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The Great CTR Decline: Why Google AI Overviews Are Stealing Your Traffic (and What to Do About It)

  • Writer: Michelle Marshall
    Michelle Marshall
  • 8 hours ago
  • 4 min read

Search isn't just evolving; it's consolidating. 


Google's AI Overviews are answering more queries directly on the SERP, and the ripple effects are real: organic CTR down 61% on queries with AI Overviews and paid CTR down 68% on those same queries. Even when AI Overviews don't appear, organic CTR is still down 41% year-over-year.


Translation: users are clicking less everywhere.


Brands cited inside the overview fare materially better (more on that below), but the headline is clear: the "rank → click → convert" playbook just lost home-field advantage. It's time to optimize for being the answer, not just ranking beside it.


Note: all stats have been pulled from Search Engine Land’s article, “Google AI Overviews drive 61% drop in organic CTR, 68% in paid.”


What Changed (and the Numbers That Matter)


  • Organic CTR on AI Overview queries: ↓ 61% (1.76% → 0.61%)

  • Paid CTR on AI Overview queries: ↓ 68% (19.7% → 6.34%)

  • Organic CTR on queries without AI Overviews: ↓ 41% YoY (still falling)


The upside? Brands cited in AI overviews earned +35% organic and +91% paid clicks vs. non-cited brands.


Research by Seer Interactive analyzed 3,119 informational queries across 42 organizations; 25.1M organic and 1.1M paid impressions (June 2024–Sept 2025).

Query Type

Organic CTR Then → Now

Paid CTR Then → Now

Note

With AI Overviews

1.76% → 0.61%

19.7% → 6.34%

Largest declines reported

Without AI Overviews

1.62% current (↓ 41% YoY)

N/A

Users are still clicking less

Here's the Uncomfortable Truth


Even queries without AI Overviews saw organic CTR drop 41% year-over-year.1 This isn't just about Google—users are getting answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, social platforms, and other AI tools. The traffic isn't coming back.


"Even when AI Overviews aren't visible, clicks are falling, likely due to ChatGPT/AI platforms and social search. That lost traffic isn't coming back."


— Search Engine Land


Why This Changes Everything


  • For SEO teams: Your #1 ranking is worth 61% less than it was 18 months ago.

  • For PPC managers: Your paid CTR just lost two-thirds of its efficiency on info queries.

  • For CMOs: Attribution models built on last-click are now measuring a shrinking minority of the journey.

  • For everyone: This isn't a Google problem; it's a "search is becoming answer consumption" problem.


Winners are cited, not just ranked. Inclusion inside AI Overviews correlates with materially better performance.


FTF's Take


This isn't a blip. It's the new search economy. Treat AI Overviews like a new surface where entity trust, topical authority, and structured context decide who gets cited. If your strategy optimizes only for blue links, you'll keep losing clicks to the overview. If you optimize for answer inclusion, you'll earn disproportionate visibility (and the clicks that remain).


What To Do Now: The "Answer Inclusion" Playbook


1) Engineer Content for Inclusion (Not Just Ranking)


  • Build Q&A modules (direct, quotable answers), add evidence lines (citations, data), and write follow-up logic (next questions a user would ask).

  • Create entity-first pages (people, products, categories) with clear definitions, synonyms, and context so models can confidently reference you.


2) Strengthen Your Entity & Schema


  • Implement/upgrade schema (FAQ, HowTo, Product, Organization, Author, Review).

  • Standardize names, roles, and relationships across your site and knowledge profiles (LinkedIn, Crunchbase, press, docs) to reinforce entity integrity.


3) Publish Evidence, Not Opinions


  • Use primary data, first-party research, and cited sources from non-competitor authorities.

  • Avoid fluff; overviews reward verifiable specifics.


4) Create "Overview-Friendly" Asset Types


  • Definitional hubs: What/Why/How pages with concise summaries.

  • Comparisons & frameworks: Side-by-side tables, pros/cons, checklists.

  • Procedural content: Stepwise instructions usable as answer blocks.


5) Rethink PPC in an AI Overview World


  • Expect lower CTR; plan bids and CPA targets accordingly.

  • Lean into high-intent & brand terms; use ad assets that mirror overview answers (FAQs, snippets, price, availability).

  • Test creatives that echo the overview (concise, evidence-backed, solution-first).

  • Tighten landing page scent (headline, bullets, and proof match the query and the ad).


6) Redefine Success: From Traffic to Visibility


The old KPI stack is breaking. Here's the new scorecard:


  • AI citation share: % of relevant queries where you're mentioned in overviews.

  • Share of voice: Brand mentions vs. competitors in AI surfaces.

  • Entity health: How consistently you're recognized across knowledge graphs.

  • Assist metrics: Branded search lift, direct traffic, and remarketing conversions after overview exposure.


It's likely traffic will continue falling. Visibility won't. Optimize accordingly.


What NOT to Do


  • Don't panic-pivot your entire content strategy. Informational content still builds authority and assists conversions.

  • Don't abandon SEO. Cited brands still earned +35% organic clicks; zero is not the endgame.

  • Don't ignore AI Overviews in competitive research. If competitors are cited and you're not, that's a visibility gap.

  • Don't expect 2023 CPAs. Recalibrate targets or you'll pause profitable campaigns.


What To Tell Your CFO/CMO 


  • The data: Organic CTR down 61% on AI Overview queries; paid down 68%. Even clean queries are down 41%.

  • The cause: Users are consuming answers, not clicking links, across Google, ChatGPT, and social.

  • The shift: We're optimizing for inclusion (being the answer) vs. position (#1 rankings).

  • New KPIs: Visibility share, entity citations, and assist value—not just last-click traffic.

  • The risk: Competitors cited in overviews get +91% more paid clicks. We can't afford to be invisible.


Your Immediate Action Plan


  • Audit the top 20 informational queries. Are you cited in AI Overviews?

  • Add FAQ schema to your most-visited content pages.

  • Identify one competitor cited in overviews; analyze their content structure.

  • Update your reporting dashboard to track visibility metrics, not just traffic.

  • Recalculate PPC CPAs assuming a  60-70% CTR decline on info queries.


Ready to Win in an Answer-First SERP?


The playbook has changed, but opportunity hasn't disappeared. It's just been redistributed. The brands that will thrive aren't the ones mourning lost clicks; they're the ones engineering content for citation, building entity authority, and redefining what "visibility" means in a world where answers live on Google's page, not yours.


At FTF, we engineer AI-visible content, strengthen entity trust, and build strategies that convert, even when clicks are scarce. 


We don't chase rankings that don't convert. We optimize for inclusion, authority, and the metrics that actually move revenue in 2025.


The traffic may not be coming back. But your visibility advantage? That's still up for grabs.

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