How MagicBrief turned organic AI traffic into a repeatable growth channel

MagicBrief is a creative intelligence platform that helps performance marketing teams discover winning ads, analyze creative performance, and streamline ad production workflows. When the team noticed growing referral traffic from ChatGPT and Perplexity in their analytics, they had no visibility into what was driving it. Partnering with Hall, they uncovered which queries were sending traffic, optimized for those patterns, and turned accidental wins into a repeatable growth strategy. The company was acquired by Canva in June 2025.

The opportunity: traffic from an unmeasured channel

MagicBrief’s analytics reflected something unusual in their referral data. Traffic from ChatGPT and Perplexity was growing month over month, and these visitors were converting to signups at higher rates than almost any other channel. But they had no idea why.

Traditional analytics could tell them that AI platforms were sending traffic, but not which questions people were asking, what context MagicBrief was being recommended in, or why certain days saw spikes while others didn’t. Performance marketers were clearly discovering MagicBrief through AI conversations about creative tools, but the team needed deeper visibility to optimize the channel.

The question became: how could they understand what was driving this organic traffic and systematically scale it?

Understanding what was already working

MagicBrief partnered with Hall to make the invisible visible. Using Hall’s generative answer insights, the team could finally see which queries were driving their organic AI traffic. The analysis revealed patterns they never would have guessed.

People weren’t just searching for “creative intelligence platform” or “ad library tool.” They were asking specific workflow questions: “how to organize TikTok ad inspiration,” “best way to brief UGC creators,” “tools to track competitor ads.” MagicBrief was appearing in answers to dozens of micro-queries across the creative workflow—saving ads, organizing inspiration, analyzing performance, briefing creators.

Hall’s platform also revealed timing patterns. Traffic spiked when new features launched or when competitors made product announcements, suggesting people were actively researching and comparing options during these moments. The team could see exactly which content pages AI platforms were citing and which generated the most qualified traffic.

Optimizing the to get more out of a promising channel

Armed with visibility into their AI traffic patterns, MagicBrief made strategic optimizations. They doubled down on what was already working.

The team created comprehensive comparison pages for every major competitor. Since comparison queries drove high-intent traffic, they built detailed, honest comparisons highlighting where MagicBrief excelled and where alternatives might be better fits. These pages served as genuinely helpful resources that AI platforms consistently cited.

They also expanded content around the specific workflow queries that were already sending traffic. “How to organize ad inspiration” led to guides on building creative libraries. “Best way to brief creators” led to templates and workflow documentation. Each piece of content targeted the exact language people used when talking to AI platforms.

The optimization extended to their existing content too. Hall showed which pages were being cited but had low click-through rates. The team revised these pages with clearer value propositions, better feature descriptions, and more compelling CTAs—optimizing for conversion once traffic arrived.

The results: from organic to optimized

Within 3 months, MagicBrief’s strategic approach to their organic AI traffic delivered significant growth. Referral traffic from AI platforms increased by 160%, and the channel moved from an emerging opportunity to one of their top acquisition sources, accounting for 8% of new signups.

More importantly, they understood exactly why they were winning. Hall’s ongoing monitoring showed which new content was generating citations and traffic, which comparison pages were outperforming others, and which workflow queries represented new opportunities. The team could see their AI visibility in real-time and make data-driven decisions about content investments.

The traffic quality remained exceptional. Users arriving from AI platforms continued to convert at higher rates than most other channels, with better engagement metrics and stronger retention. Qualified prospects had already been recommended MagicBrief by AI platforms they trusted.

Why understanding organic success matters

MagicBrief’s experience highlights an important reality: many companies are already receiving traffic from AI platforms, but lack the tools to understand and optimize it. The traffic shows up in analytics as referrals from ChatGPT or Perplexity, but without visibility into the underlying queries and citations, teams can’t systematically improve results.

By understanding which queries drove their organic traffic, MagicBrief could do more of what was working. They identified high-performing patterns—comparison queries, workflow-specific questions, feature-focused searches—and created more content to capture similar traffic. Organic visibility became a strategic growth channel with clear playbooks and measurable ROI.

The ongoing visibility through Hall also prevented surprises. When traffic from certain queries dropped, the team could see citation changes and respond quickly. When new competitors entered the conversation, they could create comparison content proactively. They moved from reactive to strategic in a channel that was previously a black box.

MagicBrief turned organic traffic into their fastest-growing acquisition channel by understanding what was already working and systematically scaling it.