Where clicks used to play a key role in the customer journey of discovering, evaluating, and eventually purchasing a product, zero-click search is changing how consumers discover and interact with brands. Learn how advertisers can adapt attribution models and media strategies for AI-driven search.
Key Takeaways:
With the emergence of zero-click search environments, how consumers discover and evaluate brands is fundamentally changing. AI-driven summaries and chatbot responses now deliver near-instant answers, curated recommendations appear without clicks, and purchase decisions often happen quickly.
Today, users who see AI summaries in Google only click a link in the search results 8% of the time, compared to 15% when those summaries don’t appear. And about 80% of consumers now rely on zero-click results in at least 40% of their searches. For advertisers who have built discovery strategies around driving measurable traffic through organic and paid search, that foundation is shifting.
Thanks to zero-click search, today’s customer journey is often shorter and faster. Where users may have previously conducted multiple searches, clicked through various links, and synthesized information themselves, many are now choosing rapidly based on AI-generated results—often without clicking through to any of the sources cited. For advertisers, this means rethinking measurement frameworks, adjusting channel strategies, and optimizing content for AI consumption rather than just human readers.
Zero-click search environments fundamentally change how audiences encounter brands. In traditional search, advertisers compete for clicks through SEO-optimized content and paid placements. In AI-driven search, whether within browsers or large language models (LLMs), the algorithm decides which sources to surface, synthesize, and recommend.
Consider someone searching for vegan protein powder. Upper-funnel queries like “Are there non-dairy protein powders?” now yield AI-generated summaries pulling from reviews, blogs, and retail sites. Middle-funnel searches for “best” recommendations now often surface lists scraped from affiliate content rather than brand pages. And lower-funnel branded searches often show retail listings, not the manufacturer’s site.
As a result, AI serves as a sort of intermediary between brands and consumers, contextualizing information in ways advertisers and brands can’t control. This shift is accelerating: As of late 2025, about 50% of Google searches included AI summaries, and this figure is expected to surpass 75% by 2028. This means approximately half of searches now include AI-generated content that may reduce click-through rates or obscure brand messaging.
This new search environment creates winners and losers. Small publishers and content creators, for instance, report traffic falling by as much as 70% after the introduction of AI Overviews. And brands relying on broad upper-funnel queries, rather than product-specific information, have faced similar drops. Take, for example, HubSpot. The company previously drove pipeline through broad searches like “famous sales quotes”—content that attracted traffic but wasn’t tightly aligned to their product. When AI Overviews launched, their traffic dropped between 70% and 80%. AI systems prioritize content that directly addresses what a product does or solves, so teams must optimize for relevance over volume.
This trend extends beyond traditional search engines. Between about 40% and 70% of LLM users use these platforms for traditional search engine use cases: conducting research and summarizing information, understanding the latest news and weather, and asking for shopping recommendations. The shift from click-based to zero-click discovery is becoming the norm across multiple interfaces.
The attribution challenges that follow zero-click are fairly predictable: If users don’t click, traditional tracking breaks down.
Historically, clicks on non-brand search terms (i.e., generic category searches like “vegan protein powder”) signaled awareness-stage engagement. Teams tracked users gathering information, then returning later to convert through branded search. In zero-click environments, that initial touchpoint disappears. Users may not enter attribution models until (or if) they appear in brand searches, making it difficult to measure which campaigns drove discovery.
For advertisers, this means top-of-funnel visibility now often gets cut off. Someone researching products may not appear in measurement systems until they search for a specific brand name. This measurement gap makes it even harder to understand the already complex “messy middle” consumer journey that connects awareness to conversion.
Yet drops in click-through rates don’t necessarily signal poor performance. In fact, conversion rates may increase even as fewer people click, as the users who do take the time to click through may have already completed their initial research and be closer to making a decision. Users may see ads alongside AI summaries without clicking, and those impressions still influence purchase decisions. In some ways, zero-click makes non-brand paid search campaigns even more valuable. Ads appearing in category searches deliver messages that brands and advertisers can control, versus AI-generated results that they cannot. The challenge is that impression-based influence is harder to measure and easier to overlook. And higher conversion rates from fewer clicks can mask the total impact of a campaign. As such, pulling back on search investments because CTRs are declining could mean abandoning a channel that’s still driving conversions.
To adapt, advertisers should adopt broader measurement frameworks that account for both the quality of clicks and the reach of impressions. Statistical modeling across platforms, on-site surveys that ask “How did you hear about us?,” and brand lift studies can help replace lost upper-funnel indicators. As zero-click behavior further fragments the customer journey, understanding campaign impact across channels becomes more complex. Tools like automated advertising platforms that consolidate and unify data from search, social, programmatic, and video into clear dashboards help teams see patterns that single-channel reporting can miss.
Zero-click search demands strategic shifts across channels:
As a growing share of searches conclude within the results pages themselves, the brands that adapt most effectively will diversify their channel strategies, invest in measurement tools that capture impression-based influence, and optimize content for AI consumption. Success in a zero-click search environment requires expanding beyond reliance on search traffic alone and maintaining presence across channels where messaging remains controllable.
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Looking for more insights on how search and programmatic advertising are evolving? Our 2026 Programmatic Trends report explores the shifts reshaping digital advertising in the year ahead.
