Are Fewer Customers Finding You Through Google?

This is not a forecast. It measures what people actually did when they searched. It describes the whole market, not your business, and your own enquiries may be holding up well. The only way to know is to check. The next section takes a minute.

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.

The research took place in the US. Britain already has a higher share of searches ending without a click than the US. And the UK competition regulator has reviewed a controlled test by Google itself. It points the same way.

It matters to a business like yours because of where Google's answers now appear. In August 2026, a test of 304 typical UK business searches found Google's own answer on 6 in 10 searches for a type of supplier. It also appeared on almost every search about price. Your customers may make those searches before they contact anyone. Searches for a company's name, or for somewhere nearby, were barely affected.

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 This is a working paper and not yet peer-reviewed.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.

That is why 'don't know' is a perfectly good answer to this briefing's question. It is also why it is worth finding out. If your enquiries are holding up, good. If they are slipping, the reason may not show up anywhere you would normally look.

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.

Google started free too. Then the space at the top of its results was sold by auction, and an auction tends to favour whoever can spend most. The AI tools are starting down the same road. The ads around Google's AI answers are sold through its normal search auction, and ChatGPT's ads are bought by bidding per click. Selling limited space to the highest bidder is how advertising earns the most, so that seems the likely direction for all of them. If it is, the most visible place in an AI answer could go to whoever bids most.

The UK government surveyed 4,450 businesses. Research was the most common use of AI at work. Its own example was 'in place of a traditional search engine such as Google'. Over half of UK adults now use AI tools.

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.

In one large study, buyers already had four of the five suppliers they would consider in mind on day one. Being one of them is likely to be easier if they have heard from you first.

None of this means search will stop working for you. It might not. But if your enquiries are fine today, this is the easiest time to try a second way in. Start small, at your own pace, with nothing riding on it.

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.

So you can give it the go-ahead knowing how it is done properly. You need not wonder whether you are creating a legal headache. Every licence comes with paperwork showing the basis for contacting people, so the question is always answerable.

None of this has to replace what already works. It gives you a second way in that does not depend on being found.

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.