Zero-click era hits PPC, most e-shops unaware…

The moment when a click no longer means anything.

Try searching: “best Bluetooth speaker under €100.” The first thing you’ll see isn’t an ad or an organic result. It’s an AI-generated summary. And often, that’s all the user needs. No click. No visit to your website.

This isn’t an experiment. It’s the new search standard and it’s fundamentally changing paid campaign performance.

According to an analysis published by Search Engine Land, queries that triggered an AI Overview saw a significant drop in click-through rate across the entire SERP.

Paid CTR decreased by 68% (from approximately 19.7% to 6.34%), and organic CTR for the same queries fell by 61%. Interestingly, the decline was also visible in searches without AI Overview – organic CTR was 41% lower than the historical average. This suggests a broader shift in user behavior, not just an isolated effect of the AI box itself.

If your CTR is falling, it may not be weaker creatives or stronger competition. When Google answers the query directly on the SERP, some users simply have no reason to click.

CTR is just the consequence. The real issue is visibility.

According to the data:

Source: Adthena

This means roughly one in four ads is losing above-the-fold visibility – regardless of bid or Quality Score.

On desktop, the SERP is longer. Even if an ad appears below the AI Overview, it often remains partially visible.

On mobile, however, the AI Overview frequently takes up the entire first screen. Ads below it only appear after scrolling.

The result is lower real visibility, a sharper drop in CTR, and increased pressure on the efficiency of every single click. If your ad falls below the AI Overview — especially on mobile – its chance of capturing attention drops dramatically.

Source: Adthena

It’s also important to note that mobile is where AI Overviews push ads down most aggressively, and where position loss is most noticeable.

If you manage an e-commerce store, your mobile strategy can no longer be just a modified version of your desktop campaigns.

Initially, AI Overviews appeared mainly for informational searches. That’s changing.

They are no longer limited to long informational queries – they are gradually expanding into shorter and more commercial searches that were traditionally dominated by paid campaigns.

Approximately 18–20% of branded queries across categories can now trigger an AI Overview. This means even searches that include your brand name no longer guarantee full control over the top of the SERP.

Overall SERP analyses suggest AI Overviews now appear in approximately 25–30% of Google queries, with significant growth between 2024 and 2025. This is no longer a marginal feature. It’s a structural change in search.

The mechanism is simple:

1. AI Overview provides the answer.
2. The user gets the information without visiting a website.
3. The click never happens.

The result:

An interesting insight from the data:

In industries such as Automotive and Travel, ads triggered by longer queries (4+ words) are more likely to appear above the AI Overview than short head terms.

This challenges traditional PPC logic:

According to Adthena, ads appear directly inside AI Overviews in only about 0.05% of cases (roughly 1 in 2,000). However, this is unlikely to remain the final state. Monetizing AI real estate is a logical next step.

If you manage an e-commerce store or agency, the recommended steps are pragmatic:

AI Overviews are not just reshuffling rankings. They are changing the need to click.

When answers move directly onto the SERP, attention moves with them. And where attention goes, revenue follows.

The question is no longer whether AI Overviews affect PPC. The question is whether your strategy has already adapted.