AI Search Study from Seer Interactive Featured in Forbes

NOVEMBER 9, 2026 —A Forbes Agency Council post highlighted multiple data points from our ongoing study on how Google AI Overviews affect CTR. The article discusses why AI search requires a different set of metrics than traditional search KPIs. 

What We Found

In the fall 2025 version of our study, we looked at how Google AI Overviews influenced click-through rates and found a direct correlation. Brand citations in AI led to a 35% higher organic CTR, and a 91% increase in paid CTR. 

In the 2026 version (v3) of the same study on AIO CTR, we saw CTRs for brands with citations decrease compared to our previous research - but not due to a decrease in clicks. A 2x in impressions while clicks stayed flat showed that more queries were earning citations.

The Bigger Picture

AI will continue to eat into your search traffic. Per Search Engine Land, AIOs now appear in 4 out of 10 searches as of summer 2026. Assume AIOs will continue to suppress your organic CTR and invest in building content that AI platforms choose to cite. Paid search continues to hold relatively steady, so set your sights there for more predictable clicks.

Our Take: What This Means for Marketers

The free-fall many companies have seen in organic search proves it was never a very reliable performance metric - and it's time to refresh yours. If you've been focused only on impressions, pageviews, traffic, and clicks, expand your scorecard to reflect trust and credibility signals. Our CEO Wil suggests KPIs like mentions or traffic from trusted publications and mentions by industry thought leaders.

Seer has seen better value from social, direct, and referral channels compared to organic and AI. So we focus on building content for those human-driven channels and assign them a higher value when tracking.

You can also focus on the foundational work of making sure AI is getting your brand narrative right when it does mention you (because it's probably sharing misleading information about your brand right now). Analyze what AI is saying about you and try to influence it if it's wrong. We call this a brand canon, and you can learn how to build one here.

Resources

Check out the Forbes article: The AI Measurement Gap: Why CMOs Need A New Marketing Scorecard

Read v2  of Seer's AIO CTR study: AIO Impact on Google ctr: september 2025 Update

Read v3 (the latest update) to our AIO CTR study: AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update