Search is undergoing its most dramatic shift in decades. With the rise of AI Overviews and zero-click experiences, visibility, traffic, and engagement are being reshaped in ways that matter deeply to publishers, advertisers, and brands.
The Current Situation:
AI Overviews. AI-generated summaries that appear directly on search results pages now show up in nearly 9 out of 10 information searches. While convenient for users, they reduce the need to click through to websites. The result:
30-50%
declines in publisher traffic year-over-year
-34.5%
drop in click-through rates
60%
of searches ending without a click, according to Bain research
Traditional SEO strategies focused on ranking high in the SERP. Today, success means being referenced inside AI summaries and linked as a source for generative content. Large, generalist datasets like Wikipedia, Reddit, and .gov sites are winning by default, even when they lack true expertise.
This creates a new opportunity: publishers and brands that produce unique, authoritative, expert-led content stand to gain. Those who adapt will earn visibility as the engines evolve to favor higher-quality reference material.
AI isn’t killing search—it’s redefining it. Visibility now depends on being cited, not just ranked. That means the brands with real expertise and trust will win the next era of discoverability.
The speed of adoption has been staggering. ChatGPT took just 2.5 years to reach 2.5 billion prompts, compared to Google’s 12 years to hit the same milestone in search. Google has already scaled AI Overviews to 1.5 billion monthly queries in under a year, a trajectory that underscores how central this shift has become.
Why Pharma (and Regulated Industries)
In highly regulated spaces like pharma, opaque “black box” solutions aren’t an option. Transparency isn’t just preferred, it’s required. Perform Media was built around this principle from the start, offering advertisers real control, visibility, and premium intent-driven search traffic.
The Cost to Advertisers:
As zero-click experiences reduce available clicks, the big engines are raising CPCs to offset lost volume. Advertisers face the double squeeze of fewer clicks and higher costs, leading to diminished ROI. While the market may rebalance over time, brands need solutions now.
Health Search:
Not all searches are created equal. A simple lifestyle query like “why run a marathon” might surface just 3 AI Overview links. By contrast, a health query like “respiratory illness” produces 65 AI Overview links. Health and news publishers have felt some of the steepest traffic declines, yet leaders like Cleveland Clinic are finding ways to win by emphasizing expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
How Bridges the Gap
Perform Media is helping advertisers regain ground in this disrupted environment:
- Trusted Publisher Network – Our health partners, including WebMD, Cleveland Clinic, and Healthline, are among the most frequently cited in AI summaries.
- Two-Click Model – When users click through from an AI Overview to our partner content, they encounter ads that redirect them to relevant brand websites. This ensures visibility at the critical moment of intent.
- AI + Human Insight – We combine advanced AI targeting with 15+ years of contextual alignment expertise, mapping over 7 million segments to uncover unique opportunities beyond the obvious keywords.
In a zero-click world, performance marketers can’t afford to lose sight of intent. Our job is to reconnect advertisers with the audiences who are still searching — just in new ways.
Built for
Perform Media has been AI-powered for more than 15 years. Our platform integrates machine learning across every layer of campaign delivery:
- Contextual Matching – Proprietary language graphs ensure relevance.
- Auto-Bidding – Predictive models optimize for conversions.
- Brand Safety & Compliance – AI algorithms flag unsafe or non-compliant content.
- Creative Optimization – Smart ad rotation identifies the highest-performing creative.
And because our 2-click ad format validates intent, advertisers benefit from more efficient performance while maintaining privacy-safe, cookieless tracking via our universal pixel.
AI is fundamentally reshaping how search works. For brands and publishers, this disruption brings both challenges and opportunities: falling clicks and rising costs on one side, but a new path to discoverability on the other.
Perform Media is uniquely positioned to help advertisers navigate this transition, combining transparency, premium publisher access, and AI-driven performance strategies to capture intent where it matters most.
In a zero-click world, performance marketers can’t afford to lose sight of intent. Our job is to reconnect advertisers with the audiences who are still searching — just in new ways.
Ready to in an AI-first search world?
Stay discoverable, compliant, and ahead of the curve. Reach out to advertisers@performmedia.com to learn how Perform Media delivers performance in the zero-click world.