How AI Overviews Impact CTR: Updated Insights to May 2025

The face of search is going through a dramatic change since the rise of AI Overviews (AIOs) in 2024. AI Overviews appear at the top of the SERP before the organic listings, in front of direct machine-generated answers that give a short summary of the information directly on the results page.  While they improve user convenience, they also reshape the way people interact with search results. According to a report, almost 18% of all Google searches display AI overviews, and this change is making a big difference in how traffic flows from search to websites.

As CTR (Click Through Rate) is considered the core performance metric in SEO, both organic and paid search, AI Overviews will significantly impact the balance between informational searches and actual website engagement. However, its impact highly depends on the type of query, industry, brand presence, and AI Overview ownership.

So, in this report, we will try to analyze the impact of AI Overviews on CTR (data between October 2024 and May 2025). We will also take a look at the monthly patterns, query types, and CTR changes across ranking positions.

1. Scope of Analysis:

• Dataset: More than 40,000 keywords tracked across the USA, Asia, and Europe.
• Industries: Mostly BFSI: Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, SaaS, Education, and more.
• Time Frame: October 2024-May 2025

Objective:

• To measure the impact of CTA before and after AIO expansion.
• Analyzing growing trends by query type, position, and industry.

2. Data Reports

This report highlights how AI overviews are dominating search results and how it is affecting the percentage of queries triggered.

Report 1: Total Percentage of Queries Triggered Through AI Overviews

This shows the growth of 323.69% in queries of AI Overviews in just 8 months.

AI Overviews now appear in almost 1 out of 3 queries. AI Overview coverage continues to rise, especially for broad and high-volume queries.

Report 2: AI Overviews Prevalence in Query Type

Now, let’s take a look at AI Overviews’ presence across Informational and Transactional and Navigational query types.

In all the query types, we saw that there is an increase in percentage, but informational queries remain the primary target, with a massive jump from 6.87% to 27.50%. However, transactional queries also saw an increase, suggesting a broader application of AI Overviews beyond just “know” queries, though informational content remains prioritized. On the other hand, branded queries (navigational) are less impacted for now, but they are also growing.

Report 3: Impact of CTR in Top 10 Results

In this section, we will compare the CTR across all keywords in the Top 10 results:

The dataset shows a decline of -36% from October 2024 to May 2025. There could be many factors responsible for this include the major prevalence of AI overviews which means users now less frequently click in organic listings.

Report 4: Impact of CTR by Query Type

Now, let’s try to examine how CTR has changed for Informational, Transactional, and Navigational queries:

If you look at both the informational and transactional query type, they are going through a decline phase. This is because of the higher prevalence of AI overviews for informational content, leaving a serious impact on CTR. However, branded queries are slightly improving, which is also a sign of good brand recognition.

Report: 5: CTR Impact As Per Ranking Positions (1, 2, 3)

In this section, we will examine the average CTR of the top 3 ranking keywords:

Here, you can see one clear thing, even the Top#1 position of Google saw a decline in one third of its CTR because of AI Overviews. Moreover, 2nd and 3rd ranks also declined.

Extended SEO Insights

Zero-Click Search Trend

Zero-click search queries are increasing as people now find the information directly on the search engine result page without clicking on the website link, reducing Click Through Rates (CTR). As per a report by Search Engine Land, in March, around 27.2% searches were made without clicking a link. This trend signifies a more extensive transformation in search behavior. Content that previously needed to focus exclusively on getting clicks must now focus on visibility through AI-based results. By focusing on structured, brief, and authoritative content, the visibility of your brand stays in front of the user, even when the user does not click through.

Long Tail vs. Head Terms

• Head terms (brief & generic searches) have a higher chance of triggering AI Overviews, leading to a drastic decline in CTR.
• Long-tail searches (more detailed searches), on the other hand, continue to attain higher CTR, as they likely avoid AIO.

Strategy: Invest in long-tail keyword targeting for more resilient organic traffic.

Brand Strength & Navigation Queries

Branded queries are less affected by AIO. In fact, when a brand is included in an AI generated Overview, CTR improves because users trust the brand.

Takeaway: Develop and maintain strong brand recognition for CTR insurance.

Interaction With Paid Search

As per the findings of a report, here is the table of how AIO overviews impacted paid ads and organic CTRs in the last few months of 2024-25.

As you can see, both paid and organic results declined since AIOs are shown. Although paid results have seen a less decline than organic.

Paid Vs Organic CTR

Here is a tabular comparison of organic and paid CTR

Organic results usually have more CTA than paid ones. In fact, the Top #1 organic result is likely to get 18x more clicks than the Top #1 paid result.

Structured Data & Schema

Schema markup, a form of structured data, makes it easier for search engines and AI to understand the type of content, its relevance, and its intent. This ultimately results in a stronger chance of being included in AI Overviews (“AIOs”) as well as improved visibility, credibility, and CTR.

• Assists AI in understanding content type and relevance.
• Increases chances of appearing in AI Overviews (AIOs).
• Drive CTRs with rich snippets.

Use case examples for schema include:

1. FAQ Schema: Displays commonly asked questions and answers on a topic.
2. Product Schema: Highlights key information about a particular product, including price and ratings.
3. How-To Schema: Divides content into easy-to-understand, step-by-step instructions.
4. Article Schema: Identifies the title, author, and date for credibility purposes.

Ultimately, properly implementing schema makes content easier for AI to interpret and, therefore, more visible in the results.

Content Format Optimization

Preferred formats for AI extraction:

• Lists
• Step-by-step guides
• Concise definitions

Optimizing content for these formats increases the likelihood of being featured in AIOs.

Engagement & Conversion Beyond CTR

A decline doesn’t always mean your conversions are declining. With an AI overview, the focus is shifting to creating more engaging content that goes beyond just rankings or CTR. Your focus must be on conversions and quality.

High-Quality Traffic: AIO gives direct answers, driving stronger user intent, increasing the chances of meaningful interactions.

More Conversion rates: Even if there are fewer clicks, conversions can still rise because users are more qualified.

Conversion KPIs: Brands should focus on conversion KPIs rather than just CTR such as uch as revenue per session, lead quality, and customer acquisition efficiency.

Monitoring and Tools

Monitoring AI Overview (AIO) Presence and CTR: Use Google Search Console and SERP tracking tools to track how often your content shows in AI Overviews and the corresponding CTR.

Creating Dashboards: Create monthly dashboards for you to visualize CTR trends and AIO overlap. Include metrics like:

• Queries prompting AI Overview
• CTR differences of AIO and non-AIO queries
• Top performing pages by exposure to AIO

Analyze: Use the dashboards to analyze trends, optimize content strategy, and assess the role of AI-generated summaries against traffic.

Strategic Recommendations

To effectively deal with the impact of AI Overviews and CTR, the best strategy is  to opt for a multi-faceted approach:

• Optimize for Featured Snippets & AIO inclusion: Create structured content that directly answers to what users are looking for. Try to become the primary source they want.
• Focus on transactional and branded queries: These keywords are likely to be less impacted by AI Overviews.
• Focus more on long-tail SEO: Target low competition keywords that AI Overviews are unlikely to dominate.
• Improve Brand Authority: Bring credibility to your content through consistent messaging.
• Iterate and Monitor Regularly: Identify key areas of focus and key trends in AIO exposure to adjust your strategy accordingly.

Conclusion

AI Overviews are fundamentally changing the face of the search environment and user engagement. Between the period of Oct 2024 to May 2025, their coverage increased by over 300% having a serious impact on CTR across different user queries. AI Overviews is making search easier and much more convenient for users, but at the same time, it is becoming a challenge for brands to capture attention as fewer users click through to websites, forcing marketers to rethink SEO strategies and focus on more engaging content.

With this one thing is clear, The CTR we knew is gone. If you want to succeed in this AI-driven search era, you need to think beyond CTA, your focus must be on gaining visibility in AI Overviews and other AI search results.

Struggling to maintain a strong CTR in the era of AI Overviews? Choose ResultFirst, your expert SEO agency that helps brands stand out in this AI-driven era. The professionals at ResultFirst focus on optimizing content for AI Overviews, enhancing both engagement and visibility. We don’t just help you gain ranks, we help you capture audiences attention with authoritative sourced-backed content. Partner with ResultFirst and make your brand appear in every search result across various search environments.