Are Your Clients Getting Fewer Clicks?

And if they are, would they be able to tell?

Some of your clients will be seeing it, some will not, and many may not be able to tell. More British searches end without a click than anywhere measured, and AI answers are appearing on the searches B2B buyers make when they look for a supplier. It is easiest to raise while clients are comfortable, with a practical second route to their buyers ready.

01

Nearly 7 in 10 British searches end without a click

More searches in Britain end without a click than in any other country measured.

Early in 2026, nearly 7 in 10 UK Google searches ended without a click. No other country measured had a higher share. If a client's new enquiries depend on search, it is a good reason to ask how theirs are holding up. For a client who relies on search, a second route to their buyers - one that does not depend on being found - gives them somewhere else to turn.

Further reading

The figure describes the market, not any one client. Some clients will be holding up well. Your clients might appreciate you helping them review their results.

The evidence. SparkToro's analysis of Similarweb's desktop and mobile panel, January to April 2026, published June 2026. Searches ending without a click: UK 69.5%, US 68.0%, France 65.3%, Canada 63.8%, Italy 63.4%, Germany 62.1%. For every 1,000 UK searches, 232 clicks went on to the open web, a figure that includes paid ads.

The panel does not include Google's own mobile app, and SparkToro expects the true share to be, if anything, higher. This is the first UK figure from this source, so it shows a level, not a trend.

Sources
  • SparkToro (Rand Fishkin), Zero-click searches highest in the UK, lowest in Germany, June 2026, using Similarweb panel data for January-April 2026.
02

Check yours in 60 seconds

Six questions. About a minute.

Six questions about one client. Answer for the client you have most in mind. The result is framed so you could use it in a conversation with them.

1Has the client you have in mind seen fewer clicks from search in the past year?
2Does that client rely on search for most of their new enquiries?
3Do that client's prospects mostly search for a type of supplier, rather than the client's name?
4Is content the main way that client attracts new prospects?
5Would that client's reporting struggle to show how many clicks AI answers are costing them?
6If that client's search enquiries fell by a third, would they struggle to replace them?

0 of 6 answered

03

When Google answers the question itself, people click about 40% less

The only controlled test published so far found a large fall in clicks.

When a client asks whether falling clicks are real, this is the study to point to. Researchers hid Google's AI answers from a random group of users. Where the answer appeared, people clicked through to websites about 40% less. That is the case for giving a client a second route to their buyers - one that does not depend on Google passing on the click.

Further reading

It reaches the searches your clients' prospects make. In August 2026, a test of 304 typical UK business searches found Google's own answer on 6 in 10 supplier searches. It appeared on almost every pricing search. Searches for a company's name or a nearby supplier were barely touched.

So the most exposed clients are those whose enquiries start with research. In B2B, that may well be most of them.

The evidence. Agarwal (Indian School of Business) and Sen (Carnegie Mellon), The Impact of Google AI Overviews on Publisher Traffic and User Experience: Evidence from a Field Experiment, July 2026. A pre-registered randomised trial: 1,065 US participants, desktop, January-February 2026, everyday searches across all topics. Where an AI Overview appeared, outbound organic clicks fell 39.8% (0.62 to 0.37 per search) and zero-click searches rose 34.5%. AI Overviews appeared on about 41% of searches. This is a working paper and not yet peer-reviewed.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (January 2026) has reviewed a randomised trial by Google showing fewer clicks to websites when an AI Overview appears; the size is redacted.

AEOscore tested 304 UK B2B searches once, on desktop, in August 2026 - a small sample. Grey Matter's figures come from 18 B2B accounts' Search Console data, Q2 2025 against Q2 2026; the country is not stated.

Sources
  • Agarwal, S. and Sen, A., The Impact of Google AI Overviews on Publisher Traffic and User Experience: Evidence from a Field Experiment, SSRN 6513059, 8 July 2026 (working paper).
  • Competition and Markets Authority, Publisher conduct requirement, 28 January 2026.
  • AEOscore, AI Overviews and click-through rates in UK B2B search, 17 August 2026.
  • Grey Matter, The Great Declick, July 2026.
04

You can rank first and still lose the click

The research still happens. The website visit does not.

A client can be told they rank first and still be losing the visit. Google gives every link in an AI answer the same position. Its own analytics files clicks from those answers as ordinary search. That is one more reason to give a client a second route to their buyers - one whose results they can see.

Further reading

Fewer than 1 in 10 marketers say they can measure everything that matters in AI search. So many clients may not be able to answer the question alone.

The evidence. Google's Search Console help: an AI Overview occupies a single position, and all links in it are assigned that same position. Google's GA4 documentation counts traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode within Organic Search; its AI assistant channel excludes them. Search Console's generative AI report, available worldwide from 31 August 2026, shows impressions, not clicks.

Semrush surveyed 481 marketers (June 2026): 9% said they could measure all the AI-search metrics that matter. Ahrefs' tests (May 2025) found some AI tools pass no referrer, so the visit is recorded as direct; others do pass one, and ChatGPT adds a tracking tag to the links it sends.

Sources
  • Google Search Console Help, What are impressions, position, and clicks?, consulted October 2026.
  • Google Analytics Help, [GA4] Default channel group, consulted October 2026.
  • Google Search Central, Generative AI performance reports in Search Console, June 2026.
  • Semrush, The operational gap: AI SEO study, 3 June 2026.
  • Ahrefs, Generative engines are breaking web analytics, 26 May 2025.
05

The AI now decides who gets the visit

Buyers still visit supplier websites. Increasingly, they visit the ones an AI named.

Clients now compete for a mention in AI answers that they can neither control nor measure well. Buyers still visit the suppliers an AI names: 71% did, in one survey of US B2B professionals. And the space is already being sold. ChatGPT has carried ads in the UK since August 2026, bought by bidding per click. Google sells the space around its AI answers through its search auction. A second route to a client's buyers, one that does not depend on being named, takes some of that pressure off.

Further reading

Some clients are being told to 'get cited in AI answers'. They deserve to know where similar advice led with search: free visibility first, then an auction that tends to favour whoever spends most. The early signs are that AI answers are heading the same way, and an auction is how advertising earns the most from limited space.

The evidence. TrustRadius: 21% of software buyers used generative AI in their buying process in its 2024 study; 63% had used AI at some point in its 2026 study of 1,862 buyers - AI tools were the only research source consulted more often. Semrush (July 2026): 519 US B2B professionals who use AI for work; after an AI mentioned a vendor, 71% visited its website and 63% searched for it on Google. Most buyers check what AI tells them: 94% of those using it said they fact-check it (TrustRadius).

UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, UK Business Data Survey 2026 (4,450 businesses): the most common use of AI was 'to research information (28%, for example, in place of a traditional search engine such as Google)'. Ofcom (April 2026): 54% of UK adults use AI tools.

OpenAI began testing ads in the US in February 2026, launched them in the UK in August 2026 on its free and low-cost plans, and introduced cost-per-click bidding in May 2026. Google's help pages state that ads above and below AI Overviews 'serve following the existing auction ranking system'; ads inside AI Overviews run in the US and other English-speaking markets, not yet the UK. Google's automated Target ROAS bidding asks for at least 15 conversions in 30 days. Perplexity began sponsored questions in 2024 and later dropped them.

Sources
  • TrustRadius, The 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect, July 2026; and TrustRadius, generative AI in B2B buying, July 2024.
  • Semrush, How AI shapes B2B buying, 8 July 2026.
  • Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, UK Business Data Survey 2026, 18 June 2026.
  • Ofcom, Adults' Media Use and Attitudes 2026, April 2026.
  • OpenAI, Testing ads in ChatGPT, 9 February 2026, and later updates; Expanding how businesses can buy ChatGPT ads, May 2026.
  • Google Ads Help, About ads and AI Overviews and About Target ROAS bidding, consulted October 2026.
06

Most of next year's customers aren't searching yet

Search and AI answers only reach people who are already looking. Most are not.

Your clients' search spend reaches the few who are buying now. The rest need a different approach: contacting them by name, before their shortlist forms - and that is easiest to start while search is still working.

Further reading

In one large study, buyers had four of the five suppliers they would consider on the list from day one. Being on that list may well be easier if the buyer heard from the client first.

The evidence. Professor John Dawes (Ehrenberg-Bass Institute), for the LinkedIn B2B Institute, 2021: 'only 20% of business buyers are "in the market" over the course of an entire year; something like 5% in a quarter'. Dawes describes the 95% figure as 'a heuristic', not a precise rule.

6sense, 2025 Buyer Experience Report (nearly 4,000 buyers, a fifth of them in the UK and Ireland): buyers place about four of the five vendors they evaluate on their shortlist from day one. 6sense's interpretation that traffic lost to AI tools is more plausibly future buyers is its own reading, not a measurement.

Sources
  • Dawes, J., Advertising effectiveness and the 95-5 rule: most B2B buyers are not in the market right now, The B2B Institute, 2021.
  • 6sense, 2025 Buyer Experience Report, November 2025.
07

A route to new customers that nobody else controls

Approaching decision-makers directly, by name. No algorithm or auction decides who sees it.

Approaching a client's decision-makers directly, by name, is a route no algorithm or auction controls. Bring us the outcome the client wants, and we will help you find the data most likely to deliver it. And you have an answer ready when the client asks where the data came from.

Further reading

Start with what the client needs to achieve. We work back from it to the people who need to hear from them, and the data most likely to reach them. If a target looks hard to reach, we will say so plainly. The documentation supplied with every licence answers the provenance question when the client asks it.

The evidence. The Information Commissioner's Office guidance on business-to-business marketing: 'The PECR rule on direct marketing by electronic mail does not apply to corporate subscribers.' You must not disguise your identity, must give a valid address to opt out, and should comply with an opt-out request. Sole traders and some partnerships are treated like individuals and need consent or the 'soft opt-in'. For calls, numbers must be screened against the Telephone Preference Service and Corporate TPS. 'If you are intending to send marketing by post then PECR does not apply.' Named business contacts are still personal data under UK GDPR, and the right to object is absolute. The ICO notes the guidance is under review following the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which lists direct marketing as an example of a legitimate interest.

Sources
  • Information Commissioner's Office, Business-to-business marketing, consulted October 2026.
  • Information Commissioner's Office, The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025: what does it mean for organisations?, 2025.

Start with what the client needs.

Tell us the outcome the client wants. We will come back with the data most likely to deliver it, built to be presented under your own name.

Tell us what you need
  • Over 1.3 millionNamed decision-makers, reachable directly.
  • Over 340,000The largest UK trading companies they sit inside.
  • Over 3.6 millionFurther UK companies also contactable.
  • 1992Researching UK business data ever since, continually verified.
  • 94 daysAverage data age.
  • 2-for-1Goneaway Guarantee.

Related briefings

This argument builds on work published earlier in the 2026 series. None of it is required reading, and each stands on its own.