How brands can improve chances of showing up in AI search overviews

AI search presents unique challenges for marketers. While 53% of consumers do not have confidence in AI-search results, a rapid decline in organic traffic is also underway. As a result, marketers are being forced to prioritize AI visibility in order to reach consumers, although many are still trying to figure out exactly what steps lead to AI visibility.

What is cited in AI overviews can be completely different than what appears in organic search results. Broadly, 46% of AI overview citations do not appear in organic results for the same query, while 54% of organic search result citations do not appear in AI overview citations, per the report.

Brands aren't the only ones appearing differently in search results. Publishers are cited in AI overviews for evaluation queries at 40.5% compared to 27.7% in organic search. Results for how-to questions cite publishers 7.6% of the time in AI overviews and 4.8% of the time in organic search. Publishers are cited more in organic search results for category questions at a rate of 13% and 6.6% for AI search.

AI overview results cite social media and video at a higher rate for how-to queries, at a rate of 15.6% versus 9% for organic search.

“Same Query, Different Winners” evaluated over 8,000 citations and more than 700 responses from organic and AI overview search.

Search advertising has long been a major component of the advertising landscape. However, as companies such as Google increasingly focus on AI search, brands are faced with a steep learning curve and not a lot of options. In May, Google rolled out improvements to its AI search ads, including ads around conversational search.