- Marketing Qualified - A Reel Axis Publication
- Posts
- The zero-click search problem
The zero-click search problem
Also: This investor chart is actually a marketing tool.
Marketing Qualified
October 31, 2025
Happy Halloween! And welcome back to Marketing Qualified! Here’s what we’re talking about this week:
The zero-click search problem. Why SEO traffic is tanking and what to do about it.
This investor chart is actually a marketing tool. How to match your message to where your audience actually is.
📉 The zero-click search problem.
Since today is Halloween, here’s an SEO stat scary enough to give you nightmares:
60% of Google searches now end without a click.
Welcome to the era of Zero-Click Search.
Between featured snippets, AI Overviews, ‘people also ask’ boxes, and more, users get answers right there on the search results page. Your website? Never seen.
If your site traffic is tanking but your rankings look fine, this is why.
The click-thru rate on AI Overview citations is under 1%.
You might see your site listed as a source, but that tiny citation link generates a fraction of the traffic a featured snippet would deliver.
And this is Google’s new strategy. They don’t want to send people to other websites. They're keeping them on Google.
The good news? Your content still shows up.
The bad news? Nobody needs to visit to read it.
Impressions go up, clicks go down, and someone in finance asks why SEO results are flatlining.
So what do you actually do about this?
1) Stop optimizing for clicks. Start optimizing for visibility.
Design content to be quotable by machines:
Write 40-60 word blocks that answer the query in the opening sentence. Deliver clean and immediate answers. Then, you can elaborate further if needed. Use comparison tables. Structure how-tos as numbered lists. Make your content easy for AI to quote.
Yes, AI Overviews steal your traffic. They also put your brand at the top of the results. That's better than nothing.
AI Overviews pull from multiple sources. To be one of them, cover your topic completely. Not one blog post—ten.
Not just "how to do X." Also, "when to do X," "X vs Y," and "common X mistakes."
Become the source Google can't ignore.
3) Track different metrics.
If visibility is up but clicks are down, are you winning or losing? Hard to say.
So, track this instead:
How often you appear in AI Overviews and snippets
Which SERP features you own (Knowledge Panels, People Also Ask, etc.)
Whether Google associates your brand with your industry terms
Thousands of people see your brand name but don’t click? That’s still helping increase brand awareness.
4) Make every click count.
When someone does visit, capture them. Email signup, clear CTA, something valuable. Every visitor matters more now.
And repurpose your content everywhere. If Google's using it for free, you should too. Turn your best content into social posts, email campaigns, and sales materials.
Zero-click search isn’t going away. It’s only going to get bigger.
Time to adapt. (A tale as old as time for marketers.)
📰 In the news this week.
❌ The case against emojis in email marketing.
📧 35 standout email examples to send in Q4.
🎧 Podcasts created a new category. Where do they go from here?
📈 How to track Reddit trends for campaign ideas.
🛠 This investor chart is actually a marketing tool.
This “Emotional Market Cycle” chart is well-known in investor circles.
It’s used to explain stock bubbles. How investor emotions rise from enthusiasm to greed to delusion before everything crashes back down.
But it’s also one of the most useful visuals in marketing.
Every big trend (AI tools, NFTs, account-based marketing, DTC, community-led growth, the metaverse, whatever comes next) follows the same emotional curve.
At first, only insiders care. Then hype hits. Then disappointment. Then only the people who actually build useful things stick around.
If you know where your audience sits on the curve, you know how to talk to them.
Stealth Phase: Speak to insiders. Teach, don’t hype.
Awareness Phase: Show proof and credibility.
Mania Phase: Differentiate from the noise. Lead with realism.
Blow off Phase: Rebuild trust and focus on value.
Most marketers stay stuck in one mode regardless of where the market moves. The trick is knowing which phase you're in and matching your message to the moment.
😂 Marketing meme of the week.
How'd we do with this week's newsletter?
A READER’S REVIEW
Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to a friend to spread the love.
Want us to write about something specific? Submit a topic or idea.