, and commercial stores. Our experience is that there is no one-size-fits-all trick for customer acquisition, but there are methods to follow. Generative engine optimization, Douyin promotion, and AI customer service—these three tools are not complicated in themselves; the hard part is combining and operating them well according to the enterprise's own business characteristics. If you are worrying about customer acquisition, you might think from these three directions, or directly talk to us, and we will help you see which link can be optimized.
Traffic is changing, entry points are changing, but the essence of enterprise customer acquisition has not changed: let the right people find you, trust you, and then contact you. Whoever can adapt faster to new entry points and new tools will seize the initiative in the next round of competition.