Google has steadily moved towards zero click searches over the past few years, with features such as instant answers and knowledge panels giving users the info they are looking for directly on the search engine results page (SERP) with no clickthrough required. The introduction of AI Overviews is an evolution of that trend, further reducing the need for users to leave the SERP.
AI Overviews – generative AI-produced summaries that appear at the top of search results – mean users can often find the answers they need without clicking through to a website. While this may offer a more frictionless experience for the user, it presents new challenges for advertisers trying to make the most of their digital ad budgets.
This trend is reshaping user behaviour and requires us to rethink how we measure visibility and performance across organic and paid search.
Traditional metrics are no longer enough
The metrics we traditionally used to measure search success now tell only small parts of the story. With clickthrough rates declining, we need new metrics to better understand visibility and conversion impact in a world of AI overviews and zero-click searches.
It is also becoming more challenging to model attribution, when a user may first encounter a brand through an AI-generated answer, and then later converts through another channel.
Marketers need to adjust their approach to maintain presence and visibility within a more complex search experience. As a starting point, optimising for conversions (leads or sales) is more important than ever. In addition, keyword strategies should evolve to accommodate the reality that there are fewer clicks to go around. Marketers should focus on transactional, high-intent keywords found in the queries where users are closer to converting and AI Overviews are less likely to satisfy fully.
It is also necessary to fine-tune our strategies to balance cost-efficiency with visibility in increasingly competitive spaces. That does not mean going back to fighting for impression share through expensive bidding wars. Instead, it is about making smarter use of SERP real estate by taking advantage of assets such as sitelinks, callouts and structured snippets.
The changes demand that we re-evaluate many pillars of our digital advertising and marketing strategies. Even more now than before, we need to support paid search with brand-building campaigns across social, programmatic and other channels to lift user awareness and brand searches.
First-party data and diversified channel strategies can really help brands to preserve visibility and performance in this landscape.
Unlocking the opportunities of AI Max
Finally, marketers should also explore the opportunities that Google has opened with AI Max for Search, a new feature that enhances keyword reach, ad asset generation and landing page selection using AI. It offers expanded reach into new intent and query types, using broad-match and “keywordless” technologies to serve ads for queries you did not explicitly target.
Meaning that when AI Overviews answer informational queries, advertisers can participate in the query-set to capture conversion-intention traffic. AI Max also optimises assets by generating or adapting ad text, headlines and descriptions according to landing pages, keywords and ad assets. This helps ad messaging to rise above the noise.
Enhanced controls (such as locations of interest and brand controls) and expanded reporting of search terms and assets, meanwhile, help to optimise ads in response to changing user behaviours such as declining clicks.
AI Overviews do not solve all the challenges we face. Google is testing ads within AI Overviews via standard search and shopping campaigns, but there is no guarantee that an ad will appear within the AI Overview box after AI Max is activated.
What’s more, the core challenge of zero-click remains in play. While AI Max can help a brand capture new or deeper-intent queries, it may well still be necessary to rethink search metrics and strategy. If a brand’s budget and bidding only target generic top-of-funnel keywords, it may lose visibility or efficiency.
As such, it is important to also bid on conversion-intent and transactional keywords.
Here is a quick-start guide for using AI Max in the context of AI Overviews
- Enable AI Max for your Search campaigns and monitor new queries closely.
- Shift your keyword strategy to place more emphasis on conversion-intent and high-transaction keywords. Also use AI Max to reach less obvious queries.
- Focus on metrics beyond clicks. Measure impression‐share, ad visibility in emerging placements, conversions (not just CTRs) and monitor how your ads perform when AI Overviews are present.
- Use the enhanced reporting features available with AI Max. Review search term reports, asset performance and query expansion logs to understand how AI Max is performing.
- Ensure you have a solid data capture strategy (first-party, CRM, offline conversions) to make the most of AI Max and shifting user behaviour.
- Experiment and optimise. Because search is changing fast with AI Overviews and AI Mode, you will want to keep testing ad creative, landing pages, bidding strategy, query coverage and attribution methods to see what works best for your brand.
A bridge between search campaigns and evolving user intent
AI Overviews represent one of the most fundamental shifts we have seen in search for many years. It is difficult to predict right now how this space will evolve over the next couple of years, but it seems likely that many of our old approaches and metrics will fall by the wayside.
As the world of search evolves, using AI Max enables us to progress keyword strategies from focusing on keywords and clicks to optimising for intent, engagement and conversion across multiple query types.
Brands that start adjusting their strategies today will be best placed to capture high-intent engagement as search continues to evolve.
As head of digital media strategy at iqbusiness, Natascha Torres helps organisations drive better results from their digital marketing investments through unlocking the full potential of performance analytics, attribution modelling, and platform optimisation across Google, Meta, programmatic and emerging channels. She holds a BA Honours in Brand Leadership and a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing. iqbusiness is Africa’s future-focused management and digital growth enabler, founded with over 26 years’ experience. Led by some of the continent’s best thinkers and doers, our purpose is simple: to grow people, business and Africa as one.
