Vibe Coding How Modern Marketing Teams Actually Work with AI

Over the past year, a new term has started to pop up in developer circles, startup Slack channels, and increasingly in marketing teams: Vibe Coding.

Depending on who you ask, it’s either - a lazy way of saying “AI writes my code”- a Gen-Z meme – or the future of how knowledge work actually gets done

As usual, the truth sits somewhere in between.

This article is about what vibe coding actually is, where the term comes from, and how SEO, PPC, and Social Media teams are already using it in very practical ways - often without calling it that.

No hype. No futurism. Just how the work really happens.

What “Vibe Coding” Actually Means

The term vibe coding didn’t come from Google, OpenAI, or a research paper.

It emerged organically in developer communities as a reaction to a very specific shift:

People stopped thinking in syntax firstand started thinking in intent first.

Instead of:

“How do I write this function?”

The question became:

“What am I trying to achieve - and can the tool figure out the implementation with me?”

“Vibe” in this context doesn’t mean careless or random. It means:

• working from intuition

• articulating intent

• staying in the flow of problem-solving, not implementation details

Vibe coding is not about removing expertise. It’s about removing unnecessary friction between thinking and execution.

Is Vibe Coding Just Prompting?

At this point, it’s a fair question.

From the outside, vibe coding can look a lot like “just writing better prompts.”After all, there’s text input, an AI response, and something usable at the end.

But this is where the distinction matters.

Prompting is a technique.Vibe coding is a way of working.

Prompting is transactional:

• you ask for something

• the system delivers output

• you move on

Vibe coding is iterative and reflective:

• you start with uncertainty

• you explore assumptions

• you test reasoning

• you adjust direction

• you decide when something is “good enough”

The difference isn’t in the interface - it’s in the intent.

When you prompt, you usually know what you want.When you vibe code, you’re often still figuring out why something isn’t working.

That’s why vibe coding resonates so strongly with experienced SEO, PPC, and Social practitioners.Much of the real work in these disciplines happens before execution:

• understanding why a page doesn’t rank even though it “should”

• explaining a conversion drop when nothing obvious changed

• figuring out why a social topic performs well once - but not consistently

These aren’t problems you solve with a single prompt.

They require:

• hypothesis building

• elimination of false explanations

• structured reasoning

• and, ultimately, human judgment

Vibe coding uses prompts as a thinking surface, not as a shortcut to output.

If prompting is asking an assistant to do something for you,vibe coding is asking a system to think with you. That distinction is subtle - but once you experience it, it’s very hard to unsee.

Vibe Coding Is Not “AI Writes Code for Me”

This is the first misunderstanding that needs to die.

Vibe coding is not:

• copy-pasting AI output blindly

• delegating decisions to a model

• skipping understanding

In practice, vibe coding looks like this:

You:

“Something feels off here.This setup should work, but it doesn’t.Help me reason through it.”

The tool:

• mirrors your thinking

• structures it

• challenges assumptions

• fills in implementation gaps

You still decide. You still validate. You still own the outcome.

That’s why vibe coding resonates so strongly with experienced practitioners - not beginners.

Why This Matters Outside of Engineering

Here’s the important part for marketing teams:

SEO, PPC, and Social Media have quietly become engineering-adjacent disciplines.

Not because marketers want to code, but because:

• systems are complex

• data is fragmented

• attribution is fuzzy

• platforms are automated

• AI intermediates between content and users

Vibe coding is the bridge between:

• strategic thinking

• technical execution

• and analytical reasoning

You don’t need to be a developer. You need to be precise about problems.

The Tools That Enable Vibe Coding

Two types of tools show up again and again:

• Editor-centric tools (like Cursor)→ great for fast iterations, scripts, refactoring

• Agent-first tools like Google Antigravity→ better for multi-step reasoning, analysis, orchestration, validation

The difference matters less than how they are used.

Vibe coding is a way of working, not a feature set.

Vibe Coding in SEO: From Keywords to Reasoning

Example 1: “Why Does This Page Not Rank?”

Classic SEO workflow:

• check keywords

• check backlinks

• check technical SEO

• shrug

Vibe coding workflow:

“Here is the query. Here is the page. Assume the page is technically fine.Why would a search system not choose this as the best answer?”

What you usually uncover:

• the page answers a different question

• it lacks comparison or constraints

• it doesn’t reduce uncertainty

• it adds no new information

This is not content writing.This is search intent debugging.

AI helps articulate what experienced SEOs often feel but struggle to explain.

Example 2: Building a Topical Map That Actually Holds Together

Instead of asking:

“What keywords are missing?”

Vibe coding reframes the task:

“If someone wanted to fully understand this topic,what questions would they naturally ask next?”

Using an agent-based tool, you can:

• break a topic into conceptual layers

• identify missing explanations

• detect orphan content

• model internal linking logically

The result is not more content. It’s better structure.

Vibe Coding in PPC: Debugging Reality, Not Dashboards

Example 3: “Conversions Dropped, But Nothing Changed”

Every PPC manager knows this moment.

Classic reaction:

• check bids

• check budgets

• check competitors

• panic slightly

Vibe coding approach:

“Assume the platforms are behaving normally.What systemic reasons could explain this drop?”

You walk through:

• tracking dependencies

• consent behavior

• device shifts

• delayed conversions

• attribution windows

AI doesn’t magically fix the issue. It forces structured reasoning, which is what usually gets skipped under pressure.

Example 4: Automations Without Becoming Dangerous

Instead of:

“Write me a script that pauses keywords.”

Vibe coding:

“Design a safeguard that alerts me when CPA deviates significantly - and explain why it triggered.”

This difference matters.

You’re not automating decisions. You’re automating awareness.

That’s the sweet spot where PPC + AI actually works.

Vibe Coding in Social Media: Strategy Before Posting

Example 5: “Why Does This Topic Perform, But This One Doesn’t?”

Instead of chasing formats or trends, vibe coding reframes social analysis as:

“What problem does this post help someone think through - and what expectation does it set?”

By analyzing:

• comments

• saves

• re-shares

• follow-up questions

AI helps surface:

• recurring uncertainties

• language patterns

• trust signals

This turns social content from “posting” into knowledge distribution.

The Common Thread Across SEO, PPC and Social

In all three disciplines, vibe coding works because:

• problems are ambiguous

• data is incomplete

• decisions are contextual

• experience matters

AI doesn’t replace judgment. It externalizes reasoning.

That’s why this approach feels natural to senior practitioners — and uncomfortable to people who rely on checklists.

Why “Vibe Coding” Is a Bad Name - and Still the Right One

The term sounds unserious.That’s unfortunate.

But it captures something real:

The shift from controlling toolsto collaborating with systems.

You don’t micromanage every step anymore. You guide, evaluate, correct, and decide.

That’s not laziness.That’s maturity.

Final Thought

If you’ve ever said:

• “Something feels off, but I can’t prove it yet”

• “This should work, but reality disagrees”

• “I need to think this through, not just execute”…then you’re already vibe coding.

You just didn’t have a name for it.