The introduction of AI into online search is precipitating a massive shift in the way users navigate the web. In fact, since Google first introduced its AI Overviews experience — which offers up a specific answer instead of a collection of links — websites of all types, from publishers to retailers, have noticed a significant drop in traffic. From a consumer’s point of view, it makes sense: Why look any further when the information is right there on the results page?
A study from the Pew Research Center found that Google users who encountered an AI summary clicked through the traditional search result links just 8% of the time, compared to 15% when no AI summary was offered. A separate study from BrightEdge found that the average click-through rate to third-party websites has decreased by 30% since May 2024, when AI Overviews was rolled out widely.
Google doesn’t deny the dramatic change that its new AI-powered search is causing— far from it: “[Search] used to be about really careful keywords, using your own behavior to figure out ‘What word should I really be using right now?’” said Courtney Rose, VP of Retail at Google during the company’s ThinkRetail event for advertisers and partners earlier this month. “But now you can use search in really natural language, you can do a voice search, we search with images, we ask really complex questions, we can even have a back-and-forth with search, and it can even start to take action on our behalf. That’s because AI gives search superpowers, and people are loving what it can do.”
In fact, AI Overviews now has more than 2 billion users every month across 200+ countries. And while click-through rates might be down, the BrightEdge study also found that impressions are up a whopping 49%, indicating that consumers are encountering brands in search more than ever — even if they are skipping the next step of visiting those companies’ sites.
It’s great news for Google, which is seeing the number of queries it handles continue to grow: “[Users] are increasingly happier with their results, and they’re searching more often because it turns out, when you make it easier to get information, people ask more questions,” said Rose.
And so while it might not seem like it on the surface, from Google’s vantage point this all means a new era of opportunity for advertisers — if they adapt accordingly. This includes:
- Understanding how AI search is changing consumers’ online shopping behaviors;
- Adapting marketing strategies to focus on consumer intent not specific keywords;
- Adopting AI creative and demand-gen tools to keep pace; and
- Zeroing in on multimedia storytelling as way to appear in AI conversations.
“60% of shopping queries are becoming broader in their intent,” shared Dan Taylor, VP of Google Ads at a press briefing prior to ThinkRetail. “We used to think about search and search engine marketing as being very mercenary. ‘I’m going to search for “red sneakers under $75.”’ But now it’s more like, ‘Tell me about gifts for someone you know that likes to cook but has a small kitchen.’ Those are the kinds of queries that we’re getting now, where there’s not a single right answer and there’s some research in mind. They’re not exactly sure what they’re looking for and they want to get answers, not just go right to the purchase.”
Given how rapidly this is all changing, and given that Google is one of the key players in bringing it all about, it’s not particularly surprising that Google’s answer for brands looking to adapt to AI Overviews is not less AI but more — specifically its own suite of AI tools for advertisers and merchants.
“Shopping behavior is evolving because of AI, and the opportunity for advertisers to meet that moment is also accelerating with AI,” said Taylor. “This creates incredible opportunities to be discovered earlier along an expanded holiday shopping season.” Or as Rose put it during the ThinkRetail keynote session: “AI is the engine that will power your growth through this holiday season, and the next and after that.”
Here’s how Google sees that all playing out.
How AI is Changing Consumers’ Online Shopping Behaviors
As Google’s AI Overviews and other conversational search tools have begun to proliferate and be used more broadly by consumers, Google has noted a number of shifts in how people shop online:
1. Impulse buying has dropped year over year from 30% to 26%, according to Taylor, who said he expects this trend to continue as customers get even more deliberate with their online buying. “They’re thinking more about price. They’re thinking more about quality, convenience, shipping, all the rest,” he said and AI is helping them easily and quickly weigh all those factors on their way to purchase.
2. Consumers are doing more research because AI is reducing the difficulty and time-intensiveness of doing that research. “Household budgets are tight, so it’s no surprise that people are making fewer spontaneous purchases than in the past, and instead they’re researching more,” said Rose. “They’re making more careful choices. And here’s a key insight — they are not just looking for the lowest price. They are solving a complex equation in their heads for what value truly means, weighing price and product, confidence and convenience all at once.”
3. The holiday shopping period is continuing to expand. For years retailers have noticed holiday purchases taking place earlier than ever before — certainly well before the traditional “kickoff” on Thanksgiving weekend/Black Friday. Now, these new, more deliberate shopping patterns are causing that creep to extend even further, with Taylor saying shoppers are now making gift purchases whenever the correct elements are in place at any time from October through the end of the year. “[Holiday] is now a three-month marathon for retailers, so it’s more important than ever for retailers to understand where that demand is happening over the course of the retail holiday season and to be there in those moments,” said Taylor.
AI to Keep up with AI: Manual Marketing Processes Don’t Cut it Anymore
Google is, of course, positioning itself as the resource brands need to meet this demand, touting the fact that on the typical at-least-five-touchpoint customer journey, Google and/or YouTube pop up at least 86% of the time, and 70% of social media users use Google Search to inform and evaluate products that they discovered on social platforms.
Google’s answer to meeting those customers whenever and wherever they land on Google is for marketers to use its AI-powered tools for everything from developing creative assets to targeting, and indeed it’s hard to see how an advertiser could really keep up without some kind of AI support.
“We’re telling [our clients] to really educate themselves on this shift, especially from a search perspective and from a syntax perspective, from thinking semantically to [thinking about] intent,” said Tory Lariar, SVP for Paid Search at marketing consultancy Monks during a ThinkRetail panel session. “You have to continue testing, iterate on your testing, and you want to embrace that change. We’re trying to build out multi-month roadmaps for testing before demand is [expected to hit] so that we can ensure that we’re ready when that demand happens.”
This includes testing AI tools like Google’s Performance Max that rapidly generate variations of ad assets to target different audiences, as well as “diversifying away from that last-click, text-focused brand search,” Lariar added. “A lot of businesses have built success around that, to where that is 80% of their budget and then there’s everything else. The ones that are successful now are those that are flipping those percentages and utilizing more of an incrementality mindset, creating brand stories for demand gen and even more advanced YouTube models.”
Storytelling Matters More Than Ever
Running in tandem with the rise of AI search has been a growing recognition of the power of creators in this new ecosystem. With AI tools scraping all corners of the web for insight into consumers’ questions, verified product feedback and reviews like those that creators churn out to massive audiences carry more weight than ever.
“Yes, there have been declines in organic traffic, and we have a lot of clients concerned about that going into the holiday,” said Lariar. “Our tip is that it’s really important to optimize for the questions that you want to show up in, both from an organic and a paid perspective. We’re seeing increased conversion rates across organic and paid when you show up in experiences [like Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode]. So that’s our hot tip — make sure that you’re optimizing for the questions your customer [is asking] and that you’re showing that on your site, in your content and your creative, and how you’re buying search or display.”
As an example of how this can work, imagine a search query to find out how to bring small dogs on flights. The initial AI Overview will likely focus on information that answers the question directly, such as airline policies and tips for traveling with animals, but “there’s also a commercial need here that we can anticipate,” said Rose. “Maybe they need an airline-approved pet carrier, and it shows up here in the right moment as a helpful ad.”
The tricky part is anticipating those questions. To that, Lariar said her team uses tools like Semrush to track where their clients’ brands are showing up in search, then optimizing content such as landing pages and ad creative for different consumer personas and the kinds of questions they are asking.
To be sure, this can all be a bit overwhelming, especially for marketers who have operated under a different set of rules for decades. The one thing that is clear is that everyone is dealing with the same challenges, and the best solution may just be to dive in headfirst.
“Anyone who skis knows that when you go down a mountain, your initial reflex is to lean backwards because you’re scared of falling over, but actually to be a good skier you have to lean forward,” said Michelle Carrara, VP of Growth and Analytics at bedding brand Boll & Branch during the panel. “That’s the philosophy we’re bringing to Q4 — leaning into the opportunities that present themselves. Don’t be afraid to take risks. Use the rest of the year to really develop that playbook of levers so when things do go wrong, which they absolutely will, you have something else to go back and try.”