Introduction
Let’s be real: AI Overviews are Google-made summaries that show up right at the top of search pages. They look good for the user. You get fast answers and do not have to click around as much. But for businesses that need search traffic, especially at the start of the customer journey, they are starting to take clicks away. This is why you need SEO and paid search to work together. It’s not enough to go after free, or organic, search. Teams have to focus on what the buyer wants and the results that matter most at the end.
This article talks about the way AI Overviews change how people search, and why this is important at the start of the buyer’s journey. It also shares what marketing teams, both those working on SEO and those running ads, can do to adjust and do well.
How AI Overviews Are Disrupting Top-Funnel Clicks
Dramatic drop in click-through rates (CTR)
Lots of studies show that when there be AI Overviews, the number of people who click on normal search links goes down a lot.
Ashraf found that the CTR for the first spot fell by 34.5%. This is based on 300,000 keywords.
Massive saw the average click-through rate go down by 15.5%. It even got as low as 37% less when AI Overviews were shown along with featured snippets.
Pew Research (March 2025) found something important. When people saw an AI summary after searching, only 8% went on to click a normal result. For searches without summaries, 15% clicked a normal result. Also, many people stopped looking for more information once they saw the AI Overviews.
Surge in zero-click searches
It’s not only about bad CTR. People are just not clicking through now.
In the U.S., 27.2% of searches did not get any click in March 2025. This went up from 24.4% the year before. The number of people who clicked on the original links went down from 44.2% to 40.3%.
People think that about 57% to 65% of searches do not end with a click. On phones, this number is even higher. It can go up to 75%.
AI Overviews dominate screen real estate
They’re not just a problem—they take over what you see.
By late 2024, AI Overviews plus featured snippets used up 67% of the desktop screen and 76% on mobile.
The result is that even the best organic pages can be hidden if they are not shown in the AI summaries.
Publishers and news sites are feeling the pinch
Media outlets, mainly news publishers, are raising alarms.
SimilarWeb shows that big U.S. sites, like Forbes, HuffPost, Daily mail, and CNN, now get less traffic. Since AI Overviews started in May 2024, these sites have lower numbers. The drop in their traffic is between 28% and 40%.
In the U.K., publishers call this drop in website visitors “Google Zero.” Many of them are trying new ways to make money. They use things like subscriptions, live events, newsletters, and social media. This helps them not depend too much on Google to bring people to their sites.
Why This Hits Top-Funnel Hardest
People who are at the top of the funnel, like those who ask things like "what is X?" or "how to Y?", are the most affected.
Informational (TOFU) questions get zero-click rates between 60% and 70%.
Middle-funnel (MOFU) commercial research has less zero-click rates.
Bottom-funnel (BOFU) transactional or navigational searches still get clicks. Zero-click rates for these are under 20%.
In short, AI Overviews are cutting down on clicks for TOFU content. But, BOFU is holding up better.
Why SEO and Paid Teams Need to Work Together on Buyer Intent
SEO and paid teams need to work together on buyer intent. When they do this, they can get more people to see their brand. The teams will also be able to use each other's strengths. By teaming up, they can find what buyers want, use the right keywords, and show the best ads. In the end, this helps them get more clicks, more sales, and better results for the business.
If AI Overviews are taking most top-of-the-page clicks, and what we see shows that people ready to buy still click at the bottom, then it is very important for SEO and Paid to work together.
Prioritize MOFU and BOFU content
SEO teams need to stop writing wide topics. The team should now make content that helps people who want to buy something. This means writing things like "best [product] for X" or "[brand] vs [competitor]" so people find what they need fast. This can also help the brand get more visitors and sales.
Paid teams can be use targeted ads on high-intent keywords. This can help them get clicks that AI Overviews do not cover.
Even if the TOFU content does not get clicks, it can still help the brand be seen if the brand name is in the summary.
Use short meanings, clear lists, simple tables, and FAQ format to help your content get picked up more.
Get into AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and AI SEO. They bring together traditional SEO, structured schema, and easy-to-understand content that feels like a talk. These work with answers made by search engines.
Monitor brand presence and visibility beyond clicks
SEO must measure:
Appearance in AI Overviews
Branded recognition
Topic authority
Inbound traffic from longer-tail MOFU/BOFU queries
Meanwhile, paid search looks at ROI. It makes sure the money spent is aimed at queries that are more apt to get conversions.
Foster collaboration between SEO & Paid
Paid teams let others know which long-tail keywords bring in good results. SEO teams then use those words when making content.
Make sure that the words and main message are the same in both free and paid content. Keep your work steady by using the same language in everything for us.
Make joint dashboards that track the funnel steps. Start from getting people aware with AI Overviews, then move through to when they take action with ads.
Diversify traffic sources
Publishers are now turning to direct contact with their readers. They use things like newsletters, subscriptions, and social platforms. This is to make up for the drop in search traffic.
SEO and paid ads help with this. They do so by sharing gated content, setting up webinars, and asking people to join email lists. All these are linked to search campaigns.
Case Example (Hypothetical)
Imagine a brand selling wireless earbuds.
TOFU: “What are noise-cancelling earbuds?”
SEO makes a clear FAQ-rich page that is well set up for AI to use as a source.
MOFU: “Best wireless earbuds 2025” or “Earbuds vs headphones”
SEO makes guides that help people compare things. These guides use long-tail keywords to get more people to the site.
Paid search helps you sell wireless earbuds online right to the people who want to buy them.
The result is that more people see your content at the start because of AI Overviews. But real clicks and sales usually happen with content at the lower part of the funnel and with paid ads.
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