What is the magic ingredient for digital marketing; the component of the consumer lifestyle that B2C firm awareness and engagement entirely depends on?
Search engines are used by a whopping 64% of the world’s population — few other channels have the same reach and power over the decision making process (Yaqub, 2024).
The Hidden Cost of Dominance
The industry is undoubtedly run by Google, a powerhouse leader and household name, controlling 93% of the search engine market (Yaqub, 2024).
However, Google’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have increased 48% since 2019. The firm expects these emissions to continue to rise before falling, so their 2030 net-zero goal continues to drift further out of reach (Duffy, 2024).
The culprit of Google’s, and many other firms’, increasing emissions is the rapid development and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the power-intensive data centres that grant it life (Duffy, 2024).
Search engines are also increasingly integrating AI into daily service offerings. With no opt-out feature, some claim Google is “force-feeding” AI to users, exacerbating an unnecessary climate footprint (Kerr, 2024).
Planting Trees, Not Problems
Ecosia is a search engine that plants and protects trees by dedicating 100% of their profits to the planet through investments in regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, and community-driven climate products (Ecosia, 2025).
The firm’s key value proposition is to create simple ways for their users to be climate active every day. Instead of the aforementioned data centres, Ecosia relies on solar panels that produce enough energy to power all search queries twice over (Ecosia, 2025).
Invisible Ads With a Tangible Impact
Promoting a switch from traditional search engines to alternative climate-friendly solutions such as Ecosia may seem favourable, but there is a key barrier originating from the corporate world: digital marketing.
Ghost ads are a form of incrementality experiment that allows firms to compare users who were reached by the campaign. The advertising platform tracks situations in which a message would have won the auction; in other words, ghost ads provide a way for firms to directly and concretely measure their digital advertising ROI (Google, 2015).
One issue that this trend raises is that these approaches require the advertising platform, in this case, the search engine, to conduct the experiment from the back end.
The Digital Ad Gap
Platforms like Google and Facebook have extensive advertising ecosystems that enable firms to optimize their campaigns. Ecosia, on the other hand, does not offer the same robust advertising infrastructure.
The platform would struggle to run effective tests or directly measure ROI, rendering firms hesitant to shift their budgets to a platform that is lagging behind.
The Future of Search
Through their innovative approach, Ecosia is adopting a diverse impact strategy, using their business model to simulate consumer behaviour change in the way they use search engines.
However, the B2B aspect of search engine platforms is entirely overlooked. Successful sustainable businesses tend to have one thing in common: powerful incentive shifts in the value chain.
Until green alternatives can provide firms the same advertising ROI and reach as traditional search engines, a massive switch is unlikely.
Planet-friendly search engines optimized for complex digital marketing remain an untapped opportunity to bring a new business model to maturity.
Hi Ashley
Extremely insightful post on this interesting intersection of digital marketing, search engines and sustainability.
Given the challenges Ecosia faces in attracting advertisers due to its limited ad infrastructure, do you think there’s potential for collaboration where Ecosia can partner with existing giants like Google to improve ROI while maintaining sustainability goals? Or even expanding these ideas to these tech giants?