--- source_url: "https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesagencycouncil/2026/04/29/how-your-brand-could-be-winning-ai-search-and-still-losing-customers/" title: ​How Your Brand Could Be Winning AI Search And Still Losing Customers mirrored_at: 2026-08-31T13:03:03.569Z host: www.forbes.com cited_in_42a: true mirror_canonical: "https://index.42a.ai/www.forbes.com/councils/forbesagencycouncil/2026/04/29/how-your-brand-could-be-winning-ai-search-and-still-losing-customers/index" --- > **Original source:** https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesagencycouncil/2026/04/29/how-your-brand-could-be-winning-ai-search-and-still-losing-customers/ _Lior Eldan is the COO & Co-Founder of_ [_Moburst_](https://www.moburst.com/)_, a digital full-service, mobile-first marketing agency._ ![ ](https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/691cc139c3a54eeadff50059//0x0.jpg?width=960) getty In the rush to land placements in AI search results, marketing leaders are missing half of the picture. Google AI Overviews now reduce the organic click-through rate for top-ranking content by [58%](https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-update/), meaning a brand can effectively dominate the visibility landscape even as its conversion pipeline remains stagnant. Being mentioned by AI and securing a conversion are not synonymous. Brands are so focused on the push to earn the citation, yet they lack the strategy to actually leverage it into meaningful growth.​ More and more, people are getting their answers from AI, without ever clicking through to a landing page. This new reality of zero-click results means it’s time to rethink what success means in AI-driven search and how brands build the conversion architecture to achieve it. ## The AEO Blind Spot Nobody’s Talking About Marketers are directing [more resources](https://www.conductor.com/academy/state-of-aeo-geo-report/) toward generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO). The goal is to capture AI citations and earn visibility, and it’s working. Yet, as businesses double down on their efforts to optimize for AI search, they’re operating in an outdated conversion model that does nothing to serve their growth. The reality is jarring. Research from early 2025 found that approximately [60%](https://www.bain.com/about/media-center/press-releases/20252/consumer-reliance-on-ai-search-results-signals-new-era-of-marketing--bain--company-about-80-of-search-users-rely-on-ai-summaries-at-least-40-of-the-time-on-traditional-search-engines-about-60-of-searches-now-end-without-the-user-progressing-to-a/) of searches ended with no click. The once-predictable path of search, click, visit, conversion is now irrelevant. Even top-ranking content often gets bypassed, with only [1%](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/) of links that surfaced in an AI Overview resulting in a click. Despite these figures, investment into GEO continues to grow, with [32%](https://martech.org/the-competition-for-brand-visibility-has-moved-to-ai-search/) of digital leaders identifying GEO as their top priority for 2026. The paradox here is profound: Brands are spending more on a strategy that, by design, bypasses the traditional conversion funnel. ## Measuring The New Buyer’s Journey Tracking a customer’s journey used to be relatively straightforward. Now, with AI Overviews and search engines such as ChatGPT giving users the answers they’re looking for directly in results, brands are missing out on key metrics that have made marketing efforts fully measurable. Consider a potential customer asking an AI tool, "Best marketing agency for small businesses?" and receiving a direct, AI-generated response. The decision making often happens in the AI interface itself, without a click, visit or conversion tracking pixel. This is where the disconnect begins, as traditional traffic metrics simply can’t account for this behavior. The silver lining: An Ahrefs analysis of its own site traffic found that AI search visitors converted [23 times](https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-search-traffic-conversions-ahrefs/) better than traditional organic traffic. This means that while fewer users are clicking through, the traffic that does arrive is extraordinarily valuable. When consumers actively seek out guidance on a product or service through an AI tool, there is a distinctly higher level of [intent](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/November-2025/How-AI-Search-Is-Changing%E2%80%AFthe%E2%80%AFWay%E2%80%AFConversions%E2%80%AFare-Measured) to purchase or convert. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for brands and marketing leaders to capitalize on—it’s just a matter of how. ## Optimizing For Conversion Once you shift your perspective to see AI visibility as only the first touchpoint of a new buyer journey, it opens the door to effectively remodel your conversion pipeline. With this new approach in mind, brands who build their strategy around the following methodology will be better positioned to win: ### Treat AI citations as brand impressions, not traffic sources. Instead of obsessing over traffic volume, you must treat AI mentions as brand impressions. Start tracking how often your brand is cited across large language models (LLMs), as well as your share of voice in these spaces. As AI engines increasingly recognize your brand, this recognition can lead to a rise in branded search, direct traffic and higher click-through rates from follow-up queries. Building a correlation dashboard will help track these signals. ### Monitor brand perception. Once a user receives a recommendation from an AI search, it’s only a matter of time before they begin looking for more details on the recommended brand(s). By tracking how your brand is perceived within LLM results, you ensure that high-intent users conducting specific research on your brand receive a positive, authoritative impression that reinforces their decision-making process. ### Engineer direct-search capture. As the user narrows their consideration set to a specific brand or select group of leaders, it becomes imperative for brands to establish the conversion architecture required to capture high-intent, late-stage traffic: Strategic branded search and a high-authority home page are critical to ensuring that once a decision is made, the path to fulfillment is immediate. The visitor arriving via an AI-driven referral is no longer merely browsing; they are in the final stages of decision making, and your digital presence must mirror that intent with frictionless, high-velocity conversion pathways. ### Prioritize earned media. Over 90% of citations that drive brand visibility in LLMs can come from earned media, according to a 2025 Muck Rack AI [report](https://media.muckrack.com/static/reports/2025/MuckRack-GenerativePulse2025-1.pdf#page=5). Every third-party mention, review and citation now serves to drive users down the pipeline. Earned media and digital content strategies are now interwoven and essential to conversion. As AI-powered search tools continue to redefine the digital marketing landscape, success will rely less on click-through rate and more on the impression your brand makes, the subsequent search behavior of your audience and the earned media ecosystem that converts them. Winning today means adapting to a reality where the click is optional, but the impression is everything.​ * * * [Forbes Agency Council](https://councils.forbes.com/forbesagencycouncil?utm_source=forbes.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=forbes-links&utm_content=in-article-ad-links) is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. [_Do I qualify?_](https://councils.forbes.com/qualify?utm_source=forbes.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=forbes-links&utm_term=fac&utm_content=in-article-ad-links) * * *